pulali fun

The places we wanted to go camping were pretty well booked up or iffy when it comes to availability, so we decided to go to Pulali Point instead. An idea struck me and I decided to call Kristen to see if she wanted to join us at Pulali for the day. It would involve me driving her to and from same day and mom and pop would take the truck separately. No biggie though, I barely drive anymore so hitting the road is a fun experience. Filled up the tank to the top and picked her up at her place.

It was a sunny and beautiful day. Perfect for going to the beach and swimming and generally having a good time. I made a mix CD and it was good background music for our chatting on the way to the Olympic Peninsula. I got a little turned around headed to Quilcene, but got there all right. We stopped for an ice cream treat. Kristen and I arrived before Ma and Pa so I used the spare key to unlock the house. We swung by Celia's and said hello.

Then it was swimming time! We got out swimsuits on and our towels and headed for the water. Celia dove in like a champ, I waded in a while and eventually dove, Kristen kept her hair dry the whole day but did dip in a bit. I swam and swam. I wore my crocs, so whenever I swam, I just let them float, and when I went in for a break I picked them up from where ever they had floated to. Liam was even at Pulali! He dove in right away. Faster than Celia. Good little swimmer he is.

Dad and mom arrived and Dad brought down his wooden board with built in port hole. Liam floated on it but wasn't totally interested, so Kristen hopped on and we swam about together. She paddled and I followed. Dad snorkled some starfish and showed them to us. I put my face under the porthole and bonked my nose a little bit. Heheh.

We floated on the paddleboard to Kirie's and waved hello. Dad gave me a tow in the kayak back. Then we got precariously in the kayak. It was the tippy one that I remember Tim and Kirie toppling over in over a decade ago. But we puttered around just fine in it. Whoo! Exhausted that was the end of our water fun. We showered and dressed and with that complete, we had a snacktacular dinner with mom and dad. Brie, rice crackers, Turkish Delight, cherries, pot stickers, oysters, more brie, and other stuff. Whoo! It was a good light spread. Dad told some of my favorite stories.

Kristen and I went over to say hi to Jeanette, Kirie, Mark, and Liam. Kirie showed us her pile of writing and her little literary journal stuff. It was a short visit. I showed off my quilt. We said goodbye and arrived once again at the beach and there was a little fire going and we roasted marshmallows and all that good stuff. Afterwards I showed her some photo albums. At 8 o'clock we departed. At 9:04 we pulled into her driveway. Perfectly an hour! Just right amount of distance to travel for a day on a private beach. Whoo! Love Grandparent's place on the water. So good. I hung around for a bit looking at silly videos on the Internet with her. at 10:30 I said goodbye. I'll call her tomorrow to see if she wants to hang out again on the water, as I'll be headed back.

OH! Here are some pictures of my finished quilt:

finished!! whoo!

No alarm. Slept in. Mmm.

As I type this, behind me my newly finished quilt rests on my bed in all its glory. Quilting is so rewarding.

Anyway, slept in. Had my usual toast and cocoa breakfast. Helped dad split logs like a good Spencer. After that he helped fashion a new pad for my small headphones (the last one fell apart after it dropped in my laksa). With audio book on the go, I set about finishing my quilt! I cut out the batting and the backing and stitched it together. Then I vacuumed the floor and spent half an hour picking out the bits that stuck to the fabric and batting. Then I lay them out on the floor and pinned the sides together. Satisfied, I took the heap down to the lawn and pinned it on the quilting frame and got to knotting. Instead of stitching the massive 5'x5' thing together, I put yarn knots through the layers to hold it together. Put four on each square, in the corners in the country fair squares and in the large triangles in the sawtooth star squares. Paused to eat dinner. Mom told me not to tell an anecdote about her in my blog, but it is really funny. Finished up with the knots at 8:30 and got the excess cut off the side in time for the elimination episode of So You Think You Can Dance. During one commercial break I sewed up the side.

No elimination! Double elimination next week! Exciting!

Then I finished my quilt. Sewing the edge is something I need to work on. The machine was far from perfect with its stitches (I was using the newer Singer, not the older one) and the edge is wavy. Still, it looks so good. I can't wait to make another!

And this has been the most productive I've been all summer. But an emotional rest is good to have.

front: completed!

Finished Definitely Dead, listened to the audio short story Tacky, and started in on All Together Dead.

In other words: I spent another good seven or so straight hours in the girl cave quilting up a storm. Just piecing things together and sewing and pressing the little triangle borders took more time than I expected. This whole country fair quilt has been a really good experience. Learning lots of things about triangles and timing. Got the borders on with out a hitch (well, a little bit of the border will be yellow, not red, as I ran out of fabric, but that won't be too noticeable I think).

Yeah. Dad made hot dogs for dinner and Laksa with shrimp and scallions for dinner. Yum! Mum came home and we watched So You Think You Can Dance. I voted for Lauren. She is really stepping it up.

There is the potential for more camping this weekend, but all I want to do is finish my quilt! I think I'll sew it all together using yarn knots, instead of a stitch. Might add a nice flair, especially if I do it in a red chunky yarn. Mmm hmnn.

back to the barn

Yay! Back to quilting! I love putting together squares and just letting the hours drift buy as I piece things together. Got back to finishing my country fair quilt. Listened to about half of Definitely Dead (I'm just powering through these books) and got all the sawtooth star squares sewn! Some of the points match, some of them not so much. I'm learning. As I went they got better and better. And once they are all put together, it should look pretty awesome. 25 squares! The bobbin thingy got jammed when I started stitching the squares together, so I stopped there. Just as well. Ma came home and we three had dinner.

After that, Ma and I went to Joann's to get some batting and fabric to finish the border on my quilt. I'm excited! It should be finished in the next couple days. Got a nice flannel for the back. If the weather keeps, I can hand quilt on the lawn.

After Joann's ma went to Barnes and Nobel and spent a gift certificate. I got a little book about quilting and making blocks and designing patterns. It has some nice explanations about piecing things together. I want to design some squares. Nerdy squares. Daleks and jammie dodgers.

I was still hungry so we picked up a late take out order of Sushi. So good! I love Origami Sushi.

I can't wait to get up and quilt tomorrow!!

little toot

Set my alarm. I know when we go to Mats Mats, I can't sleep in till whenever like I like to do. Got a really restless night sleep for some reason.

Hashbrowns and cheesy eggs for breakfast! Yay!

I started the new Sookie Stackhouse audiobook on the way into town. Stopped by Target for storage stuff. Ma and I planned to sort through some of Grandma and Grandpa Spencer's second floor things, but removing the trailer out from the disintegrating tugboat ended up being an all day thing.

So we assembled and scooted the big metal hoist. I wasn't so strong and dad did most of the work. We attached a cable to the hoist and put it under the boat and wrenched it and levered it up and upright a little bit. I worked up a little bit of a sweat. Dad worked up a lot of a sweat. Don't know what else to say. It was a lot of heaving and pulling. We did get the trailer out from under it! Took some more time to get it more stable. It was time to go home by the time we were done, so we packed up and parted ways.

Dinner was our last dream dinner (these sort of premade dinners that mom assembled herself at this place). It was scrumptious. There was some hot tubbing and then I made a big bowl of popcorn and we watched 10 Things I Hate About You. That movie gets better every time I watch it.

lease signed, apartment is mine!

I think I forgot to mention that during the mini camping trip, I stuck googly eyes on everything I could think of (within reason). Like the fly swatter, rocks, shells, my phone, tissues, and so on.

Had a good sleep in. Tea and cheerios for breakfast. After that I quilted a couple squares and made a little lumpy something. Listened to Dead as a Doornail. Almost finished.

Tomorrow we are going to Mats Mats.

Today Ma and I went to see Kristen, my new roommate. We had to finally sign the lease and give her a check with rent and deposit and all that. Utilities are all included in the rent, which is a bonus (seeing as how they can stack up). Just have to pay for internet. Kristen is from Kitsap and she is house sitting for her parents, so we stopped by and hammered out the details. I'll probably go over and hang out with her again later on in the week. We are both house bound, all though I have my driver's license.

Getting home, we relaxed for half an hour and then we went to Poulsbo to see the 7:05 showing of Inception! Christopher Nolan's latest movie. Ahh the last chunk of it was so gripping. I was gnawing my fingers. It was suspense piled on suspense. Visually appealing, well acted. As good as I hoped it to be.

On the way home, an owl attacked the car antenna. It swooped out of nowhere and glanced off the corner of the windshield and there was the briefest of scratchings on the roof. We slowed down and turned around and if we had struck and killed the owl, there was no body to be seen anywhere. Really weird.

Anyway, got home late so time for bed. All though I have to watch the new episode of True Blood first...