Historic Cottage Before

We have arrived at Cheney to work on our "historic" house, the town voted to designate the house historic.  The house dates between 1880 and 1884.  One fun part of restoring a old house is the demo. It's fun pulling square nails out of old walls, and taking pictures of all the old layers of wall paper and flooring.  I am mostly the low end labor in the project, getting tools, keeping things organized and clean up work. We also had a great demo crew including my dad, my mom, daughter and her boyfriend.  Many hands make light work. The most interesting discovery was a 1881 Christian Journal my husband found in the attic.   This photo is a before picture of the concrete shower stall in the spacious bathroom. That's when we found a new discovery a rotting floor beam!  Thank goodness my husband has a fix for that.  After a long day working, we stopped at  Picabu Neighborhood Bistro in  Spokane for this great dinner of grilled chicken gyros and desert lime chicken.  In tomorrow's blog I'll share some more house photos and even something quilty.

Over the Pass & Putting on the Ritz

It is over the pass day for a five hour drive to Spokane.  The best part of the journey is a lunch stop at the Valley Cafe in Ellensberg.  With its 1930 original decor you want to hum "Putting on the Ritz" as you order your food. Chicken salad with crunchy nuts and fresh greens was just what we needed for a road trip lunch break.  The tea is even pretty as you can see.My husband had the roast beef sandwich with strawberry fan for flair.  You can sit at the counter or at this tableau by the window. Can I rave anymore about this restaurant?  We stopped on our way back to Seattle for lunch again.  The food was very good and served with loving care. We just loved it!

Snoqualmie Falls, Ikea & More

Up and out early on our trip today.  It's off to Snoqualmie Falls. Since Kauai is a virtual paradise full of waterfalls, it takes alot for me to be impressed by waterfalls.  But Snoqualmie Falls was simply majestic.  It was the first day of warm spring weather and everyone including a local motorcycle club came out to enjoy the falls.  My husband & I walked around the town of Issaquah.  He loved the look of this building it gives you a glimpse of Issaquah downtown.

 

I happened a upon a craft fair and bought pot holders and tea towels for Mother's day presents.

 She was a quilter and displayed watercolor quilts something I never had the patience to do.  Friends told us not to miss shopping at the Ikea store.  So we ventured into the land of European design.  I had no idea how large the store was.  It took us a good 5 minutes to walk from the parking lot to the entrance and we were not inside the building yet!  Inside we strolled for at least 3 hours before stopping for lunch at the store cafeteria.  

I had chicken salad and some great brambleberry juice.  I even found their fabric section.  It was self serve and yes, I was honest as to how many yards I cut and labeled.  Here's some of the fabric.  It will be great for household sewing and bags, I'm not sure I would use it for quilts.  But at $3.50 a yard I couldn't resist.   This is the last day in Seattle and we must head over the mountains in tomorrow's blog.  I'll miss shopping in Bellevue.

Seattle Fabric, Eating & Architecture

I've been typing my blog the old-fashioned way so that's why it has taken me so long to update my site.  This morning in April after I stopped by my favorite donut shop, just joking this is the breakfast we really had.  We went to the Food Service Conference and sampled many tasty treats.  A Japanese chef demonstrated slicing and dicing vegetables so they look like a landscape from Memoirs of a Geisha.  I just love the blue soba noodles for waterfall!  After long morning at the food show a quick trip to the local fabric store Stitches and I purchased more dotted basic fabric and a variety of zippers for making purses. Stitches is a cute little store that offers fabric and patterns for "the younger hip group of stitchers".   We finished off the day visiting the historic Stimson-Green house and a lecture on the architecture of Seattle at the University of Washington in preparation for restoring our Cheney historic cottage. Let's close the door for today and more on our Northwest trip tomorrow.

Big Day in Seattle

Up early for yogurt parfait at Portage Bay Cafe that's loaded with raisins, berries, and whole grains.

My husband had the hearty scramble with potatoes, eggs and spinach. Yum!

Off to one of my favorite quilt stores in Bellevue, Quiltworks Northwest.  They have a great selection of fabrics and patterns.  I went on a basic neutral fabric shopping spree. I have lots of novelty fabric and needed fabric to go with them.   O.k., I did sneak a piece of banana fabric in I couldn't help it.After a long day of shopping, we went to our favorite vegetarian Thai food called Araya's  for dinner. We ordered fresh spring rolls with tangy sweet sauce.My favorite is the Rad na with delicious wide rice noodles and veggies. You can choose the amount of heat in your dishes with a 1 thru 5 scale.  I chose 2 and it was just right for me.With the last grain of rice almost done, it's time to head back to hotel and rest up  for the next big day in Seattle.

Ulei the Hawaiian Rose Quilt

My unfinished project for this year is my Ulei Hawaiian quilt.  I started finishing this quilt well, let's just say many moons ago.  This quilt was always a ufo to me as I purchased the half-appliqued top at the thrift store, yes for a measly $3.00. 

I used wool batting in it to give that soft vintage look. My quilting lines are not drawn with pencil.  I like the idea of natural looking ocean waves washing over the applique design. I didn't know the pattern name but Lee Wild of the Hawaiian Quilt Research Project was nice enough to help me identify it as the ulei pattern.

This is Lee Wild  holding Meali'i Kalama's bombax quilt pattern. 

Here's a Meali'i Kalama breadfruit quilt I made after taking her quilt design class at the Kauai Museum.

Now I must finish the ocean wave quilting on my ulei quilt. 

I hope it's a high surf day!

Hawaiian Quilting on Aloha Friday

Since it's Aloha Friday another Hawaiian quilting post is in order. This excellent book Contemporary Hawaiian Quilting written by Linda Arthur, PhD is a great resource for those who would like add the flavor of the islands to their quilts. 
This is the Kalo Hanalei quilt I made that appears on page 10 of the book. Happy Aloha Friday!