All the Drive Through Trees!

We recently decided to take a little road trip to Oregon.  When Eddy asked me what I wanted to do on this trip, the answer was pretty immediate: drive through trees!  There are three drive through trees along the 101 and we did them all!

See, that was going to be us in a few minutes!

Tree #1!

At each drive through tree, there were other tree-related marvels.

Here comes the second one!

The Shrine tree had all sorts of extra tree marvels.

It's for children.  But we went through it, like, 5 times.

Eddy's favorite tree-related marvel was this bear and fish.

I liked these tiny tree houses.

They had little wooden bookshelves with the wooden books carved right into the tree. Also, tree rings.

Finally, tree #3!

Here's an exit sign with "that's what she said" graffiti. I didn't put it there. I swear it.

Also, Eddy went #1 in this bathroom made from a single hollowed out tree.

Aaaaaand more rings!

All the drive through trees!

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A Rose for A Rose

Eddy's boss, Cordell, is a real rose aficionado.  Since we've moved to CA, we've become increasingly interested in roses ourselves!  Recently, Cordell gifted us a beautiful rose from his very own collection called Sheila's Perfume. Eddy brought it home from work one day!

It's a young plant, but we've already gotten two fragrant and beautiful flowers from it.

I wanted to say thank you to Cordell, so I selected a paper pieced rose pattern and prepared the pieces and the fabric.

Here is the first unit pieced.

Tada! All pieced,

and quilted.

All bound up and finished.

Thanks to Cordell for a lovely plant we will enjoy for many years to come!

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Paints for Mother's Day

I've had my eye on a quilt pattern that I've wanted to make for my mom for awhile now. Mother's Day this year seemed the perfect time. She's a watercolor artist and has given us lots of lovely watercolors over the years, so I thought she would enjoy a quilt she could hang in her studio.

It seems like quilt a few pattern pieces!

But it came together pretty quickly.

Here's the first little paint tube.

(UNICORNS!)  The tubes are pretty neat looking when you get a few together.

When it came to the quilting, the corners turned out to be my favorite part.

The backing turned out pretty nice as well.

Here's the finished front!

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The (Gray and) Purple House

Remember how ugly our the outside of our house was?

When it came time to pick colors, we thought for many months about what to do. Finally, narrowed it to a few.

We did what everyone does and tried some samples before we made a final decision.

The first to go was the hunter green trim (and I've got to say at this point that it already looks soooooooo much better).

Then the house color went on!

But the real pièce de résistance was the shutters I made.

So.

Many.

Shutters.

Here it is. All painted pretty!

It's basically a completely different house. We're not finished yet with the outside, but it's certainly on its way!

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Friends Give Friends Icosahedrons

Eddy has some good friends who were kind enough to put him up during a recent trip to Chicago.  We wanted to say thanks for this and for just generally being great people, so Eddy picked out a pattern and I put together a little quilt for them.

It started, like all quilts do, at the fabric store.

Eddy chose a paper piecing pattern,

and I got started putting it all together,

and quilting it.

Here's the back all bound and finished.

And the front.

We hope you love it, Christie and Maciej!  Remember, kids.  Friends give friends icosahedrons.

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