Spring Break Adventures!

Posted on March 30, 2015 by thequiltedcat

Last week we had spring break here in Oregon. My husband and I were able to take Thursday and Friday off work to make a 4-day weekend getaway to the Oregon coast. We started in Newport and worked our way south to Gold Beach before returning home.

Here are some of my favorite pictures!

Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Newport, Oregon

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Near Yaquina Head

Cape Blanco Lighthouse, Port Orford, Oregon

Cape Blanco Lighthouse

Near Cape Blanco

Near Gold Beach, Oregon

Ophir Wayside State Park

Gold Beach, Oregon

West Coast Game Park Safari, Bandon, Oregon

Black Bear Cub named Bonnie

11-month old, Tigger the Tiger

Wildlife Safari, Winston, Oregon

Peacock at Wildlife Safari

Lion brothers at Wildlife Safari (with mom, aunt, cubs in background)

Giraffe at Wildlife Safari

Deer and feeding cup at Wildlife Safari

We’re now back home and back to work! Can’t wait to get back sewing again.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Aviatrix Medallion Border 2 + Oregon Coast

Posted on May 26, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

My Aviatrix Medallion quilt now has colorful border 2 added, and I’m working on stitching the units together for border 3 today. You can purchase the pattern and follow the quilt-along on Elizabeth’s blog, Oh Fransson.

Border 2 went together fairly quickly as the piecing was simple.

Aviatrix Medallion, Border 2 Added

Before I had the chance to add the sashing border to border 2, my cat inspectors arrived. I think my little grey kitty likes it!

Cats Inspect Aviatrix Medallion

My family and I took a nice day trip this holiday weekend to visit the Oregon Coast, specifically the Newport area to tour several tall ships, the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain. The weather was gorgeous!

Tall Ship – the Lady Washington

Later that afternoon, the tall ships were scheduled to take ticketed passengers on special tours. We drove over to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse Natural Area to see if we could see the ships. Although we didn’t have binoculars, we did spot them out in the ocean.

Yaquina Head Natural Area with Tall Ships in the Distance

The Yaquina Head Lighthouse is a great place to visit with walking paths, tidepools, a visitor’s center, and the light itself. The fee is $7 per car. Near the lighthouse, we spotted 2 bald eagles on a tree. We saw them in flight carrying meals back to the tree. I wish I had a better camera lens for close-up photos!

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

We walked down to the tide pool area. Our 8-year-old loved this part of our trip! We saw quite a few critters in the tide pools.

Tide Pool Area and Agate Beach in the Distance

Tide pool critters

We ended our day trip by walking along Agate Beach, searching for treasures. We didn’t find any agates, but we had a fun time walking the tall ships sail out for a second excursion. The dog loved it too!

Dog on Agate Beach

Hope you had a safe and happy holiday weekend! Thanks to all who have served our country.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Giveaway Winner!

Posted on February 24, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Last week, I blogged about a Downton Abbey tea party and fabric trunk show that I attended at the amazing Fabric Depot in Portland.

I had a Downton Abbey themed thread pack to giveaway and used a random number generator to pick the winner today.

The winner is . . .
Alexis from Cob Cottage Craft- congratulations!!!

Alexis, please email me your contact details at quiltedcat07@gmail.com, and I will get the thread in the mail to you.

On Sunday, we took an impromptu drive to the Oregon coast to enjoy a walk before the rain moved back in to the area. We got about 2 hours of dry conditions before the rain and winds prompted us to go have lunch. The temperature was about 50 degrees so a little chilly, but very nice for February!

I saw a flock of seagulls perched just inside the surf and snapped this photo:

Seagulls at the Oregon Coast in February

For those of you still buried in snow, I hope this ocean photo brings you a smile!

Enjoy,
~Jennifer

Wake Up to Kona on the Beach + Giveaway!

Posted on January 19, 2014 by thequiltedcat

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Happy Monday, everyone!

Today is my day to share the project that I made for the Wake Up to Kona blog hop, and I’m so excited! I’d like to give a big thanks to Madame Samm, our wonderful hostess and supporter of all things quilty and our great cheerleader, Carol, who inspires us all.

We have great sponsors for this blog hop – Amanda Murphy (author of Quilt Essentials), Robert Kaufman (all those delicious Kona solids), and Aurifil threads that keep us in stitches!

For my project, I started with Kona black as my background color and added this delicious grouping of colors:

Beautiful Kona solids!

The colors are: #110 Peony, #141 Carnation, #1062 Candy Pink, #1066 Cerise, #24 Petunia, #1484 Lupine, #1383 Violet, #188 Hibiscus, #1005 Aqua, #1009 Azure, #442 Capri, and #1064 Caribbean.

Next, I selected the Night Sky pattern by Jaybird Quilts for its striking beauty! This quilt uses her sidekick ruler to create the triangle and diamond shapes that are used in the construction of the quilt. Each starbust (or starfish?) has 4 different shades of a color group.

I pieced the entire quilt top using Aurifil threads, 50 wt (#2000 light sand color and #2692 black color).

I used Superior Threads So Fine #50 in Genoa Gray because I really wanted the quilting to stand out against the black background.

We took the finished quilt to the beautiful Oregon Coast this weekend to take some photographs. I had my hubby and son be my scouting location/photography assistants, and I think they did a wonderful job.

Since my cats aren’t too keen on traveling, my dog (and best hiking buddy) became my cat quilt inspector stunt-double. (Yes, he earned extra dog cookies for his hard work!).

Here are some pictures of my finished Night Sky quilt using Kona cotton solids:

Me and Hubby Holding Night Sky (dog legs too)

Night Sky with My Dog (cat quilt inspector stunt-double)

Me holding the quilt in the wind!

Night Sky Quilt – starbursts resemble starfish!

Night Sky Quilt – backside

These last two pictures show the free-motion quilting that I did using the Genoa Gray thread. The quilting alone took me 12 hours! I did a swirly pattern in the black background and did some straight-edge echo quilting in the colored starbursts.

While I was doing the quilting, I ran out of thread – yikes! I called local quilt stores within an hour of my house, but no one had the same thread in stock. Fortunately, I was able to order the thread from Superior Threads directly via 2-day shipping and completed it in time.

I really love how the free-motion swirls accent the Night Sky stars:

Night Sky Quilting Detail

Closeup of the quilting

I hope you enjoyed my project and please check out the other bloggers on the last 2 days of the hop!
January 20th
More Stars in Comanche
Buzzing and Bumbling
Quilting Quietly
Grammie Q’s
The Quilted Cat (you are here!)
The Quilting Queen Online
Lauraluvsloons
Sew Incredibly Crazy

January 21st
Just Sew Sue
Pigtales and Quilts
Miss Priss Quilts
Charlottes Creation
Childlike Fascination
Renee Luvs Quilting
Cherry Blossoms
Sew We Quilt

I am giving away 4 Kona cotton solid fat quarters! Just leave me a comment to enter. If you follow my blog, let me know how you follow for a second entry. I will ship internationally.