The Ample Curves Quilt
Earlier this month Patrick (the husband) and I had an Oregon must-do experience. We drove the Hood River Fruit Loop for the first time, but definitely not the last!
Hood River is a super cute small town about an hour east of Portland. It’s one of my favorite escapes from the city, with an unbelievably scenic drive right along the Columbia River Gorge, past waterfalls and kite surfers. We stopped for lunch in Hood River, and then drove the 35-ish mile loop of wineries, farms and farm stands. It was a gorgeous day in the upper 80’s, and the fruit stands were so very tempting! I got to try cherry varietals I’d never even heard of before, and fell in love with the ones called Lapins. I brought home cherries, apricots and blueberries. I can’t wait to go back in the fall for apples and pears.
It just so happened that I finished my first scallop quilt the morning of our day trip. I cut it out with an Accuquilt Drunkard's Path template and pieced it a few months ago, hand quilted it while watching TV, and just finished binding it. As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been having a lot of fun sewing curves, and the curves of this quilt were the gateway to my obsession.
This quilt was a trio of firsts: first curved pieces, first hand quilting project, and first curved corners! I was really nervous to cut the curved corners (eek, what if it doesn’t work right?! You can’t put the corners back on!!) All of the worry was for nothing, because it turned out to be easy-breezy. I really love the way it looks, especially with the stripey bias binding. The backing and binding are from the lovely Ann Kelle’s Remix collection. All inspiration for the backing and binding choices goes to Nettie of A Quilt is Nice.
I’ve named it the Ample Curves quilt, hee hee. I brought Ample Curves along on our day trip for a little photo shoot. Patrick was kind enough to take most of these pictures while I held it up.
Our first photo stop was at Panorama Point, just down the road from one of the farms where we bought cherries. It turns out there aren’t any bad views from the Fruit Loop, but this one was particularly good.
Next stop was The Gorge White House, which is an amazing farm with u-pick fruit and flowers, wine, beer, and cider tasting, and delicious smelling food. The scent of bacon was wafting through the air! These people clearly know what they are doing. I bought blueberries and a few gifts here.
Their flower fields were gorgeous, especially against the backdrop of Mt. Hood.
Our final fruit stop was Rasmussen Farms, where we bought more cherries and some delicious apricots. I couldn’t resist taking a quilty picture next to their daisies.
The little town of Parkdale is at the south end of the loop. Mt. Hood hovers over the town and surrounding fields. Soooo pretty.
Ample Curves was my second quilt made from one stack of Kona cotton. The first was one of the two quilts I made for twins back in February. I have one more quilt planned from the same stack.
In my next post I’ll tell you what I did with all the cherries!