Salmonberry Quilts?? What??

Happy Saturday!!

Finally a Saturday without much on the agenda... or so we thought.... This was going to be the last Saturday of nothing to do, the calm before the up coming storm (more on that later). But alas. As our weekends usually go, the day filled up quick and we found ourselves on every corner of this penninsula.

To start the day, I had decided we were going to pick some salmonberries. I had never seen one before last week, but had heard a bunch about them. They are yet another Pacific Northwest treat (ok... they might be other places, but I'm here and so are they). Think of a sour, mushy, yellow-to-red blackberry, and you'll have some idea of what a salmon berry is.

Oh and did I mention they grow in the midst of overgrown, wetland forests?? Yeah, I'd forgotten to mention that to Chad too... (he wouldn't have come if I had!)

 Me picking while Chad stands at a safe distance away from the standing water and mud.

Anyways, after an hour of scouring the patch I'd found for almost an hour, Chad being calf deep in mud (that I was lucky enough to avoid) and being pricked to death by thorns and sticks, we gathered a grand total of.... one cup of them.... ONE FREAKING CUP! The main problem was not population, but that they just weren't quite ripe yet... We were about a week early I think.

Luckily though, the salmonberries gave me an excuse for my next plan of the day.... Chad didn't know much about this part either... Ok, so, I get to talk to all kinds of people at my job and luckily for me, a bunch of interesting people come through our doors. Well, this past Friday, these three women came in giggling and saying they were from California and they were here for a QUILT SHOP HOP! Right here in my own backyard AND I HAD NO IDEA! They even had an extra brochure that they gave me, with maps and everything! So, back to today... guess what I wanted to do. Yup, hit up every local quilt shop on the list! And the definition of "local" got to be VERY BROAD, being as though my salmonberries were on the southern-most part of Kitsap and we had a meeting in the northern-most part later!!.

The first square pattern we picked up in Silverdale!

We actually started in Silverdale, then over to Port Orchard (which was near the Salmonberries... kinda...). At each store I got my "passport" (that I had printed out the night before) stamped and was given the materials to make a themed, 8-inch quilt square! Oh, the event is called the Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop and its held every year at about this time and has around 60 shops participating from the Canadian boarder to Oregon (all along the coast). Going to these first two shops... I was hooked!

Port Orchard's

 

After, leaving Port Orchard we headed up to Kingston, where we hit up ANOTHER quilt shop on the list, and had a meeting with the world's best cookie and granola maker. We're going to start helping her out at our local farmers markets. The cookies are to die for and the granola - you've never had better. Take a look at Mirracole Morsels and come out to her Kingston store front/bakery and Poulsbo/Kingston Farmers Markets to get some!!

Oh, I should mention, in Kingston, Chad picked up a passport as well. He was going to start gathering squares too!

Chad's first square. The caption reads "Crazy old man told me it was him or my fabric. I do miss him though." HAHAHHA!

Next, we went out to Port Gamble (kind of on the way home...) and come to find out, as well as having a participating quilt shop (who knew??) there was also a Civil War re-enactment going on! It cost money to attend, and we didn't have much time, but we did see a bit and definitely heard a bunch of what was going on. They were actually re-enacting a battle on a big grassy hill - full uniforms, horses, guns, cannons, black-powder smoke and all. Chad liked it - could hardly peel him away to look at the camps below. Port Gamble is FULL of time-period events like this.

 You can kinda see the troops marching to the left of the green umbrella. 

After leaving Port Gamble, we decided to head out to Bainbridge Island to check out their shop. And I don't use the term WE lightly, I had actually decided to not go to this one, it was about 50 minutes out of the way, but Chad insisted (He totally did it for me, but I also think he liked collecting the squares too!). After leaving the shop, I had really wished we didn't go. Not only did I forget my passport in the car (which was parked 1/3 a mile away from the shop) but I'd forgotten to take a picture of the finished square. I was a bit moody to say the least after that.... but it didn't last long cause yes, there was ONE MORE SHOP! Poulsbo. The last one. Parking was horrible... but the shop was so nice and the square was the most unique thus far.

While I was at my friends house weeding, Chad actually went BACK to the Bainbridge store to take this picture for me... He totally loves me!

I though that was the end of the day too. But no. After going to a friends house to "help" her weed, I returned home and Chad and I made some Jellam out of our salmonberries (bulked up with a few raspberries). The resulting jellam (not quite jelly, but no chunks of fruit like a jam) was a beautiful color and even better tasting!

Ok, that was the day (other than writing this post). AMAZING! I can't wait to work on the quilt. Or have toast with the jellam! Or eat some of the granola and cookies were sent home with to sample!! Today, I can honestly say, Life. Is. Good.