Neck-Purse for Mary Cesar

Tomorrow evening the ALCQ is sponsoring a lecture by Hawaiian quilter & teacher Mary Cesar. I am the designated gift maker for the visiting teachers, whenever we have them come to teach. I made this one with a white on white snowflake fabric, & some Candlelight Thread in the bobbin for the quilting. So the outside was on the bottom when I quilted it.
I haven’t had time to do much work on my customer quilting this week. I have been working at the hospital, still doing some orientation to Pre-Admission Testing. Hopefully I will be able to fly on my own by tomorrow afternoon.
I hope to finish quilting on Wendy’s quilt this Saturday. All I have left is one side border & the bottom border. So close, & yet so far!

Back From Vacation in Oregon

Above is a church in Seaside that I thought was charming.
Below I took several photos of signs in the town of Wheeler as we drove through. My maiden name was Wheeler, & I thought my Dad would get a kick out of some of these.
 
We spent a day in Tillamook, &  went to the cheese factory. Not only was it interesting, the cheese & ice cream were yummy!

They even had a quilt on the wall. IN fact there were quilts on the barns all around town too!

 
We also stopped at the Latimer Quilt & Textile center (that’s my pal Ilene in front). Below are a couple of shots of my favorite quilts in the exhibit. the first reminded me of the crazy quilt that Allie did recently. It's almost the negative of it.
 
One room was dedicated to mostly weaving.


We had lunch at a neat little store/restaurant (I think it was the Blue Heron, hence the tile on the floor).

Outside were lots of old vehicles, which for some strange reason, really appeal to me. I just love them. I took dozens of pictures, but will only post a couple here.


We’ve been home for over a week, & it feels like we hit the ground running. I am still trying to finish the McKenna Ryan quilt & have another that goes on next. I have been quilting densely on it, & it is coming along beautifully, but progress feels slow. I will try to post more on it soon.
I have also been orienting to Pre-admission Testing at the hospital, & I feel like there is so much to learn that my head is about ready to explode!
We had hoped to leave winter behind us when we left town, but it found us again on Wednesday. Today though, looks like spring again, in at least that the sky is blue, & the snow is melting again!

Seaside, Oregon

 

Our week in Birch Bay flew by. Thursday we got up early & drove down to Seattle. We turned in the rental car & hopped the train to Portland, OR.  In Portland our friends Ilene & Stu picked us up, & we went to Seaside. The weather was pretty gray when we woke up on Friday morning,  but cleared as the day progressed.

We walked around town a bit, it’s a very quaint little place.

 

This carousel was inside a bunch of little shops.

This is our condo. Our room faces into the center pool area, but has a pretty good view of the ocean.

From our room, I noticed this strange pipe sticking up from the beach.

I had to hike out there, to see what it was.

I’m still unsure what it was!

There was even a dragon flying in the sky!

A Quick trip to Canada & Doggie Heaven

Warren wanted to “go to the nearest Safeway grocery store”. I punched it into the GPS. The closest was about 5 miles north, in Surrey, British Columbia, so we tucked the Passports into  my purse, & headed off to Canada.

 

The border was pretty. The line was long.

 

So a 5 mile trip, & 10 minutes of shopping in Canada only took us about 2 hours! Good thing we’re on vacation.

The kids came to stay on Monday. We walked the beach , across from our condo. Dog Chewie came with them, & enjoyed the walk.

Then we took Chewie to Doggie Camp, because no dogs are allowed in the condo.

It was a doggie circus. They were having a blast!

My DGD Darian posed for me on a turtle outside of Bow Wow & Woof, in Blaine.

Cold Feet Quilter

Spring Break

In Anchorage, our yard is still knee deep in snow, but down below the roads are dusty, & muddy. We call it spring break-up.

This is what the driveway looks like in the morning, before the sun melts the ice for the rest of the day. Below is how my car looks, one day after it was washed!
Here is part of Wendy’s quilt , I left it about 1/2 quilted. We also got Warren’s counter top installed in the bar. The sink & faucets still need to be hooked up.
The top is Onyx, we will put lights inside, & it will glow.
Now we are in Blaine, Washington, at a Worldmark condo, at Birch Bay. We were exhausted after our over night flight, then spent the morning in Seattle with Michelle & Darian. They will be coming up to the condo, along with Jon, on Monday. Warren is doing his exercises for his new knee.

Yesterday was gray & windy. We went to LaConner, where they are getting ready for their tulip festival.

The field of Daffodils was a welcome sight.
  
The red tulips were beautiful too. We were told it’s been cold, & most of the tulips haven’t blossomed yet, but what were there were beautiful.

Wee were there for the Quilt Museum. It was funny when we went in, a lady named Ruth greeted us. She asked if I was a quilter. I gave her my card, & she got very excited. She remembered my quilt, acted like I was a celebrity. My “Oh! to Dance with a Dolphin!” was the cover quilt for their festival a couple of years ago.


I loved this beaded purse.
 

These were just a couple of several tulip quilts that were hanging for sale on the first floor.

The exhibit on the second floor was my favorite, but of course no photos were allowed there.

The top floor was Sharon Baker & Elaine Bowles.

These icons made me think of Debra & Barbara. They were framed in vintage wood pieces.


I loved the little squares, they reminded me of jewelry.
 
I liked the colors & quilting in this simple piece.

This log cabin quilt was fun, done with hand-dyed hankie edges, just over lapped. I liked how dimensional it made it.

I bought some yarn at the Yarn shop. & as a reward for my DH taking me to LaConner, we stopped at the Brewing Co. & got a glass & a growler to take home.