Have you ever had one of those projects that took you 10 years & 2 days to finish. This was one of those for me. It all started in Feb. or March of 1999. My friend Kathy Fitzsimmons was visiting from Michigan, & we went to Hope, Alaska with our friends John & Mindy Meyn, & their 3 girls, for a weekend at the Methodist retreat cabin in Hope. The plumbing & water were shut off for the winter, so we had to use the outhouse in the back for the weekend.
I brought along fabric, & textile paints, thinking it would be fun to have everyone do a painting of something that we saw while hiking around Hope. Outhouses became the central theme for several of our campers.
Later Mindy & the girls & I pieced random patches to put it together, & then it got put in my UFO basket for several years. Friday I finally pieced a last filler strip for one side, then the borders, & yesterday I quilted, bound & added a sleeve.
I love children's art, & here is nearly 6 year old Hope's painting of the rainbow she saw when we walked out by the inlet.
Christie who was 8 at the time, saw a sea-shell, & gull.
Lindsey at 14 already had an artist's eye, painted the river that runs to the sea.
Their mom Mindy, did Birch & pine trees, & the ever important outhouse.
John did mountains & trees.
Kathy got the mountains, trees & outhouse all together.
My DH, Warren did the view from inside the outhouse.
I did the Retreat center cabin itself.
I bundled it all up last night & left it on the porch for the Easter bunny to find.
This morning this was in it's place. Isn't it cute? I love the curly handled basket, & the little chicken. All the perfect size for our little house.
This was the prettiest egg I've ever owned. I hope to keep it forever just as it is. It is too pretty to eat.
This is the center piece for our quiet Easter Sunday. Warren is on call for the hospital today, so we are staying home. I'm making bread & starting other projects that need to be finished by July.
Warren is busy putting his drill press to use, & drilling holes in the posts for our deck, so he can put the copper pipe in for the rails. We want to have it done so we can feel safe to use the deck this summer when company comes.
