Vacation Reprise part 1

When we left Alaska our world was muddy shades of grays & browns. We couldn't park in our back driway because it was so mucky, even in 4-wheel drive we were in danger of getting stuck.

Flying into Seattle it was like going from black & white to technicolor! Like when Dorothy wakes up in Oz. We came down through the clouds & everything was green & clean & bright. I could even see the colors of the cars from above. Here they were all the gray-brown of the mud.

Our first stop was a short visit with my daughter Michelle & her family. Her hubby Jon had a show to do in New York, & Michelle was going along , so we didn't see them again until later in the trip.

Our first full day on Whidbey Island we went to Coupville, & stopped in at the Coupville Arts Center.
Ann Johnson was doing her dye class, they were taking a lunch break when we stopped in.
Coupville is a very quaint little seaside villiage. In some respects it reminded me of Seward & Homer.

I loved the old homes, & this old tractor.

Spring blossoms were everywhere.

Oak Harbor was celebrating it's Dutch heritage.

Deception Pass on the north end of Whidbey Island was a beautiful area. We drove through it several times.

We spent 3 nights at the Camlin in Seattle. Darian stayed with us for 2 nights, & on Monday evening we went to the Paramount Theater for the Silent Movie Monday & watched 2 old Harold Lloyd silent movies. The movies were augmented by Dennis James playing the Wurlitzer organ. It was a great evening. So much FUN!

As usual, I loved the architectural details in Seattle. Above is a manhole cover. Below is the outer fascade of the Paramount.

This was the veiw from our room.

When we went on to Discovery Bay for the last 10 days of our vacation the veiw was a little more serene.

These were from the decks on our condo.

Loons are always on the water. We also had a harbor seal & a pod of whales.

This whacky little bird reminded me of Rian's robin. He fought with every reflective surface on our rental car & the neighbor's car too.This lady was ourside of Bread & Roses, our favorite little sandwich shop in Port Townsend.

Hummingbirds were by the office at the condo. I also had a close encounter with one just outside our door.

I liked the look of this farm thingy along the road, with daffodils blooming.

This was as close as we got to kyaking. My pal Ilene is no longer an Alaskan. She thought it was too cold!

We went to Fort Wordon one fine sunny day. It was an interesting place.

I particurlarly liked some of the old photos of nurses there. I used to were a cap like that. This lady reminds me of my best friend in nursing school, Elaine Schoenborn. I miss her. She got upset with me when I wrote her to tell her I was getting a divorce (from the 1st husband), & I never heard from her again. It was weird. I don't understand why. Oh well....

So this was a little sample of a small fraction of my pictures. Hope you don't mind.

Happy Mother's Day

We made it back from vacation, & had a great time. Today is Mother's Day & I'm just tired from too much fun & travel. I'll post later this week all about it. For today I just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely Mothers out there. These are the flowers that just came from my kids, Brandon & Laura, who will soon become parents themselves.

Shoertly after the flowers were delivered we had a couple of surprise guests. Another mother & her young one.

I'm afraid I just couldn't invite them in for dinner, but enjoyed seeing them.

They came to finish off the leavings from last winter's bird feeders. We had put them away before leaving on vacation, but hadn't swept away the dropped seeds yet. Right now they're laying there taking a nap. I think I'll sweep up after they leave. ;~)

Going on Vacation

Just a quick note, to say we're off to Seattle,Whidbey Island, & Port Townsend -Discovery Bay, Washington until May 13th. I plan to relax, visit my DD, & family, play, hand quilt, bike & Kyak, & spend time with friends Ilene & Stu who are coming from Oregon to see us. So I'll be back then........byyeeee...........

SIGN YOUR WORK!

Yes I'm shouting so you will all hear me. I want every one of you to listen now. SIGN YOUR WORK! The following little quilts are a joint effort. The appliquer is unknown. The blocks were found in our Guild's stash. No body knows how they got there. Member Jane Ferguson took the blocks, & added "frames" & bound them, even put sleeves on the back, but says she's "not a quilter", & only did some stitch-in-the-ditch quilting to hold them together. They are going into out auction in September, so I offered to do some quilting on them to make them a little more finished. Click on the photos to see the quilting. Of course now I have to stitch the sleeves back in place, but I'm happy with what the quilting did for them.

This Tulips Basket is my favorite of the bunch.

Last week I bought 4 pieces on Ebay. I bid on a few more, but didn't win everything I bid on. It was a fund raiser for Greenpeace, & all the items were Fiber Art. One of the things I didn't win was Sue Bleiweiss' padfolio, so I went to her webpage & ordered one I liked even better. It came in the mail yesterday, & I love it even more in person, but Sue, you didn't sign it! This is a work of ART. If we in the Fiber Art world want to be respected & thought of a REAL Artists, then we should be signing our work!

& Mags dear, you're guilty too! You could at least sign your name with a pigma or gel pen inside the purse, if you don't want to sign it outside. You should've heard the razzing I got at Quilt Guild on Thursday for "Buying" a purse. I have my own patterns, & teach purse classes & they all know it. I told them this is a work of Art, & I wanted it to hang on my wall. Inspiration from an Artist I admire. I really do love it.

Now, Dianne, I can't find a signature on yours either, but I might be able to forgive that, given the nature of this piece. Next time, I would say maybe stitch your initials in somewhere, or make a little tag to fit along the back of the wire.

This is so much prettier in person. She used a layer of shimmery fabric that glows red to bluish.

Suzan Widecrantz didn't sign her whole name on her postquards either, but she signed Suz, & sent a calling card with them.

The next piece is one of my own ATCs. It's going as a surprise to someone out there. A little spot of sunshine to someone who was rained on.

This I made for Barbara in Germany. We're doing a trade.

& the last is an ATC that I made to ship with Mermaid's Dream, to Debby Leonard in MN, who purchased my quilt from seeing it on my Web Page. Thanks again Debby!

Rejected

This snowy owl lives at the Alaska zoo. It was found injured & would've died in the wild, so is living out it's days in our zoo.
When I thought about the Quilting Arts 2008 Calendar challenge, 'A Novel Idea', to base a small quilt upon a favorite book, Harry Potter's owl Hedwig came to mind for me. I love JK Rowlings books. I've read & reread them e ery time another book or movie comes out. I've lost count how many times I've read them all. I'm rereading again in preperation for the finale book #7, & the next movie. Both coming in July, along with my next grandchild. July will be a very exciting month for me this year!

Anyhow, I made "An Homage to Hedwig", because I love Harry Potter. & I think that those books have gotten my kids reading than anything else in recent years. & an owl represents wisdom, (something else that can come with knowledge learned from reading),

so I placed Hedwig among Harry's school books. The books were fussy cut from an old blouse of Aunty Ethel's, as well as the red fabric of Harry's blanket from an old wool jacket.
The gold is all wool rovings needle felted on, including the 'binding' on the edges. Hedwig herself is also needled felting then appliqued on to the surface. Some pearl cotton hand stitched on for her feathers.felted piece, & a bit of hand-dyed rick-rack for the irises, glued in place. Austrian crystals sparkle in the dark sky behind her head.

The eyes are old black glass buttons under the feltd owl body. Even though Hedwig didn't make the cut for the QA challenge. She'll hang in my studio as I quilt & create , & listen to the Harry Potter movies on DVD while I sew. I decided when I was making her, it was more for me than them anyway, & you can't win 'em all :~)...!

My Lucky Day

Even though the path from my back door to our cars is a mucky run of muddy slippery clay & dirty water, I felt happy today, because I didn't have to go to work. I took an extra call night last night in exchange for today off. I had to work until almost midnight, but didn't get called back in, so I felt LUCKY!

So today Warren took me to the Glacier Brewhouse for our favorite Shrimp & smoked salmon Ceasar Salad. We figured we should go there, because we probably won't go again until September. During tourist season we avoid downtown restaurants. The wait can be an hour or 2, in summer time. I promised my quilt guild that I'd make a gift for Kathy Delaney. She'll be teaching here in Anchorage this month. I made one of my neck purses for her. I used velvet for the outside, & wool inside.

I wasn't happy with my postquard for Jeri, especially in the photo on my previous post, so I painted a little more gold on the surface to enhance the quilting designs. I also added some crystals, but they don't show very well in the photo.