Sisters, Oregon

It has been a long time since I posted. So much is going on with the renovation that by the end of the day I just don't feel like doing much else than sitting down and zoning out for a bit.

The trip to Sisters was just a fabulous get away with my quilting peeps. We drove down to Portland the first day and spent the night very close to Fabric Depot. Had a nice meal at the Olive Garden. I've never been to an Olive Garden before and I would certainly go back again if I had the chance. I don't know if there are any in Canada.

The next morning we drove to Sisters - via the Pine Needle in Lake Oswego -- I was so excited what a fabulous little shop!! I bought a great kit there to make a Civil War basket quilts. Beautiful fabric!!

Then we spent two nights in Bend. What a lovely little town. We had a great meal at the Deschutes Brewery Restaurant. I bought Jim 3 -- count them 3 - T-shirts!! Jim was of course happy to be rewarded for his hard work as he had to spend the weekend painting the ceiling while I was having fun. I also rewarded him with one bottle - a large bottle of the Deschutes Red Chair IPA - which he said was "brilliant" For all you out there looking for a brilliant IPA.

The next day we spent at Sisters. What an amazing experience. The whole town does such a fabulous job of this show. I think it should be on the "to do" list for all quilters.

I uploaded a few of the pictures I took as we wandered about. The weather was amazing. There were lots of spots to get out of the sun for a bit as well.



Look at the crowds by early afternoon.








They did such a wonderful job of hanging the quilts - with like quilts hung together. I think this was a row of quilts that were classes done by Valori Wells.




These are two very beautiful quilts. The woman in the picture is reading all about the quilt.
It was great to have all the information about the quilts but it would be impossible to read it all in just one day.








These are the women from Gee's Bend - signing autographs for their book. When one member of our group asked them to sign her book they broke out into a song - she recorded it on her camera.


This was a group of quilters that belonged to a Barbershop Quartet and spontaneously sang a few songs.


A couple of lovely basket quilts. This is a close up of one - it is similar to a block I had in mind for some fabric I had bought last year.



I love the way this quilt was hung - tucked away behind a tree. The work that went in to planning this show must be a full time year round job. I was just so well planned and laid out.







A friend and I were admiring this quilt and the two sisters that made the quilt were right there and talked to us for a bit. This is their first quilt in the Sisters show and they had been to the show last year and were so inspired they wanted to enter their own quilt. So I got a picture of them together with their quilt.




And we got an opportunity to listen to a little talk about design and colour by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston.



It was a great day at the show. At one point in the day our little group was taking a rest in front of the Stitching Post and talking to various quilters. I guess the woman next to me was talking to someone in our group about where we were from and when she found out it was the Lions Gate Quilt guild she asked if they knew Pam - they said you are sitting next to her..... too funny .. she was a quilter from the Vancouver area that read my blog.... so Hello to Marge!!! - and yes I am still busy with those darn reno's!!

In the afternoon a small group of us left the show and went back to Bend so we could go to the High Desert Museum and have a look at the display of quilts from the 18's and 19's century. It was a wonderful collection and I was able to take quite a few pictures without my flash that turned out quite well. We wandered around the rest of the museum as well in the short time we had. Great place to visit - we saw the Birds of Prey exhibit - a couple of eagles and owls. I am glad we got to the museum as well. Bend, Oregon and area is a place that I think I need to go back and visit again..... maybe next July!!!!

Back from Calgary and a couple of pictures of Hunter

I am back from Calgary. It was a long and tiring drive yesterday. There was so much traffic - lots of trucks and RV's doing well below the speed limit and very difficult to pass most of them. Unlike the U.S. the main Canadian highway that runs from B.C. to Alberta (Highway 1) is just a two lane highway for large parts of the trip. The highway is being widen and parts of it through Banff National Park and Yoho National Park are under construction -- with a speed zone of 70 kms an hour. It seemed I was always stuck behind some large line up of slow moving vehicles. Then once I got close to Vancouver there had been a number of accidents and the drive from Chilliwack onward was at about 10 kms hour - mostly in 1st and 2nd gear!! So the trip ended up taking about 2 hours longer than my usual 11 hours.

It was great to see Hunter. He was very excited to see me and didn't make strange at all -- I think he remembers the hugs and kisses and cuddling that Nana gives him! He was very happy to see me.

We had a great Canada Day at the park with Hunter and a few other friends and their grandchildren.

Here are a few Hunter pictures.



Hunter had a little Canadian flag - it looks like someone just snatched it out of his hand in this picture. He is so cute - and has just the sweetest smile - his whole face lights up when he smiles.



Our little gathering at the park. Isn't that just the cutest face!! It was a very good day at the park - all the little ones were happy and had a great time.

Here are a couple of cute pictures. Hunter is not quite walking yet but he did not like the feel of certain textures - like the grass - on his knees. So he would do this little "elephant walk" on the grass. My parents have a carpet hallway runner that he didn't like to put his knees on as well. He would crawl all around the living room rug and the kitchen floor but as soon as he got to the little carpet runner he would get up on his feet and hands.







There was quite a bit of work done on the house while I was away. The drywall has all been installed - taped, mudded and sanded. The new fireplace has been installed in the living room/dining room. Jim worked very hard yesterday to get the place all clean and free of drywall dust before I got home. The kitchen floor tiles are going in on Thursday -- just as I head down to Sisters Oregon. The cabinets are supposed to go in on July 13th -- just a I get ready to go work a couple of night shifts. I seem to be missing most of the renovation right now. I sure hope that it is all getting done right! It is hard to decide if I would rather be around and make sure things are getting done right or be away and just worry from afar. I don't know which is more stressful. But all in all the whole thing is stressful - so at least I got to spend some time with Hunter as I was stressing out about the kitchen cabinets - the drywall and the floor tiles. The trip to the Sisters quilt show has been planned for a very long time - so I will try not to feel too guilty knowing that Jim will be painting as I wander around a fabulous quilt show. I will bring him back beer!

I am so tired!

I don't know if that is a great title for a post - but boy are we tired - both of us! It has been a very busy week. Good moments and bad moments - frustrations and successes!

A few highlights from the week.

I went to my Quilt Guild meeting on Tuesday and the speaker was Pippa Moore. She lives on Vancouver Island - sells African Fabric and teaches courses. She has recently been to Africa to help set up a program in Uganda to help women earn money and support their children through quilting with the local fabric. It was a great lecture about the women and the process of teaching them how to make items to sell. I bought a set of placemats that were made by a woman that was the third wife of a Muslim man that had died of AIDS and the first and second wives had also died - so the third wife is left to raise all 10 children. I discover Pippa has a blog -- Check it out. She actually has a post about her visit to our quilt meeting on Tuesday. How great is that!!




My African Placemats

If you go to Pippa's blog and go back in the Archives to February 2009 you can read all about the trip to Uganda and the project. Well worth reading about.



I made a couple of small items - while I was stuck in the basement and Jim was away and it was too hot to take the dog in the car. Although I was able to take her for a few nice walks I could not do much else.

This is another little bag from "This and That" designs - Clutter Bag.



I also made a little carry case for my MP3 Player - now in the mess I can not for the life of me find the recharger for the darn player!!





The latest house reno adventure -- the drywall was delivered and the young boys delivering it put all the long 4 x12 foot sheets on a trolley to wheel down our fairly steep driveway in the rain and lost control of the trolley and all the drywall ended up in a heep at the bottom - stopped only from ramming into our garage door by the rented Bobcat.




The adventure continues. I will not be here for the next week. I am off to visit little Hunter - and the rest of the gang --- but mostly Hunter!! It will be Jim's turn to hold down the fort and manage the mess!!

The past few days have been really awful!

First I would like to say that Jim is away at meetings this week and I worked Sunday and Monday. Jenny was the only one that had a really good time because she got to have a sleep over at her pal Lillie's house.

The firplace has gone from this........on Sunday.




To this when I cam home from work on Monday night.......




To this on Tuesday........



I should have taken some pictures of the men working on Tuesday but I just wanted to get out of there - what a noise and mess.



This is the pile of brick sitting outside. The brick off the front is now being removed.

There is not much quilting going on that's for sure. I have a "Quilting by the Bay" for June 27th - so that will be my little vacation from all of this.... and of course my much anticipated trip to Sisters in July.

As I was driving down our street yesterday morning I stopped briefly to answer the phone and I looked in my mirror and there was a little black bear ambling down the street. Then the garage door would not go down when I got home at supper time --- so the garbage can in the garage got to spend the night on the deck with all the doors closed. What a nice meal that would have been for a bear. Just what I need is a bear rumbling through my garbage in the middle of the night.....Jenny barking... me alone and the phone wasn't working last night either. All has been fixed this morning.. phone back on.. garage door down and it's garbage day and the messy part is now finished. Funny how Jim managed to miss the whole thing!!

Day Three

These are pictures from yesterday. I am a day behind in my blogging and the builder moves at the speed of sound!

Here is the kitchen yesterday. Everything gone - wall between the kitchen and bedroom is gone and the closet is gone. Just waiting for the hardwood floor guy to come and take out the hardwood floor in the kitchen and closet so the new wall can be rebuilt.



A picture from the bedroom looking towards the living room. Fireplace still intact. As you can see the sliding doors on the right are the dining room.



This is the front of the house as of yesterday - those piles just keep getting bigger and bigger.



I spent a good deal of time this morning looking for my slippers. The problem is - I can't find anything - where I usually put things - or where they are supposed to be - isn't there any more. I finally found my slippers - where they really didn't belong. I couldn't find my camera battery charger either this morning - that has also since been located.



It is all starting to drive me a little crazy and we are only 4 days in!! I think the rebuilding might be a bit easier than the destroying - but I could be wrong.

I guess it's too late to turn back now!

The renovation started Monday morning.

Here are a couple "before" shots of the kitchen. It was a very, very small kitchen. Amazing that we bought the house because the kitchen was so small.



The entire floor space was only 39' wide by about 50" long.

You can see the size of the kitchen quite well in this picture. You must agree that it need to be made bigger!! The bank of cupboards that came out over the counter and block the window drive me crazy. It is like being in a little cage when you are in the kitchen. You can't see anyone in the rest of the house. So now - walls are coming down - windows made bigger - doors made where there are walls. What are we doing!!



Monday the master bedroom bathroom was removed and yesterday the work began on the kitchen.


This is what Jenny and I came home to yesterday after our walk.


You can already see how just taking out the over hanging cupboards that the kitchen is more open.

Jenny is NOT happy. She is quite out of sorts. She has to be kept in a room away from the work and away from the open doors.

The first day of construction I went out for just a couple of hours and left her on the deck. As it turns out the door from the garage to the deck was open - the garage was open and when I got home she came prancing down the driveway to say hello. I have no idea how long she had been out wandering on her own. Quite happy I am sure to have escaped. Good thing she came back!! Anyway a little closer supervision has been required and she does not like it.

You should see what the place looks like today!! Good heavens. I haven't even picked out floor tile yet. I will post more pictures - it is amazing what a disaster it is up there.

Guild Meetting last night

Last night at our guild meeting the speaker was one of the original founding members of our guild - Gail Hunt. Gail has gone on to write a few books and I have one of her books. I think it was one of the first big "hard cover" quilting books that I ever bought. I was quite pleased to read in our newsletter she was coming to speak. I got her to sign my copy of the book.



This hand dyed piece is one from her collection of quilts featuring each Province and Territory in Canada. This one is Nunavut.

Gail is now teaching and does some beautiful work - lots of hand dyed fabric and special surface designs. She can be found through The Fibre Art Network of Western Canada.

Lots of thread work and pictures. She has had her quilts shown in many shows and magazines and has won a bunch of awards.

This is Saskatchewan -- lots of thread work in this one.


I bought the book "Quiltworks across Canada" when it first came out in about 1998 or so.
Gail packed up her family - husband, 4 kids and a dog into an RV and spent a summer traveling across Canada where Gail met with quilters from each province and interviewed them - got a workshop from them and pictures of their work. It is a wonderful book. Every so often I bring it out and look it over again.



This is one of the workshops in the book. I really would like to try this one - it is so beautiful - but you know me -- it's on the list. The workshop is by Carol Galloway from Manitoba - and the difficulty is advanced! But the instructions are very clear and well laid out with great pictures. So maybe one day!




Look at some of the pictures in the book. Canadian quilters.

This is a collection of quilts by Win Burry in Ontario.



It was certainly great to meet Gail Hunt and get my book signed.

On the renovation front - things are starting to get going. The designer guy gave us some plans the other night and the contractor is hoping to start in about 10 days. And Jim thinks the front entry way needs to be re-designed and a new entry built outside of the house in the front porch area. I think Jim might have won the lottery and not told me!! Anyway he has now asked the designer guy to give him some drawing for a new entry!! But the kitchen plans that have been drawn up look good and I am happy with the design. Who knows what tomorrow brings!

What is happening here?

First off I thought we needed a new picture of Hunter!! I like this picture - he looks so gosh darn cute with his little glasses - which he never leaves on for more than 30 seconds! And it's not that bad of a picture of me - LOL. As I usually take pretty terrible pictures.




So - the news from the homefront. We all remember the photo of the new wallhanging finally up on the fireplace wall. Well - now the plan is to remove that wall!!




The fireplace is a great big brick rectangle in the middle of the house. It is about 37 inches wide by 87 inches long. We have decided we need to do a kitchen renovation - and hired a designer guy to help with the remodel. The kitchen is very small and needs to be made a little larger.




So - the designer guy says - "you really should decrease the size of the fireplace - that would make a huge difference" And the fireplace is not all that attactive - the brick is old and dated the actual fireplace is old and dated. But it is not going to be as easy as it sounds - and it doesn't really sound easy. The fireplace needs to be removed from floor to roof - the floor will have to be redone - the ceiling redone - the roof patched. A new fireplace, and chimney installed -- and we haven't gone anywhere near the kitchen.

Now the designer guy has been sick for a couple of weeks and we don't have the plans yet and the builder guy is "supposed" to be starting next weekend. We haven't really decided what to do for a new fireplace - have no idea what the kitchen will look like and haven't ordered cupboards - because we don't have a PLAN!

We are going to remove the valances and curtains from all the windows in the house -- so all the drywall will need to be redone above the windows - and off course we are allready having to redo the ceiling because of the changing of walls for the kitchen and removing the fireplace.


And summer is coming!! Supposedly it is better to get started instead of waiting for fall. But with summer comes Jim working full on with the start of the fishing season and I have holiday's booked. I was hoping to go to Calgary - which might have to be put off until August. And I have a road trip with my quilting peeps to Sisters Oregon in July. I am excited to go - rooms have been booked in Bend - quilt shops picked out! That trip won't be cancelled - and it is a short trip - 4 days only.

I am looking forward to the new kitchen and the more open living area - but I can feel the stress level rising here. Good thing I don't monitor my blood pressure! Or - maybe I should.

I am working on getting a few Dear Jane blocks ready for hand stitching as my sewing room might become a bit of a living room storage room. So ----- it should be an interesting summer.

The African Wedding Quilt

Is Finished -- well the top is finished. I am thrilled that it is finished a very happy with how it turned out. The panels that the bride wanted in the quilt are on the sides and I off set them because I didn't like the way they looked at the same eye level. I am going to talk to the long arm quilter about putting some decorative stitching in the black panels on the side - or I may decide to put a bit of applique there instead. I will decide after talking to the long arm quilter.



A few pictures of how it fits a queen sized bed. It is a little long and narrow but I find it fits the bed nicely.



I put a narrow piano key border on the bottom and a wider piano key border on the sides.



I think I need a better name than the "African Wedding Quilt" Any suggestions?



We have been busy here as we have decided to do a bit of a kitchen renovation - which is growing into a bit more of an event - as all renovations do I guess. We went out all day Friday to look at fireplaces --- what do fireplaces have to do with kitchens. Ah yes - it is growing!! Even though the wedding is not until October I really wanted to get the top finished an off to be quilted before I have to give up my quilting room to storing all the living room furniture - which seems to be where the kitchen renovation is going.......

The new Sea to Sky Highway

Also know as the "Highway to the Whistler 2010 Winter Olympics" is finally finished. At least "our" section is finished.

It was a week or so after we got back from Calgary that the new section opened - but I am slow to blog - as usual. Most people in the world won't care that the 6 years of highway construction we have lived with is finally over - but for us it was a big exciting event! LOL

There is still a few small areas of the highway that are not yet finished but the major roadwork between Horseshoe Bay and Lions Bay is now completed. The highway construction began in September of 2003. So we have been driving on about 13 kms of highway that has been under construction since then. The highway was a two lane road that had to be changed to a 4 lane highway because of the Winter Olympics in 2010. We live about 90 km south of Whistler. The entire highway from Vancouver to Whistler was upgraded to a 3-4 lane highway - the entire 100 kms or so. Our section of the highway was one of the most difficult sections to be built and there was a part of the highway that was not able to be widened at all so a new highway was carved out of the mountain above the original road.

The first day that the highway opened Jim phoned on his way home from work to say he was driving the new highway. He came home and we took a drive together on the highway and I brought my camera and took some pictures. It was a beautiful sunny day and so exciting to be driving on a piece of road that we have been waiting for almost 6 years to be finished. I had been in for a walk with Jenny earlier in the day and had driven home along the old road at 2:30 and by the time Jim came home at 4:30 the new highway was open.



As you can see in the first picture the original road to the right is now an off ramp to Horseshoe Bay and the new 4 lane highway head up the hill instead of snaking along the side of a cliff right along the water. The original road was very winding and there were many, many car and truck accidents along this road. There have been a few times over the years that we were not able to go home because the road was closed due to an accident or a rock slide. This is the only road to get home or to the 2010 Olympics in Whistler.


The new highway is quite a steep climb up Eagle Ridge. Look at the brand new pavement!



Driving over the top and then you come down to the left of the Horseshoe Bay ferry traffic which now has to merge into you!!


And here is the view from the new highway - around the top of the hill. Isn't that lovely!



As you can tell the new highway has me pretty excited. It does make the drive a few minutes shorter - so not much of a savings in time but it is just such a nice drive now. Did I mention that we have been driving in a highway construction zone for 6 years!! Orange cones...traffic control people.... mega sized dump trucks.... sitting at midnight for 25 minutes while they blasted rock.... listening to them blast rock....driving over gravel and holes at 20 km hour.... Now you know why I am so excited :)))