The Quilt show is over for another 2 years

The quilt show is over, my work week is over, the trip to Harrison Hot Springs is over and my Friday stitching group is over. It is Saturday and I have done a bit of sewing today. I also managed to finish a Dear Jane block -- one that has been to Inuvik and back!! I am looking forward to a very quiet fall season. If that is at all possible.

I was so tired last weekend that apparently we watched the Emmy's on Sunday night and I completely forgot. I remember on Monday watching The View and wondering why they were showing Emmy fashions and then today they were talking about the Emmy's on TV and I question Jim as to when the Emmy's would be on TV - it was being talked about as if it had already aired. Jim informed me we watched it last Sunday -- this is NOT a good sign!! Now that he reminded me I vaguely recall Dr. Phil on a big screen behind someone. So - that tells you what my life has been like lately.

We had a nice trip to Harrison Hot Springs on Wednesday/Thursday. I completely forgot about my Quilt Guild Meeting on Tuesday night -- another bad sign!! It is amazing that I muddled through work on Tuesday -- fortunately I was orientating a new staff member and that always keeps you on your toes.

Here are a few of my favourite quilts from the quilt show.




This one is made by one of the member of my little Friday stitch group -- Dianne. She made it as a wedding gift for her son and his new wife who were married July 19th of this year. It is just a beautiful quilt - with the Tree of Life in the centre. What a perfect symbol for a marriage. As you can see it was well loved by a lot of people and it got two ribbons.




This quilt is hand pieced and hand quilted. Isn't it stunning!! It is also one that received two ribbons. The ribbons were "Viewers favourite" and "Members favourite".





This quilt is made by one of the women in my Quilting by the Bay group - Kaffe Fassett fabric and pattern. I think it should have received a ribbon as well. It was one of my favourite.





This is a beautiful wall hanging - it is a old mill in New Brunswick - one of members that always does amazing work.




Here is another member of my QBTB group - loved the turtles.


There were lots of amazing quilts at the show this year. And the merchant mall was very good (if I say so myself!! ) I certainly bought a few things. Some great African batiks from Pippa Moore to add to my African fabric collection - I also bought a fabulous pattern called "Joy" from her as well. Something to add to my pattern collection!! I also bought a great scrap package of silks and such from Louise at Mostly Silk . I am getting a great collection of silk pieces - for some future project!

Here is to a quiet and productive Fall!!

Slide show - Dempster Highway day one

This is a slide show of the first full day along the Dempster Highway. On this day we traveled from Tombstone Park to Eagle Plains.

There are 134 pictures and I think if you click on the slide show you go to the Picasa site and get a larger pictures.

We are back

We arrived home late Tuesday night. We had a simply amazing trip. I took thousands of pictures. I don't know how to post just a few. I will post more - but this is just a sample.



This is the RV - All nice and shiny clean at the beginning of the trip. By the end of the 1400 kms along the gravel and dirt Dempster "highway" it was covered in mud.


Day one -- arrival at Tombstone Park - about KM 78 along the highway. It is just a beautiful place. Much like the beauty of Death Valley. The fall colours are alive.



More of the beauty of Tombstone. So amazing at this time of year -- very soon it will be a thick blanket of snow for many months.


This the view at the Arctic Circle!!!



We made it to Inuvik - it is such a site to see the Mackenzie River - it is so huge! It was an amazing trip. We drove about 3700 kms north to Inuvik. Altogether we drove over 7000 kms in the past 17 days. Such an adventure!! It is hard to explain what the trip was really like.

The drive to Whitehorse - up the Stewart-Cassiar Highway was beautiful - there are fabulous mountains and lakes all along the way. Whitehorse is so far north - 2400 kms north of Vancouver - and then to get the RV and drive more north - past all these very tiny little Yukon towns - of 300 -400 - 130 people -- Carmacks, Stewarts Crossing, Pelly Crossing -- Up the Klondike Highway - 600 km to Dawson City and then more north -- turning on to the Dempster highway - 734 km with only a couple of small towns along the way -- Eagle Plains --just a gas station and a hotel , Fort MacPherson- where the Lost Patrol are buried -- and finally Inuvik. Driving along a very long dirt/gravel road for miles and mile and not seeing a single other vehicle. We saw a Grizzly bear wandering through the Tundra - a few Cariboo. The history of the area is everywhere - it is so desolate and you wonder why anyone would live there - and then it is so beautiful - you know the answer.

Now - back to real life.... I have been busy with my guild's quilt show today - back to work tomorrow and a very busy weekend with the quilt show. I do hope to post a few more pictures. It is so hard to chose just a few from the many!!

Bad Blogger!!

I have been very busy and away from home most of the summer. I promise I will catch up with everyone in October.


I was lucky enough to go to the APNQ show with 15 of my "quilting peeps". We stayed two nights at a hotel downtown Seattle and had a marvelous time -- saw the show, shopped, and had a couple of wonderful meals. We carpooled down to Seattle. A three hour drive from Vancouver took over 8 hours each way - there are a bunch of great quilt shops along the road to Seattle. I stopped in Wendy's favourite little shop in Bellingham "Two Thimbles" I bought a bunch of Jo Morton fabric there. Great place to shop!!

I have been busy getting ready for my own guild's quilt show since I got back from Seattle. The Lions Gate Quilter's Guild show is September 19, 20, 21 st. I am in charge of the merchant's mall portion of the show. We have acquired a little extra space in our venue late in the planning process ( July!!) so the Quilt show committee decided to add extra merchants -- 5 extra. So I have been busy lining up the extra merchants and getting all the letters out - cheques from the merchants and such. I need to have all this done before we leave on our trip to the Arctic Circle ----- and beyond. So I have been busy - plus working here and there. I will not be getting back from our trip until the day before the show is opening -- how's that for cutting it close!!



Here is a picture of a bear in the backyard - this was one day last week. Just a little guy - probably born this spring.



Also there were three Racoons on the deck trying very hard to get into the closed in area of the sundeck to eat some of the tomatoes - good thing the sliding glass door was shut. The neighbours are finding they are coming in their house and eating the cat food. Cute little guys -- I think Jenny would have been pretty excited to see these guys but she was fast asleep when they showed up.



And here is my entry for the quilt show. I just finished the binding two days ago. There is a small amount of hand quilting left to do and I was going to take it on the trip to the Yukon to finish it up but I managed to complete it enough for the show. I need to do a bit more hand quilting in the top section with the gold stars - but it is ready enough for the show and I am not going to take it with me. I think I will take a couple of Dear Jane blocks to work on - not sure how much I will get done but just in case...........

We are leaving very early Saturday morning. I am working two day shifts - Thursday and Friday. So Jim will be finishing up the packing and taking the bird off to the person who will watch her while we are away. Jenny is coming along - so hopefully she isn't too car sick this trip. We will be driving up to Whitehorse -- 2500 kms -- in the first three days. There is a couple of quilt shops in Whitehorse from what I can see online. We will then be getting an RV - and driving north to Dawson City -- up the Dempster Highway and past the Arctic Circle to Inuvik. I am sure it will be quite the adventure. I am sure will will take lots of pictures and hopefully it doesn't snow and we don't get eaten by Blackflies. Jim wants to see caribou and grizzly bears and maybe a wolf or two.

My gifts from Anna and some pictures with the new camera

I am just figuring out the ins and outs of the new camera. I have made the picture size smaller - from 10 megapixels down to 6. I am working with all the different settings as well.

This is the lovely gift that Anna ( with no blog) gave me when I went to visit her in Red Deer. She made me such a pretty bead bracelet - that I just love. And when we were shopping she bought the Quilt Diva pattern for me. I saw it last weekend all made up on display in a quilt shop in Washington State - I think it was the quilt shop in Mount Vernon. It is such a fun pattern - great one to use up those scraps as well. And again I must Thank Anna for all the gifts and the great visit we had in July.



This next picture is from the "sunset" setting on the new camera. It really does bring out the colours on that setting - rather than just Auto. The camera has a bunch of pre-set settings -- Aquarium, Fireworks, Beach, - I really don't think you need a Fireworks setting on a camera - how many times do you go out and take pictures of Fireworks. Anyway - I am enjoying the camera and just playing around with each setting.



And the last picture is sweet little Hunter. He is 4 months and 15lbs. Gosh - isn't he cute!! Very serious - I should have had Jim take the picture - he smiles for Jim.



I have yet to spread out my Quilt show purchases and take pictures of all that yet. I better get that done before the Visa bill comes and I have to fess up to how much I spent!

What I got in the mail!!

Before I show any quilt show/fabric shopping pictures I must post about what I found in my mail box yesterday!

This quilt was sent by San - Gypsy Quilter - for little Hunter. I just love the yellow and blue and it is such a lovely quilt! How sweet of San to send it for Hunter. It missed getting here before they left by just a few day - that is Canada Post for you. I had no idea she was sending it for him. I remember seeing it posted on her blog. It has just the softest and prettiest yellow heart flannel on the back.




And it has a label -- something that I always forget to do. San sent the label separate so I could give the quilt a wash and fluff before the label went on the quilt -- that is such a great idea for a baby quilt - after spending time all shut up in a box and shipped across the country.



It really made my day yesterday to open her box. She also sent a bunch of flannel bits and pieces for me to make some more little quilts for the NICU. I will make some more this fall -- after September comes and goes.

I had a great 3 days of quilting related activities this past weekend. I shopped too much, ate too much and hopefully walked just enough to wear off what I ate! The quilt show in Seattle was great - wonderful new venue!!

Just a very quick post

I am heading off to Seattle first thing in the morning for a weekend of fun and quilt show frolic!! And my usual shopping - need to add to my retirement fund - AKA -- My Stash!!

I worked a bit on my first mystery quilt block from the Fat Quarter Club. Most of my quilting time lately has been spent on the hand quilting of the Mariners Compass quilt. Jessica and the gang -- my sweet little Hunter - have been here all week so not a lot of quilting was done.



This is some of the fabric I bought in Red Deer. Now wouldn't that make a fabulous bag!! I bought enough to make a Professional bag.



I also bought some great Cheddar and Turkey Red fabric for my Dear Jane in Red Deer as well.



I am off -I have a very early start in the morning. I bought a new camera last week - I have a bunch of pictures on the camera - some Hunter pictures as well. I am not sure about the camera yet and the picture size is pretty big - so I don't know how they will upload and look on the blog. So this is a bit of a test.

A few more Hunter pictures

I just couldn't resist posting a few more Hunter pictures. Jessica had put some pictures up on Facebook and there are some pretty good Hunter pictures that I hadn't seen.



Here is Hunter and his Nana at the Weiner Roast in Yorkton Sask. I am a pretty good burper -- and so is he!!



Here is Hunter at the Calgary Stampede Rodeo - such a cute picture.



Here is Hunter on his second camping trip of the summer - he went camping for the first time the May long weekend. He has been a very busy and well travelled little guy this summer!



Isn't this a cute picture. Here is Hunter spending the day at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller Alberta. Cute hat!!

I will take photos of all the fabric I bought -- soon.

Side trip to Red Deer

I have been very busy this week -- back and forth into Vancouver a couple of times and not really doing much blogging at all.

When I was in Calgary I took a little side trip up to Red Deer to meet Anna -- aka "Quiltmom" with no blog to link to at this time. I think there are bloggers out there that are encouraging her to get a blog. But she is a smart one and says she can read more blogs and do more quilting if she doesn't have her own blog --- now wouldn't that be the truth!!

I had a great visit with Anna - and met her mum and dad and her son. Anna lives in Edmonton so she drove down meet me in Red Deer. We went to two quilt shops -- I bought quite a bit of fabric in each -- but not as much as Anna!! She is a shopping Diva!! Both quilt shops had some great fabric on sale and Anna really figured up what the best values were and got lots of great fabric that could be used in all kinds of future quilts.

We had a great visit and I loved spending time with her parents as well. It was a wonderful day. Anna's mum gave me a jar of her home made Chokecherry Syrup. I haven't tried it yet - I think I will have to make a big batch of French Toast for the occasion. My Grandmother used to make Chokecherry jam when I was a child.



Here is Anna and her Mum - this is a quilt that Anna was making for a wedding just this past weekend.

Another photo of the quilt. Love the bright colours!!



I must take a picture of all my fabric I purchased and the beautiful bracelet that Anna made for me. If I had been thinking I would have taken a couple of pictures of all the fabric Anna bought as well. She made some great purchases - and it was all 60% off -- $6.00 -$4.00 a meter. It was a very successful shopping trip -- and great fun!! Thanks to Anna and her Mum.

I am falling behind in my blogging - but I knew it would be a busy summer this year and I would be not as active in my blogging. Now I am off to work two night shifts this weekend!!

Trip - Part One -- Vancouver to Yorkton

I took a few pictures as I was driving -- probably not the best idea.

Vancouver to Cranbrook -- aprox 980 kms. Total driving time 11 hours.

This is as I am coming down a big hill towards Osoyoos B.C. - in the Okanogan valley. It is a lovely - hot, dry area of B.C. Lots of vineyards and wineries in the area - plus fruit orchards - growing peaches, cherries, plums, apples etc.



A little truck accident I drove by just outside Grand Forks B.C.



Here is a picture of the Creston B.C. valley area - just about 130 kms to Cranbrook now.



After a few days in Cranbrook I drove to Calgary --- 400 kms from Cranbrook to Calgary.

Then Jessica, Hunter and I drove to Yorkton Sask --- 960 kms from Calgary to Yorkton.

Here is a picture of Jessica and Hunter in front of the big moose in Moose Jaw Sask.



And our final destination -- Yorkton Sask.


Total distance driven to this point -- aprox 2300 km.

Back from Holiday - A couple of Hunter pictures

I got back from Calgary on Thursday. It was a very long drive in a Thunder storm! Pouring rain, lightning and blowing wind for about 400 kms! I think I put about 5000 kms on the car from start to finish of this two weeks from Vancouver to Sask. and back.

Hunter is doing great - growing and making lots of sounds - gooing and cooing! He was great on the drive from Calgary to Yorkton Sask. He slept most of the trip and woke every few hours to eat and get changed at what ever rest stop we found along the way.

Jessica, Hunter and I drove from Calgary to Yorkton on a Friday - 960 kms -- attended the family picnic on Saturday and drove back on Sunday! It was quite the trip for Hunter. My parents and my sisters and their families also came along on the trip and we had three cars all together in a little bit of a convoy - which can be interesting when planning stops and lunches and such. Thank goodness for cell phones.



Isn't he cute!! He is sure "talking" And loves to listen to you talk to him.

Here is a picture of him with the bunny. He is now as long as the bunny. He sure has grown - he now weighs 12 lbs 13 oz. He was 3 months on July 2nd.




I will post a few pictures of the trip on another post - I think a couple of pictures of Hunter were needed first!!

I had a very nice visit with Anna - a "non blogging lurker" LOL!! We spent the day together in the middle of Alberta and did some serious quilt shopping - so that will also be another post. I was so tired after all that driving I am just now starting to feel a bit brighter. And I then realized that I have to get busy on the hand quilting of my Mariners Compass to have it ready before we leave on our next holiday. It has been a busy summer -not enough time for blogging.

Time for a road trip!!

I am just finishing up my packing and heading out first thing in the morning for my annual summer road trip!! Off to Calgary to see the little cutie -- Hunter. A side trip to Saskatchewan for a family picnic. Another side trip to meet up with a blogging friend in Alberta.

I will be away from the computer most of the month of July - so I will try to catch up with all my favourite blogs when I return. I will try to check in when time permits.

Just a quick photo of the fabric I bought to make myself a bag - the Professional bag. I have most of the pieces cut and I will finish it when I return. Love the fabric!!




Have a happy and fun summer and see you on the flip side!!!

A gift from Argentina

I hadn't worked much the month of May -- only one day. So when May was finally over and it was time to go back to work - I worked 5 shifts in 9 days!! That was a bit of a shock -LOL. So I am still recovering a bit from the last week of work.

I did get to have a fantastic visit with Wendy on one of my days off. You can read all about it on her blog. It is so great to finally meet Wendy and she lives so close. I am looking forward to going on a bit of a shopping trip out in her direction next time. There are a few little quilt shops out in her area that I have never been to before and I really would love to see them.

I am getting ready to head off for another trip to Calgary and a visit with little Hunter. I hear he is over 10 lbs now and really alert and happy. I need more pictures!!

I received a package from my blogging friend Andrea from Tierra del Fuego before we left on our cruise. Andrea and I have been visiting by email and MSN for the last year or so.



She sent me a wonderful package - full of pieces of fabric from her fabric collection. I had sent her some fabric from my collection as well. We both sharing our collection of butterfly fabric and we are planning to one day make a butterfly quilt. As you can see she also sent a lovely cushion cover that she made and she sent a little cute little t-shirt for Hunter as well. Andrea writes her blog in Spanish but we are able to talk to each other on MSN in English - which is great because I have no ability to do anything in Spanish - I was thinking maybe Andrea should start teaching me a bit here and there -LOL. Andrea's daughter Lucia - sent a beautifully written letter in English and Octavio made a picture just for me. It is so amazing -- this world of blogging!! Who could have imagined that a you could meet and talk with people from all over the world - places as far away as Tierra del Fuego and as close as New Westminster.

Shopping in Skagway

We arrived in Skagway at 7 AM. We were very amazed to look out our stateroom window to see that there were 4 cruise ships docked in Skagway!! This is a town of 800 people.

We were schedule to go on a 3 hour White Pass Railroad train ride at 8:30. We quickly got ready and off to catch the train. Then the plan was after the train ride we would go to the two quilt shops in town. We sat on the train for over an hour waiting for it to get moving - about 9:15 there was an announcement that the first train out of the station broke an axel on the track about 5 miles out and all the morning trains would be canceled. There were probably 6 trains waiting to go out with a lot of people - with nothing to do but head into Skagway and shop. Was it ever busy in Skagway!! The best place to be was probably the quilt shops.

There are two quilt shops in Skagway - almost next door to each other, The Changing Threads also carries cross stitch patterns and wool and such as well as fabric. The Rushin Tailor carries mostly fabric. There was a lot of Alaskan theme fabric and kits.




Here are the men standing outside the Rushin Tailor waiting for the women :))

Jim was quite happy to join me in the shop and decided to pick out a couple of Northern themed kits and said they were my birthday present ( I thought the cruise was my birthday present - but I certainly wasn't about to argue the point -LOL)



I got two kits in the Rushin Tailor. The kits are all made up with the Hoffman batiks and good quality fabric. The Quilt Alaska "Sun Seekers" was the one that Jim chose. It comes with buttons as well but I have some very old "Mother of Pearl" buttons that Jim's mum had collected. The salmon tablerunner is a pattern by Lisa Moore and her husband Dave Moore from the Sitka area. It comes with beautiful Mckenna Ryan fabric.

I also bought a few half yards of Northern themed fabric. I just love the Hoffman batiks that were in the shop - with the native artwork as the batik design.



Changing Threads -- just two doors down -- making shopping very easy!!




I bought some more half yard batiks and some half yards of Northern Light fabric - very pretty and I bought a Barbara Lavallee quilt kit -- "Three Sheets to the Wind" She is an Alaskan artist and some of her work is becoming quilts. Both shops were great places and well worth the visit.

The streets of Skagway were just packed with people and we left the quilt shops and wandered over to the Skagway Brew Pub for a pint and a nice lunch of Fish and Chips for the rest of the afternoon while we waited for our bus tour. We didn't rebook the train trip but instead took a bus up to the summit of the White Pass. It was beautiful - we had lots of stops along the way to take pictures - saw a few Mountain Goats. The trip goes into B.C. and then back into Alaska. It was another beautiful sunny day and I took lots of pictures.

Back from the Cruise

We had a wonderful time!! I certainly recommend a cruise to Alaska. The weather for us was beautiful and sunny and quite warm the entire cruise. I took lots of pictures - it is hard to decide which pictures to post.



Here is a picture of Vancouver as we were sailing out on Saturday - this is the sunny weather we had all week.



Here we are sailing towards the Lions Gate Bridge. I got some great shots of the under side of the bridge as we sailed under.



Here is our stateroom. I just loved having a balcony - we would sit out on the balcony in the morning and drink our morning coffee and watch the whales. We saw so many whales!!!



Here is a picture of the Centrum. There were 13 decks on the ship and we were on deck 8. Lots of walking up and down the stairs -- the exercise of the day to make sure we could eat all the desserts!! The food was really great in the main dining room. We didn't eat very often at the Buffet - the Dining room was open for breakfast and lunch (on sea days) and it was much nicer to sit at a table and get waited on rather than wait in the buffet lines.



And here is a picture of the quilt pattern on the Centrum floor!! My quilt content for this post :))

I had a great birthday dinner and a very memorable 50th birthday!! I loved everything about the cruise and I certainly would go cruising again --- soon I hope!!

I did some shopping at the quilt shops in Skagway and Juneau - I will save that for another post. I am finding I am still quite tired - even today - and the floor seems to have finally stopped moving. I had no idea about the movement but it was quite interesting that when I finally got off the boat I kept thinking there were little earthquake type tremors happening in Skagway - and it seems that is something that people experience after being on a ship. I didn't get sea sick at all and the ship barely moves - the water was so calm most of the time anyway. The ship is so incredibly quiet as well - you can't hear any motors or engines at all is just glides through the water.

Thank you for all your birthday wishes!! It was a birthday I will never forget. FABULOUS!!