The Good News and the Bad News

First let me preface with saying that yes, I know that today is Mother's Day, but if you haven't realized it by now, I'm a pretty non-traditional Mom. This being said, my day did not start with breakfast in bed, surrounded by my boys and DH...(yeah, that would NEVER happen...and I'm fine with that). Nope, my day started when the alarm blasted into my consciousness at the unbelievable hour of 3am (yes I did say 3). DS1 and DS2 bought me roses and chocolate last night when they came home from the rodeo and that was a complete surprise, but I digress...

It's Spring Chinook season on the Columbia and Snake Rivers and there are, according to the fish counts, thousands of fish going over the dams. In layman's terms that means that it is supposed to worth getting up uber early to go "plunking".  We arrived @ 4 and there were already people there! The bad news portion of my story is that out of 15 people along the banks in our area only 1 fish was caught and it was wild and had to be released. This is what they are supposed to look like:

The good news is that due to the lack of any fish biting/ catching/ netting excitement I was able to get some a lot of hand quilting done on my modern bento swap quilt, off and on about 7 hours worth! The other good news is that it wasn't quite warm enough for any rattlesnakes to make an appearance!!!

What I've been doing instead of quilting

There's been quite alot of this....

Practices on Wednesday evenings and a game

or two every Saturday and me w/o a portable project!

Not that one could concentrate with all that action going on, but it would be nice to occupy the endless between game times.

Besides, this is what my sewing area looks like at the moment...not exactly inspiration for creativity is it?

There have been fundraisers.

Terra, the beautiful redhead to the right of the podium and two of her classmates took upon themselves for their senior projects the goal of purchasing 25 thirty-two inch plasma tv's for the pediatric oncology ward at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane. Unbeknownst to me, but chemotherapy affects the eyesight of patients, making images on a small screen a blur.  Since many children who are being treated for cancer are in the hospital for weeks at a time, Terra's goal was to make the passing of time a little more pleasant.

The monetary goal was $15,000.  With the help of the Tri City Optomist Club, the generosity of many, many local business and the overwhelming support of those who attended the silent auction and dinner, the total donations came in at an unbelievable $30,000!!! The girls and I in our office (Terra's Mom Shelly is one of 5 clerks in the office) helped out collecting bids, counting all that $$$ and checking folks in.

Earlier in the month, my husband and I attended another fundraiser for a good friend, camping cohort and  coworker of DH's, who recently discovered that he had testicular cancer. Grant is a trooper for the Washington State Patrol in the Kennewick Detachment and the vibrant husband and father to Heather and their precocious son Logan. After it was discovered that he had cancer, surgery was quickly scheduled to remove the affected area, it was then that his lab work came back to reveal two more cancers! So in March, he and his family went to the University of Washington hospital for a more complicated surgery that left him with a scar that reaches from chest to groin and down both thighs.  He is currently cancer free, recovering well and due to return to light duty soon.  The local FOP sold wristbands and had a spaghetti feed in his honor and has raised several thousands of dollars to help defray expenses for Grant and his family. I had the honor of snapping this photo of his squad sporting their wristbands!

And last but not least, I had the pleasure of photographing the Every 15 Minutes Program at Riverview High School.  My photos were then converted into a slide presentation set to music for the assembly the next day to bring awareness to the young people in high school of the very real tradedy of drinking and driving. Oh my gosh it was an emotional 2 days! If I can get my hands on some of the pictures or better yet, the slideshow, I will try to share that with you. But in the meantime, my former Lieutenant loaned me is Canon EOS digital SLR to play with!!!  I am completely in love with it and will be plotting the next bank heist in order to purchase one for myself!!! (disclaimer...any mention of bank robbery in this blog is COMPLETELY for humor-sake and is NOT intended in ANY form of premeditation should a local financial instution become the victim of any such heinous crime) Anyways, let me leave you with a few more inspiring photographs and I hope that you enjoy the remainder of your weekend!

Weekend Fun

My DH and I were scheduled to take off for Portland Friday after I got home from work at 5. In all his great wisdom, Mr InAwe talked me into taking a vacation day so that we could leave earlier and I'm so glad that I did! It was a gorgeous warm spring day, perfect for a leisurely drive through the Columbia Gorge and we had an agenda...He wanted to stop below John Day Dam to see if anyone was catching salmon and I wanted to snap pictures...after his stop, we went to the Maryhill Museum, wandered around admiring the vast art collection (it wasn't until I snapped my last photo that I was informed that they don't allow flash photography...BIG oops on my part...does that make me uncultured?) Anyhoo...there were displays of gilt furniture built by Queen Marie of Romania who dedicated the museum back in 1926, I have always been fascinated by icons, there is something about the face of the virgin Mary, that is so dreamy, introspective and ethereal that it has always intrigued me.

 There were sculptures by Rodin and a huge collection of Northwestern Native American artifacts, baskets, handmade tools, headdresses, baby bundling boards, beadwork, trade beads and handcarved items...just fascinating stuff.



 There was an occasional dam, a picturesque barn ...just total eye candy along the way! And of course, what trip from Washington to Oregon would be complete without a stop at Multnomah Falls, after braving the congestion of the parking lot, of course?!!

 The weekend was a complete success, I found Trader Joe's, bought cases of wine (okay 2), yummy (you can't find that kind where I'm from) hummus and pita chips, experienced the Hollywood District of Northeast Portland....

 Where at Trader Joe's (a much prized destination only enjoyed in the Western region of Washington State ...ahem, I live in DEEP Eastern Washington)...I saw a bumper sticker that read, "keep Portland weird"...the unvoice question was answered upon the arrival at our next stop, Safeway, where in the parking lot, there was a circa 1980-something black hearse being loaded with groceries by, none-other-than a midget decked out in goth-attire and his/her (I say she was female, DH insists he was male...I suppose it was anybody's guess...as I tried to as-politely-as-possible not to stare-but so wanted to take a picture with the phone camera) yes, you can say total culture shock, it's quite appropriate here, but funny nonetheless! I even subjected DH to my maiden voyage of Fabric Depot. He was pleased to find that they had a "man cave" and I was completely in awe/smitten/overwhelmed  by the fabric choices! I was informed upon checkout (by DH, not the staff) that I had spent 90 minutes (is that all?!) browsing...he so, doesn't realize how lucky the budget faired by my only spending $51....really!!! (thinking there should some sort of award here for ultimate restraint) Perhaps now is a good time to mention that DH's choice of preferred retail therapy was to peruse the fine establishment known as Camping World, just so you know that it wasn't all about me!

It's Getting There

Progress is slow, but this was never meant to be a race to get it done kind of project. More so, it's been something that I've savored along the way, enjoying the process of handstitching...of sitting around the campfire chatting and sewing...of sitting in the car, listening to the radio on a roadtrip when the scenery is boring and the conversation has begun to dwindle (or when they are talking boy-stuff) I've developed quite the callus on my middle needle-pushing finger too and my fingers fall asleep more than I would like them to, but I'm enjoying the whole process.  It's getting there, I can just about see the finish, I'm working on the borders now, so my thoughts wander to what kind of flowers I'm going to applique on the final border and should I machine or hand quilt this one? There was a kind lady at the quilt show over the weekend who was handquilting  with a hoop on a vintage GFG, it was fun to pick her brain, asking what kind of batting she used, how slack or taught the quilt should be in the hoop, how she knotted the thread when she reached the end of a length. The kind of questions that (for me anyway) that can only be answered by watching someone do it instead of trying to figure it out for myself with pictures and/or instructions on paper...in fact it inspired me to finish up the left-hand border that night and though it's not quite a "ta-da!" moment, I think that you'll agree that I've made quite a bit of progress...in fact, I think that I'm in love with this one!

My Saturday Inspiration

The area where I live in Washington state has two local quilting guilds that every March co-host a show and vendor's market at the Three Rivers Convention Center.  I've attended the last four or five years where I spend an hour or three happily wandering  the aisles of quilts, contented to snap pictures at my little heart's content. This year was no exception, except that my DH accompanied me (bless his heart) instead of a dear co-worker who is my usual companion...alas, poor Kim went on vacation to Southern California for the Christmas holidays, injured her foot badly while there, is still hobbling around on crutches and hasn't returned to work since!

There were many lovely quilts, wonderfully made and to-die-for quilted (it is on my bucket list to actually enter a quilt in this or any show for that matter) but the quilters here don't seem to embrace the "modern" quilting designs which really excite my eye. Still, I had a wonderful day, gazing at them, snapping pictures for inspiration and dodging everyone else there who was doing exactly the same as I...which is probably at this point in my happy tale that I should apologize...that while dodging said peeps, my photo angles and the composition of those photos suffered along with my patience in getting a nice photo for you to view!

The first two that you see above, are right up my alley colorwise,vibrant and exciting. I'm loving orange at the moment as a new favorite color, but pink,pink and pink will ALWAYS be my go-to color of choice! Last year, Judy Niemeyer was the featured artist, I soooo admire her work, would die and go to heaven to take a class of hers (as intimidating as that might be...) and so, that remains on my to-do list of quilts yet to be made as is the lonestar quilt, like the one above!!  I love the fussy-cut flowers that circle the inner star...yummy!

I have yet to attempt much of anything with black as a focal color, but love the way that the blue green and purple just pop!

I love this one with retro prints, appliqueed and embroidered...it reminds me of Grandma's house. 

Since I have a house full of hunters, myself included (hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em I always say...and if it means that I am out hiking and enjoying the beauty of God's splendor, well then it's a lot more enjoyable than sitting in camp and doing the breakfast dishes!) I (and my DH) admired this one...

Not exactly my color scheme, but the design is wonderfully geometric and I have to admire someone who would cut all those tiny pieces of fabric, on purpose!

Hexagons...need I say more?! I can't seem to get over my love of them  :  )

And polka dots....love, love, love them too!!!

Things are beginning to come together

I have a couple of projects in progress at the moment as I'm sure many of you are familiar with and in the same boat. I am quite happy to report that all 36 qayg squares are now finished and a row is assembled. Originally, this endeavor was begun with the intention of making a quilt for the double bed in the bungalow (the affectionate term for our camp trailer). Upon auditioning it upon the bed in my room (which is a queen) it occurred to me that a quilt in the camper would only be used a few months out of the year, why not make it big enough to be used in the master bedroom? I am super excited to get it put together, it looks amazing and I am mostly happy with the way the squares have turned out.  There will be a bit of tweaking to be done when assembling the rows, some of the last rounds of the squares are a bit skinnier than is pleasing to my eye, but we shall see how it looks as I go along, I am being totally flexible on this one and am not opposed to ripping anything out if things don't look quite right. 

Here are just a few of the 36...I absolutely LOVE the bright colors and I think that I've mentioned before that my hubby picked out the center motif fabric on Equilter.com. He has been kind of cute, allowing me extra sewing time by making dinner and doing the dishes and clean-up after the meal...I truly am a VERY lucky girl in that department! With salmon fishing and the first official camping trip of the season closing in quickly, I do need to get busy getting this put together. I have yet to find appropriate backing fabric and have found some fun western and camping fabrics on Equilter, but I really do prefer backing my quilts with flannel...we shall see.

On another front, here is a preview of the handquilting on my Modern Bento Block Swap quilt. I am trying large stitch, without a hoop, perle cotton, quilt it in sections quilting...something totally new and hopefully easier than trying to hand quilt the completed top assembled method...hey, whats the worst that can happen? If things don't work out to my liking, it can always be modified, I do have a large hoop to slip it into if need be...don't you just love an adventure into the unknown?!

Give me the internet

Or give me death...well it feels like death...dang but I miss the net! I can live without the phone (it would be heaven actually) I think I could even live without the tv (I really only listen to it anyway)my iPod is a different story by the way...but since we have been experiencing "difficulties" with an un-named cable company (ahem Charter)who in my opinion is incapable of simple accounting...finding an economical replacement has been a bit of a challenge! In the meantime, I've been jonesing for my Blogspot, Ebay, iTunes, even Webmd! Thank goodness for my Blackberry b/c amazingly enough the public Library doesn't allow access to Blogspot (adult content). The good mews is that Frontier shipped the motem via 2 day UPS today so we shoul be back in business by Tuesday...the lack of net access has afforded a bit of a silver lining though an I have been rocking my qayg squares with only 7 more to complete before I can assemble the rows...AND show you more pictures!!! Which brings me to the following announcement...further pictorial enhancement will again resume upon the arrival of my soon-to-be favorite man in brown whom we shall aptly name (feel free to fill in the blank since I can't come up with a catchy starts with a U and rhymes with UPS male surname...until Tuesday boys and girls toodles!