What a Great Day!

Tom and I drove to Homer today (and back) about a 340 mile trip, to get things for the boat.  Fishing season is almost here and he has been working on the boat daily.  On the way there I saw the most beautiful drake in a pond, several moose, many eagles, a few run down cabins I’ve never seen before (we are between snow and leaves, where you can see far into the woods alongside the road).  In Homer we cruised the boatyard (always fun!) and found Chris Perry, skipper of the F/V Lucky Star, a 42′ Ledford that is amost a mirror image of Tom’s F/V Dolly B.  We chatted with Chris for a while.  He was in the boatyard mending his seine.

Then it was off to Katchemak Gear Shed where we spend about 2 1/2 hours rounding up the things he needed.  We had an excellent helper from the shop at every step or else it would have taken 7 hours!

On the way back I saw 3 moose together, which I’ve never seen before (lived here 31 years!) AND a black bear – - all along the side of the road!  Okay, here’s where I apologize but Tom was driving 55-60, with traffic going both directions on the narrow two lane highway.  There was no way I could get pics of *any* of it           I sure wish I could have.  The Kittiwakes are back and the Canadian Geese, but I haven’t seen a swan yet.  There’s been a bad fire in the Homer area and as we were leaving Homer, it poured rain.  Hallelujah!

We talked about our bucket lists and both figured that we each have 1 goal and then 1 desire, and they are not all that dissimilar.  Mine is to get a novel (or three) published and his is to build up his retirement fund, which took a few unexpected hits.  After that we both agree that we want to travel.  A lot.  S l o w l y 

Did you have a great day today too?  And what’s on your bucket list?  We both agree that we have no “mountains to climb” but he wouldn’t stop asking me if I’d like to ride a bike across the country.  How many times do I have to say NO WAY!  LOL 

Spring in Seward, Alaska

Yes, this is spring in Alaska. See the pretty flowers; the sunshine? Me neither! LOL Someone please remind me why I live here?

If you look closely you can see Tan Bunny just to the right of the feeder that Tom built. It sits across the alley from his house, on Barb’s property. She loves rabbits too, so she said it was okay to put the feeder there. Bunnies love her big trees

Snowboard Kiting

I had no idea………. I was driving my granddaughter Audrey to Girdwood (from Seward) to meet up with my daughter Sarah and send the baby home (she’d been with me since Friday afternoon). As we drive through Portage, a desolate windy no-mans-land known for accidents because of the windblown icy highway, what do we see but SAILS! Sails! People (and by people I mean young male humans) were using sails to ski and snowboard!

I see it all, living in Alaska.

Here you can too because after I took baby Audrey to daughter Sarah, I headed home, pulled over in Portage and stood out in the godawful wind and cold to tape video on my little baby camera.

It’s times like this that I love living here. Great weekend with Audrey and a fascinating surprise on the windy, snowy horizon.

Death Valley and Los Algodones, Mexico

Death Valley was awesome! It was a trip Tom and I have talked about and finally just said “let’s just go!” Wow! He was a braver soul than I and he did a bit of hiking. I could barely move in the heat. In the photo with people, we are at the lowest point, about 283 ft below sea level. For a guy who spends a lot of time on the sea, Tom was quite amazed. You can’t see it in the photo, but there is a green street sign about halfway up the hillside that says “Sea Level”. We were quite impressed.

Here I am at TLC Dental in Los Algodones, Mexico, where I walked across the border and stayed for 2 nights in the attached B&B style home. It was secure, clean, and completely professional and I am thrilled to be healthy and whole again! The temperature in mid November was mid 80’s and I was totally miserable from both the heat and air conditioning and the hurried nature of the trip. I’d love to go back and spend weeks when the temperatures drop to 70’s or so

Freemont Street and BainBridge Island and Seattle

Freemont Street in Las Vegas

to Seattle and Bainbridge Island – -what a trip!

Tundra Swans and Cygnets

I love learning new things and that’s one reason that I subscribe to the Alaska Science Forum Newsletter . Today’s newsletter was about Tundra Swans and it included this photo by Ned Rozell, who often writes the newsletter and supplies the photos. I learn something new with every edition, and am never bored. Aren’t these babies the cutest? Almost as cute as baby bunnies

Quilt Market Houston 2008

We’re back!! It was one of the best times I’ve ever had at Quilt Market!
My daughter, Sarah Raffuse, made a great presentation at our Schoolhouse Session (late in the afternoon, so we offered chocolate at the door and our Take & Teach Class was SOLD OUT before Market even opened (wow!). Here are some pics from the Take & Teach, with some of the participants and their little quilt projects:

We had a great crowd at the book signing in the Krause booth and got to catch up news with some quilters who helped us out a LOT in Houston for the 2007 Quilt Market – -one of them had made five quilts (using our methods) since she got her book last year!!

Houston was warm and sunny (80 degrees didn’t feel like a “fall” market to me!) and Market was a crowded and happy affair and it looked to me like there was a lot of commerce being conducted between the vendors and the buyers. I’ll be posting about some of the patterns & vendors that caught my eye over on Quilt News.

Oh, and a double special bonus: I was able to meet up with my old pal Trish Stuart (I used to quilt for her and worked in her booth at several Quilt Markets) AND a quilt that she painted and I quilted was in the booth for Tsukineko Inks. That’s Trish in pink on the left, our quilt under our arms and me in the blue on the right. Look at those huge smiles

Gone to Quilt Market

A few updates without pictures. It’s been rainy and windy here, the snow is gone and now most of the leaves are off the trees. The bear has moved on and the bunnies are back. I managed to get all the kits cut for our Take & Teach class and quilted up 250 teeny tiny little quilties (4″ x 4″ squares) and sashed them using the technique in our book. These are our “promo” items that we give out at Schoolhouse and yes, it takes some work, but it’s really, really worth it to see the looks on the faces of the quilters (shop owners & teachers) who receive them

Houston is a great town to visit and we always try and get around to the Museums, the Galleria and my personal favorite – Target (I’m a low budget girl!). I did buy some lipstick at a Galleria shop last year – that was exciting! LOL. This year we are going to stay downtown, something we’ve never done before, so I am looking forward to walking around in the area that the hotel is in.

I’m also looking forward to meeting up with my old pal Trish Stuart. I used to quilt for her and our brainstorming sessions are something I miss. I spent a few Markets working with Trish in her booth and it was a blast! I bought a video camera (!!) because I’ve been saving my pennies… I hope to shoot some quilty footage while at Market. Stay tuned! (oh, I forgot, but yes…I did fold and put the laundry away!)

Snow for Martha

Compare this one to my photo of Mt. Marathon from the 4th of July! This is for Martha in Louisiana This next one is of the trees across the alley, just outside the garage door. My bunny friends hang out there, but right now there’s a black bear living there (no kidding!). Bear has been getting into the garbage cans at night. Don’t worry about bunny, she’s tough and she’s faster than this black bear. I saw her last night & she’s fine. My portable quilting table is set up by a living room window that looks out over the alley and the trees next door. I’m going to try and get a pic of bear.

Crazy Shortcut Quilt Workshop at the Valdez Quilt Festival

Whooooowheeeeee!! I had the time of my life!! Sarah and I taught the most fun class I’ve ever been in and the quilters went home with just an hour or two of stitching left to have finished and quilted quilts!

And guess what I found in Valdez? Rabbits!

I taught my class on using a midarm quilting system on Thursday and Sunday and on Friday & Saturday we did our shortcuts quilt as-you-go method.

The drive home was just lovely. It’s been years since we’ve driven to Valdez, a 425 mile trip for me from Seward, and we visited some familiar places and a few new ones too.
This is Tiekel River, at about mile marker 50 of the Richardson Highway. I have a few more photos on Flickr here and you are invited to take a look. There are photos of Worthington Glacier, the top of Thompson Pass (in the clouds, of course!) and a couple of the Wrangell-St. Elias mountains and last is one of Sarah touching the Alaska Pipeline at about mile marker 82 or so. We have the same photo from when she was about 9 or 10 years old

Next trip is to Houston, Texas, at the end of October and my thoughts are with the people of Texas as they struggle with the damage done by the hurricane.

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