A visit to La Conner, WA 06-02-18

Mabel and I visited the small water side town of La Conner, WA, on Thursday, May 24th.  It was a beautiful sunny day and there were quite a few tourists visiting this charming little town.  Our first stop was Seeds for a delicious lunch.  They had curried asparagus soup, very tasty and a first for me.  Then we checked in at the  Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum www.qfamuseum.org  which is located in an historic house with quilts in every room and lovely views from the top floor.  There is also a ground floor gift shop with many original items and packaged Japanese fabrics.  The current exhibits are man made quilts and I was honestly disappointed.  Too many negative themes for me.  But there were a few outstanding quilts that I took pictures of. 

 From there we visited Sylvia Pippen's shop "Indigo Stitch" down on the waterfront.  I wanted to just stay there - forever!  Such gorgeous work in sashiko and applique from the creative minds and talented hands of Sylvia and her mother Kitty.  But the samples are not for sale, just the patterns and the materials to create them.  I was reluctant to photograph inside the shop so you will have to visit yourself to enjoy the wonders.   Here are two websites that talk about Sylvia and the shop. 

https://okanarts.com/kitty-pippen/
https://okanarts.com/indigo-stitch/

We also spend some time browsing through the "Wood Shop" which has a wonderful display of everything it is possible to make with fine woods, or so it seemed.  I left some money to support the economy and to supply my Book Group with bookmarks made from wood. 

We drove back to Mt. Vernon for dinner and then off to a meeting of Mabel's book club to talk about Jodi Picoult's book "Small Great Things".  The book is a fiction about racism and the discussion among the dozen ladies was interesting.  It was a full day, but also a great day.  

A very nice quilt that my eyes kept going back to, I'm sure it deserved the prize. 

Outstanding workmanship and a really lovely quilt in the traditional manner. Amazing hand quilting, too.

Indigo Stitch, the shop.

Indigo Stitch, the shop, and Mabel Huseby. 

Finds from the Wood Shop - a toothpick holder, a sinuous pickle fork, and one of the bookmarks. 

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A special event for Beth Smith at Visions 06-01-18

Yesterday I drove down to San Diego to attend a special event in honor of Beth Smith who is retiring as director of Visions Art Museum.  There were about forty people, some who just stopped to say hello and went off again, and I saw many people that I don't see very often.  It was a very nice event and I took pictures, but tonight I will mostly post FOOD, which was impressive.  I will have to get some help with the names of some of the people - those I should remember, but as time goes by I think sometimes I am lucky to remember my own name, much less everyone else's.

The lady of the day - Beth Smith, Director of Visions Art Museum, retired. 

Charlotte Bird, artist and VAM supporter since the beginning. 

I can ID all of these ladies:  Andrea, Patti, Beth Smith, Charlotte, Debbie, Kathy. 

Delicious catered food and three desserts made by Lisa. 

(I ate the last piece of chocolate cake for dessert tonight - incredibly good)

The veggie rolls with pansies (which don't have a flavor!).

They were so beautiful it almost seemed a shame to eat them. 

But, of course, I did.  Along with some mozzarella, prosciutto, mushrooms, etc. 

Later in the evening there was the incredible Ultimate Crab Roll at Ikiru.  We try other things occasionally, but seem to always go back to this crab roll. 

When I have names for everyone in the pictures I will post them.  

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Road Trip to WA - Last Day 05-30-18

I left from friends Mary/Joe in San Juan Bautista at 8am with the hope I would make it through Pasadena on the 210 Freeway before the traffic was too clogged up.  And I made it!  Although it had already started slowing it was not the parking lot it is most of the time after about 3pm.  I drove into my garage at exactly 3pm after a 355 mile day.  Glad to be home, but loved the journey.  My longest day was 431 miles from Reno to Bend, followed closely by the Memorial Day total of 417 miles from Yreka to San Juan Bautista.   In all, the trip was 2850 miles.  I was gone for 13 days, five were non-driving days.   I do have some pictures I haven't posted, but will try to get to them this week.  Here are just a few from today.

From the bottom of the "mountain" up the canyon to Mary and Joe's house is between 2 and 3 miles and my top speed is 30 mph in short stretches - mostly more like 20.  It is a winding, ascending road and there are animals along the way.  Always cattle, but also horses, goats, alpacas, etc.  I could see a distance in both directions so I just stopped on the roadway and snapped this picture of a young steer.  He was curious and came closer.

For a better shot.  I saw mostly black cows on the trip. 

Where the mountainous road comes to a stop sign at the bottom of the canyon there is a house with sheep, goats, chickens, and maybe some other critters.  They are fenced and the fence is almost at the edge of the road.  There are three goats and a black rooster here.  

This is the first time I have seen flowers in the fields along Hwy 156 and there were two large plantings.  There was a sign announcing Burpee Ferry-Morris, so I suppose these mixed flowers are for seed.   I love the blue mountains!

I could not tell what flowers they are and there is no place to stop to examine them. 

06-01-18 Update:  Friend Mary says they are sweet peas and adds "A couple weeks ago you could roll down your car windows and smell the wonderful perfume of the flowers. "

There has recently been a large grass fire along the I-5, I could smell it.

I always think these fires so close to the pavement are caused by thrown cigarettes. 

A wild sky.  Clouds and contrails whipped by the strong, gusty winds. 

A long lonely looking road, very light traffic today, seems to go on forever. 

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Green with envy 05-29-18

While I was staying with my friends Mable and Mac in Washington state, I went with her to visit her group the Dreadful Threads while some of them were at a quilting retreat.  It is a fabulous location and I took some pictures to share.  The retreat owners travel quite frequently so they have a limited number of weeks available for retreat times.  This is the DT first experience there and, believe it, they have already signed up for one of the few weeks available for next year.  The owners collect sewing related items and she has a masterful eye for displaying the collections.  

In the kitchen there are antique sewing machines and irons, and hat boxes. 

A specific quilt to identify the ladies room. 

Wondering what to put in the skinny space between hallway doors?

Or you could display those cherished wooden thread spools. 

Several tender sayings are displayed - here a cushion.

This is the sitting room with a collection of quilting books and many thimbles on the wall.

Beyond the pony wall is the large sewing room.  

A friend I haven't seen for years - it is Margaret Miller, a member of the group. 

One of many buildings, this has sleeping accommodations. 

Rain boots and succulents.  

The main house where the owners live that has extra bedrooms upstairs. 

A charming vignette on the toilet tank. 

Another saying - this time framed. 

I did not get permission to show any of the quilts being worked on, but this is what my friend Reynola was putting together using collected vintage Japanese fabrics.   It is partially pieced together.  I will ask her permission after the fact!

It was a treat to see such an organized and original setting for a retreat.  I do envy them. 

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Road Trip WA Another driving day 05-28-18

Heading home on Memorial Day and the traffic was, as expected, terrible.  But it seems easier to endure when it is expected.  So, there was open road alternating with stop and go at different times.  I left from Yreka at 9am and arrived at Mary's at 5pm, which makes eight hours on the road.  Of course, I stopped for potty breaks, and to take pictures, and to just walk around to get the kinks out.  I didn't take many pictures and none of the traffic, I think you have had enough of those.  After sorting and editing here are sixteen from those eight hours.  When I arrived at Mary's I took my purse, my pillow and my bathroom bag into the guest room and collapsed onto the bed, I was comatose for an hour and a half.  When I got up Mary fed me a delicious homemade chicken noodle soup with fresh peas which were so tender and sweet.  I guess we have both gotten so accustomed to frozen peas that rediscovering fresh ones is like a whole new vegetable!  I ate one of Mabel's lemon bars for dessert.  Tomorrow is a day of rest. 

Five views of Mt. Shasta - leaving it behind for this trip. 

I stopped at a highway rest stop and luckily found a parking place in the shade.  In front of the car was a hedge of star jasmine.  With the windows cracked I dozed off for 20 minutes to the lovely fragrance. 

This must be the peak of their bloom and the flowers were very dense. 

Further south and north still of Sacramento is the rice growing area.  Miles and miles of flooded rice paddies, either newly planted or soon to be. 

Yet further south the rice has started to show above the water. 

After the rice growing area come more orchards, I think these are a stone fruit, maybe peaches?

I love to see the almost white wild oats along the roadside. 

I don't know if the roadside edges are mowed or sprayed, but it works.

I-5 approaches the foothills that will guide it to the left further south. 

The roadway curves to join I-580 from the Bay area coming into the picture on the left.  

This landscape continues for hundreds of miles going south. 

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