Good morning, my friends. Two weeks from today...D-Day. Time is really growing short now, and my focus is shifting from sewing to packing. My packing list is borrowed from previous trips, but I add and discard things on the list as I think of them. In another week, we'll start packing in earnest.
Mike has been checking everything on the camper to make sure we start our journey with everything in working order. He discovered the water heater had some problem...fixed already. That's Mike. Aside from that, things seem to be working properly. He's going to lubricate the slides, and then turn his attention to our Jeep, which we'll be towing. There's a lot to think about, for sure.
My morning started with slow-stitching, as you might guess. I spent a little bit of time on this yesterday afternoon while I was waiting for dinner things to cook, and then I took just a few more stitches this morning to finish off May's block for A Year in the Garden. I love the colors in this.
We've had a significant amount of rain the past couple of days. I think we might see another day today. Yesterday's deluge was a half inch in a single day. It came down in heavy showers, but we also had some dry periods. I took some time between rain showers to fill the bird feeders. While I was out, I noticed the rhododendron beside the driveway is starting to bloom.
Knowing I'll be visiting quilt shops in our travels, I've been giving some thought to what fabrics I might hunt down along the way. I've already noted I'll be looking for a back for the Girls' Getaway quilt. I was thinking I'd want a back for the Alaska quilt too. So I spent some time looking at the pattern yesterday. The suggested block background was a Hoffman Watercolor Batik "Oyster." So I went in search of that color and found it to be a sort of off-white. And when I look at the pattern above, I see white. Certainly the block with the orca (second from the left at the bottom) is going to have white for the orca belly. Isn't it the same color as the background?
So all of that to say that I spent quite a bit of time looking at various fabrics and ended up buying just a Kona white solid. Hmph. Pattern-Schmattern. I do what I want. I'll be using scraps from my stash for the rest of it. For sure, I'll be on the hunt for a backing fabric...something that says "Alaska" loud and clear. It's more fun visiting quilt shops when I can walk in with a goal in mind.
Okay, so with all that going on, I kept jumping up and down from my chair while I was quilting. Finally, I belted myself in...kind of straight-jacket style...and went to work. My goal was to quilt all the vertical sashings and the stars. Mission accomplished, despite the distractions.
Today I'll work on the horizontal sashings. The quilt is turned sideways now, and I left it needle down for today's quilting pleasure. It should go faster since all the stars are already quilted.
Okay, so with that, I'll get busy with my slow-stitching. Happily, our grocery list is short today, and I can get back to my quilting soon.
4 comments:
Kids in Alaska don't know they're growing up on the Last Frontier. It's just what they see on the license plates, and it's something tourists like to say a lot because they've never been around so many mountains and moose before. ~ Tom Bodett
Oh, it's coming fast now! I can imagine that the list for this trip is a bit more complex than others. I'd definitely keep the machine until next week, but that's how I roll (and my machine is overdue!)
Your year in the garden blocks are very pretty, the colors really work. It's always hard to decide what has to happen when, when a deadline is involved.
I made an Alaska quilt for my husband last year. The backing I used was Northern Peaks for Northcott Fabrics - it's a wide back and looked so much like the type of black spruce that was all around us when we lived near Glennallen, AK. I have no idea if it's still available, but it really was an amazing quilt back. I will send you pics on Instagram. I am @hartwighandmade over there.
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