TRAVELLING EAST

We have had good weather to travel, sunny, and warm. We arrived the first night in Salmon Arm, the most surprising thing the first day was the state of the forests. For a long distance on the Coqulhalla highway, it was apparent that the pine beetle had done a lot of damage. So many of the trees are dead or dying, it was the worst that I have ever seen. It makes me feel sad, the only way to get rid of the pine beetle is cold temperatures of -40 for a few weeks. It hasnn’t been that cold in the interior for a number of years.

The second day we drove on to Banff and arrived at suppertime and stayed with relatives in town. I was able to cut out my mom’s blouse. In the morning we had stopped at Three Valley Gap, and looked at the museum. The mountains are spectactular and it was a great drive. It doesn’t matter where we go there is road construction everywhere. The roads will be great eventually and another section will be torn up.

The next day we met up with family for lunch at a pub. The soup was delicious cream of chicken with corn and peas. We travelled on to Hanna for the night. I was able to sew on my mom’s blouse.

Sunday, we drove on to Saskatoon to stay with other relatives, we will be here for a few days and we haven’t made many plans yet. On Monday, we visited with various cousins.

Have machine will travel

I am nearly all packed up to get away on Thursday  morning.

Besides all the usual stuff required to travel, clothes, meds, toiletries, maps and directions, I have most of my craft  stuff packed.

So far, 3 different types of sock yarn.

A 6 piece Autumn collection sewalong wardrobe, it is all cut out. each piece is in a separate bag with thread, instructions and necessary trims. On Sunday and Monday, I cut out one skirt, linen/rayon fabric, drawstring pants out of the same fabric. Three tops, one lace with a printed design, just a plain t shirt style and I tea dyed some ruffled trim to match.  One knit top, light weight for the Vogue square neck cowl, and one poly knit with the Jalie cross-over V neck. I also cut out a new to me bathing suit pattern, Divine Drape by Stretch and Sew.  Most of the patterns, I have used before so I tweaked them a bit for a better fit.  I have never felt this energetic before so I was surprised that I could get it done. I sure don’t like cutting out fabric  in hotel rooms but sewing is a different story.  I just have to pack up the sewing supplies now but I am nearly done.

Oh, I did buy some more fabric today, I’d like to make a blouse for my mother for her 94th birthday, I am thinking of changing up her pattern a bit. We’ll be staying with friends, so hopefully I can get it cut out and put together in record time.

The back of the SUV is packed, with a cedar chest and a bunch of boxes being delivered back  to Toronto.

I think nearly all the fabric has been photographed over the last couple of years. I’ll try to post as I travel.

Award time.

(I’ve been trying to post the award picture but it is beyond me today) It is really pretty.

Stephanie from Rowanberry studio has given me the Splash award.  I am inspired to make a doll to match the award.. I was to pass it on to fellow bloggers. Who have blogs which allure, bewitch, bemuse, impress or inspire:

Here is my list of blogs I look  forward to reading:

Trish, Second Cherry, lives in France, is English and has interesting comments on a number of subjects.

Materfamilias, writes on clothing style , travel and life in the Gulf Islands.

Liana, a knitter, an excellent sewer and lover of fashion.

Shannon,  sews a variety of clothing and writes about nail varnish once a week.

Cidell, sews, travels and is a Burda WOF fan.

Maggie, stitcher and educator in the UK, innovative techniques, Workshop on the Web. travels and documents her inspirations.

Ruth,  lives in Whistler, dyes yarn, designs knitting and jewelry, wonderful photos of the area and a new dog.

Andrea, from the UK, has her finger on the latest designs, fashions and knitting.

These bloggers get to pass the award on to bloggers whose blogs

allure, bewitch, bemuse, impress or inspire:

Summer sox

Summer Sox, in blue was a lovely yarn to knit with, and it went quickly as I used 56 stitches to cast on and get the right gauge.

Did you notice my toe nails peeking out from under the sock. How is that for commitment to Project Spectrum 4 West? The colour is Blazing Blue from Sally Hansen.  I have to admit it is a bit scary for me, but I am fascinated by the shine in the sunlight.

This is another yarn, I bought from Twist of Fate,  I hope to visit the shop, when we reach Kamloops.

A visitor came by

The other day, this cat came to visit. I had a chuckle on how it looked to be sitting in the tree.

I haven’t been getting my blog feeds in Ravelry this weekend. I thought blogland was awfully quiet. I missed every one.

Project Spectrum 4 west

Project Spectrum 4 is in the final phase for this year. It is so much fun to take part in an adventure like this. Lauren leads this group and I have taken this from her blog,

Looking WEST
Color: Blue
Material: Glass
Season: Autumn
Element: Water

Blue, at one time my favorite colour. It still ranks pretty high on the list and blue sock yarn, blue fabric, blue berries. I like them all .

Water is the element, living so close to the ocean, water doesn’t need a season for me. It is also a variety of different colours, the Fraser river is muddy, the ocean kind of greenish, but can be grey, dark blue and yet another colour in the sunset. There is also the rain, sometimes it is just heavy thick air, and other times it just plummets from the sky.

Vancouver has a new sculpture, The Drop, at the new Convention Centre. I haven’t seen it in person but it was featured in the paper on Thursday morning.

Glass, material, another beauty. My favorite artist is Dale Chihuly, his work is wonderful and I have seen a couple of installations, there is one in Vancouver and I think, I have seen three gallery shows and also the train station in Tacoma. The first time I saw his work, I thought, ah so this is genius. So beyond my comprehension. To imagine a form and to be able to create it in glass.

I have always lived in Western Canada but I won’t be doing much with looking west for the next month. We are off to Quebec by car, I won’t be looking west until we turn around to come back. I am going to try and post my experiences as we travel.

Cautionary tales.

We moved a few months ago now and have kept busy doing the usual unpacking and moving things about. I have been wanting to clean the vent on the back of the gas stove. So we pulled the stove out to be able to get at the screws on the back, yuck, should have done that before now. Still haven’t cleaned the vent as the small socket set of wrenches is on the boat but we cleaned and vacuumed. The fridge has been moaning and groaning, sounded a bit laboured and I wondered if we were facing a repair bill. OMG, the dust under the fridge and covering all moving parts, I am surprised that I could hear the motor at all. It was also too close to the back wall. So I feel much better about doing a good clean, I am willing to bet it has been a long time since such loving care was given. While down on our knees, we took the front off the dishwasher as well, just another dust build up but nothing like the fridge.

A couple of weeks ago, when we had the big party, I had bought 4 chickens and after cutting everything up, I put all the backs in a freezer bag to eventually make soup. We were going out for dinner and I thought a container of soup might be nice to take with us. I had this incredible pot of soup and scooped out the onions, carrots, celery and bones and let the soup cool a bit. So I could re add the meat. Evidently not enough, I scooped out a measuring cup and poured it into a cannister glass jar with a lid that clasps into place, the bottom fell out into the soup pot. A fair bit went on the counter, the floor and my skirt. I wasn’t burnt, my friend didn’t get a container of soup. Next time, I’ll check to make sure it is pyrex or that the soup is really cool.

Acquisitions

A couple of weeks ago, we went over to Gibson’s Landing for the Fibre Festival. It was the 10th anniversary. We went over on the Thursday so just saw the exhibits, peeked into classrooms and shopped the merchant mall. Lots of familiar booths but that was what I was looking forward to seeing.

At Twist of fate I bought a ball of Zauberball,  gorgeous colours. At a couple of other booths I picked up some watercolours, it is many years since I have done any needlepoint but the colours were called Green Tea and Kelp.  Let’s just say they were calling my name.

I also got some hand dyed Panda from Sharon Wickstrom from Armstrong. That was another one that had my name all over it.

We met the men in the pub for lunch, I had a lovely seafood club sandwich.