Devil’s Kitchen

I have wanted to get up high on Mt. Hood and yesterday was the day.  We hiked outside the boundaries of Timberline and set up camp Saturday night.  Yesterday, we took off up the Climbers Trail and kept setting new goals until we found ourselves at 10,150′ at Devil’s Kitchen.

Here is a star trail Kevin took.

The Milky Way was over Hood and amazing.

The chair lifts on the left are Palmer and we have been to the top of them several times.

Illumination Rock.

 

Devil’s Kitchen.  Crevasse on left and fumarole in center.

That is Devil’s Kitchen.

6.7 miles and 4200′ elevation gain.

Family Wedding and More

My son and I took off for the East Coast to attend one niece’s graduation and another’s wedding.  My proud brother and his wife at their daughter’s high school graduation.

Tradition is when a niece graduates, friends and family send a block and I compile a Wisdom Quilt.

Saturday, I celebrated 37 years of running with a slog around the trails behind my dad’s place. My daughter caught up with me when I snuck in a break at my sister’s home.

Then the wedding prep began.

Sunday was the wedding in Leesburg, VA. Here are my sisters.

Below is one niece on the left, my dad’s friend from his childhood years, my dad and daughter on the right.

The bride has been a caregiver for a non-verbal man for years. Here she breaks in for a dance.

My niece and sister-in-law throw down some moves.

Monday, we headed back to my dad’s where a niece got in the chicken coop.

Once everyone left, Andrew and I hiked on the Appalachian Trail to Chimney Rocks.

I finished my niece’s wedding quilt. It measures 62″ x 78″ and uses Vera Bradley fabric and a pattern I had in Modern Patchwork.

My dad, son and I went to Dam #5 on the C&O Canal for a hike.

The Funnest Thing Ever and a Skinny Mini

The past two weekends have been amazing so we hit the trail at 9pm both Saturdays.

It was May 4th, so Kevin had me pose for this shot.

The next morning is where it got fun.  After climbing up to the top of Palmer at 8500′, I glissaded down 1000′.  At first, I was just hoping not to make a spectacle of myself because I had a full backpack and snowshoes, but after slowing down for the guy in front of me, I pulled out my phone and shot a little video.

 

That’s the path I went down.

Here is the previous weekend over at White River.

This is the skinny mini Michelle made me.  She used the yellow to capture all the adventures I have in my yellow tent.

I’m making Alison Glass’ Trinket quilt.  Yesterday I pulled the paper off all 125 pieces.  It’s ready to lay out now.

 

Meadowland Quilt

I finished my Meadowland quilt. I used Steno Pool fabric and Kona cotton.

PMQG hosted a skinny mini for those of us not going on retreat. My partner was Michelle. She’s an advocate for T1d and has an amazing story of her bike ride in Vermont for the cause. Our requirement for the mini was to use what we had on hand and the theme was Portland. I chose the bike lanes and added the black semi circles to represent bike tires.

The bike fabric was something I acquired free from the guild.

My mini quilt, “Circulo” was chosen by Curated Quilts for their publication. Whoot!

I had another amazing skiing day last week with a friend.

Quilts, Skiing and Hiking

Yesterday, a few friends and I skied at Timberline.  It was glorious!

I entered another mini quilt challenge.  This one was “Well Said:  read between the seams.  When I was contemplating what to do, I spotted a banana bar code and…

Last weekend, we headed to Cannon Beach and hiked Neahkahnie Mountain.

A friend from Portland Modern gathers fox and owl mini quilts for an auction benefiting T1D research.  Here’s my contribution.

A niece is having a baby girl, so I whipped up this Star Bright for her.

A week ago, a friend and I skied at Timberline.

I asked my co-worker to make a Norm and Nanette rock for Elizabeth Hartman in thanks for her kindness to my friend from Paradise.

I took it to The Cotton Cure for a photo shoot with the quilt I am lending them.

 

Two weekends ago, we hiked Kings Mountain in the coast range.

Another Night Under the Stars

The past weekend looked to be clear so we headed out.  Kevin’s work switched so we got a late start and started hiking at 10pm.  That’s past my bedtime.  Nighttime temps were about 12 degrees.

Right after heading out in the morning, we hit the clouds and visibility was poor.

Bountiful Rainbow and Sew Expo

Portland Modern challenged members to create a Bountiful Rainbow quilt. This is my finished quilt and it was a challenge. I’m pretty sure my family and friends are happy. I was having trouble because I chose Kona Sky and it was rather dull. My co-worker suggested the wedges between the rainbow wedges and it was the ticket.

Since it will be showing at the Sister’s Outdoor Quilt Show in July, I used some old fabric pieces that the show sells. I won these in a fabric auction at Westside Quilters Guild.

My friend, Joanne, flew up and we drove to Washington to visit her niece and go to Sew Expo in Puyallup.

This was the view from their living room window.

They have three goats now. Here is the one who likes to stand on that square cement.

Lenny and Squiggy, the alpacas.

I brought along a quilt for Laurie.  It’s Spin Cycle by Cluck Cluck Sew.

Joanne wanted to work on paper piecing so we made four fish.  After seeing how tiny it would be, we enlarged it 200%.  The pattern is Fishy Bones by Joanne Hart.

And the best news is that a new quilting shop opened in downtown Hillsboro and I walk by it every day on my way to work. I sewed two things for Amy.  Cross Tiles is the entry to the restroom.

And, Norm & Nanette are hanging.

If you are in downtown, Hillsboro, Oregon, stop by the Cotton Cure.  It’s absolutely lovely!

 

Quiltcon 2019 – Nashville, TN

My sister from Philly and I met up in Nashville for Quiltcon and to take in the sights.

Here she spotted the Philadelphia Charity quilt.

I had made my green backpack years ago when Quiltcon was in Austin and made a second one using her favorite color purple. The pattern is the Rucksack by The Green Pepper Pattern Co. which I adapted by switching the top to In Color Order’s lined drawstring pouch. The straps are a traced copy of a North Face pack.

We hit Broadway the first evening for some music.

I did have a mini quilt hanging in the show in the Curated Quilts booth. It’s scheduled to be in their next publication.

On Saturday, we had a swap titled, Make a Mini Make a Friend. My swap partner from last year brought me a six pack of beer from St. Louis. Violet saw me and came over stating, “I am coming down the escalator and spot Ann and, if course, she’s holding a six pack.”. We found a man with a bottle opener and had ourselves a little happy hour right there.

Cherlee is on the left and we’re each holding our new minis. For disliking pink, she did a fabulous job on mine.

Sunday, my brother and his wife joined us for some sightseeing. We toured the Ryman.

Had lunch at Martins.

Swung by Goo Goo.

Toured Andrew Jackson’s homestead, The Hermitage, where dafodills were in bloom.

Frannie flew out and we headed up to Kentucky where I slept in a room with six of my quilts.

Including one of the first ones I made by quilting it on my old short arm quilting machine.

Only in bourbon country do you find a sink like my brother made.

I went out for a walk in the morning.

My brother graciously took me on a tour of Jim Beam. It was likely his twelfth tour.

We also stopped by a location where a scene from the movie, Stripes, was filmed.

And I got to hold and comfort little Rico in his last days. He’s not doing so great. 😢

Trillium Lake

Westside Quilters Guild issued their challenge for the year.  It was a 12″ mini using 12 different fabrics in celebration of our 12th year.  I made my mini with a dozen stars representing each month I get to sleep under the stars in my tent.

40+ quilts were shown last  night.

Here are some photos of our weekend overnighter.

Mt. Hood around 4am.

I finished my “Norm and Nanette” quilt.  It will hang in The Cotton Cure when it opens March 7th in Hillsboro.

“I Heart You” Quilt

I finished my I Heart You quilt in time for Valentine’s Day then it just sat as a draft.

We had a houseguest last week.  Cameron has a drone and takes fantastic photos.  I made him a pillow for his birthday.  I used a pattern from Susan’s new book, Sew & Quilt.