The Quilt Gathering 2010

Each opportunity I have a for a road trip is always exciting. I like being able to just let the miles cruise beneath the wheels of the car soaking up the scenery as I drive by. Friday afternoon I headed East and North to Okonagan, Washington. My adventures took me East over Snoqualmie Pass and then North over Blewette Pass. As I was driving a long it hit me that I have traveled this road many times during my teenage years on my way up to Silver Star Mountain for family ski trips. I don't remember the section of road between Wenatchee and Okonogan along the river....All I can say is that I must have had my nose buried in a book...

My destination was the 10th Annual Quilt Gathering for my friend Mo's family. The women in her family gathering each to honor their grandmother's life. We eat, quilt, socialize, sleep a little bit, share our projects from the past year and quilt some more.

Pictures from the quilt gathering can be found here.

Mo's mom made individual goodie bags for everyone coming to the quilt gathering. Each bag was personalized to the individual. Everyone brings a little something to add to each person's bag.

Knitting Project....

I need to give a little back ground on this project... Last November I went up to Anchorage to visit my friend Mo. She has lived a variety of places but usually always ends back up in Alaska. While visiting her in Anchorage I wandered into the Oomingmak store . Its really a co-op for native communities and the knitted items that they make from Musk Ox yarn aka Qiviut yarn. The Qiviut yarn is very soft, very warm and very expensive.... Something I could never justify purchasing for myself. My husband bought me a skein of qiviut for my birthday. It took me a while to decide what I was going to make with it... something for myself of course, but I had to find just the right pattern.

After consulting my pattern books and borrowing a book from Mo. I settled on a pattern from this book. If you are knitting anything from this book you should check for any errata's for pattern edit

Usually I have at least two knitting projects going at the same time. One for the bus and one for at work. My at work project is a season 18 doctor who scarf for my husband. Eventually it will be 14 or 15 feet long. With the air conditioning on the fritz at work it was simply too hot have a really scarf draped over my lap. So I took the opportunity to spend more time on my bus knitting project.

Here I've made it through the first two charts for the pattern and I'm contemplating modifying the pattern because it seems like that will be a little too short for my liking. I like my hats to cover my ears completely.
The finished product! I can't wait for fall to arrive so I can wear my new hat.

Stitch n Bitch BBQ Tonight

Tonight Paul and I hosted a BBQ at home for my stitch n bitch friends and their significant others. Blenda got a quite a workout tonight making the marinade for our chicken kabobs, salsa, and humus. One of my favorite food blogs that I follow posted a Minty Chicken - Zucchini Kabobs recipe. The Whole Life Nutrition blog is a wonderful source of food information and recipes that good and healthy to make. Our menu for the evening included the kabobs and brats for the meat eaters, black bean veggie burgers for the non meat eaters, with sides of potato salad, and chips with salsa and hummus.

My friends Jane and Rachel were very impressed by the power of my dear "blenda". They watched in awe as I added sesame seeds, lemon juice with seeds and pulp, garbanzo beans and then just started blending away. The hummus was exquisite.

It was fun to have just a few friends over for dinner tonight.

Another long week comes to an end...

I have exactly 21 more minutes left in my shift at work. Its been a long day today and a long two weeks...filled with lots of overtime. My paycheck will appreciate the extra hours next month when I get paid.

Looking back over the past few months I don't think I've had a normal week of work. I'm beginning to realize that I need to develop routines in my every day life. Routines like walking the dogs, planning and preparing meals for my husband and I for every day of the week, getting enough exercise, cleaning house, doing the dishes and the list goes on and on.

My challenge is that whenever I start to develop a routine something will happen (usually doesn't matter if the event was planned or unplanned) and my routine will go out the window never to be resumed once the interruption has passed. Oh...did I mentioned that I'm really good at planning to put the routine in place in the future...ie procrastination.

So here are my third quarter resolutions...
1. exercise regularly
2. keep to a household budget for meal planning and other expenses
3. stick to the meal plan
4. develop routines and habits to keep my home organized.

Patio Garden Update

Paul and I have really been enjoying living back in Queenanne this summer. Last week we went to farmers market just a few blocks from our home. We were a little disappointmented because it seemed like there were more local food vendor's than there were people selling farm fresh produce.

My garden is a little bit behind the vegetables available in the farmers market. But hopefully we will have a good crop of zuccini this year.

My tomato herb box has been doing really well. I think next year this box will be exclusively just herbs and maybe some strawberry plants I'm going to get from a friend in Bellingham. Apparently her strawberry plants grow like weeds in her garden. Lois I'm coming to visit and steal strawberry plants soon. My tomato plants could use a little more sunshine.

This one of my favorite containers that I planted this year. It has a mix of nasturians and sugar snap peas. I planted a matching container with beans and sweet peas, its not doing as well since the puppies apparently like to eat the leaves off the bean plants. So hopefully it will catchup to my sugar snap peas soon since I've moved it out of the puppie relm.

My cold frame boxes are doing really well so far. Paul and I will be enjoying fresh celery soon and hopefully some beets soon.

Our patio is divided into two sections - garden and social intermixed with garden. This is the garden section. You can see the peas climbing up the netting on one side with brussel sprouts in front and beans on the other side.

A good view of the social intermixed with garden side of the patio.

Meet Blenda!

From the moment I witnessed a product demonstration from the mighty vita mix blender I have lusted after a blender that grind the seeds of the fruit in my morning smoothie and grind whatever in my kitchen arsenal needs grinding! My husband wonderful man that he is has put an end to my lust for the perfect kitchen blender....

May I introduce....

Blenda!

My new Blendtec blender.

The blendtec can grind grain, make bread, cook soup and make a fantastic smoothy! All with one blade and one jar. The vita mix requires a separate blade and jar to do any grinding. For entertainment purposes only check out this blendtec link so that you too can answer the age old question of "will it blend?"

See all the pretty vegetables and fruit that Blenda is waiting to turn into healthy goodness... She ground it all up - Several leaves of Kale, one leaf of rainbow chard, 2 carrots, 1 banana, chunks of fresh pineapple and 1/2 cup of blackberries with a little fish oil and water mixed in...


She grinds it all up into a healthy delicious smoothie. What a great way to start the day with a good healthy dose of half of daily quota for fruits and vegetables.

35th Annual Quilt Show

This weekend was the 35th Annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters, Oregon. Each year the town's buildings are covered in quilts. This quilt show is open to anyone who wants to display or sell one of their quilts. Imagine hundreds of quilts that need to be hung on every building in your this small town with only a few hours before people will descend on the town. This is what the people of Sisters Oregon do each year, with the help of their local fire department and volunteers. Then at the end of the day all quilts are taken down and those that have sold are organized so that their new owners can claim their treasures in the morning before departing for home.

My husband and I attended the show for the first time this year. It must be said that my husband loves me dearly and has the patience of Job. Not once did he complain that I took long looking at one quilt or another, or that I spent too much time deciding what to buy.

My husband about half way through the show.

The stitch n post covered with quilts

An upclose shot of the quilt below.

My husband is still smiling after the show.