Tom's Alaska Adventure

Tom was gone last week, on the job for the FAA, checking out a couple of the weather systems in the outback of Alaska. He flew to Anchorage, then to Nome...and from there to Wales and Teller, two small Eskimo villages. The areas he visited are so remote, he had to take all his own food. In the village of Wales, there is a hotel of sorts, but no running water and a "honey bucket." Gak. You couldn't pay me enough to be a maid there! In Teller, visitors can stay at the local high school, where there IS running water and toliets. Unfortunately, his backpack containing his sleeping bag, warm clothes, underwear, socks and sleeping pad, didn't make it to Teller. Instead it was put on a charter plane and went off to Granite Peak..or Granite Lake...for a few days. When he finally got it, it was all muddy and one of the zipper pulls was missing. Meanwhile, he was half frozen and stuck with the same underwear and socks for several days. Ewwww!

Sunrise on the flight from Anchorage to Kotzebu (a stop on the way to Nome)


Wales:

Here's the "hotel"

Brr! The beach:

Other photos Tom took in Wales (btw, he took over 500 photos, you are just getting the highlights!)



From Wales, Tom could look out across the water and see Siberia! It's about 15 miles away. A lot of the people in Wales will sneak across the ice (during the winter) and visit relatives over there. In this photo, it is off to the right, in the distance.

Teller:



fish drying

Here's the high school where Tom stayed in Teller:

The only wild critters he saw were muskox. He says they're mean, they don't like to jump down embankments, and they don't like being harassed by the local high school kids--who like to play "chicken" with the muskox. One kid was almost trampled recently when he slipped and the muskox he was annoying, charged at him! I guess this is the Eskimo version of cow tipping)


From Nome back to Seattle:







Here's Tom's write up of his trip (with last names removed)

Trip to Wales and Teller August 2008.
I took the 1300 flight to ANC (Anchorage) and we had to deplane because they messed up the passenger manifest. We got a very late start and I did not get in till 1830. I had an 0600 flight to Nome through Kotzebue and had to get the 0500 airport shuttle. Got some good sunrise photos, when I arrived at Nome I was looking for Frontier Alaska Airlines. After leaving the Alaska Airlines terminal I could not find Frontier. I asked around and got bad directions, then found out that Haggland had just changed their name to Frontier. I entered gave them my bags and met up with Craig S. and Dennis K. They sent one bag to Granite peak or Lake and I got the other one when I landed. We flew to Wales via Teller on a Piper twin engine. Wales was wet and cold. I stayed at the Tribal Council building for $100 with no running water. They did have satellite TV and I watched Eureka (what a thrill). I used a 4 wheeler to get to the Council building. We spent the first day changing out the UPS and getting the site ready for Wednesdays JAI. I bought gloves the next day at the tribal store because I was freezing to death in the rain and wind and my coat was in my luggage on its own trip. The JAI went well and AOS got all but one that Craig fixed on Friday, a missing lock nut on the power panel that the shelter manufacturer left off. After the JAI we got onto the Charter, I was going to stay in Wales at the High school but without my sleeping bag and sleeping mat I did not want to spend the night on the floor (no mattresses available). I got to teller and we off loaded the gear INTO THE CONNEX and then I rode down to the High School with the brother of the Frontier agent, she was out of town. The high school had running water and the shower was really welcome. They loaned me a towel and a mattress and I slept in the library. I used my flannel shirt to cover my feet and my fleece as a blanket; I slept in my clothes and still got cold in the middle of the night. The cost of staying the night was $35.00, but will go up to $70.00 next week. There was no mirror in the locker room so I shaved in the shower, not well, but enough. The first day in teller we prepared the site for JAI and then Craig and Dennis drove back to Nome to stay the night. I could not get a room in Nome so I stayed in Teller again. This time the library had one other guy and there were three or four GCI guys in another classroom. They were up late working on the network and computer systems at the school. They had a van and wanted to go on a short road trip and invited me along where we saw some Musk ox and some scenery. Thursday morning my luggage showed up so I had clean clothes for Friday and much needed food as I had just about run out. Friday Mike B. showed up in a truck to pick me up from the school and we started the JAI. I also got their battery charger working and charged the 4 wheeler battery; it had died over last winter. Craig flew off to Wales to fix the JAI exception and we continued on at Teller and everything went quite well. No exceptions on F & E and just a few for AOS. I rode back to Nome in the Truck with everyone else (5) and we had dinner in Nome. I had a salad and enjoyed it very much, (fresh food). I then flew back to ANC and got in about 12:30. I had an 11:30 flight in the morning and I was very glad I had not tried for the 07:30 flight as it did not take off until 11:00. It was an uneventful flight back to Seattle, with views of the glaciers as we flew over Alaska.

Fiona Marie's Great Global Christmas Swap

Two years ago, while surfing around on the internet, I came across an online New Zealand quilt shop. Having been to New Zealand, I really enjoyed looking at all the patterns and lovely NZ theme fabric. The best thing, though, was Fiona Marie's Great Global Christmas Swap. Here is a link to it:

http://www.fionamarie.com/greatglobalchristmasswap.shtml


I signed up and was paired up with Carol from Wanganui, NZ. She lives in the northern part of NZ, which is the area Tom, Liz, Jeff and I didn't get to visit when we were there. Carol is very sweet and we hit it off immediately. Part of participating in the swap is to have access to some special stitchery and quilting patterns which one can use to make a gifts for one's swap partner. Although the patterns were cute, Carol and I decided to send "surprise" gifts to each other for Christmas. Carol even sent a gift for Taz, our cat (Taz sent something for Monty, Carol's cat, as well) All in all, it was nice having "goodies" from New Zealand to open on Christmas morning, but EVEN better than that, was finding a new quilting friend. Carol has since joined the online quilting group I belong to, and will be visiting HERE at my house, in April 2009. How sweet is that? All of this has come about from Fiona Marie's Great Global Christmas swap. Who could have guessed? Of course, reading the swap experiences at Fiona Marie's website, it is apparent that not everyone was even half as lucky as I was. Some people send gifts and received nothing in return. So it goes...there are dishonest people out there... But in spite of that, I've signed up again this year. While I am not expecting to find a new friend as wonderful as Carol, I enjoyed it so much last time, I want to play again. If nothing else, I'll have the cute patterns. There is one for a Christmas ornament that looks very interesting! Christmas is my most favorite time of the year. Being surrounded by family and friends, celebrating the birth of our Savior, snowflakes, sparkly lights, Christmas music, sweet memories of Christmas's past...mmmm yes, my favorite time of the year. Which will be even sweeter THIS year, with Aurora among us, celebrating her first Christmas ever!

Spring Quilt Break 2009

Every March, my quilt guild has a three day conference, with wonderful teachers, great classes and other activities. At our summer potluck, held in August, the classes for the next Spring Quilt Break are revealed--with samples for those of us who attend, to ooh and ahh over. The brochure has photos of the class samples, but in black and white, so I always go to the potluck with my camera. It's nice to see the "real thing."

Unfortunately, not all the teachers send samples. There are applique classes being offered by Zena Thorpe. (check out her work at www.geocities.com/zenasquilts) Zena will be teaching "English Country Garden Flowers" on Friday, "Embellished Letters" on Saturday, and "Hand Quilting & Trapunto" on Sunday. Sally Schneider, our other national teacher, also will be there, but didn't have samples either. (her website is www.sallyschneider.com) Sally will be teaching "Designing with Built-in Borders" on Friday, "Laurel Wreath with Christmas Cracker Border" on Saturday, and "Mary's Triangles" on Sunday.

Here are the photos I took tonight. Friday's classes, in addition to the above mentioned ones, will be:

Fearless Beginnings to Free Motion Quilting and Designs with Lines with Pam Clarke.




"Mad for Plaid" (a cute way to use panels!) with Kathy Lindell





Luscious Landscapes with Joyce Becker



Elegant Borders and Quilting Designs with Pam Clarke: Here are several photos of the sample, with close ups--since it is the quilting that the class is about.


Kathy Lindell will be teaching "It's All About O's": (I caught Alice and Gail putting the quilts up...oops!)


Irene Moss will be teaching "Pineapples":


Sunday's classes don't all have photos--Jovita Goldschmidt will be teaching a class called "Ribbons and Silks." No sample, unfortunately, but I know it will be lovely.

Hand dyed fabrics will be spotlighted in Judy Robertson's class, "It Takes Two."


Mary Stanton, owner of Calico Cat and Bernina too, will be teaching "English Paper Piecing."

I have a hard time deciding which classes to take, they all sound like fun. It is a win-win situation, that's for sure. Now if any of this interests you, and you want to come...check it out at www.evergreenpiecemakers.com Soon, very soon, the Spring Quilt Break information will be on the website and non-members will be able to sign up. It is a wonderful time. I love going every year, not just for the classes, but to have fun with friends and hang out with others of my kind...QUILTERS!

We also have lovely luncheons on the three days, with Zena Thorpe as the speaker on Friday, Pam Clarke on Saturday--and my all time favorite, Show and Tell on Sunday! I love seeing what everyone else has been doing in their classes.

A Quilt for Summer

Here is Melanie, with Andrew at her side, holding up the quilt I finished for her wee daughter, Summer. Melanie likes frogs, so I went with a froggy theme. The bright pink fabric, as well as the lime green border has dancing frog shadows on it! Very cute. And very bright. I hope Summer likes it. Melanie is going to take it to the hospital to put around Summer's bed, so hopefully I'll get a photo of Summer with the quilt to post here.

UPDATE! Photos! Looks like she likes the quilt! :-)

Too hot!

One of the reasons I live in this part of the country, is the weather is rarely extreme. Never too hot, nor too cold. Today, and the rest of the week, however, we're having one of those times when it's so hot, my glasses are fogging up! Even Taz is overcomed by heat, but then she's wearing a fur coat, poor thing!

Association of Pacific NW Quilters Show

Today I went to the APNQ show, which is a quilt show held every two years. As usual, it was fantastic! I particularly liked the international mini-quilts as there were some there from New Zealand. I rode the bus downtown and was maybe 6th in line to get in the door when it opened. Here is what it looked like BEFORE the hoards of quilters got into the room!

Once the crowds swarmed, it was difficult to get photos without people walking between me and the quilt I was trying to photograph. Still, I did get a few. Here they are:
This is a wholecloth quilt, and a detail of it. Frieda wants a "blessing blanket" for Aurora and I have been thinking of doing a wholecloth quilt. I took this photo for inspiration!
Here's another I spotted:
New Zealand mini-quilts:
More quilts!