Up to Alaska

We are now only 6 weeks away from beginning our trip to Alaska. We have tested a few products we thought might make the trip easier. Some have been excellent; some not so much. One of the products we had high hopes for was a popup tent for showering. While this is a great idea, we decided it might not be pleasant trying to shower in temperatures of 50 degrees or less. So back to the drawing board on that one.

New tires for the truck is a must so those will be put on the truck tomorrow. While our current tires have plenty of life in them, it is not enough life for this trip. From Texas to the Canadian border is as long a distance as it is from the Canadian border to Alaska. Lots of miles. But lots of things to see and do in those miles too.

A double sleeping bag was tested recently but while it does quite nicely on its own, it is obviously not meant for sharing. Now it is back to sheets and blankets. We have also decided to carry freeze dried food with us for those evenings when we just do not feel like cooking. And after driving all day, who does feel like cooking?

So the count down is beginning for our trip. I hope to keep you informed as time goes on and the trip actually begins.

Up to Alaska via Canada

We are actively planning our trip to Alaska. Actually, we have been planning the trip for a year now. Our friends who were to accompany us have bowed out due to work conflicts, so now we will be solo. Each week, sees new additions or subtractions to our pile of gear for the trip. When the trip will last almost three months, there is a great deal of planning to be done.

First, an explanation might be in order. We are planning a trip driving through Canada, wandering around Alaska, then driving back through Canada on our return leg. Vehicle preparation has been our focus lately with the addition of gas cans to our Four Wheel Popup Camper. Every spare inch of space inside the camper must either serve multiple purposes or must be efficiently used for its chosen purpose. Now that we have made a few changes and additions, we need to test them out.

So this next week we are making a trial run by taking a Spring Break trip with our grandson, Max. He has no idea he will be serving as a guinea pig on this camping trip to Arizona. Between us, we will all decide what works and what does not work. What is useful and necessary and what is not. This week long adventure we give us good ideas about storage space which is our primary need...we have very little!

I will continue to add details to this blog as the date for our start grows closer.

Chaotic Quilter Blog

Ok, my daughter has been doing a challenge to blog everyday for a week. I suddenly realized that I have not even looked at my blog site for years. I decided to see if I even could remember how to access the site and write and post a blog. So, here goes.

My husband and I along with another couple are planning a trip through Canada and into Alaska for this coming summer. It should be the adventure of a life time so I would like to document it with a blog. Now, I know I will not be able to post my blogs daily during this trip but I am determined to at least blog daily, add photos and post wherever and whenever I can.

This particular blog site was for documenting my quilting adventures of which there have been many but I have not been good about blogging about them. Should I construct a new site for the Canada/Alaska adventure? I am sure I will have a few quilting adventures during this trip but quilting will not be the focus of the trip. Should I post pre-trip research? Should I post travel ideas?

These are a few of the questions I am mulling about.

New Start, New Year

Much to my chagrin, I have not been an active blogger but hope to do better in 2012. So here goes:

Quilter's Block is not just an unit of quilt construction. It also occurs when a quilter becomes stuck on a quilt project or starts too many projects and cannot seem to complete any. I have been suffering from quilter's block all of December. Now with the new year well underway, it is time for me to climb out of the doldrums and get into the studio.

First, I need a clean slate...well, in this case, a clean studio with projects organized and ready to go. I already have two of quilts of my own ready to load on the longarm plus four care quilts ready for their quilting, a beautiful quilt waiting for a border, and two quilts languishing in limbo waiting for their blocks to unite into a real quilt top. You see my problem?

I am full of hope that a tidy studio will give me the kick to get those UFO's finished and on to their homes or on display in my home. My main problem is all those "horizontal" files I have. If it has a flat surface, it has a pile. Now I know where everything is (ok, sometimes I have no clue) but I now have no work space. Some of my piles of files are becoming dangerously out of balance. Toppling is a real danger. Then my studio will be swamped under a tsunami of patterns, fabric, project boxes and rulers!

So now with dread, I head into the studio. Broom, mop and vacuum at hand. Trash bags ready. Music blaring. I must recover my space. Wish me luck!

Goofed!

Well, that was a mistake. I accidentally published the blog before I added my photos. So here goes, let's see if I can add my photos without another goof up.

Here is the first quilt. It is called "Behind the Old Adobe Wall". It is that old secret garden concept. The lizard is painted on the wall and the door is textured with stitching and colored with oil pastels to get an aged look. The basic quilt was created using landscape quilt techniques.

The second quilt was layered and stitched on the longarm then the embellishments were added after binding the quilt. It is titled, "A Study in Texture".

Well, hopefully I will get the hang of this blog business...like editing my photos before importing them! Live and learn.

Art Quilts

The local art group is having a show later this month and I am in the process of preparing some entries. In the past, quilters were not welcome in this show, however this year the group agreed quilts would be accepted as long as the quilts measured 12" square. Needless to say, none of the group are familiar with anything other than bed quilts plus they do not realize that the size limit on quilts is very restrictive when compared to the other media represented at the show. Enough said, when I am told "no" or given very specific limits, I jump in to beat them at their own game. I designed two small, mixed media quilts for my entries into the art show. They each have had their own unique challenges. My designs ideas are sometimes easier to visualize than to achieve. For the first quilt, I had to be able to draw my concept...well, drawing is a challenge that I am attempting to overcome. So it took several attempts before I acheived a drawing that expressed my design concept. Then I had this wonderful idea to both piece and quilt the project on the longarm machine. Now that was enlightening and fun. The second quilt was inspired by a quilt artist I happened to see on a quilting show on PBS. I took her concept and ran with it. This, too, I decided to quilt and assemble using the longarm machine. Besides fabric, I used a used Color Catcher sheet in the quilt as well as copper wire and beads and cheese cloth. It was very enjoyable putting the different items together to create a finished composition.

Blogging Newbie Tests the Water...Fabric!

Hello, I am a quilter. Over the years, I have tried all manner of quilting projects which I hand-quilted then home machine quilted and finally moved into the exciting world of long arm quilting. Now I am beginning to move from traditional quilts to art quilts though the traditional will never be left behind during this move from large to small quilts. Now all those wonderful things one dabbles in like fabric dyeing, batiking, multi-media...will actually become integral parts of the quilt construction. This is really jumping out of my comfort zone into a new creative endeavor and with this leap of faith, I am starting this blog. Right now, I have been making sketches because we (my husband and I and our dog, Darby) are visting family in Missouri. My studio is lonely, waiting for my return in West Texas. Hopefully, I will have many sketches to take home for some interesting new quilts or at least ideas to jump start the creative process. Anyway, I hope you will bear with my novice attempts at a blog.