Monday, October 25, 2010

Back in the studio

It took me a couple of days to actually get in the studio to do some work after our trip, but I'm now working on two things. I finally started quilting the big leaf quilt. Slow progress but at least it's getting done.



I take breaks from machine stitching and do hand stitching. I've started stitching on some of the indigo pieces I dyed last spring. This is a small piece (13" x 15"), put together from the scraps of a larger piece. The larger piece is 18" x 45" and I haven't started stitching it yet.



For someone that has always machine quilted, I'm continually surprised by how much I love hand stitching these pieces.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Road trip reflections

We are back home after a 3 week, 6376 mile road trip. We had an enjoyable time, but won't be doing it again anytime soon! Here are a few highlights from our excursion.
Our first stop was to visit relatives in Horseheads,NY, a few miles from Corning. We went to the Corning Glass Museum and saw some fabulous contemporary glass. There was also some very old glass, but the contemporary work just took my breath away. While there I got to do a hands on glass piece, I actually blew the glass myself while an assistant did the rest of the work (the hot stuff). Below is a picture of my piece.



We then travelled on to Maine to visit our eldest granddaughter. She wasn't working while we were there,so she was our tour guide. I did have a lobster.



We went out to the ocean on the only rainy day of our trip. I was standing under my umbrella to take this picture of the Atlantic.



Our next destination was my hometown of Wallkill, NY. We visited my three brothers and some of their families. One morning my brother Don and I took a 6 mile walk along the rail trail. This is a trail on an old defunct railroad bed. A beautiful way to start the day, we shared the trail with several deer and other assorted wild life. Below is a shot from the trail



On our return trip home we saw the best fall colors of the whole trip in Pennsylvania. I showed some in my last post.

It really feels good to be home. We had a wonderful surprise when we got home,we still had tomatoes!!! This has been the most incredible year for tomatoes, I started picking in July and they are still going strong. Normally we have a killing frost by early October, but so far none this year. Below is what I picked from two plants this morning.



Today is being spent getting back to normal routines and doing laundry. Hopefully tomorrow I'll actually get into the studio to make something!!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Heading West

We are now headed back west, today we crossed Pennsylvania. We've had some great visits with family, but it's time to get home. Of course it will take the rest of the week to get there. The pictures below were taken from the car today, the fall colors across PA were great.


Tuesday, October 5, 2010

A long road trip

We've been on the road for over a week, we've gone from this view of Southern Idaho



to this view of Southern Maine.


We've driven over 3000 miles, have visited relatives in the Corning,NY area, are visiting our oldest granddaughter in Maine and later this week going to my hometown of Wallkill, NY to visit my brothers before driving back home to Idaho. Today we did some budget damage at LL Bean and tomorrow will head north to Arcadia National Park.