Sinister Craftiness

Last month I attended the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Annual General Meeting.  This year the AGM was held in Portland, Oregon and focused on Northanger Abbey.  All the details of mayhem, mystery, and muslin can be found on the family blog, so here’s just a quick summary for the craft room.

I was a member of a panel discussion Friday morning and it’s hard to say who had more fun, we panel members or the audience. We hired an actor to play Henry Tilney, the hero of Northanger Abbey, and his performance was one of the highlights of the AGM.  Some of the ladies were very disappointed to learn that he would not be attending the Saturday night ball, as they were hoping to dance with him!

I attended several breakout sessions and Team Gimlet toured the beautiful and serene Portland Japanese Garden.  It rained that afternoon, so the garden was not crowded.

Saturday night wrapped up the meeting on a high note with the banquet and Bal Masque.  There were beautiful and creative Regency-era fashions and costumes to admire everywhere.

During a lunch break some of us managed a quick side trip to the nearby Portland fiber arts district:  the knitters visited Knit Purl while I checked out The Playful Needle next door, met Noodles the shop dog, and stocked up on Threadgatherer Silk N’Colours.

I did get a little stitching done on the train trip to Portland!  Here’s a peek at the small Hardanger centerpiece I’m stitching on Dublin linen (25 count) with Caron Watercolours:

I finished the surface stitches today, so now it’s on to the pulled stitches and then the cutwork begins.

Hunt by Shepherd’s Bush
Country Creme linen (32 ct)
Stitched with Soie d’Alger, Gloriana, Threadgatherer silks

I had to take this picture very quickly before Thing Two ate all the chocolate eggs!  This Shepherd’s Bush kit series has been around for a while, with a cute little sheep to celebrate nearly every season.

The camera saga continues … the camera we bought for Thing One to take on his spring break trip broke after three days of use.  One of his classmates had an identical camera, and hers broke mid-trip too.  Looking through online ratings (which we should have done ahead of time) we learned that this particular inexpensive camera has a reputation for falling apart after about 500 pictures.  We bought a (hopefully) sturdier camera for him to use for his summer activities and for now I’m getting some use out of it until I get my own.  The memory card in the first camera was luckily undamaged, so we are able to see some of the places Thing One visited:

Why does my camera get to go to more interesting places than I do?  It rained almost every day, but we’re used to that, so Thing One had a fabulous time.  He managed to take about 600 photos before the camera gave out, so it will take some time to sort through them.  A travel photo album and journal will be  posted on the family blog, and I’ll link these pictures to the photo album once it’s up and running.

Happy Easter and happy spring!

A heads-up to the locals:  the Victoria Sampler trunk show can be seen at Issaquah’s excellent shop Threadneedle Street through September 7.  What a treat to see so many designs so beautifully finished as framed samplers, bellpulls, pillows and other finishing ideas.  It’s a great opportunity to examine the stitched models up close, too.  A little extra inspiration to dig into my stash and start something!

From here, the trunk show moves down the coast to Portland and Grants Pass, Oregon and Garden Grove, California; see the Victoria Sampler web site for all the details.

After Moab, I had a long break from stitching until the Thursday before we returned home.  We took a short drive from Cache Valley south to Ogden, Utah to spend an afternoon at Shepherd’s Bush.  We were one of the very few visitors who would be approaching Ogden the opposite way from the driving directions given on the Shepherd’s Bush web site, but we know our way around Utah’s street numbering system and found the shop easily.

Like the Grand Canyon, Shepherd’s Bush is challenging to capture in photos; you want to spin around, taking pictures from all angles, from the baskets at your feet to the herbs, antiques, and projects hanging from the rafters, because there’s so much to see.  Almost too much for a first-time visitor to take in!  The Shepherd’s Bush ladies have had much more experience taking pictures of their displays, so be sure to take the tour on their web site to see how pretty their displays really are.

It was 100° the day we visited, so after parking under a tree for shade, we hurried inside.  Click on the pictures to enlarge them, and follow the jump to enter the shop …

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I’m back!  Our family spent most of July driving through the Southwest:  we visited Arches and the Four Corners Monument in Utah, then Mesa Verde in Colorado, and spent a week at the Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico.  After Philmont we were in Santa Fe and Albuquerque for the weekend, then drove on the remnants of historic Route 66 to see the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest national parks, and north to the Grand Canyon.  Bryce Canyon in Utah finished up our sightseeing; we took a couple of days to rest up with the grandparents in northern Utah before the return trip home.  Phew!  GimletBlog has all the trip details, and there’s a photo gallery full of red rocks and sagebrush, too.

Early on in the journey, our hotel in Moab, Utah just happened to be across the street from a quilt shop, It’s Sew Moab.  How convenient!  It’s not a large store, about the size of The Quilting Loft in my hometown, but a nice selection of fabrics and notions, and a front-and-center display of Southwest-themed fabrics.  My memory is failing me, but I’m pretty sure I saw a room in the back with at least one longarm quilting machine.  I bought their signature quilt pattern as a souvenir and another small Moab-related kit which included a sampling of those Southwest prints.  If you’re staying in Moab for all the outdoor adventures southeast Utah has to offer, It’s Sew Moab is an easy shop to visit as you’re shopping for souvenirs or choosing a place to eat.

After Moab, we drove south en route to the Four Corners Monument, and made a rest stop in Blanding, Utah.  The Blanding visitors’ center is home to the community museum, which showcases several beautiful quilting and needlework projects.  It was an unexpected treat and an opportunity to pause and learn about a small town we were originally just “passing through”.

The blog will be pretty quiet for a few weeks as our family heads out for a road trip through the Southwest.  Our main destination is a week at the Philmont scout ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico, where The Gimlet will participate in a training program, Thing One will backpack through the back country, and Thing Two and I will find ways to amuse ourselves.  We’re also going to visit as many national parks as we can stand:  Arches, Bryce, and the Grand Canyon are on the list.  The laptop is coming along for the journey so we’ll try to do some travel blogging whenever we can find a WiFi connection, or at least share some photos along the way.

I don’t know how much stitching I’ll get done, but I’ll be on the lookout for any needlework or quilting shops in the area.  And yes, there will be a trip to Shepherd’s Bush!

After a brief breather from Thing One’s school activities, May ended with out-of-town guests and a wedding!  My brother and his bride were married May 30 in Seattle; the weather cooperated and was gorgeous, with stunning views from the Space Needle for their evening reception.  My other brother and his family have been visiting for the past week and will stay through most of this week as well.  GimletBlog has all the details and photos of our days entertaining the little nephews and nieces and the wedding plans, but as far as this blog goes … as you can tell, stitching has been put aside for the time being.  I usually spread all my stuff out on the dining room table, which is getting a workout from an extended family dinner every night, and boxing up my current projects has been the best way to keep curious little fingers (and kitty paws) at bay.  We’ve been having a wonderful time, but I’m going through a little stitching withdrawal and look forward to unpacking everything this weekend.

I did discover another quilting shop while we were getting ready for our visitors:  Undercover Quilts, located in the south arcade of the Pike Place Market, is a wonderful source for Pacific Northwest-themed fabrics and quilt patterns, and they offer a set of collectibles for shop-hoppers.  Any quilter stopping in Seattle during an Alaska cruise should take the time to find this little gem during your visit to the Pike Place Market; you won’t be disappointed!  The shop is just a little south of the Pike Place Fish Market (the famous “flying fish”).

If you can see the little purple sign in the top right corner of the photo above, it points to a lavender stall in the arcade just northwest of the fish market.  I bought a big bag of Sequim lavender to make into sachets (or as Thing One calls them, “smell bags”).  I have a small gift in mind for the end of Thing One’s school year, but even with our late end to school (the rest of the US seems to be done with school already, but our school district doesn’t end until late June) I don’t know if I’ll have enough time to get it done.  At any rate, the lavender smells delightful and would make a very useful souvenir for our summer tourist stitchers.