Fruit of the Vine

(Lots of photos, non-quilty)
(Quilty blog to follow later this week)

We just returned from a very fun and informative week-end. A dear friend and her brothers organized a trip to eastern Washington for 36 friends. Washington state is second only to California in amount of wine produced, with somewhere between 500 and 700 wineries. (we got conflicting information). There are acres and acres of land devoted to grape vines and it is a BIG business. On Friday after work we boarded a chartered bus and headed to the town of Yakima, on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains. There were hearty snacks before we boarded the bus and loads and loads of snacks onboard. While driving along, we had wine trivia games, with prizes and also door prizes, just because. [all wine related] We arrived in Yakima approximately 9pm.

At 9am on Saturday morning we headed out to visit the first of six wineries. It was, in fact, highly informative to learn the proper way to taste (sip, slurp, smack and breathe) wines. Each vineyard was most welcoming and happy to answer all our questions - many of them pretty basic. We learned the difference between aging in stainless steel and aging in oak, and talked about corks and screw tops and even wine in boxes (originated in Australia). Our organizers had made everyone a name tag as well as providing us labels to put on wine boxes, so that we could each file away our purchases underneath the bus, in our own box. People were tired but feeling enthused about our new knowledge by the end of the day.

This morning we gathered a bit earlier, as we were driving further east, from Yakima. First stop was a family owned farm where they grow both grapes and hops (for beer). We made two further stops, one before lunch and one afterwards. Each was referred to as a Wine "Village", with multiple vintners at each. The first had 5 wineries represented and the second with 8. These were more like little shops where they sold wine, but were not where the grapes were grown (as opposed to Saturday, when we were out on peoples farms.) While Saturday was a bit grey and dreary, today was gorgeous sunshine. Each day we had a picnic lunch, arranged by our organizers. They really outdid themselves. We all learned a lot, had great fun and will get to sip throughout the summer, hopefully remembering all we learned.





Beginning our wine tasting lessons:





Lots of apple orchards:

Hops on the right; grapes on the left:

Hop growing:

Treasures in the attic

Before she died, my mother told my daughter that she could have her thimble collection. It got boxed up in the mid 90's and hadn't been thought about since. As so often happens, those boxes ended up in mama's attic (me!) So awhile ago, when trying to tidy up the attic, I found the boxes and decided to take a peak inside. I am the sewer in the family, as it is now (although my mother was quite accomplished), and so perhaps I should enjoy the thimbles for a while before they move on to my daughter and granddaughters.

Imagine my surprise - and my daughter's - to find that there were more things than just thimbles in those boxes. And so here are some of the things that I found inside:

A box with a glass lid. The tools inside are clearly for sewing, but I'm not sure what they are all for or what they do. There are a couple of separate handles into which pieces fit. But what is that which appears to be a knife? A bodkin? A stiletto?

These are labeled as glove darning "eggs". One silver, one wooden.

These are labeled as bodkins. I presume to thread ribbon through eyelets or lace.

Various thimbles. Notice the two metal ones in the front - they are tiny. Presumably for children's hands.

Scissors with an embroidered case. They look like gardening shears, don't they?

For shoe buttons? Dress buttons?

I have no idea what these are. They are wooden, about 8 inches long. There is a spring in the center, so when you squeeze the handles, then the two prongs at the top separate. Ideas?

This is kind of fun - no? Luckily inside one box there was also an old four-sided glass case. I think it was for pipes. So it makes a great place to keep these little treasures where I can look at them. Lucky me!

"....with a little help from my friends"

Friend Ronda just returned from a trip to Massachusetts. While there she visited The New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Mass. Lowell sounds like a fascinating city, with a rich history of textile manufacturing. Apparently many young women came from far and wide to live in Lowell (in proper boarding homes) and work at the textile factories. They would work 6 days per week and faithfully send money home, to their families. Each year the Quilt Museum has a fund-raiser, selling books and fabrics which have been donated to the museum. Some of the fabric is used for community sews. The remainder is saved up throughout the year and for 8 hours it's available. Each person pays $25 and is given a green shopping bag. You then fill your shopping bag with as much as it will hold. There are new fabrics put out about every 30 minutes and shoppers help each other locating specific colors or style/designs. And so this evening she brough over the suitcase she had to borrow to bring home her newly acquired fabrics. Luckily for me, she generously shared some of her bounty!


Debbie Mumm and a nice cup of tea:

Sophisticated red/brown and flowers:

Another friend was cleaning house and gave me the perfect "goes with" fabric:


And lest you think I do nothing but mooch fabric from my friends, I have done a couple of things. Baby Rosa got her new flannel quilt:


And white chocolate's center is stitched together! Hurrah! Now just to finish up with some borders and figure out what to do on the back. I figured out that it has been about 10 months for this one:
And if you are following along, today was Week 3 for CTA training. Today we covered four topics:
* CPS reporting
* How to develop a lesson plan
* Adult Learning styles
* 25 Handiest (is that a real word?) tools for sewing
Life's good, for sure!

Should I hang my head?

In some camps, I shouldn't be quite so excited about acquiring new "stash", but I'm darn excited. I have always had very good luck ordering from Connecting Threads and once again, they have come through with some lovely coordinating fabrics. So, with a sheepish smile, my new "arrivals":

With good intentions

You know about the road to somewhere unpleasant being paved with good intentions - unfortunately I think I must be well along that road. I do keep intending to update this more often than once a week, but somehow the week flies past and here we are again. So, here's to another Tuesday and another week, but luckily considerably less crazy this week. Hurrah!

So let's begin with this past week-end. We decided mid April, a good time to go camping, right? Wrong! That's snow. Can you believe it? We had hail and rain and snow all week-end long. I don't think the temperatures ever got over about 43`. Bless that furnace in the motorhome.













I did complete a few other things in the sewing department this last week. So here are my four other Crazy Mom blocks:



















When we got home on Sunday I learned of the birth of Rosa Elise, daughter of my Dutch friend Danielle. They have 2 boys, so #3 is a girl. I'm imagining they are pretty excited. So I had to get busy. Should finish this up tomorrow, as I don't have enough batting left.






And just because it seemed to call my name, a parcel of goodies from Connecting Threads arrived in today's mail. Yeah! First fabric purchase in a very long time, so I don't feel too bad.
Life is good, for sure!

[But my skills at arranging photos and the accompanying text are not so good. Sorry about that - I think you can figure out which picture goes with which words.]

A little of this and a little of that

You know how it goes - bits and pieces of assorted things. But in the end, I guess a few things get done. Working backwards, yesterday was the first day of my training to become an "official" Clothing and Textile Advisor. You know, with that and (is it now?) 50 cents, I can make a phone call. This program is under the auspices of Washington State University Cooperative Extension Service. So after 7 weeks I will get an official name badge and can give away my services to whomever might want them: 4 H, scouting, camp fire, etc, etc, etc. This is the program through whom I am teaching the refugee women how to sew. And so, I am already part of what's going on with CTA. Yesterday we learned to make a pillowcase, taught the same way that the kids are taught during the summer sewing camp, Camp Stitch-a-Long. Next week someone is coming from Toastmasters.

Meanwhile at home, I have a couple of "finds". These were at a thrift store for something like 50 cents. I figured why not - I should be able to figure out something to do with them.


Also finished cutting out the last four weeks' worth of Crazy Mom Quilts 12" blocks. Because I made 2 of each, I now have 24. Had them laid out on the family room floor last night trying to decide. Hmmmm.


Another of my thrifty "finds" was this little drawer unit. Friend Alayne had suggested that she uses one when she goes to a quilting week-end to carry all her stuff and a place to keep it all together and tidy. What should I find at the church rummage sale (which, by the way, earned over $20,500 - all for mission projects. Cool, huh?) but a drawer unit. I helped the total with my payment of $3.00. Pretty good, no?


Can't show you much, but here is a little hint for my crazy exchange item - should be finished up very soon and then ready to go in the mail. And last, but not least, guess what I'm still working on: White Chocolate. We're getting there, slowly but surely.



Where is spring hiding????

Adding word verification

to eliminate what appears to be spam. Hope you don't mind for a while.