We spent a day in Seattle and got the flavor of the city. We began by trying to figure out where to park without paying an arm and leg to visit Pike Place Market. This place is pretty cool. It’s one of the oldest continuously operating farmers markets. There are lots of people selling their wares, everything from honey to fish to fruit to magnets to handmade arts and crafts. Basically everything and anything. There are lots of samples to be had, and lots of things to see. The main part seems to be the street level, but there are lower levels as well. The lower levels seemed quite a bit more tame and subdued, but the top level was where the action was. We never saw any of the fishmongers throwing fish, which is too bad, because I hear that is quite a sight. Sue bought a peach and some Rainier cherries for a snack later, and a couple of other souvenirs. We also saw plenty of street performers playing guitar, viola, and saxophone. [Read more…] about Seattle
Sue
North Cascades
After spending a couple days visiting Scott’s grandfather and aunt & uncle, we took off for the Seattle area. We had several choices for routes, but decided to drive Highway 20 through North Cascades National Park. There are over 300 glaciers in this park. The roads were recently opened from the winter snows and the scenery was beautiful, with the cool air, pine forest smell, and beautiful views.
On the way up the mountains, we went through a nice town called Winthrop. It’s built like an old-time Western town, with boardwalks, period-style buildings, and lots of fun shops. It was a good place to get out for a few minutes, stretch our legs, and explore a bit. Plus I got some handcrafted earrings! [Read more…] about North Cascades
Pulaski Tunnel & the Big Burn of 1910
The first day of our trip was spent driving with small stops to stretch our legs. We spent the night in Missoula, Montana, then headed across the Idaho panhandle.
Last year, I read a book called “The Big Burn” by Timothy Egan that had been recommended by my friend, Karen. Since I love to visit historic places that relate to books I’ve read, I had the area around Wallace, Idaho on my list. “The Big Burn” tells all about the huge wildfires of 1910 that popped up all around the west with the worst area centered in eastern Washington, the Idaho panhandle, and western Montana. Smoke from these fires was seen as far away as New York, and ships 500 miles out in the Pacific couldn’t navigate by the stars at night because they were blotted
out by the smoke. [Read more…] about Pulaski Tunnel & the Big Burn of 1910
Barn project-block #3
We did the third block about three weeks ago and I forgot to post!
This is the Peas and Carrots block for our barn project. It came out so cute! We used the same green fabric because it was so perfect and then went with our own stash bright orange fabrics. Once again, the small little triangles made the block bulky with all those seams, but it sure is darling and got us in the mood to grow some vegetables.
We returned to more all-over prints for the red barns and were both much more happy with the result. We were uber careful with pressing but no matter how straight our barns are, adding that white sashing makes us lean. Hmmm. Photos are not as forgiving as the human eye and when it’s all together, maybe nobody will notice??
Team ShaRee
Team Sue
Barn Project-block #2
Today I am unveiling the second barn in our barn project. This block “painted” on the side of the barn is a Postage Stamp block. Before the Internet, farmers living in rural areas relied heavily on the postal system and their trusty mail carrier. So a postage stamp block is a tribute to those rural mail deliveries.
Our blocks are different in that mine uses 36 different small squares, and ShaRee didn’t go as crazy mixing it up, but used good design principles by having some repetition in her squares. This time we decided to build the same barn, and when we cut the fabric we were so excited about how cute the stripes were going to look. But during the sewing we got less and less enamored with it. First off, it was hard to keep them straight, and then we decided the overtly architectural look we had been going for with the stripe didn’t really work. Live and learn. We have thus decided to discard another stripe we were planning to use in the future and go with overall prints. We think they will set off the block better and not distract the eye from the block.
We also worked harder on our darn 1/4″ seams and both of us ended with the same size block this time! Too bad they’re still 1/4″ smaller all around than they’re supposed to be. Gah! We have decided that the white sashing around each block is going to make up the difference. We cut the sashing a little wider and at the end we will trim all the blocks to be the same size and hope the white sashing creates an optical illusion of sameness in width. 🙂
So here we go with the photos:
Team ShaRee
Team Sue
