Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Farmers Wife Sampler aka Call Me Crazy!!

There is nothing like getting home from a vacation 
and
hitting the ground running!!
Cleaning corrals
(should be cleaning my house but that will have to wait)
and 
Bales need to be hauled before the snow flies!!
I must have been delirious 
when Tracey from The Block Party Guild asked if I would do a
Farmer's Wife Sampler QAL with The Gnome Angel!!
(must be the FARMER in me)


I have done one before and found it quite doable...


I still have my Sedona Star scraps in a box so I decided to use them


Can never go wrong with Blues(Sk Skies) and Browns(Harvest colors)

The first block is Becky
(sorry.....not squared up yet)

I don't actually have the book yet 
and
 will have to wait to get ALL the instructions


Bonnie is the second block


I will try to keep up!!

Christa

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Home Sweet Home

Isn't it crazy that you can be laying in bed in San Francisco in the morning...


Home in the afternoon?

Home as in Canada....
Calgary(where I was born so my first home)

It is sad that Calgary no longer has the Tower
 as
 the icon since it no longer stands out downtown!!


Our last shopping in San Fran was at Crate and Barrel.


I was in love with these streamers of fabric running from the 3 floors


All I could think of was what do they do with it when they are done???


Can you imagine the quilts this would make??

Look at the size of the selvages on these....


It was Marimekko from 2011

It was a full 2 inches and the fabric was just sewn on the edge and hung!!

I think I need to make this for my head board

LOVE it!!


This table was made with the cross bars of old telephone poles that the insulators sat on


I am proud to say that all I could afford at Britex totaled to 10.82$ 

That's the cheapest I have ever left a fabric store but I did get some cute stuff
(another post)


While in Calgary, Mom, Aunt Julie and I went to Creative Stitches...


At Spruce Meadows



My favorite booth was A Threaded Needle from Gibsons, BC

They are an online store carrying Japanese fabrics.

I find myself more and more drawn to them.

Like I need ANOTHER love?!?!


The Calgary Modern Quilters had a lot of quilts displayed


I still think it is a better show at the RBC Center as there was not space for classes in rooms


so it was tough to hear your teacher in your own class with all the noise.

Aunt Julie and I took a class called Snip, clip and rip.

You ended up with a piece from 6 other people
 and
 are supposed to take this home and make something

This was my batch...

We were kind of disappointed as we both have a lot of 'this' at home already!!

But we did get to spend some time together.

I hope you are busy making that little outhouse quilt, Aunt Julie!!
Send me some pics!!


With busy lives,
 it seems like we get together much as sisters 
so
 we tried to get some pictures together.

My sisters like to try to get the right pose looking the best you can.

No pose is 'better' in my world. 

It is, what it is!!

 After about 15 minutes, 

Mom's expression said it all!!

Mom(Heather),Larissa, Tannis and Christa 

"My daughters are crazy"

Oh well....It was a fun week!!

Back to the grindstone...

Christa 

Ps.
Isn't this the coolest pic of Muir Woods?
My niece, Michaela took it...such an artist's eye!!


Thursday, September 24, 2015

Muir Woods

It was another good day across the Golden Gate Bridge....

To Sausalito with a stop a a shop called Soxalito...


Where there was ever kind of socks you could ever dream up 


Such an appropriate play on words


To catch as cool bus made into a convertible so we could go to the Muir Woods


There was some wind in our hair!!!


This tree was born in 909 AD and was dated to 2007 with dates through out its life pointed out 
Isn't that so cool how they have a time line in the rings 


I have had Yosemite on my list and this was just a small taste of what it will be like I am sure 


These redwoods were unbelievable 


The age and massive size can't be captured in a photo 


It was such a beautiful forest 


We are so lucky that it has been protected from further foresting




The creek was not babbling as California is still in a drought 


Then it was back to San Fransisco   The main cable on this bridge is 28000 cables wrapped together and is 1 metre thick!!!


It is now 80 years old!! Incredible architecture and engineering!!


We walked the Barbary Coast Trail through the city over to North beach to Tony's pizza. The wait was 1 1/2 hours but was soooooo worth it!!!!

This catholic  church in little Italy was beautiful all lit up  you won't find an address on this church as ironically it is 666 on that street 

 We flagged a cable car and rode back to Union Square


It was fun hanging off the bar through all the traffic and hills


I think we can safely say 'I've been everywhere,man!!'


I day left to explore....
Christa

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Alcatraz prison


The sunset was gorgeous behind Golden Gate as we ferried to Alcatraz for a night tour

To think they have made a national park of such a historic prison 


It was for sale in the 60's for 2 million but there were no takers!!



It was quite the steep hike up to the main prison 


It has a light house since it is a rock in a dark ocean at night 




There was no fresh water on this island 


The families of the guards lived on the rock and the kids went to school in San Fransisco every day 


It was a twelve minute  boat ride 




These cells were very small


Around 250 of the hardest criminals were housed here like Al Capone and  frank Lee Morris who spooned his way out of prison through the vent. 


The audio tour was recorded in some of the guards and prisoners actual voices 




There was visitations very rarely 


There were a few escape attempts but all were caught except 3 who tunnelled through the vent system(Frank Morris)


They were never found or heard of again. 

It's said they went to South America but no one knows if they even survived the water 


It is said to be haunted but we didn't stick around to prove that point 


The skyline of San Fransisco was beautiful on the way back 


Pictures don't do it justice 


Alcatraz started as a military prison before it was turned into a federal penitentiary. 
It closed in 1963 when it became too costly to run and other facilities were erected 


I think I will continue to walk the line...

Christa

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