Whip up a Mini Quilt

Well you can say one thing about my Whipup entries, I do whip them up. This months challenge was a mini quilt. I've make quite a few quilts in my time and so left the project till the last moment, as usual, or rather in the spirit of the challenge. And then I found myself floundering? What does mini mean? How d'ya make mitered corners again? Where are the rulers? So I improvised...I sewed together strips, cut them and sewed again to get squares. I used masking tape and a 2x4 as rulers. I cheated the corners. And all in all I'm pleased with my presto!-dolly quilt...but is it mini?NO! re-reading the competition...it's MINIATURE.

And boo hoo...I'm too late...Aussie time I guess....

Batty

This enterprise does booming business in the summer. They started out at $5 each just a couple of years ago. Quite rightly the price was raised to $20, they are well constructed and are even painted with a bat design. It is the favored souvenir of our visiting guests.

My mom got one and put it down at Marrowstone. Both she and George were bursting with pride to tell us that it was inhabited! So we looked....its home to swallows! The bats have stayed in their preferred ancestral home...the attic!

The original sign was country poetry, it said:

BAT
HOuSe's
BiRD

marrowstone island kitchen

marrowstone kitchen, originally uploaded by maryjanemidgemink.

After we spent some time up at Stuart, we went to Marrowstone Island off the Olympic Peninsula, in Puget Sound, where we stayed at the ancestral home of my mom's sweetheart. The two of them have gently restored the weatherd clapboard farmhouse, which sits in a field above a long beautiful beach. My favorite room is the kitchen.

Stuart Island

Stuart Island, in the San Juan Islands, Washington State. I spent a lot of time here, when I was growing up. I've got a Little Wolf bracelet I 've been wearing since I was about 12. This is a view from the point, out in front of our cabin which is nestled in the woods. There is no electricity on the island, nor paved roads. We don't have a generator and our water is gravity fed.
Whenever I visit, I never want to leave. I'd like to take a year off and spend all the seasons here, as subtle as they are. It seems we may have a "reason" now, the cabin needs a new roof. After our summer wildness, we may lure a team of friends to work on the roof and do other repairs. Catch rock cod in the evenings, get a crab pot and a shrimp pot...I've heard a rumor, if you can see the radio tower on Pender Island Canada, seen in the distance, internet service is available! We'll need a generator to recharge the batteries, but we need that for the power tools anyway. Sounds like a plan.

Jet Lag

It's the first time I've had such awful Jet Lag. I sat down to knit a little last evening and before I knew it , the clock read 3:25. AM! Work today was a little challenging with a fuzz-brain. So no stories of the Great Pacific Northwest yet. I'll leave you with a special treat, a poem for Daphne, who I sadly, missed seeing , but who reminded me of this gem:

maggie & millie & molly & may
. . . e. e. cummings

maggie and millie and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

millie befriended a stranded star
who's rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea.

She What?

She blogs.

Nah, she doesn't blog...who 're you kidding. Last I heard was she went to Seattle, to see her folks or something. There was some nonsense about dial up connections and incompatible photo programs...How can she be a blogger if she can't even travel and do those simple things? Sheesh!

Yeah you're right. But I did hear she found a cool Japanese store where everything is $1.50, all the coolest stuff from Uwajimaya's housewares section only more and way better.

Oh yeah? Daiso?

To die for!

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends
upon a red wheelbarrow

glazed with rain water

beside the white
chickens.

William Carlos Williams

So a poem for you, and a swiped picture....Computer and internet challenges here in the Queen City!

Moomie's Garden

Success! WE, it took two of us , did indeed upload a picture of my mom's garden. How pretty, how lush!

My wonderful, dearest Kri and I have had the best reunion! And look, pictures. And we TOOK pictures too. And we also took a stroll down memory lane, ate good food and are still having fun. Next time we'll have banquets of finger food because we talked too much to eat properly.

Art talk, knitting advice and constant inspiration! So obviously I can't make sense right now. T.T.F.N. (ta-ta-for-now)

Seattle?

notre dame du bois, originally uploaded by maryjanemidgemink.

Not really, this is Notre Dame du Bois, one of my favorite little towns in eastern Quebec Province. It is the beginning of the "endless road". When you reach the vanishing point, there is another equally long stretch ahead, and then again!

But, hello! I'm in Seattle, at my mom's! She lives in the sweetest little cottage in Ballard, purposly overgrown with bountiful flowering bushes and trees. She renovated her tiny dirt celler, into an adorable little "hobbit house" that actually resembles Greek houses! This is where I am staying. I'm dying to post pictures but don't quite know how yet...on her ancient computer. So thank goodness for flickr, besides I promised some pictures of Canada.

Hey! Do any Seattleites know of a fun knitting circle? I'm going to visit Jennhx's favorite coffee shop at the Canal. Any other ideas would be welcome, it's been ages since I was home.