Day Two – Glacier Bay

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Tuesday we sailed into Glacier Bay. The weather is gray and rainy with temperatures in the 40s F. I wondered if the glaciers would look blue under gray skies and I’m happy to report that glacier ice is blue whether the sky is blue or not!

We spent a good part of the day looking at the Lamplugh (above) and Margorie (below) glaciers. We watched ice fall off into the water… it was cool to watch but I couldn’t help but wish it would stay put. The glaciers are melting so quickly these days.


The food onboard is good. The fish (mostly salmon and halibut) is terrific! It’s hard to resist dessert when it is offered at every meal so I gave up and have not been resisting.

The one mishap that we’ve had this trip happened as I was glacier-watching. As I said, it was rainy. I had my new iPhone in my jacket pocket. My hands were in and out of my pockets and I didn’t think it was happening, but a tiny bit of water got in there with my iPhone. Oh my. I killed it. I have to go home and hook it up to my computer to verify it, but I truly think my iPhone is dead. I have apple-care, but it doesn’t cover water damage.

My dear husband said not to worry, it wasn’t as if he’d never made a costly mistake so I should just treat this as a learning experience and move on. So – let me share with you all that even a few drops of water in the right place can wick into an iPhone. I will carry a baggie from now on to put my new phone in at the slightest hint of water. FYI – being too hot or too cold can kill one too.

Setting sail and our first day at sea….

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As I wrote earlier, Steve and I have been on an Alaska cruise! I taught 2 classes on the Alaska Quilt Camp at Sea. There are lots of quilters onboard. So many, in fact, that I haven’t gotten to visit with everyone. But I think it’s safe to say that we are all having a good time.

We sailed out of Seattle on Sunday. Steve and I opted to spend a little more and stay in a cabin with a veranda. It’s worth the extra expense! We spotted our room as we were boarding – I’ve marked it with the red dot in the photo. And that’s what our room looks like (from the veranda, looking in). And that’s me on the veranda with Seattle in the background.



We got some good shots of Seattle from our veranda on the way out of port. There was a great deal of horn blowing on the way out of port.
 
Not long after we got underway, there was a mandatory lifeboat drill. I only heard of one lady who skipped it and she apparently had a stern talking-to later. For my part, I was happy to know what to do in case of emergency.

The first day, Monday, was spent at sea. Both of my classes were on Monday. The seas were a bit rough, but that didn’t seem to bother any of us appliquers too much. I have taken non-sleepy Dramamine on this trip and it has worked very well for me. I would recommend it over the patch (which I have taken in the past).

This is for you, Jeff and Elanor!

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As I just wrote, we are in Seattle. As we were waiting for the bus back to the hotel from the Seattle Public Library, we did some people watching. People are really fascinating! We spotted these two fellows across the street and I managed to get an almost good photo of them.


I should tell you that my granddaughter, Elanor, who is 5 and our son, Jeff, who is 23 have been calling each other spiky-heads a lot lately. Who knows where that came from, but it makes them both laugh like crazy.

So, when I spotted these guys it was all I could do not not to holler “spiky-heads” and commence to giggling! I’m not sure they would have thought it was funny but, seriously, they can’t imagine that people won’t notice their hair-dos! Personally, I”m sort of fascinated by their hair. It’s not just that they got it to stick up – it’s that the spikes are so precisely placed. 

I’m in Seattle!

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I am teaching on an Alaskan cruise… we sail tomorrow. My husband, Steve, is with me on this trip. He enjoys accompanying me to scenic places :-).

We got to Seattle this afternoon and 
had time to take the bus to the Seattle Public Library. Rem Koolhaas designed this building 
and I have only seen it in pictures until today. My oh my – what a place!

The outside is glass and steel… gray and yet very reflective. Inside there are gray areas — and areas that are just saturated in color. We came into these very simple, gray stacks of books. The light permeates every space. Even where ceilings are low, you don’t feel closed in.

The escalators are intense shades of yellow and yellow-green. 
The photo below is at the bottom of a double-escalator. The insides of the elevators are similar in color, but I couldn’t get a good photo of  one. 

There is one floor in the library that is all in glossy red – except for one wall that is intensely fuscia. The walls undulate. Majorly cool. 
If you find yourself in Seattle, it’s definitely worth a visit.

How to applique the circles in the center of the Aunt Millie blocks.

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Several of you have emailed asking how we stitched the circles in the center of the Aunt Millie blocks. FYI – Those instructions were in the original pattern, but somewhere along the way they got deleted. We’re sorry about that. However, not to worry, we can tell you how we did the circles.


The circles with wedges are appliqued, not pieced. Sew them off-the-block. Start with a 4″-6″ square of fabric for the large circle. Draw the circle on it. Applique each wedge onto the circle. Applique the small center circle. Then cut the unit out as a whole, finger press it, and applique it to the block.

These instructions are also posted on our website, on the Aunt Mille page in the left-hand sidebar.

Happy stitching!

The new fabric is here!

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I’m old enough that even as I wrote the title to this post I could hear Steve Martin in my head saying “the new phone book’s here, the new phone book’s here!” I think I watch too many movies :-). But enough of that.


Our new fabric, Elanor’s Picnic, has indeed arrived. Linda and Paul have been busily cutting and preparing kits and fat quarters. I got the web pages built. We are ready to ship! Click to go to the first of the fabric pages or go to our home page which has also changed. We hope you like this fabric as much as we do. We think that it may be our best fabric yet!

I could write a lot more about the fabric here, but it’s all on the web pages. FYI – We’re not going to send out an eNewsletter about the new fabric until late August or early September. P&B is in the middle of re-printing more fabric and we want to be able to re-stock before we send the eNewsletter. What this means is that you who read our blog are being notified first! 

Let me revise that… Since I posted this entry earlier today we have been notified by P&B that the next group of fabric is here. So the eNewsletter is going out tomorrow. But you did hear about it here first! 

Happy quilting!