I started knitting

this shawl after I had finished the one for my Mother. Because I wanted to get hers done and to her quickly. I used a bulky yarn and #10.5 needles and it was done by knitting every row.

This shawl pattern is from a book titled Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle. The 25 patterns range from simple like the one I did for my Mom to very complex. This one is no as simple. Keeps you counting and thinking. If I didn't still love to make quilts I could turn into a seriously addicted knitter of the complex but not the mundane. Socks or basic scarves bore me.

I've sort of started on the t-shirt quilt for my oldest Grand-daughter but got way-layed by a request for a quilt for a charity auction. For the last two years I have made them something new and this year I had planned to donate something that was already done, except they asked if I would consider donating the very one that is hanging on Lyn's bedroom wall. The last one that hung there I sold right off her wall. I can't do that her again mainly because I don't have anything to replace it. She like her sister Rene does not share my taste in colors. Lyn's an autumn person too, I have come to believe both of them are truly their Father's children when it comes to color.
It's a whole cloth quilt with painted trees. The quilting will take the most time. So I am going to duplicate it as much as it is possible to do a copy of an original when you no longer have the fabric. On Friday I put four lengths of fabric in dye, hoping for something close to the color I wanted. Of the four, one is very close, the other three will find themselves in an over dye pot one of these days.
I left some of you hanging with no end to the outcome of Lyn's trip to DC. It follows this entry. Forgive me the disorderly arrangement of the entries.

One of these day I will learn how to put my entries in an order that makes sense. Until then keep scrolling down the page and reading upwards.

Here are some not so good

images of the President and First Lady and Vice-Pres at a cocktail party for just the campaign staffers held on Wednesday night. I didn't see anything about this party on the news. I guess the news services were partied out having covered all the Balls the night before.

Before

All the other pictures Lyn took at this party and the ball were a dark blur of images even the CIA would have a hard time trying to decide what she was trying to shot. Before she goes to anything else of historical significants she's gotta take some photography lessons.

Lyn is not much of a picture taker

and a lot of shots were very blurry due to being jostled about by the crowds.I think you can see Eugene Robinson and Rachel Maddow if you look real hard.
She took this picture for me because this is the channel we most look at for news of the campaign and resulting election results.

I know I left some of you hanging

with no ending to Lyn's trip to DC.
So here are some images from her trip. I am not showing you the ones you got to see on every television.

On the bus.

Images from Lyn's trip

She arrived home yeserday around 10:00 TIRED. Dropped her luggage and other travel bags in the foyer, 10 minutes later I found her asleep, fully cloth, under the covers, fast asleep.I swiped the memory card from Lyn's camera as she slept so I don't have her words to accompany the photo's.

This looks like one of their time to eat stops.

Part Mom, part tour guide,

Lyn and crowd arrived at their hotel north of Richmond, VA about 3:00 PM EST where they will sleep fast and rise early. They will get back on the bus before sunrise; traffic permitting for a hour and a half ride into the DC metro area tomorrow.

They will be dropped off at an end of the line Metro station in Alexander, Va for the ride to the Mall where everyone with at least one partner will a cell phone will be on their own until they meet back at the metro station in Alexander,VA around mid-night for their bus ride back to their hotel north of Richmond to sleep for the night.

She said, after she does a final room check to make sure everyone is where they are suppose to be she is going to order dinner in, take a shower and lay her happy, but tired "butt" down on one of the two beds in her room. Her wake up call is schedule for 2:00 A.M.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/ Here is another story that ran in another local paper this morning.

Now for a little quilt related report.

My oldest granddaughter Joslyn who lives in Providence, RI will be 16 in March. Her mother, Maryellen who I speak of lovingly sent me a box of her sports related t-shirts and asked that they be made into a quilt for her birthday. Of course I could not say no, so as of today I will be working on making my first t-shirt quilt.

While I was out today, dropping JohnChris the grandson off at work, I shopped for fabric to set the t-shirts with and found a fabric with basket balls. Joslyn also wanted her quilt to be usable and huggable so that says to me I need to make it with a polyester/cotton batt and a flannel backing.

While Maryellen reads my blog, I don't think Joslyn does, so I will post some images of my progress.

Trip update

Here is the website for a local story on the trip it may come up as a link but I wouldn't bet on it. http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/01/18/inauguration-road-trip-local-group-travels-dc-bus-take-part-history/

also a short video is available on KOMU TV http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/ed4997aa-80ce-0971-009d-f7f53a95ef13 click on the video screen on the right side of the screen for a short video of the bus boarding a very short interview with Lyn.

Lyn reported this morning that they ran into snow as soon as they crossed into southern Indiana via Interstate 64 and that they snow continued to fall until they were past Frankfort, Kentucky.(about 40 miles southeast of Louisville) When we spoke, they were somewhere in West Virginia but had not reached Charleston and were running about 1-1/2 hours behind schedule due to the snow, But all were still in good spirits.

Fired up and ready to go

were the words Lyn and I said several times as she drove from our house to the Marriott Courtyard hotel on the south/east side of Columbia where she'd told everyone to meet to board the bus. Check in time was scheduled for 6:30 even though the bus would not leave until 8:00PM.
Thinking because she was dealing with young people, they wouldn't be arriving unil closer to 7:00. Wrong.
One of her fellow organizers was there at the Marriott by 6:10 and had called to report that the bus was there and more than half of those taking the bus were there too. "Fired up---- ready to go".
At 6:20 she called again, reporting that more had arrived. At that point, we were just leaving the sub-division and was about 10 minutes away.

By the time we got there, the Press was there and nearly 2/3 of those going were there as well....
"Fired up---ready to go."

Kurt and his son one of the youngest getting ready to board the bus. Sadly, the little one decided at the last minute that he could not leave his Mother not even for Obama and he stayed behind.
But daddy Kurt kissed his wife and son goodbye and got on the bus. Actually he and Lyn are two of the three responsible adult traveling with what seemed like a bus load of "kids" going off to camp. It certainly had that expectant atmosphere."fired up---- ready to go."
Here is a dad seeing his two daughters and their friend off.He like I, waited tell the bus door closed and was driving out of the parking lot before we got back in our cars to leave.
Just for the briefest moment I thought "I want to go." Then I remembered that they had 17-18 hours on a bus ahead of them

<>I didn't take lots of shoots because the lighting in the parking lot did not make up for the fact that night had fallen. I was hoping these came out okay as it was a moment of hilarity seeing Lyn crawl out of the luggage compartment under the bus after she had placed her gown ever so carefully in an empty space hoping that it would survive the trip and be none the worse for it.

Since tomorrow is a Day of Service called for by Pres-elect Obama, those taking the trip brought canned good and other food stuff as well as clothing to be donated to the Salvation Army in Beckley, West Virginia where they will stop for Lunch at Tamarack.
I hope to have an updated report from Lyn tomorrow on her travels that I can relay to you all. She has a camera as well as her laptop so I hope we don't have to wait until she gets back to see what she saw.

I am not in the least ashamed to say

it is still Christmas inside our house. The trees are still up and all the stuff is still sitting around. Lyn did her part and removed the outside decorations while I was in Louisville.

I on the other hand took a couple of downtime days instead of charging right into de-decking the hall when I returned. My downtime days have almost turned into a week. In my downtime, I've read one book, and started on another. I've started cataloging my book collection. Don't ask me why. Lyn did and for the life of me I can't come up with a good answer other than I just want to. At the back of my mind I am working through a design for a quilt for my youngest daughter Rene who lives in Orlando. While I have many, many she could choose from rolled in the closet, she and I do not have the same taste and she does not do flowers or joyous colors, she is a abstract image autumn colors person. What to do, what to do?

I've put in lots of hours knitting a shawl for my Mom. It's nothing fancy, just something simply to keep her shoulders warm. I knitted her one like this one several years ago that she said she loved, but failed to tell me she had worn it ragged and she wanted another one, but was so sure I was too busy making quilts that she did want to ask for a replacement. Three or four more days and I should have it done and in the mail to her. Especially if I find myself sitting in front of the television on Tuesday watching the events of the day.

I'm not sure if I told you just how involved my daughter Lyn was with the Obama campaign starting last July. But she was, so much so that she is going to Washington for the inaugural. Because of her involvement, she has a ticket for the inaugural as well as an invitation to one of the balls.

For most of this day I've sat in my bed hemming her ball gown. One she drove all the way to Kansas City to find. It really is a very nice but as I was finishing the last of the three layers of this floor length gown, I was disliking it a lot mainly because it is dark blue almost navy, much darker than the images indicates and you know how hard it is to sew something dark with dark thread. After about a foot length of stitches I had to bring in supplemental light (a floor model Ott Lamp) to see what I was doing.

Our kitchen table is full of little brown bags filled with snack food. Nuts, cheese, cookies even Dum-Dum suckers. 114 bags in all. These will be given to the 56 people (mostly teens, and college students) who will be traveling with Lyn to DC by chartered bus from Columbia, Missouri on Sunday. She will be coming home by plane because of the ball.

I don't envy her being out in the cold on Tuesday or dealing with the crowd that is sure to fill DC, but just the thought of her being in the same room with this President is .... there are no words. And just to think I put the hem in the gown she will be wearing. Only a mother knows the joy :)

On my way back home

I crossed the Interstate 64 bridge from Kentucky to Indiana and got off at exit one. I wanted to see FNF uninterrupted by people like those who stop me to talk the evening before and minus all the bodies that were present at the opening reception as well.
I knew there was a gallery talk scheduled for Saturday morning,that was being conducted by three members of members of River City Fiber Artist Kathy Loomis, Pat Darif and Marti Plager( I am one of this six member artist group) but I thought the gallery talk would be over. But to both my surprise and delight I arrived in the middle of it just as they were moving from the west gallery to the east. I took some pictures of some of the works I admired the most but will not share them with you mainly because I did not take note of who the artist that created them were. But here are some random shots of those gathered for the gallery talk.

Once the car was filled with gas and I was back on Interstate 64 heading west, the rest of my trip was uneventful because once again I was kept entertained for 400 miles by a 6 CD recorded book that ended very conveniently as I was pulling into the driveway at home.

From FNF reception I went to dinner

with the Kathie(y)s who I speak of often as friends I left behind in Louisville and who I can not, not see while I am back there. This time I saw a little more of one of them because I was Kathy A's house guest and that was nice. I've stayed with her and her "million" Raggety Ann Dolls before and feel comfortably at home there.
Because the Carnegie is in New Albany, Indiana , the western most of three small city that face Louisville across the river from the north side we decided to have dinner on that side of the river at a resturant with a great view of downtown Louisville. No matter what time of day or night there is a wonderful view of the Ohio river and the bridges that cross it from most tables at this resturant and this night because the sky was clear and the air crisp the view was spectacular. Not knowing what I am doing when I take pictures I attempted to take some night shots and was pleasantly pleased at the distorted images more so than the ones that were more right.

Random images from the opening

I arrived about 6:30 and there was a good size crowd already gathered. There was a jazz trio playing on the mazzanine and the food as always was wonderful.

My latest journey of a thousand miles

began this time when I backed out of the driveway last Tuesday morning. I didn't get as early a start as I had planned. In listening to the weather forecast for MO, IL, IN and KY on Monday night, all states I would have to transverse, I learned there was a prediction of freezing rain for my part of Missouri which extended into the southern parts of Illinois and Indiana. Not good!
When I woke on Tuesday morning and was ready ready to leave, a final check of the weather said, I had to pause my trip button. There was a travel advisory warning of icy road in St Louis and reports of a number of icy road related auto accidents. So I waited until the all clear was announced. The wait caused me to arrive in Louisville much later than planned. I drove through misting to heavy rainfall in places the entire way but a book on CD kept me company and the 400 miles while they did not fly by certainly passed at an untiring pace.

I find solitary long distance driving very relaxing, especially when I am not pressed with an got to be there timeline. Just give me my favorite music and a good book on tape or CD and I am in joy. However I prefer to do the driving in daylight. As my eyes are aging. Who am I fooling, "have aged" night driving is no longer pleasurable. And at short stretches this trip as the sun set and I ran into pockets of fogs, I found myself driving like an old person. You know the ones we talk about who drive too slow and too cautiously.
For those of you who follow my blog you must know by now that I am the world's worst for taking pictures to document every step of my travels or getting them uploaded here. It is usually at the end as I am leaving some place that I think, Gee whiz, I should have documented my time here and then it is too late. The same goes for this trip. As I was packing up at the end of one class day to leave the quilt store I stopped long enough to get a picture of my friend Peggy. She is standing under two samples for a four session class she will be teaching at Austin's Sewing and Educational Center in Louisville which is where I taught 3 classes last week.

 

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