#1 son and his surprising sewing talent!

So, I've been doting on my little grandsons lately, so I have to catch you up on something fun for my son, Dan.  He's the guy who lives way out in northwest Montana, loving life in the mountains around Glacier National Park.  He and his girlfriend, Jessica, find many ways to enjoy the outdoors there.  they ski a lot, sometimes clear UP the mountain when the lifts aren't running.

And then, there's the biking, and even though there's still plenty of snow at the higher elevations, they will bike up as far as they can go.  This picture is from Going-To-The-Sun Highway, running across Glacier Park.  It's really steep and narrow and winding, and full of cars when all the snow is cleared.  That's still awhile in the future.  But while the plows are still working, bicyclists have the freedom to use the open sections without worrying about being run off the road.  

 Between work and play, Dan has developed a new little sideline business.  It's named Totes Magotes,  a name I knew nothing about but sounds quirky, so I googled and learned this:

Totally, meaning 'Of Course' 

First used in the movie 'I Love You Man'

- Are you coming to that party on Saturday? 

- Totes Magotes! I'm so there.

Even his business cards are quirky!

He has started offering the bags on his new Etsy shop, and is discovering the many ways that a sewing machine can come in handy!  He's using one of my older machines and a gifted serger on his dining table to put the bag pieces together.  I think he started learning to sew when he wanted to repair and/or tailor some of his own clothing.  I taught him the basics and he's self-taught from there.  He really does a good job, even his a good cutting mat with rotary cutter and ruler.  And he knows how to use an iron, too!  That started way back in high school when he had a job that required neatly pressed khaki pants every day.

I gave him a recycled burlap coffee bean bag a few years ago, made by my friend, Kristina.  Eventually, he became interested in the idea of making his own, after a lot of people saw his bag and liked it.  Now he has 3 bag designs that he makes and sells.  The main bag is about the size of a paper grocery bag, and there's a smaller version for kids or book or lunch.  Then he has developed a specialty bag to hold a yoga mat, too.  They're shown below:

He even makes custom orders with painted designs.
This was an order from Canada for a Mother's Day gift.

Every coffee bean bag comes from roasteries in Montana, plus a couple imports from Minnesota!  Every bag is different.  That burlap can be pretty tough.  He found out that sewing through bits of bark will break your needle!

He's been stockpiling some bags in order to offer them for sale at the Farmer's Market in Whitefish when that starts up.  I've been to that market, and it's a good one.  A really good community event.  So if you see a bag on his Etsy shop, you should get it now before that market opens.  It's fun to see him learn how things are made, and then figure out how to do it.  He will really take on just about anything!  When both my kids were little, I always tried to convey the message that it's always worth a try to learn anything new.  It might not work out, but it also might be fun!  No matter what, Dan will always know how to run a sewing machine!

If you shop on his Etsy page, tell him mom sent you!

More Montana

Last Sunday we had a unique experience.  Glacier National Park offers weekend snowshoe hikes led by a park ranger.  Most of the roads through the park are closed all winter, but the West Entrance is open and the Apgar Visitor Center near there.  We were part of a group of about 12 that spent 2 hours walking through the woods and learning some things about the winter environment from Anna, our leader.  It's a great program and doesn't cost anything unless you need to rent the snowshoes for $2.  

A snow shower from the treetops looks like a veil behind the tree trunks.

 There was some accumulation of new snow over the weekend, so Monday found Bob and Dan out skiing on Big Mountain at Whitefish Mountain Resort.  Bob had not skied in quite awhile, but he had a good day with tired legs afterwards.  Dan skis often, so he knows the terrain and people and hangouts well.  In fact, he regularly skis UP the mountain in the morning before the lifts open and before work.  There are specialized skis and boots that convert for use on the uphill as well as downhill runs.  That is one super fitness plan!  

The view from the mountain slope out towards the lake and town of Whitefish.

And, of course, warming up with a beautiful coffee drink is a good part of the winter fun!  And since we met Matthew, the barista, at the Sunday Super Bowl party, we were happy to see a familiar face.  There is such a great small town feel here!

Montana Coffee Traders has a great coffee shop on Main Street in Whitefish, a coffee roastery on the edge of town, and additional coffee shop locations.

Today we are winging back to Minnesota and some more cold weather.  Delta runs direct flights between Minneapolis and Kalispell, so we are always watching for a good deal on tickets!  Next trip has to be during the warmer weather months!

Winter vacation in Montana

 We landed in Kalispell, MT, Friday afternoon during a snowstorm.  The plane had to circle the airport awhile to find a break in the snow with visibility improved so we could land.  Dan lives about 20 miles from there, in Whitefish.  We are spending a few nights here with him, catching up on what's going on with our son.

Dan's windowsill garden of succulents seems to be thriving despite the snowbanks on the other side of the glass!

We watched the Whitefish Winter Festival parade from the top of the Great Northern Brewing Company right on the parade route.  Father and son enjoying a brew, and there seems to be some similarity in neckwear!  Snowflakes were falling, as was happening off and on throughout the day.

The Festival theme this year was One Fish, Two Fish, Whitefish.  A lot of Dr. Seuss fun!

Bob made friends with part of the Cindy Lou Who Crew!

We've done some walking around the area on the city trail system.  They are kept very well-cleared, and easy to access.  This picture was down on Whitefish Lake, with the ski resort seen up on the mountain when the clouds lifted.  Not much sunshine to be found Saturday, but we were part of a crowd watching the Penguin Plunge anyway.  Crazy people jumping into crazy cold water!  It made me flinch just to watch!

Warm and cozy at the Taphouse, choosing from their extensive list of beverages.

And there was even some sewing done!  Dan is using his spare time to craft market totes and yoga bags from burlap coffee bean bags.  This little serger, kindly donated for a good cause by Debbie, flew with us on this trip to Montana.  He's using it to finish off the rough edges of the burlap, and sew the linings of regular cotton fabric.  This is working great, but we may have to look for some heavy-duty equipment if he continues with this idea!  He's doing such a good job of teaching himself how to construct these bags.  I've given him some instruction along the way as far as running the machine and understanding the basic construction, but he has a rack of bags already made and ready to sell at some local places, plus at the Farmer's Market in the spring.  He's a quick learner!

We are going to be getting a lot more snow in the next couple of days, we'll hope we can still carry on our plans to snowshoe in Glacier National Park and ski on Whitefish Mountain.
From the National Weather Service for this area:

..WINTER STORM WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM MST MONDAY...
...BLIZZARD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH
MONDAY MORNING...

* IMPACTS/TIMING: LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH
  THIS MORNING BEFORE ANOTHER EVEN MORE ROBUST WEATHER SYSTEM
  ARRIVES LATER THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH MONDAY.

* LATE TONIGHT THROUGH MONDAY: VERY HEAVY SNOW WILL COMBINE WITH
  INCREASING EAST WINDS TO CAUSE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS. SNOWFALL
  RATES OF 2 INCHES PER HOUR WILL BE LIKELY. ROADS WILL BECOME
  IMPASSIBLE THROUGH MONDAY MORNING. VISIBILITY WILL LOWER TO
  LESS THAN ONE QUARTER MILE. SNOW DRIFTS OVER ROADS WILL MAKE
  DRIVING TREACHEROUS AND SNOW PLOW OPERATIONS DIFFICULT.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS: 15 TO 35 INCHES THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT.
  HIGHWAY 2 OVER MARIAS PASS COULD SEE A STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL
  AMOUNT EXCEEDING 50 INCHES.

* WINDS TONIGHT THROUGH MONDAY: 15 TO 25 MPH WITH LOCALLY STRONGER
  GUSTS.

I love how they use the word "robust" to describe the expected storm!

feeling lucky!

I know there's a lot of problems all around the world, and many things to obsessively worry about it I choose to go that way.  However, I'm am trying to maintain a positive feeling in my everyday life, without being Pollyanna-ish.  I just had a great time with my mom visiting us, and a quilt retreat, and a relaxing weekend.  I am even feeling really good about the fact that we have done a thorough sort and purge and reorganization of another storage closet!  

And some really fun things to look forward to on the horizon, too-- Dan visiting and bringing Jessica to meet us, a couple more quilt retreats planned, and, drumroll please, 

another grandson due in March!  Woo-hoo!

2 weeks ago while on quilt retreat, a few of us took a field trip to a new (to me) quilt shop in called Altoona, WI.  That's on the eastern border of Eau Claire.  It's called Stitch Supply.  I will definitely be going there again!  They have the largest assortment of Cotton + Steel fabrics that I have seen.  It kinda required me to buy several fat quarters of some of the prints that we haven't ordered for Bear Patch.  Don't they look fun?!  Odd bugs, fountain pens, rotary dials, matchsticks, jacks...

Good additions to my fabric gallery!

My mom stayed with us for a few days after that retreat, then flew out to Whitefish, MT, to visit Dan.  She can get a direct flight from Minneapolis to Kalispell, which makes it easy.  She was there 5 days, then came back to our house for an overnight before returning to Iowa.  Before she left Montana, she asked if she could bring me anything.  I jokingly said I would love a fresh huckleberry pie.  Well, she carried a piece of that pie all the way back to me!  I was so excited!  I'm eating only a little at a time so I can make it last!

After finishing up my recent garment sewing experience - and I will definitely try to get a picture of it in action - I really wanted to get back to sewing some quilt blocks.  So I picked up where I left off at retreat and went back to work on these faux wedding ring blocks--

I have some sewn together, and the rest in different stages of assembly.    I would like to get this done to put on the class schedule at the store after the 1st of the year.  

I did complete another small quilt, below, that could also become a class.  It's called Timbuktu, and I started working on it last January.  It requires the use of the X-blocks ruler.  After I got the quilting done, I couldn't remember if I had binding for it already picked out.  A lot of times I do that, and I usually put a little label on that piece of fabric and store it in a little box.  Labeled "Bindings", of course!  I looked all over the place for a cut of that green fabric because it seemed logical to me that I would have chosen that for the binding.  I never could find it, and it finally dawned on me that maybe it was a different fabric.  I found what was left from the backing fabric, and there was plenty of that to cut binding strips, so that's what I did!

Last week at Bear Patch, we received an order that included these hexagon pre-cuts of the most recent Tula Pink fabric line.  They work just right with my 2" hexagon papers for English Paper Piecing, so I have been getting those ready to stitch together.  Tonight is our employee sewing night at the store and I will be taking that along to work on.

I recently wrote about our English paper piecing group at Bear Patch, and I included the recipe for a yummy dip that I made.  Today I am making it again to share with my co-workers!  Time to get to the grocery store and pick up a few things needed!  I hope your day is lucky, too!

souvenirs with special meaning

One of our little side trips during vacation in Montana was to the Glacier Round House Pottery shop in the country near Columbia Falls.  We were there almost 2 years ago and liked their style, so this year we brought a few more pieces of Montana back to Minnesota!  Nice people designing and crafting their goods in a beautiful big yurt.  Actually 2 yurts, I think 1 is their residence.  I remembered that we had a common bond of Gustavus Adolphus College, too, so you know they are good people!

My souvenirs from Glacier Round House Pottery--
serving bowl, 2 glasses/mugs and a drip coffee maker complete
 with a cloth reusable filter.

 I used the drip coffee maker with cloth filter this morning, since I was making coffee for 1, and it worked just peachy!

Are you wondering what I've actually been doing for fabric fun lately?  Well, I did manage to visit 3 quilt shops and 2 yarn shops on the trip, so some fiber found its way into my suitcase along with the pottery!  But aside from that, I have spent a few evenings finishing up the blocks and assembly for this:

It was started last January on retreat and it took a bit to pull it together.  It's all paper pieced so ranks high on the list of putziness, but that's the best way to achieve these triangles and shapes without losing my mind!  Here's the pattern, available at Bear Patch--

 I used a gray "shot cloth" for my background fabric.  It gives a real nice finished look, but I have to admit I didn't like working with it so much because it ravels so easily.  But it turned out well in the end, so that's a good thing!

During downtime on our flight or while taking it easy instead of hiking, I had a simple little knitting project along.  The pattern is Sarah's Fingerless Gloves, free on Ravelry.  The yarn was Adriafil from Knitcol, an Italian company.  It's washable wool in a DK weight which is slightly heavier than sock yarn.  I finished them back at home and now they are drying after a bubble bath.

I've also started a new pair of fingerless gloves.  This is a pattern and wool yarn from the Polka Dot Sheep from Knit 'n Needle Yarn Shoppe in Whitefish, MT.  The shop is the home of Polka Dot Sheep goods.  I bought a yarn called Tenderfoot, in the Stillwater color.  It's 80% wool and 20% nylon in a fingering weight.  Would be great for socks, that nylon helps the wool last longer.  I learned early on that pure wool yarn looks and feels great, but doesn't last as long as the nylon blends when being walked upon all day!  I had great help from the woman working in the shop with figuring out what would work best for me.  They are very helpful by phone or online, as well.  This turned out to be my Mother's Day gift from Dan because he had gone to the shop and purchased a gift certificate for me.  Thanks!

I loved the chance to visit one of my most favorite quilts at Dan's!  I even got to sleep beneath it!  This is a New York Beauty quilt by Jan Stone, sewn in 2000-2001 for Dan's high school graduation gift.  He has taken very good care of it!  I just looked up the pattern so I could link it for you.  It's out of print but available on Amazon for a mere $196!  Guess I'll be hanging onto my copy!

more montana

Now that I'm back home and back in the groove, it's good to refresh my memory about some of the fun things we did.  And share them with you!

Here's an idyllic little spot in the Mt. Fernie Provincial Park in British Columbia.  We were walking a trail and I noticed jet tracks cutting across the sky almost like they were synchronized flights!  Right above this lush spot with a rushing river.  

On another day, back in the US, we drove from Dan's place up Big Mountain to the Whitefish Ski Resort area.  And there is a trail there called the Danny On trail, cutting across the snowless ski runs, under the vacant and still chair lifts.  We kept going upward for quite aways, but we didn't get to the end.  You see, I'm a fraidy cat when it comes to cliffs and things, and when there's very little but open air along one side of the trail, I have lots of second thoughts.  I'm doing much better than I used to because I have been pushing myself, but I was out of my comfort zone.  We talked to 2 girls that had started the trail just before us, they were coming back down because there was a fallen tree across the trail.  Plus it was time for our sandwiches and fruit!  So we sat down for a bit, admired the scenery and the bits of snow still remaining.  Keeping the trails clear, no matter where we hiked, was clearly a big job because we saw many fresh cuts of trees that had come down during the winter.  I have a hard enough time just getting myself up those trails, I can't even imagine doing it with chain saws and tools!

One very nice thing about visiting Dan is that I also get to visit some of my quilts and quilty stuff.  I wrote about my Yeti project before, but I had neglected to take a picture of the finished pillowtop.  The quilting was fun on this.  It's 22" square.

Bob and I did several day hikes while Dan was at work.  The tables have officially turned with parents goofing off and son slaving away!  Here's one of those less traveled paths--

If you are curious and want to know about current conditions in Glacier Park, they have several webcams operating and viewable by anyone with a computer.  When we were at the lookout tower on Apgar Mountain, we were able to get our picture on that webcam and timed it so Dan could snap a picture of it from his office!

I've been taking pictures of lots of different flowers, and this was a special discovery.  It was beside a trail near Fernie, BC.  When I saw it, I thought it was something rare because it was the only one I saw anywhere.  Now that I've had a chance to look it up, I found that it is Fritillaria, I think, but I'm not totally sure.  And it does seem to be something not frequently seen in the wild.  Guess I was lucky to spot it!

call me huckleberry hound

Yesterday Dan and Lauren took us up the gondola on Whitefish Mountain and showed us how to find and pick huckleberries.  These are a local delicacy, and folks get sort of territorial about the berry patches in the wild.  We did not witness any berry wars!  We just wandered around the mountainside a bit and didn't have to look far to find some bushes.  These berries are a little small, they do develop larger when given the right growing conditions.  We were picking them simply to eat, not collecting a bunch like a few other people we saw.  When we arrived in Whitefish last Sunday night, we were treated to a fresh huckleberry galette (sort of a rustic pie) that was delicious.  Now that I have seen how hard it is to gather any significant number of berries without eating them, I am so impressed that Dan and Lauren shared their berries with us in a pie!

Today has been spent on the road, after forcing ourselves to reluctantly leave the kids and Whitefish behind.  We did so many fun things, and have some left to do next time!

We drove east across the middle of Montana, with rain most of the way.  There had been significant rains in some areas, with lots of water in ditches, etc.

Even covering the road that we had to drive through!  There was a police-type person there who told us it was safe to drive slowly on the left side of the road, which Bob did while I pictured the car floating out to the prairie!  

I have had a chance to do some hand stitching on these wool applique samples for a future class for Bear Patch.  I did most of the preparation before leaving home.  I finished up the cornucopia that I had begun back at home.  Then today I got almost all of the candy cane done.  And tonight in our hotel I did the pressing to fuse the snowman all together so he is ready for stitching tomorrow.  I can stitch without motion sickness when the road is pretty smooth and straight, as it is in a big chunk of eastern MT as well as the rest of North Dakota that we will cover tomorrow.

patterns from Buttermilk Basin

 Before leaving Whitefish, I did make stops at a couple of shops for more "souvenirs"--

first, at Whitefish Quilts.

I found some odds and ends, patterns by local designers, a bit of fabric, etc.  I always like to find things that I won't find easily back home in Minnesota, and I really scored at this shop!  Some fabric lines that we don't have at Bear Patch, a sweet little ruler that will always remind me where I got it, some applique designs from an Alaskan woman with blueberries and lupines, both appropriate for MN, too!  The woman working (sorry, I didn't get her name) was very good at answering my questions and giving suggestions.

Then I hopped over about 3 blocks to Knit 'n Needle.  Their online presence is Polka Dot Sheep, selling both their own patterns and now their own yarn, too.  I liberated 2 skeins of yarn and one little pattern to bring home with me!  Jill was working there and was so friendly and helpful.

I think that pretty much covers the yarn and fabric shopping portion of this trip!  I did even get a little bit of sew time because I took my machine (Viking) out for Dan to experiment with.  He's interested in making some tote bags so we had a little sewing lesson.  If only I could have stayed longer, I could have taken him through the construction of a whole bag.  Instead, I left him some instructions and spare fabric to practice on.  I'm sure he can create something amazing!

comfy and happy

One of the key things about this type of vacation is comfort.  Relaxed clothing, no schedule, casual meals and companions who do likewise.  Leisl caught me late last night --

I was happy to accomplish putting together all of the blocks for this fun new quilt.  It is a pattern by Bee In My Bonnet.

I also got some work done on this "pinwheel flower" quilt that I am making for a class to be presented this winter at Bear Patch.  I am writing the pattern as I go.  It will have a row of green grass all around the outside, but I don't have enough of the green fabric here to finish it all, so that will happen after I get back home.  Fortunately, there is still a bit of that fabric left at the store and tucked away waiting for me.  Otherwise, we would be on Plan B.  Always good to have a backup plan!

 And I have spent time tracing, fusing and cutting pieces for this picture that will go out to Montana when it is completed.  It is designed by McKenna Ryan, one of her many Pine Needles patterns.

I purchased the pattern when shopping at the Backdoor General Store in Whitefish, MT.  They are a combo gift shop/quilt shop, featuring many of the Pine Needles patterns and samples because McKenna Ryan has lived (or currently lives?) there.  I had a very nice chat with the shop owners and hope I can return.

The Backdoor General Store in Whitefish, MT.

And that wraps up all of the excitement for me today at Causeway on Gull resort.