Quilts and Casinos

  
Or "David's Best Day".
Either title will work.

On Saturday, Lydia went on a Pub Quilt Crawl Hop all around Skagit and Whatcom County while David was left home to watch soccer and baseball and have Skype conversations with his daughter and grandchildren.
(Or, as Jasper put it, "she's having a 'venture").

There was no way she was getting away with that two days in a row.  I needed some fun, too!
So when it was determined that there was more crawling hopping to do on Sunday, I signed up.

My first question was "Is this going to be a bunch of little old ladies?"
Lydia: "Oh, no that's a very outdated view of people who quilt.  Quilting has EXPLODED - it's huge!"
Me: "Good, so I'll get to see some young chicks?"
Lydia: (glaring)

Well, she was right about the little old ladies.

They weren't all little.

The Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop is an annual event sponsored by locally owned quilt shops in Western Washington, in conjunction with the Western Washington Quilt Shop Association.  

Each shop designs a special quilt block to give away with one piece of Shop Hop theme fabric, one coordinating fabric, and a fabric of the shop's choosing. 

There are 54 shops that participate in the Hop.
Yes!  There are 54 quilt shops in Western WA.  Actually more, since not all participate.
Who knew?

The "Hop" goes for five days (I know!!).
You get a "passport" with all of the participating shops listed.  As you visit each store, they stamp your passport.
If you visit at least 16 shops you are eligible for prizes.  Since Lydia had visited eight on Saturday, we only needed to hit eight more..............

Top Prizes
I'm a little breathless just thinking about this so I will simply quote from the official brochure.

Quilt Retreat
One lucky Hopper will win a two night, three day quilt retreat for themselves and up to nine friends at the beautiful Wild Rose Quilt Shop & Retreat Center in Orting.  Available on a mutually agreeable basis during 2010.  The retreat space includes 10 beds (5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms) and a kitchen connected to the quilting studio.  All above a gorgeous 3200+ bolt quilt shop.
So we could only bring nine others, but still.........

The second thing I learned (after learning how many freakin' quilt shops there are) is the explosion in prices of sewing machines.  I remember buying one for Lydia for $50 for her birthday back in PA.
I don't think that covers the thread these days.  These machines are computers and they do embroidery, quilting and anything else you can think of and they sell for up to TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS!!
Of course, that doesn't include the software you will need.  The ones we looked at were in the $6000-$8000 range but we saw some "cheap" ones for $3500.

"Aunt Mary's" and "Granny's House".
Nope.  No old ladies here.

There is only so much quilting fun one can have before one needs a break.
The only logical place for EVEN MORE FUN would be a casino.

Right?

Right.
The food is pretty good and the price is right so we settled in for some salmon and chips with strawberry shortcake for desert.  Total for the two of us - $5.50.....their prices have gone up. I used to get change from a fiver.

No little old ladies here either......

Lydia won enough to pay for lunch so back on the road we went to finish our quest.  The 16 shop visits needed to be completed by 5 PM Sunday and we made it to the last one in Anacortes at 4:55 PM.

We (OK, Lydia) scored some great fabrics and patterns for future gifts for three little people that we know.

When we arrived back home, David was none the worse for wear.

Well maybe a little shell-shocked.

ME LOVE COOKIES!!!

  
I went to the get the mail today and found a box.

Me: I got something from "L. Farmer"
Nana: Who's that?......Oh yeah, Lucy.

Inside was a card

And a container ..... what could it be?

COOKIES!!

And what does a Cookie Monster do with cookies??

He EATS them!!!

Yum, Yum, Yum Yum, Yum.............

Delicious!!

Thank you, LUCY!!

And thanks to Nana for the photos.

I love you, too.

Stephanie is a Graduate!!

With the whole family in town for the big event, we dined at MaMa Vallone's in the town of Cle Elum.

Properly sated, we repaired back to our lodging for wine and cocktails and prepared for the big day.
We awoke to a glorious Northwest summer day.

And we arrived to a completely full stadium with no seating left expect for on the field itself.
So we settled in.

Finally, it was time for the main event.

Blah, blah, blah, speeches........
And then......

Steph got her diploma!!

And the congratulations began.....

After Steph, Elliott and Debbie finished moving out of their dorm rooms, we headed back over the mountains to Mount Vernon and and a fabulous, Lydia produced, French-themed dinner.

After dinner - presents!

A beautiful necklace and lavender pearl earrings from her brothers.

Guess who made this card?

Brother-made cocktails  on the deck capped off the evening nicely.

  
 


And that was it for the older folks.  The young ones headed out to an upscale watering hole the and night of drinking, pool and fight avoidance.  All tragically unphotographed.

Nana and Grandpa's Cool Day

  
On Saturday we awoke to a glorious, sunny and almost warm day.  And it's only June!!
This could not go to waste.
So we headed up to Concrete and the 10th birthday party for our local winery, Challenger Ridge Winery.

The party began at 11 AM and we were the first to arrive.  Wine tasting before breakfast.....ahh the good life.

We made our way through several whites when our friendly "barista"  mentioned that a motorboat was available to us for a ride on the Skagit River.  We have lived here for over 23 years and have never been on the river, so we jumped at the chance.  She poured us each a glass of 2008 vintage Liberty Bell (a blend of several whites) for the trip and off we went to the boat launch.

That boat moves FAST and it was a challenge to keep our wine from spilling, but we both performed heroically.  There were some wonderful views from the river........

We even managed to see the tip of Mount Baker.

And believe me, these rapids were rougher than they look.

We were the first ones on the boat and had it all to ourselves.  When we returned to the launch, there were nine other waiting to go out.  The entire time we were on the river we did not see another soul.

Upon returning to the party, we found the music had started!   A renowned local bassist was performing, accompanied by a guitarist and a drummer.

They ROCKED the freakin' place out.

The party was really starting to rock now and visitors arrived in all manner of transport and gear.

We settled down to some kielbasa, chips and soda and grooved to the beat.
After stuffing ourselves we needed a walk and check out the grounds.

It was such a great day, it seemed only right to continue east, over the mountains and check out Winthrop and Twisp.  It was easy to convince Nana to go - I promised her an ice cream cone.

Nothing could stop us.

Not snow.....

Or a little rock on the road.

It is a magnificent ride that we hadn't made in many years.

First stop in Winthrop was the promised ice cream cone, then a leisurely stroll through the town and its shops (all tragically unphotographed).  Having recently read a magazine article about Twisp, we headed over to see what we could see.  Despite the late hour of day, we were quite pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in the middle of the Twisp Art Walk.  There were receptions at several galleries and the town was more alive than I have ever seen it.  Quite a change from the place I remember from the mid 90's.
After refreshments, art and music we headed up to Sun Mountain Lodge for dinner and a view.

Sadly, this is the lone photo from our visit but it shows the view from our outside table at the Wolf Creek Bar & Grill in the lodge.
We munched on pizza and beer, watched the sun go down and headed home with smiles.