Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and Ferries

You may have surmised from the radio silence that I have been traveling. Elaine and I left on October 20 and spent the night in Spokane. Elaine’s sister lives in Seattle, so when I travel there and her schedule allows, Elaine comes with me. She is probably my favorite traveling companion aside from the husband. We have been all over the Pacific Northwest together—Seattle, Portland, Boise, and Moscow, ID.

[This is going to be a very abbreviated travelogue because I have a lot of work to catch up on and because I didn’t take very many photos.]

We arrived in Seattle around noon on Tuesday and I delivered Elaine to her sister. I headed for Tacoma to have dinner with some friends of mine before ending up at a hotel near the airport. On Wednesday morning, I flew to Cleveland to spend a few days with my mother and visit some of my extended family. My mother and I went to a store called Pins and Needles, which is quite the place. They were having a customer appreciation sale, but I did not buy anything because it was a bit overwhelming.

On Sunday, I flew back to Seattle, got on the Bainbridge ferry, and drove over to Port Angeles to see DD#1, DSIL, and his mom and dad. I love his family and they are always so welcoming when I come to visit. His mom had a wonderful dinner of salmon and Dungeness crab ready for me when I arrived.

DD#1 and DSIL just bought a house in Port Angeles. They close on the house on November 13, the movers bring their furniture on the 14th, and he starts his new job on the 17th. The two of them have had a busy couple of weeks. We drove by the house, which is perfect for them. It is secluded, on five acres, and has a fenced garden, greenhouse, and chicken coop as well as a couple of productive apple trees.

Before I left on Tuesday to head back to Seattle, DD#1, her MIL, and I went to a quilt store in Sequim, WA, called A Stitch in Time. What a beautiful store! I picked up two fat quarter bundles of Tim Holtz fabric in the charcoal colorway as well as some fabric to make potholders for DD#1’s new house and some replacement ones for her MIL. The potholders I made for her a few years ago are wearing out because she uses them so much.

After another ferry ride, I was back in Seattle. (Elaine had to be back in Kalispell for some appointments, so she took the train home early in the week.) I stayed at the same Airbnb where I’ve stayed half a dozen times already. DD#2’s boyfriend’s mom is coming to visit in December and she’s going to stay there, too.

DD#2’s boyfriend had a birthday this week and his present was tickets for the three of us to go to a Kraken hockey game. Her apartment is only a few blocks from Climate Pledge Arena, where the Kraken play, so we walked over, had dinner in a restaurant across the street, and then settled into our seats.

I have decided that hockey is my new favorite sport. (I’ve given up on the Cleveland Browns.) It is quite the spectacle:

We can watch Kraken games using our Amazon Prime account, so that is what the husband and I will be doing tonight. They lost this game against the Canadiennes, but it had gone into overtime and was quite exciting.

As I always do when I’m in Seattle, I visited Pacific Fabrics. I bought yardage to make the Butterick tiered skirt pattern and got a yard of pink waxed canvas. I also purchased the Britney quilted vest pattern by Melly and Me:

The sewing queue fairly exploded on this trip. Between potholders, an embroidered baby blanket—DD#2 needs a baby shower gift—a couple of quilted jackets, and a new pattern coming to the store that needs a sample, I have no shortage of projects to work on in the next few weeks.

I made a trip up to Snohomish, too, to visit Quilting Mayhem. My friend Deana and I had gone there on our trip to Seattle in July. They had just put out the new Bella quilted coat pattern from byAnnie.com that morning, so I bought a copy.

I am itching to get back to my sewing machine. I took some English paper piecing supplies with me but ended up knitting on this trip, instead. I’ll talk about that in tomorrow’s post.