Ping Steven in Alaska

Oh dear Polly

I sadly must admit that not a stitch has been sewn since around the end of July, and I am not travelling "back home" this year much to the annoyance of family. After 15 years together they still can't quite understand that Bert and I are a family too. So what has the scenario been?

I got a tryptic of an Alaska flower scene done in early June, and a Haida-inspired salmon appliqued. Both are waiting to be machine quilted. I had hoped to this summer, but things were just too busy. I have five out of nine Baltimore blocks done in somewhat untraditional colors, with four more to go. I tried to work on one several weeks ago but was just too keyed up and sat on the floor instead and petted Cedar, a QI that we were babysitting.

On top of all that school started again, and has went very well this term, but we have the last day of finals on Thursday and grades due on Friday so really busy there. We've made both deadlines of 56 and 48 pages for the yearbook and will make the next one by Friday of 40 more pages, so have been very busy proofreading and editing in the evenings.

That is when the evenings have not been consumed by the bathroom-remodel-from-hexx. Which by the way is going much, much better. After the flood we got the vanity and toilet torn out and decided to replace the bottom part of the drywall there as well. All went smoothly and last last week Bert primed and on Sunday I textured the walls and on Monday Bert primed again and painted a most lovely shade of pale sort-of mint green. We then went to Lowe's on Tuesday amidst the snow, more on that later, and got new cabinet for above the washer and dryer and upper vanity cabinets for the other wall. Of course a stationwagon can only hold so much so we'll have to go back later for the vanity and toilet itself. We're now scraping the floor of the linoleum backing and glue. There are four things left to accomplish to call the job done. Tile the floor, tile the shower, replace the vanity and the toilet. Not sure how much will get done over winter break, but I am hopeful.

I also took a college class on-line for recency credits for my certificate renewal and it was nothing like the course description, not much more than a glorified lesson plan rather than integrating technology, full of useless reading and numerous assignments that were required to pass the class but were not graded or a part of our grade. I gritted my teeth and worked my butt off to get a good grade, which I am still waiting to here about.

Back to the snow. It started snowing on Tuesday morning, increased all day, and of course we decided to travel to town. Going in the opposite direction of traffic which was good, but on the way back we passed a half-dozen accidents. It has continued to snow every day since. Our totals are about

6 inches on Tuesday, 8 on Wednesday and about 7 today. We are expecting about 6 inches tonight. Those are the official totals but we are at a higher elevation so we've gotten a bit more. It is all really fluffy stuff, but enough is enough, at least for a bit. Our cul-de-sac hadn't been plowed yet and this morning in my Saturn I was actually plowing snow myself on the way to the corner. The week before that we had fog for six days with visibility only a couple hundred of feet. Better than Valdez though. They have had 36 inches of snow in the last two days and Thompson Pass, part of the only road there, got 7 FEET of snow in the last three days and the road is closed for plowing and avalanche control.

So, one more day of school with students, then my workday, then winter break. Still have Christmas shopping to do as well. I'm trying to get my blog fixed and if I am successful I will post pictures of unfinished projects at least.

Thanks for asking, but not much to report on the quilty front. Hopefully that will change over the next two weeks. Take care all, big hugs and safe holidays.

Steven Alaska

You've done a lot better than me! ALL YEAR I have managed a single quilt block! Oh, I've been sewing madly, just on projects for my delightful but bonkers customers!