Quick trip to the Islands

Yesterday my brother Steve, Lizzie and her friend Sabrina and I went up to San Juan Island for my cousin's 50th wedding anniversary party. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and we had a very nice day. Getting to the islands requires a 2.5 hour drive up to Anacortes, WA, then getting on the ferry for almost a 2 hour ride to San Juan Island. We walked on without the car, since the party was only 4 blocks from the ferry dock in Friday Harbor. Here's a picture of the Harbor from the patio of the party place. We spent about an hour browsing in some shops and took the girls to the Whale Museum, which was right next door...I took their picture sitting inside the skeleton of one of the local orcas that they had on display. (Lizzie on the left, Sabrina on the right). They were quite grossed out by a human brain they had on display...it was shown in size comparison to the whale brain. They kept going back to it and saying ewwww!!

My cousin Dale used to be a teacher at the Junior High school my brother and I attended, way back 35+ years ago, and Virginia was the librarian at my high school. Several of our teachers they were friends with were at the party, so it was interested to become reacquainted with our old teachers on an adult level and reminisce about the way things used to be. One of my old school mates was there also. I remember him, but he didn't remember me. Not that I expected him to as he was 2 years older than I am, and we had 1200 kids in the school.

But it was a fun day. One more week until I start my new job. I still have quite a few loose ends to tie up and some job knowledge transfer to accomplish at my current job this week...so it should go by quickly.

Von wanted to know where I found the pattern for the hardanger ornament I stitched (see previous post). I found it in Miniature Masterpieces by Janice Love. It is called Joy d'Love, on page 26 of the book. She has a note on the pattern page that an experienced hardanger stitcher who stitches quickly should be able to complete this design in 4-6 hours. It took me about 5, but I left off all the picots, or it would have taken me 10!!! (probably not, but like I said, I don't like doing picots). It took longer to pull all the threads for the lacy edge than to stitch them!! So over an hour of my 5 hours was pulling threads!! They hadn't seen the card yet when we left the party, so I wish I could have seen their faces when they opened it. My cousin Dale is quite a cross stitcher, and likes to do large, intricate cross stitch pieces. He enters a lot of them in the fair, and usually wins a ribbon. He also enjoys Swedish Huck weaving! I knew they would appreciate the stitching!