Alaska in the fall

Alaska has 4 seasons but Spring and Fall are really very short. Around Labor Day the more Northern part of the state is already full into change in fall colors but it is later in the month for the colors to change in the southcentral part where I live. Yesterday was rainy all morning but when DH and I left the house later to run errands the skies had cleared and I took some local color shots. Also, as you can see in the higher elevations the rain left it's mark as termination dust. That term came from the time of the gold rush when the snow would touch the top of the mountains. Then they knew they would have to start packing up soon as the passes would be impassable and they would starve without the ability of food/supplies delivery.

The river is Eagle River and the path is at the nature center where we go to hike until August. Every year in August they close that particular trail as the bears frequent it on their way to feasting on the final ending place for many, many salmon. The last great feast for these particular Grizzlies prior to the winter hibernation. Human interaction is frowned upon. There are many other paths to take that don't take you through the bears dining room and other things to see there. One of our favorite places to walk.

Progress report for September

Pulling out my current rotation I thought I would update you on the progress I have made on a couple of my projects. I have worked late a lot lately so I have mostly stitched on just two designs that are more portable for me. I take CHS alphabets and Where my heart blooms with me in the car all the time. I am also working on Sail Away by SB and 17th Century Band sampler and they are not seeing much progress but will pull them out tomorrow to get some stitches in.

I would love to get the border done on Where my Heart blooms this weekend but not so sure I will have that much time to stitch. On the other hand I have made a lot of progress on the vine on CHS alphabets and could possibly get enough time to stitch the rest of the border. I bought 3 skeins of Antique rose when I was last outside to do the flowers in for the border. I still haven't decided what color I am going to fill the bottom part of each block with but I still have 6 blocks to go before I start the fill in part.

I have lots still to do but progress is being made.

I hope to get the last 6 blocks done and maybe even start on one of the squares this weekend. I hope you are having a stitchy weekend too.

Stitchy day

Stitching type of day. My Monday off is usually a stitching day for me. I try to do all the errands and such on Saturday so this is my free day. This was my weekend to work Saturday but I decided I would still try to spend as much time stitching as I could today. There is just so much I want to stitch and I stitch so slowly that progress is slow.

I am over halfway with the outlining of my CHS alphabets boxes. I have one long side of the vine part done but not much else vine wise. I want to work some more of that and to work some on the BBD Where My Heart Blooms. I have finally gotten the bottom half done and now just have the top area of the design to finish.

I have a new Carolyn Hart book playing so I can stitch and a new Nevada Barr book waiting in the wings should I finish the first. A pot of tea, a good book and my stitching. That all spells good day to me.

Have a great day and stitch some if you can.

I am getting the package ready to mail to my in laws of the Anniversary sampler which will soon be a whole year late. I am only a week late with my best friend's birthday gift but it will go in the mail today. My husband is busy for the morning so it is me, the puppa and the two girl cats (who are identical and we call girl cat 1 and girl cat 2). I didn't stitch this week as I have worked late at work and have been too tired. I hope to make up for that this weekend. I have lots of errands and chores to do but I fully intend to get some stitching in as much as I can. I HAVE TO work on my class piece. This white work section needs to get finished so I can move onto some color on this piece. I want to work on Sail Along as I am woefully behind on it and I love it. I also really want to finish As my heart blooms because i really like it and am so much closer to finishing it since we went to Denail last weekend. I got a lot of car stitching as well as mornings before we began our trips into the Park. I also want to finish the CHS alphabet and I have made a lot of progress on the squares but so much still to do and I haven't finished the vine yet. I did get some pink for the flowers while we were in Chicago as I could get similar dyelots. So I am ready but time as always is a factor.
I hope to work my rotation through the end of the year so all my pieces get some work done on them and I can pull some more out of the WIP list and maybe a couple of new starts. I am thinking of starting one of the Hawk Run pieces for my next new start which won't be until later in the year but I like to pre-plan especially when it comes to my stitching. I have read on several blogs where stitchers were doing a house or block a month on one of the Hawk Runs and all made great progress with beautiful finishes to show for it. I just really need to focus on finishes before I consider new starts but I do so love planning what to stitch next. I do want to finish Where the Heart blooms, Sail Away and CHS alphabets this year and catch up on my EGA piece. I will keep Martha Edlin as ongoing piece as will ATS for the next year but looking at my WIP list I have made some progress.
My goal is to finish at least 5 things on my ever enlarging WIP list before the end of the year. Chances are that will be much too an ambitious goal for me with the way work goes but it something good to aim for.

What I did over Labor Day

Since we moved to Alaska 8 years ago we have tried our best to spend Labor Day weekend at Denali National Park and Preserve. If you have been there in the Fall then you know what I mean: if you haven't it should be on your bucket list. It is absolutely my favorite part of Alaska and I never tire of going there and looking for the animals and just enjoying the amazing colors. For me it is my Fall color fix. In Georgia, there are 4 seasons, up here, not so much. Where I live the color change mostly consists of going from the full color of summer to yellow of the birch trees with the dark green of the spruce to a gray white mixture of winter.
I did work on Mary Wigham. This is at Eielson stop with Denali behind the clouds. The wind was brisk I couldn't get a better picture.

My husband was checking out the bookstore and I was soaking up the sunshine and putting a few stitches in Where the heart blooms by Blackbird designs. Didn't know he was watching me stitch.

The next picture is the view from our cabin with the mist in the mornings. It was so much prettier than the picture shows. I sat at the little kitchen table and stitched and just enjoyed the view. The next is just one shot I liked for the colors and last but not least is Denali in all it's glory. Yep, my favorite spot in Alaska.

Next post I will try to get some shots of my stitching. I did a good bit on Where my heart blooms since it was easy to carry around with me as we hiked around. I took a couple of other pieces along but the light was too weak in the cabin to see any smaller count.