Absolutely Legendary Sasquatch Quilt Top

This quilt is legend... wait for it... dary.

Based on Elizabeth Hartman's Legendary quilt pattern, launched recently, but totally supersized. The moment I saw the pattern on Instagram I knew I had to do this. The sasquatch itself originally finishes  at 18'' in the pattern. With a little quilt math I made it 5 times the size. Or, if you are so inclined to believe, life size. That made the sasquatch over 90'' tall and nearly 60'' wide.

The idea of trees on the side was improvised and added because we wanted this quilt to be big enough for the entire family. Now it comes in around 90'' square. Plus, the sasquatch has context now.

The making of this quilt was a family project over the holiday break. I knew that if I was going to get any sewing in I had to expect the kids in there with me. Rather than get frustrated by that, I decided to  invite them in for this group project.

You see, we are a family addicted to Bigfoot shows. None of us actually believe in the legend, but the shows are fun to watch and it's become a family joke to observe squatchy landscapes and conjecture about samsquanch (as we oddly refer to it).

So the kids were actually quite excited to make this quilt. After I did the match we sorted through my brown stash (small) and scrap bins (smaller) and whites/creams/greys for the right fabrics. I cut everything  - discovering that a transcription error was my only mistake!. As a team we sewed. 

It was the first time I let the girls use my Bernina. A bit confusing at first with no presser foot lever, but they were amazing. Can I just say? Thank goodness for adjustable speeds! We got into a rhythm with me prepping, one sewing, one pressing. Sure, there were times when their attention died out and wrestling matches were started - and quickly stopped because we were in the sewing room. Overall, I was pretty impressed with how engaged they were in the project.

My son sewed for the first time. You should have seen his excitement! He sat on my lap and covered my hands with his and we sewed together. He even admonished me if my fingers got too close to the presser foot. 

Unfortunately, my husband was quite sick the last week of the break. So his contribution, other than feeble encouragement, was to shout design ideas or selections from the sofa in the next room. That, and keeping us on a steady diet of Finding Bigfoot for the kiddos when their energy for sewing changed.

Everyone is on me to get this quilted ASAP. My Evil Genius voted for the backing to be a scrappy green one, which I think is a good idea. It will work with brown, white, and green thread on the front. I just hope I can get them all involved with floor washing and basting if they want it done quickly.

Orange Log Cabin Variations For My Son

A certain 3 year old boy is very, very excited for this quilt. I finished the top last week and his impatience for a finished quilt may not outlast my desire to wait for a certain fabric to be released in a few weeks, a fabric I want for the back of this. (Hoping for the large scale print from Carkai.)

His impatience for the quilt is only slightly above his impatience for enough snow to go sledding. If he can't ride his bike then that is an acceptable alternative. With the first snow only arriving yesterday and days staying below freezing it is an odd limbo that is tantamount to torture. But he has both the quilt and the snow to look forward to, right?

If you want to be a really good blogger, I recommend never making quilts with orange or red in them. So damn hard to photograph! Well, at least with my skills it is. But his favourite colour is orange and so orange the quilt must be. This is was the best I can do with the shot. Oy.

My plan for quilting is either an organic grid or something all over. It's a busy quilt top, so the quilting provides texture more than anything. Just need to get that fabric and wash my floors.

Peacemakers/Piecemakers

"Mom? Who was the lady on the bus again?"

We're driving down the road to get to swimming. I've felt busy all day long with wonderfully middle class privileges of baking snacks from scratch, walking the dog, and trying to get some work done at home. The kids, picked up from school and play dates, are in the back of our large wagon and we are chatting about their days. The Monster is telling me about the unit they are doing on Peacemakers. There is Craig Kielburger from Free the Children, Malala, and the lady on the bus. She just can't remember her name. Or, frankly, why she is a peacemaker.

This one bit of information is all she gives me but I know exactly who she is speaking of: Rosa Parks.

For the rest of the drive we talk about segregation, racism, The Civil Rights movement, the role of children, all their friends of many colours, and just why Rosa Parks is a peacemaker. The girls thought about their school and imagined life without some of their friends, without learning about the places we've all come from. I thought about the same thing. We were all very sad. I had to explain that despite all the work that there are still ugly people doing ugly things to people just because of the way they look or who they love. Again, we were sad.

But then we talked about the peacemakers. The people who were willing to stand up for the good and the right and the just. The people who fought for those who couldn't fight. And I was proud. Proud of them for understanding the importance of that action, for getting exactly what injustices they were/are fighting, and for wanting to fight themselves.

A quilt can be a statement. It isn't a call to arms nor is it going to change the world. It really might only be for me to process and remember the peacemakers. Regardless, it needs to be made. I need to make it. And I will share it with my kids and you, for the lady on the bus.

... I went back to these blocks a few weeks ago, on the anniversary of the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham. I added skirts, I changed directions. Now I think I know where I will take it. There will be, appropriately, a Courthouse Steps final layout. There will be some peace with my piecing.

The Opposite of Grounded

Flighty.

Scattered.
Chaos.
Distracted.

Whatever you want to call it, that's how I've been feeling lately. It's been hard for me to focus on anything, let alone quilting. Yet I think it is because I haven't been quilting that I feel this way.

My best friend leads meditation and teaches yoga, among other things. She is a very grounded person. Quite often we've discussed the comparisons between a yoga practice and quilting. I get the same benefit as a committed practice from sewing. It is a meditative process, this sewing stuff. I calm down and gain focus. At the end of the day, quilting grounds me.

I found this definition from a random article. Regardless of the source, the sentiments describe the exact feelings I have. It wasn't until I was talking to my friend that I realized that grounding was what I didn't have.

"To me, being grounded means being fully present: physically, emotionally and energetically. It means your mind is not wandering or pulling your energy elsewhere. Your heart and soul are not searching somewhere in the past or looking into the future."
- Catherine Warner

The spring was quite momentous. I turned 40! You Inspire Me To Quilt came out! My childhood home was sold. So much going on. A lot to celebrate and enjoy. I spent so much time with friends and family, never have I felt more loved and happy.

Other than some hand sewing, however, not much has happened in the studio. Not only are the girls are on summer break, we helped my Mom move and went on a 2 week road trip. My soul is calling for a few days tucked away into my sewing room with no interruptions.

Too bad for my soul, it isn't going to get that. Instead I need to piece together little bits of time and put it in the schedule. The reality of 3 kids and summer break means there isn't a lot of time. Especially since my guy isn't in the mood to nap much anymore. So a little bit of PBS kids here, skipping the Daily Show... oh wait, and an early morning there to feed my soul and bring me back to grounded.

Quilting keeps me focused on the present, on what is right in front of you. In fact, if you don't pay attention you can seriously hurt yourself! And now that quilting is my business my mind is constantly on other things and I am forever planning, plotting, and perceiving things incorrectly. It has taken me away from the immediate process and the benefit of that. At the same time, my desire to quilt is taking me away from my family and the focus they deserve. Not to mention the state of my house.

Long story short, I need to get my s*%$ together. Clean and create a space both physically and mentally for all the things I need to focus on. Keep purging in the house to make the space clear of the extra, distracting things. Carve out a dedicated time for sewing and stick to it. Internalize my influences and inspirations for the time being. And hang on to my family now, laugh with them and make life epic all the time. Even if epic means nothing but playing with the sprinkler.

In the meantime, here are a few snippets of our recent road trip. Calgary to Vegas to Arizona (oh, Arizona!) and back. With stops in Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming for good measure.

All the Doilies

These doilies were made by the most surprising of people. My Dad. My big, Eastern European, house building dad. He had meaty hands, ones I never would have guessed were capable of such delicate work.

I have the ones he made and gifted when he was going through chemo five years ago. And recently, while cleaning out my Mom's house in anticipation of a move, we came across a whole pile of much more delicate ones. They graced our living room furniture when that was the style, but they'd sat in a closet for years since. So we split them among the family and I have this collection.

It will be time to do something with these because I don't exactly have a doily on the sofa back kind of a style.



In the meantime, I wrote about my Dad's doilies in the latest issue of Uppercase Magazine. This particular issue has postage and lace as a theme. It truly is a pretty issue. Well, they all are! But this one feels nostalgic and cozy while still being visually invigorating.

If you have any links or suggestions on reusing/upcycling the doilies, please post and share.

Sarcasm and Orange

We are a sarcastic household. So much so that The Monster's third grade teacher has made a point to comment that most kids don't fully appreciate sarcasm until they are closer to twelve. Not our kids. (She was fully getting it when she was 3.) So when my husband constantly tells the kids "Orange is for nerds!" whenever they wear orange they all know that he is being a smart@ss, not serious. Especially when he says it wearing his own orange jacket.

Not surprisingly, my son's favourite colour is now orange.

After cleaning up my studio this week I set about to sorting out some storage. One of the bins I opened contained a few of these blocks - samples for the Scrapper's Delight class I sometimes teach. With our family conversations and my boy's recent birthday I felt totally inspired to combine everything into one bright quilt for him. I added more fabrics from my stash and the scrap bins to compliment the first few blocks. Each block is currently squared up to 12.5'' x 12.5'', just like the original pattern.

How fun is this quilt? I am having fun making more blocks. That's a good thing, because to get this up to bed size I need to make 49 of these in total. But the blocks are super easy and a great way to unwind at the end of the night.

Caterpillar from Sherbet in A Month of Sundays

Caterpillar

66'' x 85''

One day my nephew will understand exactly how much I love him because I put all this Charlie Harper cardinals fabric on the back of his quilt. For now he knows that I think he is pretty awesome and funny and cute and full of spirit. And he knows I want him to be warm and snuggly and have bright things around him. All because Aunty Cheryl made him a quilt.

This isn't his first quilt from me, he did get a baby quilt when he was born. But this is his first quilt as a boy. He's nearly 4 and within second of giving it to him he was running around the house with it as a cape, wrestling with his brother on it, and has slept with it every night since. Now that is a quilt success!

This quilt started off as a class sample for teaching Sherbet (from A Month of Sundays) last year at Quilt Canada. The class was great as I walked everyone through the steps for making this quilt. It is an easy quilt to make, but it takes some time with the cutting, strip piecing, cutting again, and assembly. It is worth every bit of effort.

When I decided to appropriate my class sample for my nephew I adjusted only the size of the final borders, making it more fitting for a twin bed.

With the original made in a lovely palette of low volume fabrics with a solid Snow background this version stands in sharp contrast. I definitely turned up the volume on this one! I think it works wonderfully both ways. Just shows that the patterns in A Month of Sundays don't have to be limited to low volume fabrics.

This quilt was quilted (by me) on the APQS long arm, rented at my LQS. I used a variegated thread in reds. oranges, and yellows from Wonderfil. In the end we called the pattern a watery meander. It came together quite quickly and worked perfectly.

As I said, one day my nephew will appreciate the depth of my love through this quilt (and my actions) but right now I think I can sense his total appreciation too.

Christmas Tree Quilt

Christmas Tree Quilt

64'' x 70''

Sometimes you get something in your head and HAVE to do it. I thought that about three or four years ago, when I cut all those blue and green squares for a quilt. Then life got in the way and I never made it. After my quilting mess a couple of weeks ago I got cranky. I didn't want to bind or quilt. I wanted to piece a top. And not just make blocks, contributing to one of my many other ongoing projects. I wanted to make a whole quilt top. So I looked to my quilts under construction for possibilities.

Conveniently, these blocks were cut and sitting in a pretty little pile at the bottom of my closet. And they always were intended for a Christmas quilt. It was meant to be.

I must have anticipated a layout like this, I can't quite remember. But I had enough blocks cut, with only a handful leftover, to do this.

My quilting disaster happened on a Thursday. On Friday afternoon, while the Garbage Truck napped and the girls watched a movie, I got all those rows together. By Sunday night, while Hubby was playing hockey, I got the top pieced. All that background fabric only accounts for 6 pieces. Some thinking was required to get there, but it wasn't difficult sewing.

The next Thursday I was back at the long arm and this was the first quilt on the machine. Just a straightforward simple meander. Big and loose and loopy. It was fast, a good warm up for the other work I needed to do, and perfect. I could barely see the quilting as I was doing it - Aurifil white on that dotted Robert Kaufman print - so there was no point obsessing over how to quilt it. After loading the quilt it took me about an hour to get it done.

Lucky for me I had some turquoise binding already made for a photo shoot back in the spring. So that went on that Thursday night. And two days later - a record for me - I had the binding done and the last threads buried. 

What a sweet print for the backing. I don't exactly stash Christmas fabric. And the LQS I was at obviously has a pretty serious clientele for Christmas fabric. They usually have a huge stash, but most of it was gone when I went to the store to get something. But I really wanted to extend the holiday theme to the back. Something fun and pretty for the family. This candy print fit the bill. And I love the pink on the back. 

While this is technically a quilt for the whole family, I did kind of make it for my little guy. He's coming up on 3 and currently obsessed with Christmas. He gets it this year and the waiting has been sheer torture for him. If you ask him what he wants for Christmas - which adults love to do to children - all he answers is "A Christmas Tree!" We don't normally get ours until the weekend before Christmas so this way he got one a little bit early.

And he's already taking advantage of it. 

 May you and yours have a wonderful holiday (if you celebrate). And may you find joy, peace, and love. Throw in some giggles and a romp outside for good measure.

Sunday Morning Quilt in Solids

Hello New Quilt! Despite my best intention to forge ahead and finish the stack of quilts awaiting binding, quilting, and more, I HAD to start a new quilt. And I'm totally justifying it because I wanted a new sample for a class.

Do the blocks there look familiar? It may be hard to pick out, but these are the same blocks that are in the Sunday Morning pattern from Sunday Morning Quilts. The original quilt is full of low volume goodness, whispering of Sunday morning delights. I think it might be the most made quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts (after slabs). At least, it is the one I see the most online.

I'm teaching Sunday Morning in a upcoming class at My Sewing Room. While I knew I wanted to make a new sample for the class - to show that you can indeed make it without using low volume fabrics - I wasn't entirely sure what fabrics I was going to use. Then I saw Amanda Jean playing with her solid scraps. Now, if you've been here for any length of time you know that I am not naturally drawn to solids. But her play with scraps got me jazzed. I NEEDED to make something with solids.

So I pulled out my leftovers from the preschool teacher's quilt and 'made scraps'. After making 5 blocks I realized I wasn't going to get very far with just my selection of solids. So I put the call out to my Calgary Modern Quilt Guild friends. When I got to the meeting last week I was handed bags and bags of strips and scraps. I don't even know who all shared with me, but I know that I am extremely grateful!

Now I have practically every colour under the rainbow and all in between. I can tell by feel that there are many different manufacturers in this pile. And it all works so well together.

My initial plan was to just make a small quilt, something easily transportable for classes. It goes against my every nature to work small, but I was determined to make it this time. Portability, portability, portability. But plans change.

While I was making a few blocks the girls sidled into the sewing room. Curiosity and a need for a little snuggle led to a full blown sewing lesson. The week before I'd taught them both how to use the machine all by themselves - with supervision. So when they asked to sew I decided that they could help me make blocks as opposed to starting a new project with them. What began as a selfish desire on my part to not clean up turned into a family project. They are so into making the blocks. They carefully select their next strips, they chain piece and press all by themselves, and yes, they unsew when necessary. There are still some lessons to learn about seam allowance and leaving the iron in the correct position, but we're getting there. 

So now, I don't want to make this just a small quilt. This is well and truly a family quilt and so it must grow to accommodate all five of us. Besides, I think it is getting pretty gorgeous and don't want to stop making.

If you are local and interested in taking the class, call My Sewing Room to register. It runs in the evenings on October 16 and 23. 403-252-3711

Giant Dresdens Quilt

Giant Dresdens for Baba O

62'' x 90''

Sometimes quilts are really hard to give away. And sometimes you are so excited to do just that. Not because you want the quilt off your hands, but because you know the recipient will love it. Then there are the times you are sad to see the quilt go, but it is totally worth it because you get to see your cousins you hardly see in order to pass it on to their family. Sometimes.

I come from a giant extended family. My mom, an only child, became the 11th child of her aunt and uncle because that's how things work in big Ukrainian families on neighbouring farms. So I grew up with that family as mine as well. And while almost all of the family was in Saskatchewan, there was one set of cousins with us in Edmonton. We spent a lot of time together growing up, dancing, eating, playing, tormenting each other, laughing.

A few months back they asked me if I would make them a quilt for the Baba on the other side of the family as they are celebrating her 90th birthday this fall. Even though I don't really do commissions I wouldn't say no. Plus, I got to play with some ideas and that is always fun.

Three big Dresden plates, made with the Fat Cat Ruler. Gorgeous fabrics and loads of negative space to quilt on the long arm. Pretty quick to get together  - I think each Dresden took me about an hour to make, then only appliqué time. I machine appliquéd, so that wasn't very long either. Just 3 blocks to sew together and long strips for the side. And that was it.

I have a feeling there will be more Dresdens in my future. Maybe. I might need another request from the cousins in the midst of the other deadlines...

My dot to dot quilting on the long arm needs a fair amount of work, but I'm feeling very comfortable with all over free motion work. It is quite liberating and such a thrill to have it come together quickly. For this twin size quilt I was off the machine in slightly less than 4 hours, including my loading time and breaks for texts and instagram.  I used what I call a Paisley pattern, and my long arm teacher calls  headbands. I've used it before, but on my home machine.

The back was pieced with what I had at home, including this Amy Butler print from years ago. I bought it for another project that never came to fruition. I was worried it would be too girly for a 90 year old, but my cousins assured me that Baba O will like it. A few extra inserts of fabric that was also used on the front to bring it up to size.

On the front, in the centre of the Dresdens I wrote out birthday wishes. This way there is no need to flip it over to see the real reason Baba O is receiving this quilt. On the back are the labels - one with wishes from the family and one with maker and care info. As I pointed out, the quilt is likely to outlive even them, so the history needs to go with the quilt. But thankfully my cousin's wife has very neat handwriting so she actually wrote out the labels instead of me! I stitched those on over deck cocktails with my cousins. A gaggle of our kids eating popsicles and popcorn and playing in the backyard. Our conversations full of the stories of now and yesterday. Love, history, and the future all coming together, thanks to a quilt.

Abstract Painting with Kids

While many of my American friends are seeing the end of summer, and the return to school for their kids, we've still got 3 more weeks of summer vacation. I've been trying to make the most of it. For both myself and the kids. Field trips, swimming, lazy days, and new creative activities.

Last week we started abstract painting. To be fair, I think the kids have been doing this for a while! But this time we did a bit of research on abstract painting, discussed emotions and their expression, and I used real, ADULT acrylic paints on canvas. Having fancy supplies goes a long way.

To start with, the girls picked colours to express an emotion. Our first emotion was happy. Yellows, oranges, red, pink, turquoise, and silver. Bright, shiny colours. My only bit of control over the project was that I doled out the colours on the canvas. So I dotted it where they told me. Then they went to town.

They ground the paint into the canvas, they gingerly spread the paint, they used broad strokes. They played. And I resisted - badly - all attempts to direct their activities. That was very, very difficult. In part I wanted to participate. I also wanted to interrupt and give directions constantly. But I held off and only spoke when adding more paint or to emphasize the emotion they were conveying.

They filled the canvas, making sure no white spots remained. They touched it up with silver. And then, because they didn't quite get the notion of abstract, they added some lettering.

You know what? They were happy doing it. And I was happy watching them. It was a new form of creativity in this house. I think my oldest, especially, loved the idea of expressing something without having to be literal in her art. Because when you are 8 you are usually literal. This gave her an unexpected freedom.

The whole idea for the project came through Pinterest. Yes, I've finally joined Pinterest. And lo and behold, I saw this idea on a random pin one of the first days I was on there. No instructions, just the image of the paint dots, painting, and the canvas. Because Pinterest is still new for me I actually acted  on the inspiration!

To start with we looked up some abstract painters, classic and current. Like Kandisky, Lisa Congdon, and Marissa Anne from Creative Thursday. We talked about what one can do with just paint and about expressing feelings or ideas. It all felt rather liberating.

We've since done more canvases. (A friend of mine gave me the tip that we could buy small canvases at the dollar store. That certainly cuts down on the cost once we invested in the paints.) I still police the paint use as a certain Evil Genius has a tendency to want to use ALL the paint. I do not, however, paint myself with them. I find my kids compare my work with theirs and I don't think that is fair to them at all. They skip the adult versus kid part of that and get deflated because they perceive mine as better. So I let them be and wander around their own creativity.

If you are on Pinterest, you can follow me. I am trying to fill my boards with all sorts of inspiration. More pins daily. And let me know if you are on there too.

A Big Push

I did it and no one else made me.

Confession: I have a hard time really pushing myself physically. There were various times in my youth when, as a competitive athlete, I was able to push my body and mind to exertion. But once the competition was gone I found little motivation. Even when I injured my knees four years ago I was rather complacent about my therapy. It was enough to go through it to get myself to the point of full extension and walking without a cane, not to get back on my mountain bike or on a ski hill again.

Now I am faced with being the mother in a very active family. My girls will give me a pass on activities because I'm big and my knees are bad. And it kills me every time. They mean no harm, I know it, but it stabs at my heart when they dismiss my physical capabilities. Mostly, because they are right.

On the weekend we took a family trip to Revelstoke, BC. Last year we'd spent a few hours at the Sky Trek Adventure Park on our way through. Ever since then the girls have been bugging us to go back. We ended up there with my brother and his family, as they were returning from a road trip of their own. The kids ran around the jungle gym like maniacs for hours, they did the kids version of the high ropes course, they climbed and climbed and climbed the tower climbing walls, and they screamed with delight the entire time. And while they spent the first few hours doing all this my SIL and I watched them, watered and fed them, and took loads of photos.

Well, she mostly did that as I was stuck in the car with a napping toddler and hand stitching.

And for the first few hours my Hubby, brother, and one of my nephews did the high ropes course. When they finished I would have been fine to let the kids do their thing for a bit and we all could have gone for an ice cream cone. My SIL had other plans.

She made a very valid point - why should the kids see the men do the scarier thing while we didn't? What message were we sending to the kids, especially the girls? Don't we owe it to ourselves to push the limits, and show them that we can do it to. And, she wouldn't have done it alone.

I was so unprepared for this challenge that I only had sandals. So I had to borrow my Hubby's kicks before I could even start. No excuses now.

I'm not going to lie, I was filled with anxiety the entire time. The pain in your chest that makes you wonder if that's what a heart attack feels like kind of anxiety. I am not afraid of heights really. Rather, I am afraid of falling. So, I can be high upon the CN Tower, but the glass floor induces panic. I can take in the Glacier Skywalk, but feeling the movement freaks me out. It is the fear of crashing down that gets to me.

(Tied very closely to this fear is a fear of failure, but that's a discussion for the therapist's couch.)

Safety training done, lessons in harness clips and zipline techniques, rules drilled into my brain, we went up the first ladder. It didn't take that long to finish the green course. I yelled at my husband once from a high wire, I clipped my safety harness wrong in one spot, and I learned the fine art of not looking down when my kids yelled at me. At the end of the easiest course I mustered all the power of my being not to quit.

I so wanted to quit. Screw the lesson, screw modelling the brave thing, screw it all. But then The Monster came to watch. She is a lot like me. And we struggle all the time to build her confidence, to encourage her to push herself when things don't come easy. It is infinitely frustrating for my husband, and for me. So when she asked me if it was scary I responded in the positive and moved on to the blue course. And I learned to breathe a bit easier, even if it had to be a conscious effort to push the anxiety out.

There was one point where I completely became paralyzed with fear. Quite literally, I could not take a step. Much to the dismay of the two teenagers behind me I had to backtrack and was lucky there was an easy way out from that obstacle. But I was also able to get back on the course. Assured that nothing ahead of me was any scarier, just more physically demanding, I forged on. That was the moment when it became about me pushing myself. That was when I started doing it for myself and not for anyone else.

And I did it. All of it. I'm covered in bruises and rope burns because it was all horribly awkward for me. But that's okay, and with me, to be expected. To be honest, I'm kind of in awe that I pushed myself like that. I know that for some people - like my my Hubby - something like this ropes course is no big deal. (And frankly, I do agree with him.) But it would have been my norm to simply skip it, to take all the easy way outs. To not even try. To be the mom providing snacks and ensuring everyone is hydrated but not doing anything herself.

I'm not ready for rock climbing or bungee jumping anytime soon, but boy have I learned my lesson. No one is going to make me do anything. If I want to push myself then I have to do it. And this weekend showed me that I do, I do want to push myself physically. It's time.

Friday Favourites - Camping

It's far from glamorous, this camping thing. A tent in the woods, gravel and dirt creeping in despite the no shoes in the tent rule. Waking far too early because the summer sun arrives at an ungodly hour.  Packing and repacking everything for every meal because there are bears and you can't leave food out. Not showering for days. Camping.

And I love it.

No glamping here. Just an overstuffed car and lots of dirt. But there is fire and marshmallows and exploring shorelines and bugs and late nights. And fire, camp fire all the time.

I can't deny the stress of getting ready for the trip. We have all our gear organized and it is always ready to just grab out of the garage. But I still have to get all the food and everyone's clothes. That always takes a few hours. Then my Hubby plays a game of car tetris to get everything in the car. And we argue about snacks and how many extra things the girls try to bring.

Then we drive. And the drives are always gorgeous. We spend half the time stressing to the kids how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful and awesome country. I stitch in the car, we relish the silence when the kids all miraculously doze at the same time. We curse the tourists stopping to take pictures of wildlife because they are always too close to the animals.

And then we arrive. It takes longer to set up now because the kids help, but they enjoy making things just so. And we're dirty before we even can think about it. And the maniac behaviour begins as tree branches become everything but, fairies are discovered in the forest, and frisbees come out. Then the fire starts and the begging for marshmallows begins. And I give in, because why not.

I must admit, I was terrified when we geared up last year and committed to this family activity. I loathe sleeping with my kids. (I love them dearly, but not in my bedroom.) But in the woods it doesn't matter. They sleep hard and deep. And when they wake us up too early in the morning I enjoy their whispers, until they grow into tickles and shrieks. The whole experience has been amazing. It far exceeded my expectations.

When we camp we bring no crafts for the kids, only a few activity books and things like balls and frisbees. We encourage them to explore the area around us, when we aren't hiking or trying something else.

We talk and watch and listen. To the woods, to each other.

We sit so still so the butterflies land on our feet.

The Curve of Time (Weekend Reads)

Our summer last year started with a road trip. An epic family road trip that saw us meander through the interior of British Columbia, spend a few days with me quilting (teaching) with the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Modern Quilt Guilds, and then hopping on the ferry for a week of camping on Vancouver Island. It was a magical family vacation for us.

Thank goodness our kids are adventurous travellers and don't get car sick.

We did the trip with the modern conveniences of hotels when we didn't want to camp, grocery stores to stock our bins of food at the campsite, and Goretex. So it was both inspiring and deflating when I started reading The Curve of Time while we were on the Island.

M. Wylie Blanchet wrote The Curve of Time, documenting the summers spent on a boat with her five children. The would leave from the coastal home that looked like a fairy's log cabin to board The Caprice as summer began. Up the water ways of the BC coast, both Island side and coast side they would explore. Just her and the kids, and usually the dog. And this was in the 20s and 30s!

Here I was thinking we were brave for a 2 week road trip in our German engineered station wagon.

The stories in the book are haunting at times, light hearted at times. They tell of the growth that happened among the children, of the joys of discovery, of the tension of travel by sea. Mostly they tell of the challenge of motherhood. Because even when you are battling current, ghosts, and storms you are still raising your children. It is a most definitely enlightening tale of mothering, amongst all the scenery, sailing, and adventure.

On that same trip we were on my husband coined the now often used family quote: It's only an adventure when not everyone who left returns, otherwise it's an excursion. The Curve of Time is certainly a book to inspire exploration and install an adventurous spirit in any woman. And to encourage this mama herself to find a few more excursions for her family.