The latest

It's been a pretty busy last several days. Not in the sewing studio, alas, although I made some progress on quilting the striped quilt, and it's approaching the halfway point. Rather, it's been a fun-filled time with family and friends. I went to Seattle for the weekend to visit family, and also to participate in the big Pacific Northwest Meet-up between the modern quilt guilds based in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver. I didn't want to blow off my family entirely, so I missed the Friday night get-together and the Saturday outing to sew charity quilts on Vashon Island, but I joined in on the Sunday morning shop hop. It was great to chat with the Portland and Seattle quilters, and I'll look forward to our next tri-guild adventure. Of course, between a stop at Fourth Corner Quilts on the drive down, the mail order fabrics waiting at my parents' house, and Sunday's outing, I bought way too much fabric this weekend. But what else is new?

Today, we saw out of town friends who had a long layover on their way back to the States from Japan, so we took them for a day trip to some places not far from the airport. We had Shanghai style dim sum in Richmond, walked around the Reifel Bird Sanctuary in Delta, stopped by a couple of nearby farm stands, and then spent a little time in Steveston to see the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site and the wharf nearby. I hadn't been to most of these places before, so in addition to spending time with friends whom we don't see often enough, it was wonderful to enjoy some hometown tourism.

Although it wasn't the best time of year for spotting loads of migratory birds, I loved the sanctuary and will look forward to going back in the fall. We did see herons, sandhill cranes, red-winged blackbirds, and various other birds, not to mention countless ducks and Canada geese. Here's one of the sandhill cranes:

I also liked the birds' tracks in the sand. Could there be a quilt in this image?

All in all, it's hard to imagine a more pleasant summer day.