back to the grind

This weekend I made my first trip to the mountains of the winter.  Now that we live so much further from the hills it is soooo much harder to get the motivation to travel west, no matter what the season.

Back in the fall, some women from my old hiking club invited me for a ladies weekend away in the woods.  Instead of camping or hostelling, the plan was to stay at the Goldeye Centre and do some exploring on foot, supplemented by crafting and some home cooked meals by the staff at the centre.  Despite having studded boots I’m always a bit fearful of winter hikes – especially with all the freeze/thaw cycles we’ve had this season.  I’ve been wanting to finish up my quilt which I started back in September and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to spend some time on it.  M and I like sewing together and we hadn’t seen each other since December so I figured she might enjoy a weekend in the mountains as well.  We had some great conversations on the drive down and the grandma’s were all over baby.  Okay, I was too.

Everyone else spent most of the days on the trail but we did have some good visits and I got a sneak peak at the trips being planed for the summer.  I really hope these knees start to feel better soon as I’d really, really like to knock of some sections of the great divide trail before we move further away.

My generously sized 78 x 52″ lap quilt isn’t finished yet as I underestimated how long it would take to stitch in the ditch on all the squares, but I’m one step closer.  I just need to trim the edges and start the task of sewing the binding.  Nothing beats a ferry ride between the gulf islands for that.  Somehow I think it might be another year before this quilt gets done!

Now, back to that grind.  It seems quilting isn’t the only project that I’ve  underestimated my time requirements for.