Winter Experience

One of the best things about writing a blog is the people I have met through it!  About 6 or 7 years ago I started corresponding with Desley from Australia and she has a blog called Addicted To Quilts.  She is an extremely talented longarm quilter so I highly recommend you check out her blog and her past posts.  So much eye candy to see and you can now find her on Instagram as I got her addicted to that when she was here.  We have been saying for years it would be great to meet in person and this fall she booked her flight to visit and have a real Canadian winter experience.  The weather cooperated and she got a taste of the bitter cold as well as some warmer days.    While she was here she missed a few 41`c days back home.  
We spent a few days in Winnipeg and she saw her first sundogs as we drove around southern Manitoba in blowing snow conditions!   We were not going to let the weather stop us from getting to a few quilt shops!

Then we drove to Dauphin, MB to visit Lori and check a few more things off her bucket list.  Driving and walking on a frozen lake was on her list and we added ice fishing, snowmobiling, and seeing a ice pressure ridge on the lake.  I love that she saw and experienced things she had no idea existed, and that she loved the sound of snow squeaking under her boots!

Lori’s husband Nolan guided Desley as she drove the snowmobile for the first time.  They went out to the pressure ridge and got some fabulous photos.

I had some great luck with the ice fishing and had my first Pickerel on the line before the rest had theirs in the water. Lori did a great job baiting my hook!   I landed two and had to throw one back as it was too large to keep.

Lori and our friend Genny cooked up lunch on the ice shack wood stove.  We were toasty warm in the shacks and ended up spending most of the day on the lake in –24’c temperatures.

As you can imagine I was so happy to be out on the lake again, I’ve really missed that this winter.

So after that adventure I took Desley to Emo for a few days and we did some snow dyeing, drove to a few quilt shops in Northern Minnesota and then I took her on one of our local lakes to do some snow shoeing and make a snow angel!  It was a beautiful day with no wind and –1’c, that is rare for January.

Then to end her trip we drove up to Gimli, MB for a quilt retreat, stopping for a photo op at the centre of Canada on the TransCanada highway!  

 The retreat was a lot of fun and Desley was able to meet a lot of my friends.  We took the Diva Wallet class and I made mine out of cork, love it!    Desley then helped me piece what might be a new Highway 10 Designs pattern, its just in the testing stage, and then she helped me start my Jelly Roll Rug that is all the craze on Instagram.  I just have the large ball of ‘yarn’ ready and will make the rug soon.

I am so glad that Desley was willing to take that long flight to visit me and she did a very good job at convincing Tim and I to come visit her and her husband in Australia in a few years.  I think that would be a great 50th birthday gift, don’t you?   :)

 Here is the view of Lake Winnipeg from the Lakeside Resort in Gimli where the quilting retreat was held!

Now its time to get back to work, my winter holiday is over.