It was a long day Monday, starting out at 8am and returning around 10pm, but what an amazingly beautiful place! Joan H, owner of the Quilt Gallery drove Ruth McDowell, Del and me around the park and we were so lucky to see lots of animals. The weather was overcast on the Kalispell side of the mountains, but on passing the summit to the other side it was immediately sunny. The vegetation reflected those conditions with large evergreens and other trees on the wetter side and more open grasslands on the other. This shot shows a sampling of the beauty around every curve of the road.

It is spring there, and the Road To The Sun was not yet open as the rainy week that we had had in Kalispell had dumped 10 more inches of snow up there!  We saw LOTS of wildflowers, some familiar to me and others not.

We saw so many animals! Mountain Goats and Sheep, Mule Deer and Whitetails, Grizzly and Black Bear, Coyote, Ground Squirrels and many birds including Golden Eagle. We did not see Moose or Elk. Hmmmm – may just have to go back!

More tomorrow!!

Yesterday was pretty productive! I got a whole large section sewed and more pieces cut ready for today. I took a picture of the first day’s progress and that evening we went to Best Buy to get Photoshop Elements for this computer so I could re size, but they were out of it. There are free programs to download but I am reluctant to do that. PE came on my other computer and so I am comfortable with that. In the meantime I will just keep taking photos to show you later.

By now most everyone has something up on the wall and fabric out on the tables. The room is a colorful, messy productive place. There are 3 or 4 dog quilts started, a cat, a lizard, landscapes and some with people or flowers. An eclectic assortment with ladies from all over the country. Many of them have been coming here for years.  Ruth has been doing this workshop here in Kalispell for 18 years, I believe and she is retiring after the last workshop of this trip; she’s doing four here, all 5 days long. We are buying so much fabric I wonder what will be left for the last group! At least they should have better weather!!

It is 30 degrees ! this morning, but clear after rain yesterday. When I packed for this trip I did put in a light jacket and two sweaters with the thought that the evenings might be a bit chilly. I may wear them all today!

The workshop started yesterday with most of the day spent watching Ruth McDowell do her magic on everyone’s potential pictures for their projects. She doesn’t do it all but gets a nice start with a few section lines and some of the other lines that will become seams. I always learn some new thought processes as she talks and demos. She makes it look easy having done over 500 of these quilts. I came with my pattern already prepared and I probably will not make any changes.

The shop we are working in has an amazing array of fabric and they let us run a tab for the duration, but do not tally it til the end so we don’t know how painful that might be but I have a pretty good pile started. I do have to think about my luggage weight for the return flight though!

This Cormorant was a photo that I took the last day we were driving up. Del re sized it for me and sent it back. It is a little fuzzy but I had the camera set a very low resolution hoping that it would be small enough for the blog . Not!

Well here we are in Kalispell! Yesterday was a long day of driving, we started out in Butte and spent about three and a half hours driving through the National Bison Range. I REALLY enjoyed that! We saw herds of buffalo and their calves, antelopes, deer and a spotted fawn, all pretty close and unafraid, lots of birds and flowers. We did not see the mountain goats or the bears though. Inside the visitor’s center we watched a short film about the program to restore the buffalo. I got some nice photos along the way but I need to find a place to buy Photoshop so that I can resize them for the blog. be patient! In the meantime here is one from Del’s camera:

We spent so long at the National Bison Range (we were told it would take a hour and a half to two hours, but spent much longer) that we arrived late to Kalispell. We debated whether to drive on, or stop sooner, but could not find a place to stop and eat other than McDonald’s so we ended up going all the way, part of the time in a heavy downpour. We found a gourmet burger place and were glad that we had not opted for McD’s. By the time we found our lodging and unloaded we were both ready to crash and slept through til 9am!

This afternoon we need to shop for breakfast food as we are at a long stay suite with a kitchenette. We will also go by the Quilt Gallery to claim our space and set up for the start of the workshop with Ruth McDowell that starts tomorrow.