Today was a late start, with a leisurely breakfast at the hotel then down to Katja’s Quilt Shoppe for a workshop. Our project was English Paper Piecing, and Katja had designed a 13-piece maple leaf (representing the 13 provinces of Canada and the Canadian flag) for us to do. Her method doesn’t involve thread basting the fabric onto the paper pieces — instead we glued the fabric down, then whip-stitched the seams (by hand) to join them. No-one finished, but we all made decent progress before it was time to stop at 4pm. We were glad it was a workshop day today because the weather was cold, grey, and wet. (Kamloops is in high desert country, so they don’t get a lot of rain — who were we to begrudge them of that?)
After the workshop Dan, our bus driver, dropped off some of the group back at the hotel and then took others to the Walmart Supercenter for an hour — I bought some knock-off Skechers-style shoes to replace the ones I’ve been wearing for the past four years that are very worn down, as well as a 4-wheel hard-sided suitcase (my current suitcase is only a 2-wheeler, which means I have to get it on a pivot to move it along).
We met in the lobby at 6pm for dinner at a local Chinese/Japanese restaurant (Oriental Garden). Wow! What a meal! We had HEAPS of dishes for our group of 23, and they were piled high with yummy fresh food. The food was great, and the service was super quick. Cocktails were all around $6 to $8 each (my well-made Long Island Iced Tea was only $6.25!) At the end of the night, we divided the leftovers into about 12 take-away containers, got some plastic knives and forks and napkins to go, boxed everything up, then as we walked back to the hotel, Dan and a couple of the others gave the meals to some of the local homeless people nearby.
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 