eQuilter Blog

from Oct 22 eQuilter newsletter:

I'm back from my Arctic adventure with my fellow quilter travelers. We had some amazing encounters with lots of polar bears, plus we saw ptarmigan, arctic fox, arctic hare, snowy owls and bald eagles.

AND… to top it all off…I saw the Northern Lights for the very first time in my life.
What a thrill!

One of our fellow travelers was so inspired that she wrote 4 limericks about our adventure!
With her permission, I'd like to share her writings about our experience.

Polar Bear Limericks
By Lynne Capehart

A polar bear came to the bay
And hungrily waited each day.
When the water was frozen
The bear stopped his dozing
And set off in search of his prey.

In Churchill the bears have a jail
For bad bears, both male and female.
Until the bay ices
A bear who's not nice is
Impounded in jail without bail.

The tundra at Churchill has bears
And foxes and eagles and hares.
If you're lucky, some nights
You see great Northern Lights
That come from our sun's solar flares.

Eight quilters went out on a Rover.
By the time their adventure was over,
They had seen polar bears
Arctic fox, eagles, hares,
And snow buntings and even a plover.

Thanks to Lynn, and all of our intrepid travelers! Also many thanks again to our Winnipeg friends at the Manitoba Prairie Quilters!

Friday morning I'll be leaving with the eQuilter buyers for Quilt Market in Houston. If you are coming to the IQA Award Ceremony next Tuesday night, I will see you there! If you see me walking around at Festival next Weds night or Thursday, please do say hello!

from Oct 18 newsletter:

Right now as this newsletter goes out, we are having our farewell dinner at the Fort Garry historic hotel in Winnipeg, at the end of our weeklong Polar Bear Tour. We had quilters come from all over the US, plus one husband and one local Winnipeg quilter! The time went too fast, and now it is time to go back to our daily lives with dreams of polar bears dancing in our heads.

Last night at dinner we were joined by an arctic researcher who is also a quilter! She invited us to have a quilt retreat at their research center, when I mentioned that I would like to come back to see the Beluga Whales in the summer, so you never know…

Thursday night we had dinner at Gypsy's Cafe, and a Canadian quilter approached me from another table. She had decided to come to Churchill on her own this last week, because she knew our group would be there. Too bad we didn't meet her until the end of our trip. She didn't have a good polar bear experience like we did, because our tour company booked us with the best Polar Rovers in town. Cathy I hope you can join us next time!

We saw Ptarmigan, Arctic Fox, Arctic Hare, Snowy Owl, Bald Eagles, and of course the Polar Bears. I had a solo face-to-face encounter on the back deck of the Polar Rover, with a young female bear. She had ambled over to the back of our vehicle and hung out there for so long that everyone else went inside for lunch. So I sang "Amazing Grace" to her just for the heck of it. We had long moments of eye-to-eye contact and that was absolutely magical.

My fellow travelers were all entranced by the experience, and we bonded over those once-in-a-lifetime moments with the bears… a very special group of Nature Lovers.

Tomorrow I will be giving a power point presentation on "International Quilt Trends", at 1-2 pm:
Best Western Plus Winnipeg Airport Hotel, 1715 Wellington Ave, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0G1, Canada

This is a conference center next to the Winnipeg Airport, and the event has been organized by the Manitoba Prairie Quilters guild. Then I'll be flying home for several days before Quilt Market in Houston next weekend.

Hello to my quilter friends in Winnipeg!
Can't wait to see you at the reception Monday night!

Some of my fellow Polar Bear Tour travelers will join me, so we can have a mingling and comparing of notes, between American and Canadian quilters.

Sunday Oct 19 at 1 pm I will be giving a presentation on International Quilt Trends to the Manitoba Prairie Quilters guild in Winnipeg, at a location near the airport. (My flight home is right after the meeting.)

Next week my group of intrepid travelers will join me on my Polar Bear Tour in Churchill on the shores of Lake Hudson, where the boreal forest meets the tundra. I'll be taking as many photos as I can, but also interested to learn about the rapid changes in the permafrost and arctic environment, and how it is affecting all of the wildlife there.

The Arctic Circle starts at 66.5 degrees latitude, and Churchill is at 58.7 degrees. Churchill is not quite technically within the Arctic Circle, but it has an unusually frigid climate for that latitude, which allows for the type of environment that attracts the polar bears.

So on Monday I will fly about 2 hours north from Denver to Winnipeg, and on Wednesday I will take a charter plane with my group, on almost 3 hours north to Churchill. This community is very remote and it is not easy to get there, especially in the grip of winter. (Late November is when the town freezes over and shuts down, except for the 700 year-round locals and native First Nation citizens.)

You meet some very special people in a place like Churchill, and they have some really good stories about encounters with the bears. In late Fall when the bears stroll through town, waiting for the ice to freeze so they can go hunt seals, they are REALLY hungry because they haven't eaten since last Spring! Hence the bears sometimes will break into a house and clean out the pantry. They will come through the door, the windows, any way they can….if they smell food.

So the local residents have come up with the "Churchill Welcome Mat". It is a 3-foot square piece of plywood with nails pounded through in a grid, about 1 1/2" apart, all pointing up. These "welcome mats" are placed in front of every door and every window, so the bears can't stand up and look inside, and burst into the home. No kidding.

Our hotel is in the center area of town that is patrolled by wildlife rangers constantly, to scare away the bears who wander into town. You can see my photos from last year here. Hopefully I'll get a chance to work on my Curling skills too!

Here in Colorado, we love our mountains, our blue skies and pine forests, and our abundant wildlife. Deer, elk, moose, bears and mountain lions are present in our National Park, and often on the fringes of our town Boulder.

Yesterday I took my mom up in the mountains to see the turning leaves of the golden aspen trees, and just before we left Estes Park, we were delighted to have a herd of elk cross right in front of us on the road.

This handsome fellow was following his herd, uttering the bugling sound of the fall rut. I was very close, but with my telephoto lens I was even closer, so I captured this portrait of a magnificent bull elk as he was bugling.

We carry a variety of fabrics for fellow wildlife lovers, so whether you love North Woods wildlife, woodland creatures, or wild birds, you will find your favorite animals when you search for their names.

Part of being a true Coloradoan is the love of the outdoors, and a hike in the woods on a crisp sunny autumn day is one of the pleasures of living in a Rocky Mountain state. I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of our rugged wilderness and the beautiful wildlife that wanders our mountain ranges.