To San Jacinto, CA 02-12-10

Oh dear, I got these pictures in reverse order, but I am too tired to start over again. Sorry!

My quilting friend Liz Williams and I did drive to San Jacinto/Hemet to the 30th Annual Valley Quilters QShow. I haven't gone every year, maybe 2/3rds, and it is always a good, small show. There are only about 150 members - I don't know how they manage to make enough quilts to have an annual show.

I don't usually do much shopping at quilt shows, it is just so easy for me to find whatever I need locally or at Back Porch Fabric in Pacific Grove. But Valley Quilters Guild has the

BEST 'boutique' at their QShow and I always find bargains and fabric I wouldn't find in a store. It is a great place to look for an old fabric that I need just a bit more to finish some project. The pieces above are mostly fat quarters at 25cents each - the two lightest colors are irregular shapes. The one in the middle is a little more than a yard in an irregular shape and I think it is rayon, but it has such a nice irregular pattern of loosely "painted" iris I know it will be just the fabric I need one of these days. The light one on the left is a soft flower print that I could use as a background piece or fussy cute for those soft roundish shapes. Total $3!

These bright prints at $1/yard are destined for philanthropic quilt backs (maybe!). The top two pieces are each 2.5 yards, the bottom one is 1.5 yards. Total: four yards for $4!
And there was a blue plastic 'box' which I opened and it turned out to be a magnetic pin holder - NOT a box and not meant to be opened. I felt I needed to buy it and take it home to re-glue it since it was only 50cents. So, my grand total was $7.50! Jackpot!

It was very hazy (maybe it was fog with all the soggy ground out there. We saw great 'lakes' of standing rainwater in different places. The region has always been grazing/agriculture, but each year there is more building, more roads, more vehicles, more.... of everything except open land. The terrain is very flat with strange hills that rise up like warts or moles and it is VERY rocky. In the distance behind the hills are the snow covered San Bernardino Mountains.

More "bumps" across some of the open range land that remains. Large new housing development to the right against the hills.

We are driving into the outskirts of Hemet on the right of this picture. See the house on the top of the hill, some people just "vant to be alone".

In the distance the snow covered mountains, closer are the funny "bump" hills and to the right is a great herd of earth movers, getting ready for more development. It has all changed dramatically in the last thirty years.

Miscellaneous 02-11-10

I drive by this house when I go to my doctor's office. It looks so welcoming - I want to knock and ask if I could come in for tea - I'll bring the sweet treats to go along with the tea!!

Here is a warning from the FDA that we all need to take to heart. How horrible it would be to lose the sense of smell and the sense of taste. Why is this product still on the market? $$$, probably. http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm167065.htm

These pictures of Wisconsin's white deer are the best that I have seen. The deer are so amazing - I would like to see them in the wild, but not enough to go in winter! http://www.pbs.org:80/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=inwi10s22a3q81f

Tomorrow Liz and I will drive out to San Jacinto to the 30th annual quilt show of Valley Quilters. It isn't a large show, but they have nice quilts and the ladies are all very welcoming. They have a great "boutique" that is usually mobbed, but we manage to squeeze in and drop a few dollars. The highlight of the trip is really the chance to get out into the countryside, away from suburbia - to see the gamboling lambs and fresh green grass and smell the clean air. And maybe even see some early wild flowers.

Pewter/Platinum Sunset 02-10-10

New puppies 02-09-10

Nancy Bloyer and her husband raise puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind. They have just welcomed a new pup named "January". Part of the training is to take the puppy everywhere dressed in a green and yellow jacket identifying him/her as a 'trainee'. Surfside Quilters Guild welcomes the puppies at our meetings, but it is hard to not touch them - also part of training.

This Bernese Mountain Dog puppy lives in Massachusetts with her new "mom". Sepia has already attended a fiber arts meeting and was really mellow about it. She will grow to about 85 pounds and be loved and loving for many years. She thinks the snow is great!

As much as I love Corky, I would love to have a dog as a full time companion. It would almost have to be a poodle as I am allergic to dogs. I know the current research tends to debunk this, but I, and many other people, start weeping and sniffing when we are around dogs, so we will all continue our belief that it is the dog's dander that causes this. And act accordingly.

I may not have been very clear in my statements about selling things on blogs. I'm not put off by blogs offering quilts or other artwork for sale. What I don't like is the "commercial" blogs that clearly offer products as the main point of the blog. The bit of "chatter" that is posted is all connected to selling something - not toward friendship or exchange of ideas and information. I imagine there is a place for all kinds of blogs, I just would like to see an indication of which I am opening - before I open it. If I go to a website I expect to see things for sale - it is the place I would expect to find quilts that I might buy as part of TCQC.

Miscellaneous + a rant 02-08-10

The Poodle Prince enjoyed his stay at Camp Del - at least he seemed happy. And I loved having him. Unfortunately, every time he needed to 'go out' it seemed to be raining. There is something about a wet poodle that is just daunting. One needs to get/let him dry before trying to brush out all the kinks. I fear I didn't give him a complete brush every time, so he looks a little bedraggled. However, he goes to the groomer Wednesday - she'll get him in shape. In this picture he has been sleeping while I did some hand sewing. He is telling me he needs to get down for a drink of water and a stretch. Which is really good for me as the PTherapist tells me I sit too long at a stretch. Quilters do that and so do people who live on the computer.

I pulled up behind this car at a signal and couldn't get my camera out fast enough. At first I thought the two symbols on the right were upside down, "backward kids" perhaps? But on closer viewing on my computer I see that isn't so. I don't understand what this tells me about this family of four - dead people? anthropologists? poisoners? I've seen all sorts of symbols used to designate a family (why?), but this is a first and a mystery.

Rant: It has long been my belief that what is wrong with this country is advertising! Or maybe I should say commercialism. Everything, I think, is for sale. Everyone wants to turn their thoughts, ideas, craft, art, etc., into a product they can sell. It was bad enough before the advent of computers, now it is almost sickening sometimes. Multi-million $$ for a 30 second ad on the Super Bowl? Ridiculous. But closer to home... it seems that every other new blog I open is selling something. Since I mostly look at blogs related to quiltmaking I'm beginning to think that each blog that sells something should have a designator to indicate that the writer thinks of me as a potential customer and therefore "buyer beware". Maybe "blog$spot" would do it. Or "Type$pad". Don't misunderstand - it is the bloggers right to do whatever is legal. Your blog content is your choice. I just feel inundated with 'product' when I am looking for the "original" sort of blog which is just sharing of thoughts, ideas, everyday sorts of things. I've made quilts for over 60 years and always enjoyed the sharing and friendship that has traditionally been part of the 'practice'. Maybe it is just the advent of "art" that has turned everyone into a business person. But, again, maybe it is just the fact that because the opportunity is there via computer. Anyway, I suspect I will 'surf' the quilting world "net" less in the future.

Ruth Powers Quilt from TCQC 02-07-10

"Yellow-headed Blackbird" (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) Ruth Powers 2009 12" square

All pieced; heavily machine-quilted. Yellow on head and breast is 17 pieces.

This wonderful little quilt was part of the 2009 SAQA One-foot Square online auction and I feel so fortunate to have it. Ruth's quilts are all pieced the "old fashioned" way - right sides of the fabric together, seamed and then pressed open. Some of the tiniest pieces are smaller than a quarter inch. Her excellent free motion quilting complements the design of the pieced top and and gives texture to the shapes. She also does outstanding thread painting, although there is none in this quilt.

Ruth is currently showing the step by step process of her quilt making on her blog, using her original design of three mountain sheep. She started this series of posts on Jan 25, 2010.

http://www.ruthpowersartquilts.com/weblog/