Autumn Color 11-12-10

Autumn color in Long Beach. This is a great time to put out bedding plants, especially if we have a little rain and not much dry wind. Nice contrast with the purple recycle can.

But we do have REAL autumn color - these leaves from the liquidamber tree (aka Sweet Gum) are the most common, but there are others. They all have a short color span - right now the fruitless pear trees are dropping leaves of about the same colors as the liquidamber.

My friend Ruth Powers and I have been looking for several years for fabric with leaves in autumn colors on a blue background. No luck!

New (to me) products 11-11-10

Well, that title isn't entirely accurate. This first product I tried last year about this time and loved it. But it was too late in the season to buy any more - this is a Trader Joe's 'seasonal product". Like Dutch process cocoa and cranberry chutney. Now is the time to stock up.

This box was purchased last week in Long Beach, it should be available at every store soon.
My friend Carol can't eat cinnamon, which is really sad, I know she would love the other flavors in this tea.

My arthritic hands won't let me hand quilt longer than about 20 minutes, so I don't do it much. I saw these in a catalog and had to buy them - I've never seen such a strange needle and I have seen a LOT of needles in my 65 years of sewing. I'll give them a try next time I attempt to hand quilt.

Here is a new type needle threader from Clover. It works very well when using more than one strand of floss. It fits into several sizes of emboidery, tapestry, or darning needles.

A new rotary cutting ruler - 2-1/2 X 6-1/2. I don't know how handy this will be, but I'll give it a try. I bought two extras to give to friends. I never know about these rulers, some I wonder how I lived without them and others are just a waste.

I've had this marking pencil for more than a year, but have not had occasion to use it much. But it does do as promised - the marks have all been removable, though I don't think much of the eraser.

There are instructions inside on how to access the eraser - strange.


I'm not much of a shopper - except for fabric and books - but sometimes at a big quilt show I will spare some time for the vendors and find amazing new products. Some of these I bought at quilt shows.

November Fest continued 11-10-10

The quilters in attendance at November Fest were very generous and bought lots of basket raffle tickets - $4236 worth. Hurrah and Thank You to each and every one. Many of them wore their tickets around their necks like leis. And some wore them along with their lei. Unfortunately, I forgot my lei AND my nametag!

Judy Dunlap was one of the ticket sellers. I loved the fact there were different colored tickets.

Leslye Stringfellow carried her tickets in her hand.

This mysterious board member wore hers along with her lei - she was also a ticket seller, hence the prices on her lapel.

Cindy Croucher spread hers on the table so she could find the matching ticket when she won this big basket. Susie Russell was one of the basket deliverers.

Surfside QG November Fest 2010 11-09-10

Surfside Quilters Guild is about 1-1/2 years old and still growing and learning. Today we held our second major fundraising event - November Fest. (I talked about it on Sunday when I posted Nancy Ota's "Sea Leaves"). It was a fun day, but I am still not "normal" and I was really exhausted by the time the meeting was over. I drove home and took a looong nap.

I don't know who made this small banner, I didn't even notice it until we were cleaning up.

I went into the kitchen to take pictures of the Hospitality ladies - they are always hidden in there and I don't get them in pictures very often - and one of them insisted on taking my picture, because I am never in the meeting pictures! I don't know what to make of the look on my face - someone once told me to wipe the smirk off! I don't mean to be smirking.

The live auction quilts were arrayed around the room on quilt hanging stands and the very special gifts of framed Ellen Heck fabric collages and ceramic tiles made from her designs were on stage on two small tables. In the middle of the picture is the 1938 sewing cabinet donated by one of the members - it was a popular item and sold for more than I expected. Hanging in this picture is "Field of Flowers" (77" x 91") donated by the Designing Women friendship group which I brought home with me. I've used the same quilt on my bed for about twenty years and decided I need I new one - I never seem to get around to finishing what I have started, much less construct a new bed quilt. I like it a lot and I'm sure I will have sweet dreams of the ladies I know in the friendship group. This evening my furnace came on for the first time since last winter, so this quilt will keep me warm tonight.

Lyn Mann, our auctioneer, does a lot of quilt guild auctions around SCalifornia, she is good at getting people to keep bidding. To Lyn's right is Nancy Ota, guild founder/November Fest Chair,
and Cindy Croucher, who was keeping track of what was sold. This quilt also came home with me. "French Essence" 56" x 72" was donated by A Few Loose Threads friendship group.
Yellow/Blue has long been one of my top color combos and this quilt just appealed to me - it will be part of my personal collection rather than the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection.

Lunch was served to every one's enjoyment. Quiche, salad, nut bread and on a long, heavily ladened row of tables desserts of every kind.

The 67 raffle baskets seemed to be well appreciated. Members wore long strands of tickets around their necks - yellow, green and red. Some won multiple baskets and some (including me) won none. I thought this one was wonderful, but I don't know what I would do with it if I had won it, so I didn't put any tickets in this pot.

But isn't it great?

Past time for me to get in bed - tomorrow is another full day.

Flower Collage 11-08-10

Every now and then I play with the Picasa collage option. Of course, everytime I do so I have to figure it out all over again! I COULD write it down, but I always run out of time. Here are two collages made from recent flower photos. The top is the yellow hibiscus in the Oceanside Civic Center, the bottom is the pink Kangaroo Paw photographed at a Trader Joe's plant stand.

Nancy Ota quilt in TCQC 11-07-10

Last year the Surfside Quilters Guild held their first fund raiser "December Fest", a live auction, silent auction and basket raffle. It was very successful, but it was difficult to have the event between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, this year we are having "November Fest" which will take place on Tuesday, November 9th. There are 17 items on the live auction and 67 raffle baskets - we dropped the silent auction which was the least effective event. You can check everything out on the front page of our website: http://www.surfsidequiltersguild.org/

Last year the quilt below was one of the live auction items and I bid hard for it. I have long admired Nancy Ota's sewing ability, not just as a quiltmaker, but as an embroiderer, applique artist, and... well, just about everything she does. Some years ago I won a little angel quilt she made and donated to Beach Cities Quilters Guild, so "Sea Leaves" is the second Ota quilt in TCQC.

"Sea Leaves" Nancy Ota 2007 21.5"W x 21"L

Cotton batiks, hand dyed cotton, commercial cotton. Machine pieced, appliqued, quilted.

Started in a workshop with Lorraine Torrence.

Nancy is an expert seamstress - look at the smooth edge stitching on the bias strips. And notice the tiny seagull slipped in between the leaves.

And look at her control with stitching her signature.

Whatever batting she used certainly makes the quilting stitches stand out.

Nancy has a pattern company and sells her original bag patterns. She also teaches classes in sashiko and in the construction of her unique bags. http://www.nancyota.com/