Friday Feet 02-11-11

Avenida Del Mar sidewalk - San Clemente   01-11-11
It is purely coincidence that this picture was taken exactly a month ago!  I didn't realize that I matched the sidewalk until I looked at the image on my computer.  The shoes come in black, brown and beige and I have one pair of each.  One of these days I'm going to have to go shoe shopping again!
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Wordless Wednesday on a Thursday! 02-10-11

Oceanside Museum of Art - Visions and leftovers. 02-09-11

Yesterday Mary rode down from San Juan Bautista with Joe, who went to the Anaheim Convention Center today. Today Mary rode with me to Oceanside to see the Visions quilts.  She was concerned that I had already been several times, but I reassured her - I usually enjoy the Visions exhibit at least half a dozen times during the time it is open.  I know I will never again see those quilts in that grouping, and I want to have each one imprinted in my memory.  We enjoyed seeing them together.  I was surprised there were maybe twelve or fifteen people while we were there, but the docent said there has been a good number of visitors every day she has volunteered.  Nice!  After we had examined every quilt in detail and sat on the bench for twenty minutes or more admiring Velda Newman's "Zinnia", we walked over to the Oceanside Civic Center with its beautiful tiled pool.  Don't know what has happened to the seagulls, they have been missing the last few times I have been there, and they were missing today.  But the camellias are in bloom and some are just gorgeous.

 
These dark salmon pink ones are doubles blooming in a clump at the end of a branch - an entire bouquet!  I should have put my hand, or Mary's, in the picture so you could see how large they are.  The background tiles are maybe 1.75" square. 

This pale pink variety is fringed on the edge of the petals and has lovely tiny "hands" upraised in the center. Perfectly lovely. 

We drove south on I-5 to Carlsbad for lunch at Sammy's Wood Pit Pizza.  I like their food and today I had the chopped chicken salad which tasted so fresh and cool with the Santa Ana winds blowing outside. Mary had skewered shrimp served atop a little salad.   It was a very sunny,  clear day with views of the mountains topped with a little snow.   

 

I didn't photograph the presentation of my steak dinner last evening, so tonight you get the leftovers!  This is about half of the steak, which I sliced tonight and ate cold, with the warmed over potatoes and fresh microwaved broccoli with a little shredded New Zealand white cheddar (from TJoe's).  The waiter even put the 'embellishment' in the box - it is the very thin slice of potato with the 'viewing' holes which stood up straight at the restaurant, but was too floppy as a leftover. A perfectly delicious dinner tonight - as it was last night.

An Evening with Lisa See 02-08-11

My friend Carol Bednar and I went to a fundraising dinner this evening at  "Bayside", a high class restaurant in Newport Beach.  The funds raised go to "Literary Orange" a one-day event featuring panels, keynote speakers, book signings and a chance to rub elbows with authors and readers of every ilk.  This will be the fifth year the event is held - April 9th at UC-Irvine. Attendance is limited to 500 and the spaces fill very rapidly.  I suspect the event is closed, but you can check at www.literaryorange.org . 
 Tonight featured a presentation by Lisa See, an author of international repute.  I have read all of her books and those of her mother Carolyn See, who once wrote a highly rated column in the LATimes.

 
Lisa See graciously allowed photos and signed books after her talk and our dinner.  I wondered when she was allowed to eat, but to be honest I'm not sure she does - she is extremely thin and looked quite tired.   She gave her talk with only a glance at notes just as she began.  I was fascinated by her comments on writing and about her family which is both white and Chinese and goes back to the early Chinese laborers who came to the USA to work on the Transcontinental Railroad.  She answered the question, "Which of your books is your favorite?", by comparing them to children - so how can one be a favorite?  Questioned further, she said that currently "Shanghai Girls" is the one she favors.  It will be released as a film this June.   But I think my favorite will always be her first book "On Gold Mountain" which is the story of her family and their experiences in coming to the US and building a life.   

 
You can see that Carol is the only 'bright eyed' one among this trio!
Carol Bednar, Lisa See, Del Thomas. 

 I don't mean to look so MEAN - guess I better watch that!  We sat at a table for six with two couples who were chatty and interesting.  The dinner was superb and so was the dessert - I wanted to lick my plate!  Just shows what a peasant I am at heart!  With each course they served different wines that were offered by a winery in Oregon - I had a small taste of a white and a red, but since I don't drink I mostly inhaled the fragrance.  I don't even taste the Shiraz, but I had an extremely deep inhale and I think I would have been my favorite, especially with the rich chocolate cakelet with melted chocolate center.   I admit I was a little shy about taking a picture of my lovely plate, but I regret not doing so.   Steak, potatoes, asparagus, carrot, and an ultra-fine slice (lengthwise) of potato, I think it was baked, standing upright in the mashed potatoes.  I can't even remember the last time I had a steak - it was heavenly. 

Just Another Sunset 02-07-11

 
I took this picture at Corky's house in Long Beach on January 27th.  The only thing that is different about it is the 'arcs' that surround the sun.  I don't think I have ever seen this 'phenomenum' (if that is what it could be called) before.  I didn't see it with my naked eye, so maybe it is something caused by the digital camera.
Whatever the reason, I think it is wonderful. 

"Passing Mars" 2002 & "Mars Passing" 2003 Del Thomas 02-06-11

The top quilt, a 2002 Journal Quilt, was inspired by the fact that on August 27, 2002, the planet Mars  passed closer to Earth than it has since Neanderthals looked skyward in about 57,617BC.  And the planets won't be in such close relationship for another 284 years.  This quilt is my vision of the glowing red orb in a starry sky, hanging over Los Angeles.   I had dyed the half a yard of red/yellow fabric and I had enough to do both quilts.  The lesson I learned from naming these two quilts is that it is a mistake to have two names so similar - I can never remember which is which. 

"Passing Mars"  Del Thomas  2002  8.5"W x 11"L

Hand-dyed & commercial cotton fabrics, cotton batt, cotton & rayon threads. Glass beads, plastic squares.
Fused, machine pieced and quilted, hand embellished.

This is the second quilt using the same hand-dyed fabric and the same design idea.  The center part was made for an exhibit, but I didn't know what I would do with it after it was done traveling.  So I made the two side panels to create a triptych.  The long yellow and red strips represent the tall buildings of a city. 

"Mars Passing"   Del Thomas  2003  36"W x 40"L 

Hand-dyed & commercial cotton fabrics, cotton batt, cotton & rayon threads. Glass beads, plastic squares.

Machine pieced and quilted, hand quilted and embellished.

DETAIL  Mars Passing  2003  I'm never going to be enchanted with beading!  The quilting on the grey is almost the last hand quilting I have done, due to the arthritis in my hands. 

 

DETAIL  "Mars Passing"  2003  I used Beacon's "Gem-Tac" for the plastic squares and none of them have come off yet. 

"Tree House" from 2006 Del Thomas 02-05-11

This quilt was created for the Alliance for American Quilts when they celebrated their move from Louisville, KY, to Asheville, NC.  Artists from around the USA and from three foreign countries created 74 quilts that traveled to different venues for a year and then were auctioned online.  I was pleased that this quilt sold at auction for the 2nd to the highest price, but I don't remember what that was!  Pamela Allen's gorgeous quilt earn the most money for the Alliance.  All of the quilts were made in this house shape and all were to be the same size.  The two triangles on either side of the roof line are the design wall behind the quilt.

 
"Tree House"  Del Thomas 2006  15"W x 19.5"L
Commercial cotton fabrics, cotton thread, cotton batting.
Raw edge machine applique, machine quilting.
The background fabric is from Marimekko.
Sometimes an idea just works - from the first tickle in my mind to sewing the label on, this quilt went together more smoothly than any quilt I have ever made.  The quilting could have been better, but I did my very best.

 
I thought I would put in a pair of birds, but once I laid them on the quilt I realized it was too much, so I just put one lone bird, which I think of as a male summer tanager, a bird that is found in North Carolina.