Spring Blooms and websites 03-19-11

 
These are early buds on a Trumpet Vine growing on the pillars where I go for Aqua Therapy.

Around on the sunny side the buds are much further along.  Elegant.

Just a few open flowers.  Sorry I have so much difficulty with the sharpness of closeup images.

 

Here is a better image from last May on the Sherman Gardens tour.

I was sorting through some old files and came across these two websites that I intended to add to a blog a year ago!  http://collectingbuzz.com/  is for a month report on collecting.  I enjoy it.
http://www.classiccinemaonline.com  offers old movies.  The only one I have watched is "The Borrowers" from 1973.   I don't do Netflix because I don't own a player.  Maybe someday I will.  Meanwhile there are some very old films (1930s) that are probably not available on Netflix anyway - I'll check them out. 

Therapy clothes 03-18-11

I don't know how to draw a line between wanting to look gorgeous and wanting to have coordinated clothing.  I do have a thing about being clothing coordinated, but no inclination to worry about being gorgeous at my age!   My major concern about what to wear in the therapy pool was that I be covered adequately, secondly I always desire to have things go together. 

 
So, I am clothed in blue and white - just like my kitchen!  The colors were chosen from what was available.  I had the blue tank top, found the blue/white pj bottoms (which I cut off and did not hem) at Ross and the 'shower shoes' at CVS.  I will have bathing suit to wear - soon, I hope.
 
Therapy went well today.  The therapist cranked up the difficulty and I had a hard time with a few of the exercises.  Especially the designed to strength my 'abs', which don't have much to say for themselves.  Tonight I am a little stiff in my upper arms and, of course, my abs.  I did have to take a nap in the afternoon.  Three sessions next week.

Eager for Asilomar 03-17-11

I have a fat lip tonight!  Did you know that root canals don't last forever?  I had one for forty years before I had a problem.  It was replaced about 11 years ago and today it was replaced again.  The endodontist says they usually only last about ten years.  I hope this one lasts until I no longer care!  No fun. 

I'm thinking about going to Empty Spools in just a few weeks.  Daydreaming.....

...of Monterey Bay.  Click to enlarge and see the birds on the rocks.

...of the walk along the Bay.  One can start at Asilomar Beach and walk all the way to Monterey.

.... of the walk from Asilomar to the beach - down the boardwalk, across Sunset Rd, down to the sandy beach.

 

...  of the tall Monterey Pines that are dying from an imported oriental beetle.  I've been going to Asilomar for almost thirty years and it is a different place now with most of the tall trees gone.  But it is still beautiful and one of my most favorite places.

Wordless Wednesday 03-16-11

Coming to an end 03-15-11

  

Today was the last Surfside Quilters Guild board meeting for me at Nancy B's house.  She has been hostess for two years and I always feel so welcome in her home.  It is lovely and cool and decorated with seashore related items.  Lots of teal and aqua and cream against the white walls.  She has her 'Snail's Trails" quilt, done in those oceany colors, on the wall of her dining room.  I have a dozen pictures of it, but always as a background with ladies standing in front of it.   I'll try for a full out image one of these days.  But next month we have the joint board meeting with both old and new officers at the community meeting room of one of the members.  And then I turn the newsletter over to Mimi and wish her well!

Tomorrow is aqua therapy again - I can hardly wait. 

Another Quilt from Visions 2010 03-14-11

Once again I admit to, essentially, being a thief.  Seeing the quilts at a Visions exhibit is such an awe inspiring event for me that I always want to share it by taking pictures.  The quilts are splendid, but I get real joy out of being able to see the fabulous details the artists have created.  This is one I would have purchased had it not already been sold. And hurrah for the buyer, of this and the other quilts that sold, for putting funds into the Visions bank account.  Every little (or big) bit helps keep this great exhibit coming back every two years. 

 
This piece is 45"wide and 41"long. 

The color is subtle and soothing.  Someone said it looked like a tombstone, but to me it resembles a piece of broken wall with moss and stains and graffiti.

The bluish area is composed of torn lace with lots of over stitching.  The little flecks toward the top are either stones or wood.  I hope they have been coated with something to keep the acid from eating the fabric.

 

Very small scraps of brown tone fabrics are scattered above the 'graffiti' which is done with both machine stitches and very long single thread couched stitches.

I have never previously noticed this technique on a binding.  So delicate, so time consuming, so much the artist's own "mark".  Beautiful binding!

Click on the pictures to enlarge.  I don't find a website for Brooke, but you can Google her name and find various sites that show images of her work. 

And you can enjoy this quilt and all those in Visions -2010 by purchasing a catalog!

http://www.visionsartmuseum.org/cart/listproducts.asp

Quilt from TCQC posted on Blog 03-13-11

This quilt was part of the SAQA online auction 2009.  There were an unusual number of black and red quilts that year and I purchased several.  This one attracted me because of the red bird, since I am always bird watching as I travel, and also the idea of a bird 'walking the line".  Usually we see and think of birds flying or sitting on a line, but they do sometimes walk along a wire - or perhaps they hop. 

"Walk the Line"  Doria Anne Goocher - San Diego, CA  2009  12"x12"
Background: Cotton resist dyed, Bird: Silk with chain stitch hand embroidery, Line: hand embroidery.   Machine quilted.

A nice bright red back with a good explanatory label sewn firmly on.

 

The bird is hand appliqued with red thread and Doria did not go over it with black machine quilting.

 

I am frequently surprised at the location of labels.  I put mine in the lower left hand of the back because I think people more frequently lift the right hand corner of the front when they want to see the back or the label.  Of course, there is no rule.  I don't care for the labels on the sleeve because the quilt must be removed from the wall (or wherever it is hanging), or if it is rolled for storage it must be unrolled in order to see the label, since it is better to roll from the top of the quilt.  I have taken to marking "label on sleeve" on the paper storage label that I put on a rolled quilt.   See Doria's website: http://www.designsbydoria.com/

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One night at Camp Del 03-12-11

I picked up Corky this morning for just one night at Camp Del.  His parents are having a neighborhood party - a "one in a lifetime event" - and preparations were all getting to be too much for the little guy.  Although he seems to be getting indifferent to strangers in the house - when the delivery guys came with the new master bedroom headboard Corky curled up in his bed and slept through the commotion.  Sort of like this: 

I find it interesting the way he rearranges his pillow and blanket.  He doesn't seem to do it with his quilt at my house, but when he has a blanket in his LBeach bed he flips and wrinkles and mounds it - just so!  And he does the same with his pillows.  

 

You can tell by this image just how easy it is to overlook him when he is sleeping.  Since he is now profoundly deaf he does check every now and then to see what is going on.  But to purposely awaken him one must move the bed or touch him.  Whereupon he jumps up in a panic - poor guy.  Sometimes I make a breeze with a magazine or something so that he looks up lazily, rather than having him startled all the time.