Plants in the neighborhood 09-25-21

When my neighbor planted this it was already quite large.  I asked him about it and he said a friend was redoing his yard and wanted to get rid of it.  It is a gorgeous specimen and has adapted well to the location. 

 It is about two feet wide now. 

And almost as tall.  

When the "petals" first come out they are fringed, but as they expand they develop a more scalloped edge.  I wonder if it will bloom some day. 

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Out and About 09-24-21

I drove to San Diego again yesterday with Nancy Ota.  We both wanted to see the current exhibits at Visions Art Museum, she needed to pick up two dining room chairs she had reupholstered, we both had scraps to drop with Salvation Army, and I needed to pick up something from my friend Judy in north San Diego - right off I-5.  KoKo stayed home alone for about eight hours, poor guy, but he seems to do okay as long as I don't leave him like that very often.  He couldn't stay with Nancy because she was with me!  He needed extra loving and extra play time last night so he recovered nicely.

The main exhibit at VAM is "Raw and Reassembled", quilts made by Paula Kovarik.  I have long admired her work and hope to add a piece to the Collection.  She does wonderful free motion stitching with heavy black thread on white or white thread on black - whimsical creatures, swirls and squares, thick and thin, houses and waves, and.... well, anything that comes to her mind.  I do wonder if she has nightmares!!  VERY inventive.  She also cuts up quilts she has made previously, combines them with pieces of other quilts and creates fascinating juxtapositions of shapes, colors, motifs, and great visual depth.  Here is a picture of "Unmapped" made in 2017 and measures about 30"W X 40"L.She describes it as 'Reassembled quilt pieces, overstitched."  

And a DETAIL.

Another gallery shows "Expressive Liberations" colorful quilts from San Diego People of Color Quilt Guild.  And in the small gallery are four quilts from the permanent collection. 

These exhibits are up until October3rd.

Today is the one year anniversary of the death of my friend Mabel Huseby in Washington State.  Not a day I wanted to stay home and mourn (something I have done every day for a year) and my friend Carol joined me for lunch at Cedar Creek in Brea.  Carol is always good company and we both enjoy the food at Cedar Creek.  It is in a Republican area, but our table was nicely separated and we masked up going in and out and the wait staff was all masked.

Carol had the Brown Derby style Cobb Salad which is finely chopped and delicious.

I had the fish tacos which came with rice and beans. Also delicious and enough food that I didn't need dinner tonight.

The plate was so colorful I took this close up.

I had a yen for dessert (when don't I?) so we shared a lemon tart which was topped by three huge raspberries.  Fabulous, but it would have been easier to eat with a spoon.

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More on Whisper quilt + doctoring 09-22-21

 If you are intrigued with the idea of Whisper Quilts you should Google  "Whisper Quilt Challenge".  There are many shown, some more successful than others.  I was especially interested to read Jenny K. Lyon's explanation of the quilt she made and the third person in a 12 month SAQA challenge in 2012.  She did a lot of thinking about her design.   Most of the groups you find on the Google list just show the quilts, but some have explanations.  Loose Threads group is interesting.  Browse a bit, the progressions are varied and inspiring.

I've talked before about the coyote problem we have in my neighborhood.  Something that is happening all over the country, or so I have read.  We haven't seen any on our walks just recently.  But one day last week when I took KoKo out back for a piddle we spied this one walking between the chain link fence and the block wall that surrounds the patio homes behind us.  KoKo never goes out alone and likes to walk on the short wall across our backyard and survey the homes and park, always barking at dogs out for a run.  And, in this case, coyotes!  That guy stopped and took a good look and I wonder if a coyote could fix the location in his memory and come back later looking for a meal!  It is quite a long way around to get over the two chain link fences, the very deep flood control channel the gravel road, our metal fence and up the slope.  But they can do it as I have seen them in our yard.  

I did see my primary doctor this morning.  She gave me a referral to a different orthopedic group to try to see if I can get another spinal injection SOON.  Guess I will try calling tomorrow.  I gave blood for testing to see about the various levels.  I just can't seem to regain any endurance and am always dragging around, too tired to accomplish much.  All my life I have heard "It ain't easy getting old." and they were right!

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A Whisper Quilt Project 09-20-21

A Whisper Quilt project is like the childhood game of "Whisper" where the 1st child sitting in a circle whispers something to the second child.  She then repeats the whisper to child number three, who in turn whispers it to number four and so on around the circle.  It was great fun to see how much the whisper had changed when it came back to the first child.  With quilters the first person in the privacy of her sewing space makes a small quilt and then shows it to the second person, letting them keep it until the second person has made a quilt based on the first.  She then returns the first quilt to the maker and shows her own quilt to person number three who will base her quilt on that inspiration.  Nobody else will see the quilts except the maker and the next person on the list.  Our art quilt group in San Diego started our project over two years ago, but the pandemic rather slowed us down.  Instead of passing our quilts to the next person we started e-mailing pictures to the next person.  Only seven of the members participated and we all took an inordinate amount of time to make such small quilts.  However, we finally had our "reveal" at the in-person September meeting.  It was interesting to hear the explanations of why each quilt developed.  

The only “rule” is that it should be approximately 18” X 24”, either portrait or landscape orientation.  Any fabric or technique is acceptable.  The quilt must be quilted and have finished edges.

       

Andrea Bacal started us off with this view of cone flowers based on a picture she had taken.  

This is my quilt, based on Andrea's coneflowers.  Butterflies love coneflowers.  I had intended to add the white dots they display using white puff paint, but I forgot!  This is all fused with the orange/yellow of the wings one piece with the cutout black veins fused on top.  

Michalee Sloan was next.  She based her hidden tiger on the colors in my quilt with lots of green as in the background.  The leaves are made individually and tacked to make a 3-D jungle.  

Ellen Spellman followed with her delicate embroidery inspired by the intricacy of the hidden tiger and foliage.  She accented the blue in the tiger. 

Carol Sebastian-Nealy picked up on the geometric, but used squares instead of rectangles, repeating the vertical quilting.  Now called "matchstick", but was called "channel" quilting in the 70s. 

Deb McKay printed her own fish, repeating the five images and included the horizontal line from Carol's quilt. 

Nelda McComb started with a blue background as in Deb's quilt and created a whimsical view of her recently retired husband catching a fish.  

Here are the quilts pinned up in order at our meeting. 

It was an interesting project, but might have gone better without the complication of the pandemic and not being able to pass the actual quilts to the next person.  

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