Lunch Out 11-19-21

For anyone who lives in the north Orange County area, here is a new place for breakfast or lunch.  It is a converted house in Fullerton right on Euclid Street with a small parking lot in back.  There is indoor or outdoor seating.  Carol is so good at finding interesting places to try and this one is a delight.  Didn't take pictures of our food; chicken salad sandwich, tomato/basil soup, and the house special broccoli salad (which comes with all the sandwiches).  The decor is eclectic and delightful, even a painting of Half Dome on the trash can housing in the parking lot and lovely images on the wall in the outdoor seating area.  This was obviously someone's home for many years before it became a restaurant and there is an enormous avocado tree on the right , behind the bougenvilla.   We lived a mile or so from here before moving to Placentia, the next town to the east, in 1986.  Of course, everything has changed since then.  Fullerton is a restaurant town now with several places to eat on almost every block.  There is even an El Pollo Loco on the other side of the driveway from the Greenhouse Cafe.   

On a side note:  I have a donated card table quilting frame for hand quilting if any of you would like it - it is free.

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Wordless Wednesday on a Thursday!! 11-18-21

 

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Challenge quilt, Canyon Quilters fund raiser. 11-17-21

Monday evening was the Challenge reveal at the Canyon Quilters meeting in San Diego.  I did not drive down for the meeting, but watched on ZOOM.  There were 33 Challenge quilts with the theme of "Color Me Festive" requiring the use of the challenge fabric in either black background or white background.  I had chosen the black and decided that a wreath is festive, especially at this time of year.   I quilted the background first doing a plaid pattern.  Then I cut out the flowers and some solid red 'berries' and outlined each of them with black fabric marker.  I couldn't make the wreath look round so i fused on a circle using two layers of black nylon netting and arranged the flowers, leaves, and berries, fusing them down.  You can hardly see the circle but it helps create the round shape.  One problem is that the front of the quilt can never be ironed lest the nylon netting melt!  Then I straight stitched around each applique with mono-filament thread.  

                      

"Festive"  Del Thomas 2021  14" X 14"

"Festive" Back  I found this coordinate fabric at Back Porch Fabric in Pacific Grove and was originally going to use it for binding, but that didn't look right and I just used the green.

The quilt did sell at the guild meeting, but I don't know who bought it or the final bid. 

Since I was not there to bid I asked a friend to bid for me and she was successful with a bid of $200 for this piece "You Too-Can" by Judy Peters.  A nice addition to the bird section of TCQC.  Judy used mostly the green foliage of the challenge fabric with one red flower in the lower right corner.  

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Scraps - continuing 11-16-21

A long post.... In the 40s and 50s quilts were mostly made from scraps, so I am rather addicted to them and cut various squares and triangles to store for when I need them. When my late husband was undergoing treatment for a brain tumor I could not seem to concentrate on anything else but his illness and needs. I started sewing 1 1/2" scraps into squares - 100 scraps equals a ten inch block and continue. It was mindless. A box of dark and a box of light, pull one from each box and sew them together into a string of ten sets, then add another light or dark to each row. 

Like I said, mindless, but something to occupy my hands.  The only choice I made was to include red in every ten inch block.

Ultimately the blocks were sashed with red and made into quilts for philanthropy. In the past 30+ years I have continued to make my scraps into squares and triangles  and I have learned to use Wonder Under and other fusibles. I wondered what I could do with the squares and the fusible, so as part of my SAQA 100 day project I started a panel. 

Choosing a backing of plaid  to try to keep the rows even and ironing a layer of fusible to the wrong side to provide a neutral background in case any showed through, I just started laying out colors. It is rather addicting so that whenever I walked past the table I would stop and try to put in few more pieces; like having a jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table.

I didn't start this until August 31st and the 100 days ended last week, but I haven't finished the panel. I rediscovered my propensity for using fabrics that appear as one or two colors and I don't seem to use much blue and almost no pink. It is an eye opener. It has been a 100 days of trying to corral my thoughts and get back to being creative and I would like to be part of the next 100 day project starting in January. I think I have learned how to make use of the opportunity and the time.  Some participants even finished an original design quilt, something to aspire to!

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Miscellaneous 11-14-21

I do have a hard time at guild meetings figuring out who is who.  Everyone does not wear a mask, but enough do that I need to really search my brain and the pictures in the directory to decide which person is in the picture I have taken.  They don't have any trouble with me because of the hat.  I didn't mean to take this image, but my phone does its own thing sometimes and reverts to selfie or even to video!  And sometimes I think I am taking one picture and find I have 20 on my phone.  I may revert to a camera.   You see the problem I have with the light from all the windows.

A few years ago I ate a hard boiled egg that was laid the day before and it was so delicious I have tried to find a nearby source for "home grown" eggs.  Then I heard chickens clucking in the back of a house in the neighborhood.  When I asked about them the fellow asked me if I wanted some!  Of course, I replied.  He gave me a plastic egg container and said to just leave it on his porch when I needed more.  This is my third dozen and they are so tasty.  He seems to have several different kinds of hens and they lay different colored eggs.  I have always been delighted with the lovely colors of Araucana eggs.The eggs are different sizes so they wouldn't do for baking, but I haven't baked anything in years.  I just eat them. 

I drove down to Oceanside on Thursday to see the exhibits at Oceanside Museum of Art, especially the lovely fabric sandhill cranes by Charlotte Bird, and had lunch at Rosewood Kitchen with my friend Beth.  The carbonara is different than I have had anywhere else, but it is delicious.  They have a patio on the sidewalk so the people watching is interesting.  The inside decor is ...  I don't know what the word would be... eclectic?  Here is a statue on a hand painted pedestal - the lady is wearing a huge human sized picture brimmed hat.  The second picture is the bathroom wall, but the painting continues across the ceiling and also inside the door.  In the dining room long stemmed roses hang from the ceiling, they have been dead for a very long time.   I am happy eating outside on the sidewalk patio!

This week I will take some pictures of quilts added to TCQC the last six months or so.  Then I will have something to post on Sundays. 

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