A Birthday Day 09-01-21

Thank you all for your birthday wishes.  I was surprised by how many I had on Facebook.  The common saying "Getting old ain't easy." certainly applies, but kind words from friends all over certainly make it more pleasant.   And I did have a pleasant day.  It was quite cool this morning at 7am when we went for our walk, almost like autumn, but I keep telling myself that September is here and Septembers are usually very hot.  We'll see.  

Even before we went for our walk we took pictures of those nice boys in the cul de sac. Julian is in 2nd grade and Emmanuel is in 6th grade.  He has grown so tall over the summer, I think he must be five feet.  They both gave KoKo some loving and he was busy licking their legs.  He does like to lick people and I find it irritating most of the time.  I have not been effective in training him not to do it. 

Mid morning I went to PTherapy and felt slightly better afterward.  My Medicare coverage has run out, so I will take a break and try very hard to do the exercises every day.  And try to arrange another spinal injection.  Hope it will help. 

This gorgeous bouquet came from Carol and Dick.  The delivery driver was a little mixed up and first brought me a vase of pink roses for "your anniversary".  I said no, birthday.  Then I looked at the card and they were from Rudy, but I don't know any Rudys.  The driver took them back to the truck and returned to the shop.  Forty minutes or so later he was back with this huge vase and told me he thought they were prettier than the pink roses!  I agree.

Dick and Carol treated me to dinner at Ruth's Chris near Disneyland.  I think the last time I had a steak was two years ago when they treated me.  It is an elegant place and the service is very good. 

They do serve about the best Caesar salad I have ever eaten. 

Even though I don't drink I had a Champagne Cocktail, one of Carol's favorites.  It was very tasty and not enough to give me a headache. 

We all had the petite filet and shared sides of mushrooms, creamed spinach, and sweet potato casserole, all of which I recommend, but especially the sweet potato.  I may try to find the recipe for that.   

They serve a free dessert for birthdays - a small bread pudding which is just bread pudding.  That single candle and the chocolate writing make it festive.  But I think the chocolate writer might need to practice their penmnship.  Looks like Buterboyz!  

All together a lovely day.  Thanks to Carol and Dick and all my online friends.  

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Miscellaneous 08-31-21

I seem to be spending a lot of time looking back through my photo files and rediscovering things I vaguely remember or completely forgot.   For tonight's post I looked to see where I was ten years ago on August 31st, it seems much longer somehow.  I had been up to Washington State to see my friends Mabel and Mac, went to a quilt show, and visited friends along the way.  

On Sep 1st, my 73rd birthday, I was in San Juan Bautista, CA, enjoying Mary's lovely yard with flower boxes overflowing.  

Instead of cake we had a marionberry pie, which we all preferred. 

Of course, one day we drove over to Pacific Grove and had lunch at the Red House.  My favorite there is the Portobello sandwich.  

Followed by a visit to Back Porch Fabrics where Wendy cut lots of fabric for us.  

I drove home on September 3rd and stopped along I-5 to photograph in a cotton field covered with the lovely white flowers. 

Now, ten years later I will turn 83.  Amazing.  Who could have expected what those ten years would bring with the politics and the pandemic and my ageing body!  Hope the next ten will find us in a better situation.  

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Quilt from TCQC - Olga Norris 08-29-21

With the pandemic and all my health problems this year I have not been keeping up very well with what is happening in the art quilt world.  Last week I was checking some websites for artists I especially admire and discovered that Olga Norris of England died in December 2019.  She had been ill, but I don't know what from.  I looked at the images in her online galleries and contacted her husband, Nigel, to see what might be available.  Four of the pieces I am interested in are available and I told him to send me all of them.  As you can see these already in TCQC are quite small, and so are the new ones.  Interestingly, she had specified a charity to benefit from sales of her remaining work, so I will send the payment to the Loch Arthur Camphill Community, a working community in the south west of Scotland, which includes men and women with learning disabilities.  What a great idea to have her favorite charity benefit.  

Hand dyed silk fabric, silk thread, hand stitched.  This type of stitching is in the style of Kantha work done in Bengal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantha but so much more refined and expressive.   If you click on her name in the right sidebar you can read what I have previously posted about her work.  Check out her website for more of her fascinating work.   www.olganorris.com   I will, of course, post images of the four new pieces when they arrive.  

"The Crow's Story"  Olga Norris - England  2012  7.1" x 7.1"

"Coffee Futures"  Olga Norris - England  2010  11.4"W x 7.5"L

"Red Hen"  Olga Norris - England  2012  7.5"W x 11"L

"New Hat"  Olga Norris - England  2010  6.2"W x 7.1"L

[This does not have a border, I just didn't crop it close enough]

Limping and Sewing 08-28-21

That darned sciatica is back again.  I'll call Monday to see about having another spinal injection.  And, of course, I am still doing PTherapy.   KoKo and I walked yesterday and today, but only about half the distance we usually do.  Walking is painful, but not horrific, however standing for more than a minute or so is excruciating!  I'm doing extra exercises periodically during the day and they do seem to help.  

I have signed on for a SAQA 100 day "challenge" which requires at least 15 minutes of creating every day.  So far I have used my precut scraps (1", 1 1/2", and a few 2") to make blocks that are not fused nor pieced, but just stitched to a 5" white background. No measuring, just eyeball the divisions and line up, so they are a little wonky at times. There are 17 so far, but I will move on to something else for a week or so.  

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Friday Food 08-27-21

One of the best things about computers, to me anyway, is having tens of thousands of pictures I can scroll through and remember people, places, events, animals, flowers - just everything.  I just spent an hour looking for pictures of food for this post and enjoyed images of trips I have taken, quilts galore, Surfside Quilters Guild members and meetings  And that was only two years worth!  I did think I took more food pictures than I can find now, but settled on these three, all from ten years ago in 2011 in widely separated locations. . 

I enjoy eating fish, but don't cook it much at home because I don't BBQ and my oven hasn't worked for years.  So, I eat fish when I eat out.  This is one of my favorite meals - Salmon, broccoli, baked potato (or rice).  Makes me hungry just thinking about it!   This was in Long Beach, CA.. 

Another favorite is fish tacos  I especially like shrimp which are very good at  Chronic Tacos, but these two are from a food truck that used to serve at lunch time in Brea, CA.  I prefer corn tortillas, but they only served flour. 

And, of course, sushi is high on my list of favorites.  This yummy roll was at a tiny sushi place near Beaverton, Oregon.   

I may have to go out for sushi tomorrow night., probably to my favorite neighborhood spot "Fish in a Bottle" .  Since the pandemic is so threatening I may have to do takeout.  But it will be the best.

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Wordless Wednesday 08-25-21

            

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Sunday again and here is another quilt from TCQC.   This is one of twelve that I purchased in the last century.  Doesn't that sound odd?  I started collecting contemporary quilts (now called art quilts) in 1985 but didn't have a lot of extra money and then life got in the way for about a decade.  So, all but twelve quilts have been added since 2000.  This piece is one of the very early additions and I am still glad I bought it and enjoy having it hanging sometimes.

                          

"Absolutes"  Cynthia Corbin  1994  35"W x 56"L

Machine pieced and quilted.  Cotton fabric, thread, batting.

www.CynthiaCorbin.com

 

I met Cynthia Corbin at Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar.  We were in a couple Ruth McDowell classes together in the early 1990s.  I admired her work then and still do today, but have never added another of her quilts to the Collection. I believe this was started in one of Ruth's Symmetry classes and the "border" was added after Cynthia was home in her studio.  I love the addition of brown in the border and those swirling "ribbons" pop out the center panel and add a lot of motion to the composition.  Cynthia lives in the Seattle area.

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