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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Wordless Wednesday - dogs 11-10-21

 

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From the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection 11-08-21

Why don't I write?  Sometimes I just can't think of anything to say.  Sometimes I leave it too late in the evening and I don't have the energy.  Sometimes I literally forget - after all these years!  But I always vow I will try harder!  I need to take some pictures of quilts that have been added to the Collection in the last year.  I will try to do that soon.  Meanwhile, here is a repeat from 12-17-17.

"Mad Hattery" 1999 41.5" square

Pamela Jenner, Barbara Cannon, Michele Lecrivain of Santa Clarita, CA

This is a whole cloth quilt with the design applied with permanent fabric pens and markers, crayons, and fabric paint. Machine pieced and quilted. I bought it at an auction to raise money for Breast Cancer Research. I was never able to locate any of the makers to ask further questions or to tell them I had purchased the quilt. I am always interested in connecting modern art quilts to the quilting traditions of the past - what a long journey it has been for whole cloth quilts over the last 200+ years.

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Those boys in the cul de sac 11-04-21

Since the pandemic started I haven't seem much of those two nice brothers who live across the street in the cul de sac.  They have been at home trying to learn on ZOOM and their father has been working from home all this time, so he is always there and can drive them wherever.  But yesterday he had to drive into his office in Los Angeles for the first time.  I had to ask if he remembered how to get there!  In the past he took the train from Fullerton and then a bus to his office place.  So, yesterday the boys needed a driver.  They go to different schools now - Immanuel is in middle school and Julian still goes to grade school.  I drove Immanuel to school after his dad had delivered Julian to his school.  Then in the afternoon I picked up Julian and we went out for ice cream.   Of course, he had Cookie Monster. However the blue color really turns me off so I had my favorite Razzmania - raspberries and chocolate chunks in a vanilla base.  We came back to my house, but I don't know how he could access my Internet, so we walked over to his house where he played computer games and I read stuff on my cell phone.  They have been renovating their house and have the loveliest pale cedar "siding" in the living/dining room and it is laid diagonally.  Looks so clean and "modern".  The work is not quite finished and the refrigerator is still in the middle of the room, but they are almost ready to get back to normal.  We have three houses in the neighborhood being remodeled and it is taking forever for all of them.  Delays in appliances, shortage of lumber and wall board, slow delivery of materials all around.  I don't know how they all manage with the disorganization.  I live in great disorder with piles of everything, but I don't have to put up with the dust and tools and noise and just always having others in my house.  However does Mr. John get any work done?   Mrs. John is a nurse and has worked through it all.  Anyway, I loved seeing the boys, they are so polite and well behaved.  And so TALL now.  Kids grow up very fast.  

Julian ate almost all of it and then went to the restroom and washed up!

Julian and Immanuel - 1st day of school Sep 2021

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Wordless Wednesday

 

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A little more Halloween 11-02-21

 Missed a couple Halloween pictures on Sunday. 

This is pretty silly, but makes me laugh when i see it - twice a day!  It actually glows in the dark so if we walk late we still see it.  There are quite a few of these free standing basketball hoops around and this one is the only one I have ever seen anyone throwing balls.  So they do put it to good use.  

Great jack-o-lantern, eh?  Those scraggily teeth are toothpicks.  Very original.  Should I ever carve a jack it will have these teeth! 

And a look back....

This is a quilt I made for the monthly mini at Surfside Quilters Guild in 2013.  At that time I was still doing one monthly mini a year and this one was fun to make.  I haven't been asked to do minis lately, guess those days are over.  It is a pretty good fund raiser for the guild.  Tickets are six for $5 and one ticket is drawn for the winner.  

"Jack"  Del Thomas 2013  Approx 30" W x 24"L

I know I have posted this several times previously, but I do really like it!

https://delquilts.blogspot.com/2020/10/halloween-quilt-in-past-10-31-20.html

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Halloween 10-31-21

Lots of pictures tonight.  First of some decorations in the neighborhood.  Not so many this year, but they all went up early in the month.  

I posted an image of this guy on Oct 4th when he first appeared.  He is 12 - 15 feet tall.  I have added KoKo to this picture to provide a comparison.

Since that first picture this unfortunate child was added.  A little too creepy for me, but not as bad as a whole yard full of huge skeletons all the way down to cat and dog skeletons smaller than KoKo.  Br-r-r-r-r!

And here is KoKo with the skeleton's foot - about the same size!

Three houses north of us there is this skeleton family roasting marshmallows.  Again we have a child skeleton on someone's knee.  

At night there are blue lights and blazing coals (lights). 

This guy looks too happy to be a ghost.  The black bump at the bottom is a giant inflated spider.  Fortunately not lit so he isn't terribly scary. 

I like this row of "The Scream" ghosts made of corrugated fencing. 

Here are some of the skeleton animals.

Who appear in the front yard of this over-the-top display.

We don't usually do Halloween.  Just leave all the lights off until the Tricker-Treaters have finished their rounds.  However, this year some neighbors arranged a parade and asked us to set up a table on our driveway and greet the kids with treats.  I hauled out a chair and a bowl of quarters. KoKo wore his bunny ears, some of the time.  Great crowd of kids and parents, but they preferred the other side of the street and I only gave out 24 quarters.  NO leftover candy.  I always preferred coins over candy when I was a kid.  Of course, back then it was nickels or dimes.

They all gathered at the southern end of the street - SO many!

Neighbor Don led the parade in his Jeep.  Don't understand why, but he backed up all the way - at least to the corner five houses away.

Lots of costumes, even a dinosaur.  And see that tiny guy in blue at the far left - he was determined to walk/run by himself, but his dad was running close behind. 

This blue gal is one of those wind blown creatures used to attract attention at new businesses - they wave their arms and bounce on their skinny legs.  In the foreground is Muttley the dog who is always walked without a lease.  I am afraid someday a coyote will jump out and nab him for breakfast.  

The crowd in the cul de sac across the street, they were giving out candy by the handsful.  In the background one neighbor has put up a bounce house, but I didn't see anyone using it.  In costume?  Nooooo.  

Here is KoKo in his bunny ears.  He wouldn't wear them for very long, nor would he sit still for this picture. 

I had better luck with his back view. 

I think we will go back to no lights next year.  This was very tiring. 

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