Book Group Christmas 12-16-10

Clockwise: Marlita, Carol, Nancy, Verna, Del, Teresa, Kathy (Ann was out-of-town)

At the December meeting every year the Book Group (to which I have belonged since 1977) has a Christmas celebration. Carol has hosted for several years and the menu that has worked for us is appetizers, salad, soup, bread, wine and dessert. Carol supplied two different soups and each other member brought a contribution. I took the wine - since I don't remember how to cook these days.

Carol opening gifts - and a peek at her beautiful Christmas tree. We exchange gifts - not very expensive - and some put more into it than others. Nancy made everyone a fabric purse, Teresa and Verna canned pickles during the summer and gave us each a jar, for the last five or so years I have given everyone a Borders gift card - we can all use a good book, right? There were notepads, a bag of soup mix, tea bags, a pin in the shape of a house, a tea bag holder (or it could be a ring holder!), a bag of snack mix, a shopping bag that folds/rolls up very small to fit in a purse, and, of course, a bookmark! Marlita wrapped each gift in a Santa hat - so everyone has a hat now!

We had another guest who declined to be photographed with the group. This is Sammy, one of Carol's two cats; Max stayed hidden for the evening.

It was fun to get together with these long time friends - I have missed two meetings in a row and I have missed seeing them.

Wordless Wednesday 12-15-10

Quilts with Bird images 12-13-10

Several readers have pointed out that there are a number of bird quilts in the Collection. I recognize that - but considering that I am a bird lover it seems there should be more. There are several crow quilts, an imaginary bird, a yellow-headed blackbird, a junco, a flock of hens and a rooster, some ducks and, the largest of them all, three robins from Ruth Powers of Kansas.

I talked about this quilt previously at:

http://delquilts.blogspot.com/2009/09/prize-winning-quilt-by-ruth-powers-09.html

"Early Birds" Ruth Powers - Carbondale, KS 2005 48"W x 39"L

Best of Show at Celebrate Spring - Chicago, April 2006

I don't look for any certain design or motif, I buy the quilts that speak to me - and that I can afford and find a place to store!

Parrots on the TCQC 12-12-10

Here is another purchase from the SAQA online 2010 auction. It caught my eye immediately - the images are so crisp and the color is perfectly 'parrot-y'. Sherry likes to watch the large flock of parrots that live in her area, as I like to watch those that live in the city of Orange.

"Treetop Parrots of the Palisades" Sherry Kleinman 2010 12" x 12"

Painted, machine pieced, machine quilted.

Sherry says about her piece: "Treetop Parrots of the Palisades" was inspired by the many free flying parrots (former pets) flying around my neighborhood here in Pacific Palisades. My piece is painted with water-soluble media (crayons and pencils) on raw canvas and then machine stitched."

The tiny red buttons add texture and color.

But I'm not so sure about the lady bug and bee buttons. I find them distracting.

Sherry has done dense quilting over the entire design and the piece is very flat.

The backing fabric appears to be a handdye, but it might be a batik - I can't tell for sure.

This is a great addition to the Collection. I am a bird lover and have made a number of bird quilts in the past. However, I haven't found a lot of bird quilts to add to the Collection, I hope this is the first of many.

Christmas Lights 12-11-10

This is the first house when I turn into Corky's neighborhood. Every possible spot has something. They seem to love holidays, I sometimes wonder if they don't really live here but just use it to store decorations for all the holidays in the year!

Here are two palms wrapped in orange lights and topped with green - looks like a coupla' giant carrots, eh? Gathered around the bottom are bright red poinsettias.

I think of these three as Papa, Momma, Toddler snow carolers - but I'm not sure, they are all wearing top hats, so maybe they are all guy carolers.

Corky is here for the weekend, but we drove back to his house in LBeach to give his parents a lift to the Boat Parade. It is a real mob scene every year. This afternoon they (like other people who want to see the parade) drove over to park their car somewhere near the location of the party they would attend after the parade. About 5pm Corky and I gave them a ride to near the start of the parade and then headed home in bumper to bumper traffic - doubled the time of the normal drive. Fortunately, Corky is the perfect traveling dog - he just curls up and goes to sleep! I just poke along listening to the radio. Gorgeous evening - daytime temp was 85F.

Christmas Gifts 12-10-10

Since I was widowed in 1990 the holidays have become more and more difficult, they aren't the same or fun without him. So six or seven years ago I stopped "doing" Christmas. No tree, no decorations, no lights, no parties, no shopping! Gift giving is a large part of the trappings of the holidays and it is impossible to avoid giving gifts to the members of the groups I belong to. I rely mostly on gift cards - Borders, Starbucks, Best Buy. Maybe one year I will be inspired to create handmade gifts again, as I did for so many years, but not yet.

My dear friend Liz made snowmen coasters for her friendship group this year and made an extra one for me. I have a huge collection of snowmen of all kinds, but I haven't unpacked them for years. I will not pack this gift away - it is so sweet and practical (layers of felt) - I'll probably use it all year. Liz and I have coffee every few weeks at Starbucks, so she knows what will be in the envelope I give her for Christmas!

Photo experiment & Rayna Gillman post 12-09-10

Yesterday I had lunch at a local eatery named Rutabegorz which is a holdover from the Hippie food of 1970. The original is in Fullerton, but there are also locations in Orange and Tustin (where I ate yesterday). The food is organic, big on veggies, huge salads, hearty soups and some 'funky' dishes, too. Anyway, I was sitting there with my latte in a Xmas mug, which I think is very cute (it is also very much like a design I did for a quilt about thirty years ago), and I tried a half dozen photos to see what I could do with the very busy background I would get. These two images are the two best, however, they are highly modified. I have found that I enjoy digital photography more and more - it is fun to take a not very great image and use the different functions of a photo program to improve it.

If you are a quiltmaker I hope you will take the time to read Rayna Gillman's Blog for today. She makes some very good points about exhibiting your work.
http://studio78notes.blogspot.com/2010/12/juried-vs-curated-or-invitational-shows.html