Friday Food 08-05-22

 TOMATOES!

My San Diego friend Andrea went wild for tomatoes after buying the 2022 "The Whole Seed Catalog" early this year.  The pictures are amazing and inspiring and the tomatoes look delicious.  She ordered a variety of seeds and planted them, resulting in a bountiful crop of tomatoes.  She shared some this last week and these are the ones I brought home.  They are all tasty and I have enjoyed my annual BLT feast. 

I especially enjoyed the two red ones at the top, but all were good. 

A neighbor down the street used a local mulch which contains sewage sludge, so volunteer cherry tomatoes come up everywhere.  She doesn't pick them and they have started to clamber over her driveway.  So, we stop and pick a few when we walk in the morning. 

These are quite small, see the dime I put down for sizing!  And they grown in convenient clumps so I can pick a bunch with one clip.  

I buy the bags of six tiny avocados at TJoe's because one is just what I need for just me.  They have been quite good this year.   Just a few grains of salt and a squirt of olive oil.  If I only had some fresh basil.  Next time. 

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Quilt from Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection - Jean Ray Laury 07-31-22

I have posted this quilt several times in the past and it always thrills me to have it hanging on my wall.  The late Jean Ray Laury was a very special person in the quilting world .  She moved us away from the traditional quilts and innovated many techniques that are still used today.  Many quiltmakers and art quilters have expanded on her work, but her style will always remain distinctively hers.

"Lowanda Does Hollywood" Jean Ray Laury 2001 30.5W x 33.5L

There is a striking resemblance between Lowanda and myself, but Jean Ray did not use me as a model, even though we have known each other for years. In this quilt Jean has used many of the techniques she has taught over the years -- silk screen printing, Thermofax printing, hand drawing, hand painting, foiling, piecing and machine quilting.

A very special quilt for me, made by an artist I have always respected.

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Out in the World - Part 2 07-27-22

 I have never been much of a shopper, usually just find what I am looking for, buy it, and leave.  Even before the pandemic a trip to the mall was rare.  Of course, in my much younger days I shopped with the best of them, haunting South Coast Plaza whenever I could.  Anyway, my exposure to current retail trends is almost not existent.  Groceries, pharmacy, See's, and the Farmer's Market are about it for me.  So, going with Carol to the Brea Mall was an EXPERIENCE.  She went on to the shop she needed, leaving me in front of See's (not the one I usually visit).  When I was done there I walked along and two doors down was a shop that sells socks - ONLY socks.  I remember decades ago when I discovered shops that sold only sunglasses and I was amazed then.  But SOCKS?  Quite a small space, but they must have thousands of socks, but no plain ones. 

Pick a subject, they have a sock for it.  

Some are pretty sassy.

But I suppose children these days are exposed to just everything.  In my sheltered old age I think sass has gotten completely out of hand. 

What, I wondered, are shoe charms?  There were several tables covered with plastic bins full of little cartoon characters and different motifs.  They fit in the holes of Crocs shoes,

On the back of each charm is a raised black button to fit the holes. 

Here is a shoe showing how to use the charms.  

I suppose I may be the last person in the world to know this, but I find it fascinating to discover such a finely tuned shop selling one product. 

They do actually sell something else - strange puffy slippers that look like athletic shoes. 

And notice the display cubes made of interlocking floor tiles.  Interesting adaptation. 

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Out in the world! 07-26-22

Not much to talk about when all I do is mask up to go to the grocery, Starbuck's, or guild meeting.  Or unmasked to walk the loop with KoKo twice a day.   Fortunately I have friend Carol to tempt me out to lunch once in a while.  We went on Friday to Toast in Brea.  I have talked about this place before and this is the third time we went there.  Could not pass up the fabulous eggs benedict served with chipped French fries and/or arugula with Myer lemon drizzle.  Some day we will taste something else.  Maybe.  

This location is quite large and was at least one other restaurant.  It is cavernous and very noisy.  I find the decor strange - sort of things set out for a garage sale.  The items don't have anything in common and they are not artfully arranged.  

It was quite full on Friday morning and next to our table was an extended group of young ladies, plus one young man and an adult man.  This lady seemed to be in charge of all these young women, perhaps it was a graduation party.  I was fascinated by the clothing they were wearing.  Surely this gal was wearing palazzos from the 70s.

Unlike when I was in my early twenties and ladies mostly wore the same type of clothing, these gals were all over the place.  Jeans (faded and torn, of course), short shorts and spaghetti straps, full slacks and sleeveless top.  Note also loooong hair. 

And then there were short dresses and long, tiered dresses.  Sandals, heels, tennis shoes (or whatever they are called these days). 

They seemed like nice young ladies and they had a great time taking pictures in groups and singles.  When I stood up and hooked my long necklace on the chair back the beads when flying.  Everyone hustled to find them all and put them in a take out container for me to carefully take home.  I do have them all and will need to find someone to do the repair since my hands can no longer to that sort of thing.  

Carol needed to go to a shop in the Brea Mall so we continued our adventures and I will write about them tomorrow.  I hope I can get on line then.  

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A grumble about cars! 07-18-22

Thirty plus years ago when we moved into this house one of the things that made it attractive was how clean the neighborhood was and how few cars were parked on the street.   It seemed so tidy and "upscale".   Now new neighbors move in with complete wall to wall garage shelving or just piles of stuff in the garage and few park their cars in their garage.  Instead they park on the driveways and along the curbs.  Every other Monday the street sweeper comes by and tickets are given to any car parked in the street.  Don't know where the vehicles are parked on those days, but they all quickly returned.   I feel sometimes I am living in a parking lot.  Our house faces into a cul de sac with six houses.  They have a total of seventeen cars and two motor homes!  Admittedly there are twenty people living there, but almost half are under driving age.   Of course, in thirty years most of the original owners have retired, moved, or died, so the new people who move in are younger and have children.  (Oddly there are about eleven widows in the tract now.)

We are going on our morning walk when some neighbors have gone to work.

But the motor homes/campers are there ALL of the time and have been for decades.  There is a law in Placentia that one cannot park these vehicles in this manner.  But I suppose that if nobody complains there is no reason to obey the law.  

In mid June the two families went traveling and on a Sunday afternoon our view was this.  Lovely, huh?   There is a Facebook group "View from my window" with pictures people all over the world post pictures from their window, door, porch, patio, wherever.  I enjoy looking at what is posted and am tempted to post a picture, but in truth I would have to post what I see most of the year and I doubt that anyone would enjoy that.  

Thank you for reading this "rant".  I just needed to get it off my chest.  

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Quilt from TCQC Sally Sellers 07-17-22

 I posted this first in 2010, so this is a copy of that original post.  

" House"  Sally Sellers - Vancouver, Washington   2007  12" X 12"

Tiny blue beads form the moon and faceted blue beads sprinkle the roof. The bugle beads lined up on the roof top make me think of neon lights - don't know why. She has filled the shockingly pink night sky in the background with French knots and created a lawn in straight stitch with many color threads.

The back is made from a Sherrill Kahn print that I also had on my shelf and had a lot of fun with. You'll note that there is no label, instead Sally has signed the front of the quilt on the binding in the lower right corner. Note also that for the binding across the bottom she has used some of the backing fabric. It seems to extend the lawn into the binding.

http://sallysellers.com/sellersAbout.swf

06-24-10 Sally responded to my e-mail telling her I had posted her quilt: "This house was totally for fun, fun, fun. No agonizing over details, no angst about design, just grab some color and make it happen. I hadn't seen it since I sent it in to the auction, so am delighted to see it again now. I was doing all the things I love to do: stitch with embroider floss, add beads, use color. I continue to do that with larger projects. I have a zillion beads now but know nothing about jewelry -- I use them all on fabric. Thanks so much for purchasing it.

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Moonglow and Quilt Guild meeting 07-13-22

The full moon is so lovely tonight.  Wish my photo did it justice.  

Yesterday I went to the meeting of Surfside Quilters Guild in San Clemente.  It is a daytime guild and is doing well despite the pandemic.  In the past two years we have added about 35 new members and our membership is about 180.  About half the members attend the meetings.  We no longer do ZOOM. 

This month's speaker was Cindy Myers, a certified Judy Neimeyer instructor who updated us on paper piecing quilting techniques among other things.  Her quilts are quite colorful and, in the Neimeyer tradition, have lots of spikes.  

This quilt is brighter than the picture, can't seem to improve the color. 

Most of the quilts Cindy showed were very large.  I think this is a queen. 

Many of the quilts had this serpentine flying geese 'border'.

I like this pattern very much.  Cindy showed half a dozen variations, I like the subtle color in this one with the white sashing. 

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