A fairy in my trash can! 03-28-08

I was out in the garage folding laundry and turned around to see...

a flickering light in the trash can! The thought that popped into my mind was that a fairy had gotten trapped in there. Now, I am not inclined to believe in fairies and the like, so I have no idea where that came from. Not knowing what I would find I stepped over to see inside and discovered that a sunbeam coming through the turbine on the roof was shining just on that spot. No fairy! But it was sort of magical. In just a few minutes the sunbeam moved on and it was just a dumpy old trashcan again.

More pelicans 03-27-08

I know, this is a dreadful picture, but it is as close as I could get without swimming out into one of the Anaheim Lakes!

I stopped for coffee at the Starbuck's that backs up on the Anaheim Lakes and saw there were still white pelicans swimming around in the lake. I thought they would have all flown off to wherever they spend their summers - don't they know it is the end of March? Maybe they don't have a great distance to go. I could see twelve, but they weren't fishing. I'd love to see a ring of them closing in on a school of fish and all sticking their heads down in the water.

I have my new reading glasses. Oh, my goodness - what an improvement! But he is going to have to redo my all day/every day pair, the twelve inch focal length just isn't going to work.

I might not be blogging every day while I am at the Empty Spools Conference. The only place on the Asilomar campus with a connection is the Administration Bldg and if my sleeping room is very far away... Well, I will try my best. I know you will enjoy pictures of the reception on Sunday and possibly of some of the projects being done in Ruth's class. Stay tuned!

New glasses 03-26-08

Well, I diddled around and didn't take my prescription in for new glasses until this week. I had him put the lenses into my old frames which are large and have a wide bifocal area. I picked them up today and they are a little weird. I didn't realize that the standard focal length for the bifocal part is twelve inches! Whew! I don't think there are many things I have to see at twelve inches - certainly not my sewing machine and not my computer and not even reading a book. I left my reading glasses today for new lenses and can pick them up tomorrow. I don't see how people can see out of the tiny little lenses that are currently popular, some are smaller than my reading (half) glasses. So, I am impaired tonight and am trying to find things to do that are more than (or less than) twelve inches! Fortunately, I did tell him the focal length I need on my reading glasses. Meanwhile I have my nose almost on the monitor in order to read and write e-mail.

A friend sent me this URL for a new site (November 07) that helps to feed the multitude of hungry people on this earth and it checks out okay with Snopes. http://www.freerice.com/index.php It is like the vocabulary page in Reader's Digest. They give a word and four possible definitions. You indicate your answer and if you are correct the organization gives twenty grains of rice to feed the hungry. You need to read what they say on the website and then give it a try. I couldn't do much today due to my glasses, but I will put it on my regular 'play' list. And when I can figure out how to do it, I will put one of their banners on my blog sidebar.

Thomas Contemp. Quilt Collection 03-25-08

Top: "Dutch Iris" Bottom: "Cineraria"

Here are two of the Ruth McDowell quilts that are in the exhibit at Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove.
http://www.backporchfabrics.com/

The gallery at BPorch is also the classroom, so everyone who has taken a class since the first of February has enjoyed the quilts for an entire day. How can anyone get anything done with this wonderfulness around?

Skinny Strips Inspiration?? 03-24-08

"Where do you get your ideas?" I have been asked this question so often and seldom know where the ideas come from. So, sometimes I try to backtrack and see if I can find the spark that set me on the trail of an idea. As most of you know, the ideas don't pop into one's head complete in every detail, although there are always exceptions to this statement! I started working with the skinny strips without an plan, just a chance to play a little on the design board.

This version appeals to me, but it may be the ground fabric, one of my favorites.

This one looks like a three track rail system, or just a fence.

However, a couple of weeks after I arranged those skinny strips I took this picture at the lumber yard. One that I have visited many times over the past thirty years, but never with my camera at the ready.

And I wonder if my brain had stored this image in its dark recesses and it just popped up when I started playing with the skinny strips. Sort of a 'which came first?' scenario.

Everything we see can influence our design ideas and I don't think I will ever know exactly where some of my designs originate. But I am intrigued with trying to figure it out.

Sunflower postcard 03-23-08

When I was down at the Visions Art Quilt Gallery

http://www.quiltvisions.org/gallery.asp

a few weeks ago I picked up a few fiber postcards that I had on consignment at the gift shop. This one is available for $30 if anyone is interested. Leave me a note in the comments.