Brugmansia 05-22-08

Today was an amazing weather day in SCalifornia, especially in Orange County where I live. Rain, hail, T&L, even a couple tornadoes out in Riverside County at March Air Reserve Station (I think that is the current name). And because the rain was so heavy I decided to drive a different way home from a lunch date, avoiding the freeway traffic which is always terrible in the rain - nobody wants to slow down.

This yellow Brugmansia, or Angel Trumpet Vine, hangs over a block wall between a busy four-lane road and a corner house. I drove around the block and parked on the residential street, walking around the corner to take the pictures. I expected the flowers to be fragrant, but they weren't - some Brugmansias have a wonderful scent.

This picture is looking straight up into the throat of the flowers.

And this picture shows three unopened flowers - the straight green "bean" looking things in the upper left corner- and just below them a pod which develops after the flowers fall. I like the yellow and white vines, but I wish I could find a pink one somewhere around town.

I have posted about Brugmansia previously -
http://delquilts.blogspot.com/2007/10/piqf-thursday-10-11-07.html

Organizing/Digging Out! 05-21-08

Like many other quilters who blog I am trapped in Spring Cleaning Fever and am trying to get my house organized. It is the whole house because I do something with quilting in every room except the bathrooms and the kitchen. I am too embarrassed to show a "before" picture - it is pretty bad. I have a none judgemental friend who is going to give me some days here and there. Some things are easier when there are two people - like re-rolling quilts and moving furniture and handing down books from upper shelves. At any rate, I may not blog every single day, but I will try. I am working on the Color Bowl/Skinny Strips project and another one that I owe to someone who has been waiting far too long. I found one project that I am going to put near the top of the "to do" pile - a box of Stamp Basket blocks that I made some years ago. There are 100 complete blocks and another 80 or so that just need the two halves sewn together. Don't remember why I packed it up in a box instead of finishing it, I didn't even remember it was in a box somewhere on a shelf! At least the weather is cooler and the A/C is not running all day.

Air Travel 05-20-08

I have posted before about my fondness for my daily dose of history from: http://www.reference.com/thisday/

May 20th is the anniversary of two momentous air travel events.

In 1927 Charles Lindbergh left from Long Island, New York, bound for Paris, France, in his custom build plane the "Spirit of St. Louis". He was the first person to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean.

Only twelve years later on this date in 1939 Pan American Airlines flew the first regular transatlantic flight from New York to Southhampton, England (making two stops along the way). It is amazing that after only 69 years we have air travel to almost every place on earth and into the stratosphere.

Incidentally, this would have been Jimmy Stewart's 100 birthday.

Color Bowls/Skinny Strips Qltg 05-19-08

I found some time to quilt on this project today. I'm using a Valdani variegated thread which is a little thicker than regular sewing thread.

I've found in the past that I do better keeping the quilting lines straight if I stitch a few lines and move up/down to do a few more. Then I go back and fill in the lines between those that I have already stitched. I plan to use a different color of variegated thread across the top of the quilt.

Here is a closeup. You can see the netting behind the color bowl. I ripped out the blue thread I had stitched around the edge and re-did it with poly invisible thread (Superior). Looks much better.

A bit cooler today - only up to 98, but lower temps tomorrow.

On the back 05-18-08

My friend Patty commented that the quilt I am working on reminded her of Monet's waterlily paintings. It must have reminded me of that also, which is probably why I had chosen this fabric for the back of the quilt. Great minds and all that.

Click on the picture to enlarge and you can see the stitching to the left of center.

Still hot here - 101.8 on my patio today sometime. Bless the person who invented air conditioning.

Color Bowls & Skinny Strips 05-17-08

A few weeks ago I was working to combine color bowls and skinny strips, but neither design worked. The first one at

http://delquilts.blogspot.com/2008/04/oh-no-more-skinny-strips-04-29-08.html

looked like a sort of Indian motif with an image of a person.

Then I tried

http://delquilts.blogspot.com/2008/05/skinny-strips-new-view-04-30-08.html
But it was so static and derivative I couldn't continue with it.

Now I am trying another arrangement and I'm not sure it will work either. Above is the overall shot which looks like a blue fried egg or maybe a monster's eyeball!

I put the free cut net behind the bowl to make more variation in the background. But going around the edge with blue thread just doesn't work. I have picked that thread out and think I will try invisible thread. Or I might cut away the net to make it conform to the shape of the bowl.

I like doing this sort of experimentation, but it takes a lot of brain power and it is really too hot for that, even with the A/C running. Still hot tomorrow (Sunday), but cooler temps predicted starting Monday.