Double Wedding Ring variation 03-20-10

Just one picture, but I may have overloaded Mary's satellite connection. Darn!

I was eager to see a photo of my project so I can think about it whilst driving tomorrow, so I took it out in the driveway to photograph. The trees gave a bit of dappled shade, but it is good enough for me to see what might be wrong. Sylvia and many of the class members really liked it, but it is a mite too busy for me. I think I will attack the light colored 'melons' and see if I can't find some that are not quite so patterned. Sylvia kept warning us about "eyes" and I can see a few pair staring out at me. Might try a little 'fabric modification" with markers or paint sticks. The flower centers would make great fish eyes! Everyone seems to experiment with making fish quilts - maybe I will do it too.

I'm off in the morning to drive I-5 home. Hope to get away before 9am, which will put me in the LABasin before the Sunday evening traffic gets too bad. I have been icing my left ankle and it is much better. I can walk without too much pain and will only have to stop for gas once and probably two pit stops. Everything is going to go smoothly. Don't worry!!

No pictures! 03-19-10

Sorry, I failed to upload/download the photos before leaving Asilomar and now I am at Mary's - she has limited 'loading' capabilities due to her satellite service restrictions, so I don't want to exceed her allotment. I may already have done so because I downloaded the pictures from my camera. Photos will have to wait until I get home, possibly Sunday evening.

Around 3:30am I woke up in my Asilomar room to go potty and found that I couldn't step down on my left foot. I hung onto furniture and hobbled to the bathroom did my business and looked for some Tylenol, but I had no pain medication left. Also, my cane was in the 'trunk' of the Lexus where I always carry it. So, I just went back to bed - as long as I wasn't walking my ankle didn't hurt. Today was the last day of Empty Spools and I needed to get packed up. I dressed, got my cane from the car and hobbled to breakfast, stopping on the way back to class to buy some Aleve in the little store in the Adm. Bldg. I got lots of help loading my stuff into the car - thanks to all those helpful hands - and drove to Mary's in San Juan Bautista. She got me some ice bags and we propped up my foot with the ice on the ankle. In a couple of hours there was much less pain and I could walk around more like a normal person. But I know that it isn't 'cured' yet and will require more ice and little walking tomorrow. I need to reorganize all the things I will need to get into the car to drive home, then I'll have a good night's sleep and leave on Sunday morning. I'd love to drive down 101, but I suspect with the lovely weather we are having that several million other people will be using that route. I'll post a bit tomorrow night and then hit you will a giant blog on Sunday night.... or, more likely sometime on Monday! I will be working on the SQG newsletter after I get home, it needs to be posted by the end of the week.

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Sylvia Einstein class - Asilomar 03-18-10

Such a beautiful day! Foggy in the morning and early evening, and a little too cool to sit out in short sleeves - but what a blue sky and after the sun went down just "a little curl of California gold laying on the warm shoulder of the night". [I wrote that line more than fifty years ago, but lately I have begun to wonder if I really did, or if I read it somewhere then and just remember incorrectly. Guess that the ageing process.]

This is the view from one of my windows

And here is an enlargement. The white cylinders are protection for tiny trees they are trying to grow to replace all those that have been felled by some kind of foreign pine beetle. The deer graze all over Pacific Grove, including the Asilomar grounds and every one's yards, and they eat the new little trees that are not shielded.

Sylvia Einstein and Ruth McDowell at lunch in the dining hall.

I didn't take a picture of my project pinned up on my design board. All the pieces are cut and arranged. I'll fold up my very elegant custom board (made by my friend Mable Huseby in Mt. Vernon, WA.) and sew the blocks together after I get home.

Jeannie Spangler's project. She used the same large poppy fabric that I used, but she also made some of the large arcs from different prints and used some fine black and white prints that appear grey in the background. All of my large arcs are cut from the same poppy print.

This is Justine Lott's second project. The green leaves are important to make the composition work.

Cora Stewart's second project. She has used the same print for all her large arcs and black for the thin arcs (the blocks are not all sewn together which makes it appear that the arcs vary in width, but they do not). She has used at least half a dozen yellow and yellow green fabrics in the background.

Not all the projects are bright and outrageous. This lovely piece is by Jane Best. She has all the blocks done and is appliqueing the two large geisha ladies on top of one ring. They look so natural there - how could this quilt be any other way? Beautiful.

Nancy Cardelo brought the soft batik background fabric from home. It carries the color and softens the large arcs.

Lorette Newman has used small black-on-white prints in the background. They create a soft, varied grey ground. But when one gets up close.....

... the different motifs became visible creating interesting textures.

Sylvia Einstein class - Asilomar - 03-17-10

This picture is of the back of Pirate's Den where my sleeping room is located. There is a white-crowned sparrow in the middle of the pine tree. With the telephoto up to 16X on my new Canon camera.....

I could take this picture of the little guy. Pretty amazing!

This is my project as it stands tonight. I am not happy with all the pieces and will do some more swapping around and replacing tomorrow. I am upholding my reputation as the slowest person in the class!

Some of the students are working on their 2nd Double Wedding Ring project (one on her third and the first two are sewn together) and some have switched to "Magic Square", another project that Sylvia teaches. This is Jan Grace's work. If you are interested I can explain it to you. I have done it in past years.

Out to dinner at the Red House for the fabulous Blue Cheese Souffle, but I swear it is smaller than it used to be! Just as good, however. Sylvia, Gail Abeloe, Jeanne Mills and I shareda brownie for dessert. It was about 3.5" square and topped with homemade ice cream and a few raspberries and strawberries. It was wicked!

I had another massage with Heidi today - she has magic hands. Followed by a little fifteen minute nap and back to class for a few hours. Then I had to go to the ATM for some cash and make a quick stop at Back Porch. Is it any wonder I don't accomplish as much as the other students? I am very tired tonight and will be in bed and asleep in about ten minutes. Last full day of class tomorrow and I will also showing the Ruth McDowell quilts I have with me as part of "Show, Share and Tell" at the evening program.

Sylvia Einstein class - Asilomar 03-16-10

Another gorgeous day at Asilomar. It was 81F inland at Gilroy, CA, today. Not so warm here, but the sun was shining and people sat in shirt sleeves out on the benches mid-day.

This is the audience at this evening's program in Merrill Hall. Sylvia Einstein is giving her 9 minute talk (several teachers speak each evening and are limited to 9 minutes - students are usually chomping to get back to work in their classrooms - they can work until 11pm). The "holders/folders" are holding up Mary Leakey's "There are no Zebras in Costa Rica", which Sylvia presented as a great example of class work. She also showed Gail Abeloe's work, but I couldn't get my camera out fast enough.

This is my project. I got a little further this evening - I removed all the black on white triangles and cut black on white melons. I will try making all the triangles white on black. Earlier I had rearranged the large arcs to make four complete rings, rather than have some reversed. The small arcs are all darkish red. By the end of the day I was thoroughly sick of this piece!

Shelly Gunby completed the sewing on the piece I showed yesterday and is starting this new one. Some people are good decision makers and sew very fast. Several students have complete their first piece.

Donna Moog has also completed this 'bubbly' quilt top and is starting another even more wild!

She has a marvelous collection of outlandish fabrics.

Jan Grace has also completed her elegant work.

Audrey Bailey's color selection is simply awesome. Wish I could do something like this, but I think I am just too "straight laced" to let go and work in such a diverse palette.

Sylvia Einstein class - Asilomar 03-15-10

No better place than Empty Spools Seminars to see quilter's license plates!

Here is a hand quilter who also promotes breast self-exam.

No need to name names about who is the slowest in the class! I had purchased the end of the bolt of this big poppy fabric and it was only 3/4ths yard. I hadn't intended to use it for my project, but when I spread out my fabric it became the focus fabric. I had to cut paper arcs to see if I could squeeze out 16 arcs - just barely. After I took this picture I went shopping for some celery greens, but after cutting out a few 'melons' I don't think they are going to work. I may just use all black and white for the background.

Shelly Gunby's project. The green is a batik and is much brighter in reality.

Cora Stewart's project. She calls these "Australian colors". I like it a lot.

Dottie Daybell's project. Dottie and I have taken many classes in common over the years. I always admire her use of 2nd hand fabrics which she purchases at Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc. Most of these are from yukata or summer kimonos - she told me that Oceanside is a good hunting place for these when troops return from Asia.

Carole Pirruccello's project. This wild collection of fabrics is more representative of what is being used in class.

Karmen Streng's project. I've been in a few of the same classes as Karmen. She always produces classic color and style.

Justin Lott's project. This is a knockout - how original to shade the value from light at the top to dark at the bottom.

Asilomar - 03-14-10

Yes, I am back at Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, CA, for another Empty Spools Seminar - this time with Sylvia Einstein who is teaching a very modern version of Double Wedding Ring.

Another Asilomar sunset - I am amazed at how much this image resembles the one I posted on 03-11-10. I am certain that the white streaks and the dark one that bisects one in this picture are contrails from airplanes. San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose airports could all be routing planes over this area.

"Hibiscus" Gail Sheirbon Thanks to Debbie Van Fossen for the picture of Gail with her project. Gail also wrote and said that she has been sewing the sections together, so it may be done soon.

My class this week has 17 students and is located in Hearthside (in the back of Merrill Hall). I have the same sleeping room in Pirates Den and my teacher Sylvia Einstein is just down the hall. Tomorrow the class will start cutting fabric using plastic templates for 10" blocks - we need sixteen blocks. Which doesn't seem like much, but when each piece of fabric is cut individually it will take some time to just do the cutting. When everything is cut, pinned up on the design boards and we are happy with the fabric combinations we can begin sewing. Wish me luck!