Quilts from Monterey Peninsula QShow 06-12-10

Today was the first day of the two-day Monterey Peninsula Quilters Guild Quilt Show which is being held in Seaside (just north of Monterey) at the high school gym. It was one of the reasons I drove up for this weekend and it was worth the drive! There are 300 quilts plus some garments and a whole rack of creative quilted purses. Also vendors, food service from Erik's and some very welcoming guild members staffing everything. Mary and I were joined by Jeanette Horley for the 30 minute drive and we spend about four hours - all that my old body could take!

The highlight for us was seeing two ribbons on Mary's quilt "Oliver", which she started in an Empty Spools 2009 class with Susan Carlson. It was expertly quilted by Sharon Winter, a local quilter who does her work on her Bernina.

The blue ribbon is first place in the category "Small Art Quilts" and the purple ribbon is a Judge's Choice. Hurrah for Mary!!

Jean Dunn is a local friend who works and teaches at Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove. Her quilts are always a little different, a step beyond what most quilters would do. She has several quilts in this show and this is one of my favorites.

Beside the color - how I do love red (but not as much as yellow) - the motifs in the circles are worth a closer look and more than one time. This quilt literally pulsates on the wall.

I have more photos, but will wait until sometime next week to post. I still have pictures to post from the Beach Cities Quilters Guild QShow last weekend. After I drive home tomorrow I will have a quilt to post from TCQC.

Mary's Flower Boxes 06-11-10

Mary's deck boxes are filled with glorious color and a hawk (still debating if it is a sharp-shinned or a Coopers) has been visiting the oak trees and sailing over the canyon. Mary and Joe haven't seen any baby quail, perhaps it is still too early in the season - or maybe that is what is attracting the hawk.

She usually has lobelia and alyssum, but varies the other flowers each year.

She only has three 'bird planted' sunflowers this year - so far!

Red, white and blue always work together.

These are the largest pinks I have ever seen and they smell wonderful.

The petunias are actually more red-violet, but doesn't the yellow and blue cheer you up?

English daisies, lobelia, orange nasturiums, and alyssum (you can't see it here).

Yellow nasturiums, lobelia, alyssum and English daisies.

Zipper pin 06-11-10

This is the pin I purchased yesterday at "The Last Stitch - Longarm Quilting and Textile Gallery", 107 B&C The Alameda, San Juan Bautista, CA 95045 831-623-4330

Their Grand Opening is tomorrow, June 12th from 10am to 5pm..

I don't know if it is Joan's original idea, but it sure is clever and I like the look. There are a few little glue strings that I will have to get after with tweezers, but other than that, it is nicely made.

She has even sewn on the pin back rather than glue it.

On the Road Again 06-10-10

I drove from Placentia to San Juan Bautista yesterday - it was an easy drive and I enjoyed every mile. What is it with me and being on the "open road"? I came up to see Mary and Joe and their four-legged housemates and to go to the Monterey Peninsula QGuild Quilt Show which is this Saturday and Sunday in Seaside, CA.

http://www.mpqg.org/text/quiltShow.html

I only took a few pictures on the way up. But these may be more 'pleasant' to look at than those of the past. I've used the "retouch" function in Picasa3 forever, but it has never occur to me to take the bug splatters off the windshield before posting pictures - duh! Now I will try to do that all the time. This is at the junction of I-10 and the 57 Fwy, right below the LAFairgrounds. Some months ago the hill slide down, burying the northbound ramp to the 57 - fortunately no cars were buried, but it has been a major construction project to repair the damage. Land does unexpected things in SCalifornia. I don't know how many years this hillside has stayed where it belonged - I'd guess at least thirty years - so why did it suddenly slide? There have been houses that were built in the early 1900s that have slipped away in years of heavy rain - guess that is the adobe soil that absorbs the water and turns into something like warm butter.

One BIG problem here is the high tension tower at the top of the slope. It was terribly close to the edge. I don't know what the white thing is going down the slope and I don't know if the ramp is even open, I didn't see any cars along there. I guess the moral of this story is that one shouldn't build a house at the top of a slope in this area, although there are probably thousands in those exact locations. Great views while they last!

North of the mountains and down into the Central Valley the sky was so blue it hurt my eyes! Just a few tiny clouds drifting slowly east, despite the ground level wind which was coming out of the NW. It was quite a headwind, causing me to stop early for gas. When I saw the sign saying it was 49 miles to my turnoff on Hwy 152 and looked at the screen to see that I had forty miles of gas left, I decided to stop at the next station! If I fill up on my way out of town I can almost always make it to Santa Nella near my turnoff - unless there is a headwind. One thing I love about the Lexus (and there aren't many things I love) is the "Information" screen that tells me the distance driven, the fuel consumed, how much further I can go before gassing up, the outside temp, etc.. I've never had that in a vehicle before. Very much "tomorrowland" to me!

Today we went to Gilroy for lunch at Mimi's and stopped in the actual village of SJBautista at a new shop that does machine quilt on long-arms. She also has some very nice handmade items - felted purses, quilts, aprons, scarves, etc.. The owner told us there will be a fabric shop in the same building in a few months. Probably worth a stop if you are travel up/down Hwy 101. I bought a lapel pin made from half of a zipper by Joan's Attic Treasures - cute. I'll take a picture tomorrow to show you.

Wordless Wednesday - Jacaranda 06-09-10

Two Viewer's Choice winners 06-08-10

Surfside Quilters Guild met today in San Clemente - although I was so tired I was almost ready to say I couldn't make it. It is my own fault for leaving things to the last minute and then staying up into the wee hours to finish on time. But once I arrived at the meeting it was so exhilarating to be in that room with about 120 stimulated quilters that I mostly forgot how tired I was until I started driving home. Groan, moan, huge sighs, but I made it and immediately took a two hour nap! After I woke up I started remembering those half finished conversations that alway occur when people are in a large group and there is so much going on. I regret that I have such a hard time remembering names these days (when have I not?) or I would send apologies to several people. If any are reading this - please accept my sincere apologies if I ended a conversation before either of us were through! I had several members helping me today - taking down names as I took pictures and helping me remember who was who. Thanks, ladies.

The Beach Cities Quilters Guild held their QShow in Aliso Viejo over the weekend. It is one of the better SCalifornia shows with some very talented and productive quiltmakers. Liz and I lasted four hours before we pooped out and had to leave. I took a few pictures, but am trying to get some friends to share their photos with me so I can share them with you - maybe sometime later in the week. The two quilts below won the Viewer's Choice award. I have shown Jan Hirth's eye-popping red background quilt before -

http://delquilts.blogspot.com/2009/07/jan-hirth-quilt-07-20-09.html

I wonder if I will ever get tired of looking at it - NO!

This pattern is a book from Piece of Cake Designs called "Aunt Millie's Garden". The 12 blocks are each 14" square and the completed quilt measures 70"W x 75.5" L

Jan has retired now from teaching quilting in Adult Education in south Orange County, but many of her students are very active in the quilting community here. This quilt, made from the same "Aunt Millie's Garden" pattern was made by Gail Brunell and also won a Viewer's Choice award at the quilt show. Gail has done a variation on the border using the same flower designs that are found in Jan's quilt.

I don't vote for Viewer's Choice at QShows, mainly because I can never make up my mind which quilt I like the most! But, had I voted I would certainly have voted for one of these marvellous quilts.

Giant Bird of Paradise tree 06-07-10

I'm not sure if this is a tree or a bush. The Giant Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia Alba) can grow at least twenty feet tall and send out suckers to add to it's bulk at ground level. It is a popular planting in SCalifornia malls and courtyards - maybe because the leaves resemble banana leaves and it is very exotic in appearance.

This specimen grows in the courtyard where Liz and I meet at Starbuck's and Corner Bakery Cafe. That is a turquoise slat bench in the background behind the flower.

As you can see, it has the blue "tongue" of the more common Bird of Paradise (I think that one is Strelitzia Reginae), but white "wings" instead of orange. And, of course, the flowers are much larger, some as much as 12" from stem to the end of the "jaw" under the blue "tongue". No fragrance, but the flowers do drip a clear sap.

Terry Grant quilt in TCQC

"Laurel" Terry Grant 2008 12"W x 12"L

Terry's techniques and style appeal to me and I find her pieces so very tempting. There are several of her 12X12 Group works that I would love to add to TCQC. I don't see thisquilt as a Christmas quilt (I don't do Christmas any longer), but as tree quilt - it fits into my continuing fascination with trees. Terry wrote about this quilt twice in her blog. You can read those posts at:

http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/2008/11/sunday-sunday.html
http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/2008/10/critique.html

You can see that she has used colored pencils or some other technique to give the berries dimension. The color here is not true, but I retook the photos hoping to have a better representation. No luck.

I'm always running across discussions about quilt backs and labels, so I think I will try putting in pictures of those. As you see Terry has used an unassuming back and a minimal label - name, artist, year. I have not yet put on the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection label - I am far behind, but I'll get to it one day this summer, I'm sure.