Friday Feet and Asilomar -1st day at Empty Spools Seminar/Asilomar 03-01-13

Last night's stay at Harris Ranch Inn was wonderful!  I think I slept over eight hours, although I got up three times during the night (hot tea with dinner) I went right back to sleep.  Why can't I do that at home?  I did eat the leftover pizza for breakfast and think it was better than the first time around. 
 
I headed for Pacific Grove in light traffic and guess where my first stop was?


Back Porch Fabrics!  I parked right in front of the store where the view to the north is Monterey Bay which is the dark blue in the background with the lighter mountains beyond. 
 

It is such a welcoming store - I always feel a little like Norm must have felt in "Cheers" when everyone shouted "Norm".  Here everyone says "Hello"!  Since the first week session of Empty Spools Seminars ended today at noon and the second week started at 3pm the shop was full of ladies who either just finished or eager to begin their "quilt camp" experience.  Of course, I did buy some fabric.  Are you surprised?  Some from the Bargain Table and two pieces full price - one a Japanese import at $27/ yard, but I only bought a half yard. 

 
 Naturally with all these ladies shopping there was a line to checkout, but I always enjoy talking to the other people in line, so it wasn't a problem for me.  The lady facing the camera is shop owner Gayle Abeloe. 

 Mary couldn't do lunch, but she met me at Asilomar and we had a little visit before registration started.  She had to get back to the hospital where her husband Joe is still in the ICU.  Things are looking somewhat better and they hope he will be home next week to continue his convalescence with home care. 

Rayna Gillman's class is in Merrill Hall and she has 21 students.  I think it will be an interesting class with almost everyone hoping to "get out of the box".  The class is titled "Jump Starting the Art Quilt with 'What If?'".  The introduction today was about finding an idea to work with.

I wasn't going to post Friday Feet, but look what one of my classmates was wearing!  They are made from authentic Molas and she purchased them at a quilt show.  They are amazing and she says they are comfortable. 

Note the Empty Spools bag this year is a lovely shade of blue.
 

 
My classmate even posed so I could photograph from different angles.  See the zipper up the inside.
 

 
I don't know what this creature is - a fish?  a turtle?  She didn't know either. 

On the Road 02-28-13

It is that time of year again - Empty Spools Seminars are in session at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA.  I had thought I could get away on Tuesday, but I can't seem to get organized these days and keep getting side tracked instead of concentrating on the task at hand.  Since I am taking Rayna Gillman's class (Ruth McDowell having retired from teaching) an entirely new kind of packing was required.  I have several bags of scraps to share with my fellow students and, of course, an exclusive bag of my favorite colors and fabrics.  I'm sure I will be much more coordinated than Rayna likes her students to be.  But I may jump  out of "the box" and surprise everyone - and myself. 

It was an easy drive from home to Harris Ranch near Coalinga, CA., where I stopped to eat and decided I was tired enough to just stay the night.  All of the three dining areas are very "rustic" and the coffee shop features household things, as you can see in the picture below.


My seat faced this Eastlake style shelf unit with old dishes, cans, and "stuff".  We see this sort of decor everywhere and I always wonder how often it gets dusted. 
 

In front of the shelving unit is this old treadle machine - seems like an odd place for it.  I was going to take a closer look, but as I was leaving a large family group was entering, making standing still an impossibility.  Not a good picture, but I always enjoy seeing a sewing machine anywhere.
 

I had a cup of broccoli soup and a chicken/cheese/basil flatbread pizza - both very tasty.  The pizza is supposed to have sun dried tomatoes which would make it more colorful, but they turn into little fireballs in my stomach, so I asked that the cook leave them off.  I have half of this pizza in a box to eat for breakfast - which some people feel is the best thing about pizza - left overs for breakfast. . 

Tomorrow it will be only a couple hours more to Pacific Grove and I hope to have lunch with my friend Mary before the 3pm check in at Empty Spools.   After a good rest tonight, I'm sure tomorrow will be a great day.

Wordless Wednesday 02-27-13

Thanks for Tentmakers of Cairo project 02-26-13

A note of thanks to everyone who pledged to the Tentmakers of Cairo fund raiser.  If you haven't you still can add to the pledge and give the filmmakers more leeway to enhance the final film.  This is a worthwhile effort and will preserve this fabric art for future generations.  Give now.  http://pozible.com/tentmakers

Also, I have uploaded another food picture to the Bowers lunch post.

Love, Del

Monday Browsing 02-25-13

Might be of interest to those who enjoy making miniature quilts:

www.greenmountainquilts.com  Paula Doyle – Mini Mosaics

http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/blog.php/blog_id/5445 Interview w/Paula Doyle

This is wonderful.  Are there US dog and cat pairs that can do this?

http://laughingsquid.com/tiny-dog-in-russia-gives-cat-a-piggyback-ride-home/

Futurist fiction come true:

http://www.gadling.com/2013/02/21/soviet-hangar-now-serves-as-a-sunny-escape-photos/

After lunch at Bowers a San Diego friend sent this.  I guess my diet is rather Mediterranean:

http://nyti.ms/YSnDXH

Quilting Lingo:

Try Googling quilt acronyms, and you'll find some like these (Not so familiar, but very clever) :
HSY Haven't Started Yet
PHD Project Half Done (yes - we all have PHD's behind our names!!!)
WIM Work In Mind
WIVSP Work in Very Slow Progress
TOAD Trashed Object Abandoned in Disgust
PIG Project In Grocery bag
USO Unstarted Object
STASH Special Treasures All Secretly Hidden (!!!)
SABLE Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy
FART Fabric Acquisition Road Trip ( so can we call previous trips old farts???)
WOMBAT Waste Of Money Batting And Time

Arabidopsis thaliana seedling
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/21/wellcome-image-awards-2012-science-images_n_1616148.html#slide=1130798

Catherine Kleeman quilt in TCQC 02-24-13

Here is another quilt from the SAQA 2011 online auction that I have not  previously posted.  The color is way off, the quilt is much more gold and orange, however, I photographed it on three different days and different times of the day and couldn't get a good color representation.  Sorry, Catherine.

"No Way Out"  Catherine Kleeman - Ruxton, MD 2011  12"x12"
Hand-dyed cotton fabric.  Machine quilted.
Other than the color (so poorly represented here) I like the motion created by the swirling blue line under the red X.  The varied background, which is both printed and pieced, lends dimension to the image.
 

The blue and red may be tubes rather than raw edged - there is no fraying anywhere are raw-edge, fused and then over stitched with zig-zag.  (Thanks, Catherine, for making this correction.) The blue is more teal than this picture.

 

 
This one green square near the right edge is printed rather than applied.
 

 
I appreciate that Catherine quilted the background before adding the applique, something I do myself as I think it gives more prominence to the applique.

She has signed the quilt with machine stitching.  Something that takes practice!

 

 
And she has adhered a business card to the back of the quilt providing a contact for interested viewers.  I have added the quilt title and date.
 

This photo of the back washes out the pumpkin orange and the gold.  But look how she has dealt with the facing - adding triangles to the corners which cuts down the bulk at those points.

It is a wonderful quilt and I am so happy it is part of the Collection.
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