Friday, February 13, 2015

Friday Feet 02-13-15

At the Red House in Pacific Grove, CA., an unlikely place to see these feet.
 
My friend Gail noticed the shoes - very stylish.
 
And I noticed the seams in the stockings, something everyone wore in the 50's and 60's.  But I haven't seen anyone wear them in decades.  Is this a new trend? 
 
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Thursday, February 12, 2015

California version of snow!

I suppose if anyone in Buffalo or Boston reads this they will accuse me of being cruel.  This year we don't even have natural  snow in the mountains  - bad news for the ski resorts in the San Bernardino Mountains.  But here in SCalifornia we have Bradford Pears blooming and a Santa Ana wind that strips the blossoms off and sends them in drifts across the ground.  These pictures were taken in the parking lot at my dentist's office.



 
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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Wordless Wednesday 02-11-15


Challenges at Visions Art Museum 02-10-15

Members of Visions Art Museum in San Diego may participate in the challenges offered about four times a year.  The last one was "Weather Forecast" which brought quite a few entries - 37.  Different challenges are different sizes, not all are 12" square.  Each artist sets their own price, choosing from Museum guidelines.
 



 
Below are some of those that I enjoyed.

"Sun, Snow, Rain, Wind"  Karen McCarthy
 

"Fire and Ice"  Linda Weaver
This is a map of the USA with weather symbols superimposed over it.

" Winter Memories" Jayne Kratzer

"Frost"  Catherine Zolgatus?

"Sailor's Waves"  Nelda  McComb

"Some People Walk in the Rain, Others Just Get Wet"  Kristine Harman

"Cloudy and Cooler"  Carol Watkins

"Yesterday's Newspaper Forecast: No Rain For Today"  Kathy Piper
 
"Desert Wind"   Del Thomas
You'll notice that all but four of the quilts are horizontal.  That's because four of us didn't read instructions very well!   I thought it was nice of the Museum staff to hang our quilts despite our error. 
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Monday, February 9, 2015

Fabric shopping 02-09-15

Here are the16 pieces of fabric I purchased at Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove this past week.  Some are more than half yards because I will make some fat quarters to enhance my fat quarter box and give some to friends. 
 
The color is a little too green in this image.  I bought yellows to share with my friend Liz who can't keep her hands off my yellow boxes.  All but the flowers on the left are yellow fabrics.
 
I need to either make a black and white quilt (or ten) or stop buying black and white fabrics.  These are all black and white, even though the two center ones look blue.  I tend to buy white on black, so this time I focused on black on white.

Two "novelty" prints for friends.  Love those ostriches, who apparently love each other! 

These two are purchased for specific projects.  The batik on left for a background and the one on the right for another idea I have.  The right one is actually a table runner, but I intend to cut it up.   It is from Indonesia but has a sort of Marimekko feel.
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Sunday, February 8, 2015

Another Judith Roderick quilt in TCQC 02-08-15

Here is another quilt from the SAQA 2013 online auction.  This is the second of Judith's quilts in the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection.  She likes to use lots of buttons which are related to the subject of the design. 
 
"Bowerbird I"  Judith Roderick  2013  12"x12"
Cotton, silk, tulle, metallic paper, buttons.  Machine applique, machine quilting.
 
 
Some of the streamers are under the tulle and some on top.  They appear to all be strips of fabric. The red "flower" is cut from some sort of metallic paper.

This is the interior of the Bowerbird's bower.  The white flowers are cut from the metallic paper.

On the back you can see the extensive quilting. 

Not much of a label and not very well attached.
 
 
 
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Journey Home 02-07-15

Yesterday while driving down the canyon from Mary's to the highway.
 
California Sycamores have white trunks that really show this time of year.


 
We came upon a flock of about twenty  wild turkeys crossing the road.

Some turned back on the left side of the road and the others scurried across.

 Off they go into a pasture on the right side of the road.  The locals are used to seeing the turkeys, but I found it very unusual - no turkeys where I live!  
 
 
Driving across the farmlands.
This morning the sky was covered with clouds and there were a few little rain spritzes.
This side of CA-156 stretches to the north and is usually planted with baby lettuce crops.
Not quite time, but the soil is prepared for planting.

On the south side of CA-156 the mountains  are the mountains I will have to go over to reach I-5 in the inland valley.  If you enlarge the image you can see a field of mustard on the slope in the distance.
 

And here is a field of mustard along CA-156, a field of sunshine on a drab day. 
 
 
On I-5 South near Buttonwillow.

I've seen this sort of thing in this area before.  It is a field of egrets and seagulls.  There are only seven egrets showing, but there were probably several dozen in the field.  In wet years there is a lot of standing water between Buttonwillow and the Stockdale Highway, with flocks of water birds.  Once I even saw white pelicans.  Of course, this year there is no standing water!   These birds are just resting and looking for lunch.

Going over the Grapevine I drove through the clouds.  It rained off and on all the way from Harris Ranch south, but a very gentle rain that didn't interfere with visibility - the clouds did, though.

And even on I-210 coming down into Pasadena the clouds were so low we drove through them.  The traffic had been very light all the way down the central valley, until I got to Pasadena.  Then it was bumper to bumper and the 45 minute drive to Placentia took me almost two hours.  I was tired by the time I arrived home. But it was a lovely trip and I so enjoyed seeing Mary and Joe.
 
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