Monday, December 31, 2018

KoKo time again 12-31-18

Another year is almost gone - more quickly each year.   KoKo and I are staying warm and out of the wind - no walk this evening, just a quick piddle in the backyard and back inside out of the very gusty, strong wind.  

It is a good thing I am able to sew up KoKo's toys as he is very hard on them.  He loves his Froggie, almost to rags, so he frequently has to have surgery.  

This was just a simple open seam on the back of his neck.  

But you can see how bad his scars are.  There isn't much fabric left on Froggie's back and butt, so I have had to put in an under lining so there is something to sew on to.  

He does love his Woodstock, new this past month.  But it is not very heavy so doesn't throw very far.  

But he does take it to bed now and then.  

We wish all of you a Happy New Year, hoping that 2019 will be better than 2018.

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Sunday, December 30, 2018

"Winter" - revisit a quilt by Els Vereycken 12-30-18

This post is from almost eight years ago.  I still find this quilt fascinating - such complex simplicity.   And it seems like a suitable post in mid-winter 2018.

Quilt from TCQC by Els Vereycken 02-13-11

This is the last of the quilts that I added to the TCQC during the Studio Art Quilt Associates online auction last autumn 2010 

"Winter"  Els Vereycken  2010  12" x 12"
Gray ink/paint on white cotton with black stitching.

 
A very plain back.  I suspect Els used a fabric from her "fabric library" that she didn't think she would ever use on the front of a quilt.  Notice that she turned up the bottom half inch of the image on the front of the quilt.
I was attracted to this piece because of the simplicity of the design and execution.  It is one of those works that is so striking from a distance and pulls me in closer to see the detail. 
Els lives in Belgium, but doesn't have a website that I can find. But here are a few websites that show some of her quilts. http://www.quiltingdaily.com/media/p/15682.aspx http://www.howoriginal.net/Snowflakes/artist_pages/els_vereycken.htm http://www.quiltingdaily.com/media/p/2836.aspx

Linda Colsh tells me Els is in the group  http://www.q-art.be/  with her - check it out.

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Friday Food 12-28-18

Eating breakfast out is a special occasion for me, maybe because I am such a night owl that breakfast is usual brunch or lunch at my house.  As a child my mother was gone by the time I was ready for school and I wouldn't eat until lunchtime at school.  But I actually like breakfast foods, just not before 9am!  Recently my friend Carol and I met for brunch at 10am at the Original Pancake House in Placentia.  It used to be located in Yorba Linda, but the building was re-purposed and the restaurant had to move.  It took them over two years to find a new location, refit it, get approvals from the city, and reopen this fall.  It is a different space, but with the same white chairs and tables and wall decorations.  I heard someone complain that they were using the "same old furniture", but I rather like having it more like the old place.  My go-to order is always a Dutch baby - oh-so-good. 

Carol had corn cakes and an egg.  We shared an order of bacon - crisp. 

Here is the fresh Dutch baby before I started garnishing it. 

Here is the Dutch baby garnished with lashings of fresh lemon juice and spoonsful of powder sugar. 

I had to take a picture of the next table where they had a plate with EIGHT large pancakes.  This tall, skinny guy was sitting with two tall, skinny girls and they each had a plateful of eggs and meats.  AND the pancakes.  Maybe all they eat all day is breakfast/brunch and that keeps them so thin.  I didn't look to see if they had eaten everything, but I suspect they had.  The other two people in the picture were at the next table, I didn't check out their food. 

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Thursday, December 27, 2018

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Christmas decorations linger 12-25-18

I have seen several dragons as part of Christmas decorations this year, but didn't  understand the connection.  Then I saw a shirt on a checker at Trader Joe's and asked him about it.  He told me it was an anime dragon and there is a Christmas connection.  Unlike Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer, who originated just for Christmas, the dragon is a long time component of anime that has been included in Christmas stories.  



Guess I'm not sure what dogs have to do with Christmas, except we dog lovers share our days with them.  These people own a lovely, big black Lab named Oliver.  

This is a moving projection on a garage door.  It is a video, but I have spent the last half hour trying to figure out how to post a video and can't make it work.  HELP!


Here is another moving projection, this time on the side of the house.  Hard to take a still picture of something moving at night.  I like the reindeer - cute.  
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Monday, December 24, 2018



A bigger job every year.   

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Sunday, December 23, 2018

Christmas Cartoon countdown 12-23-18

Yes, it is a Maxine night.  



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Saturday, December 22, 2018

Christmas Cartoon countdown 12-22-18

Looks like I have saved more cartoons than I need, so here is an extra. 


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Friday, December 21, 2018

Thursday, December 20, 2018

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Monday, December 17, 2018

Christmas Cartoon Countdown 12-17-18




I finally got around to putting a new squeaker in the new Woodstock toy I bought for KoKo a few weeks ago.  I'm afraid he will chew it to death very quickly.  But he does love it enough to sleep with it, Froggie is on the floor!

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Sunday, December 16, 2018

Saturday, December 15, 2018

Friday, December 14, 2018

Christmas Cartoon Countdown 12-14-18


(Love the bunny slippers!)

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Thursday, December 13, 2018

Cartoons leading up to Christmas 12-13-18

Posting a cartoon a night until Christmas Day.  You may have seen some of these in previous years.   I always need a giggle or an outright laugh this time of year.  For some strange reason carrot nose jokes always crack me up. 


There will be two posts some evenings, one cartoon and one "normal" one!
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Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Christmas trees 12-11-18

This morning was the Christmas meeting of the Surfside Quilters Guild.  Many of the ladies wore their Christmas finery, including me!   Even though I don't celebrate Christmas anymore, I enjoy seeing the Christmas decorations and the special quilts, cushions, table runners, etc., that the members have created.  I have particularly enjoy the Christmas trees associated with the holiday.  And I do sometimes hang a Christmas quilt in my house. 

Such a simple idea, but very festive.  You could whip one of these up tomorrow!
Barbara Seidel  2012

Susan Adams looked at a picture and came up with her own design.   2012

This is not a Christmas tree quilt, but it is so colorful and "Christmasy" I do hang it during the season.  It was made by Nikki Wheeler of the International Twelve by Twelve group. 
 Dec 2012

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Monday, December 10, 2018

A very early Ruth B. McDowell quilt 1982 12-09-18

This quilt appeared in Ruth's first book "Symmetry".  Beside the fact that I always like Ruth's work, it is blue and yellow, my favorite color combination.  I added it to TCQC in 2002.  I have used her symmetry techniques in several quilts and greatly enjoyed the process.  The book is sometimes available secondhand online or in secondhand bookshops. 


"Lightning Strike"  1982  Ruth B. McDowell  44"W x 78.5"L
Cotton fabrics, batting, and thread.  Machine pieced and quilted. 

I see the quilting pattern as an early version of Ruth's distinctive "Baptist Fan" quilting that she has used extensively throughout her career.  Del 

Quoting from Ruth's book "Symmetry":    "The patterned fabrics used in this quilt have a very significant impact on carrying out the lightning theme.  The large scale drapery print used in the outer border, containing as it does hints of yellows, pinks, and browns, along with gray and blue, works to carry the colors of the pieced blocks into the border.   An inner border of bands of colors, butted rather than mitered at the corners, and varying top to bottom, was suggested to me by studying the borders on oriental scroll paintings. 
Quilting:  A free motion pattern of arcs and clouds, done by eye without previous marking, was stitched in a continuous line across the whole surface with black thread.  It reinforces for me the turmoil of a thunderstorm. " 
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Saturday, December 8, 2018

Three Bird Fiber Postcards 12-08-18

I did finish the postcards in time for the meeting of the small group yesterday.  These pictures are taken before they went into the acrylic box frames, because the acrylic reflects, making bad images.   The packages were wrapped in fabric, Furoshiki style, and the ladies each just chose one.  They all seemed happy with what they found inside the wrapping.  

This picture was before the stitching/quilting began.  The card at bottom right has not been finished, it is for a different recipient. 

The bluebird. 

The warbler.

The towhee. 

The backs are all the same.  I didn't pull in the thread tails, but tied tidy square knots with about 3/8ths inch tails.  The cards are stitched to card stock before going into the frames. 

One skill that takes a LOT of practice is overcasting the edges.  I have pretty much lost that skill and will need to do a great deal of practicing to recover it. 

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Friday, December 7, 2018

Friday Food 12-07-18

The small art quilt group "Arty Girls" met today for our Christmas Lunch at The Farmhouse at Rogers Gardens in Newport Beach.  We met here a year ago on Dec 8, 2017, and discovered we could make a reservation a year ahead and did so.  Coincidentally, we had the same table and the same waitress this year as we did last.  Meant to be, I guess.   The Farmhouse is a "Field to Table" sort of place so much of the food is locally grown.  The selections are unique and delicious, I recommend it.  Although it is expensive.  My lunch alone, just the salad and the dessert was $46.  But it is worth it once in awhile. 

This is the Shrimp, Scallop, veggie salad. With butternut squash and carrots, caramelized cauliflower, arugula, raspberry vinaigrette, pureed satsumaimo sweet potatoes, pomegranate seeds , and lovely little blue flowers.  This is Bonnie's plate.


Grilled Pomegranate Glazed Salmon Salad with roast butternut squash, pink lady apples, roast leeks, cherry tomatoes, quinoa, mixed lettuces, Dijon vinaigrette, candied pecans, pomegranate seeds.  This was Patti's plate. 

This is the pizza of the day and the only thing I know about it is that is has cheese and bacon.  And Monica said it is very good. 

Here is another view of a Shrimp, Scallop, veggie salad which is described above.  Bonnie and I had the same meal, but her flowers were prettier.  I ate mine. 

For dessert Patti ordered the Carrot Cake in a Mason jar.  It is only three or four bites, which is probably as much as one wants after such a large salad.  

I, on the other hand, pigged out on the Toasted Almond Cake
with pomegranate honey sauce,  poached pear, sweet cream and slivered almonds.
Worth every bite. 

The gardens were lovely, all washed clean with yesterday's rain.  I took a pass on visiting the gift shop with a FABULOUS display of every kind of ornament one could possibly desire.  I am just not into Christmas.  There were a lot of people there, perhaps because everyone had stayed home in yesterday's storm.  

We did exchange gifts, I managed to have finished all three fiber postcards and will post them later.  The ladies seemed to like them and I love the fabric and books I received.  Altogether a lovely day. 

https://www.rogersgardens.com/
https://farmhouserg.com/gallery/
https://farmhouserg.com/food-drink/

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KoKo is still helping 12-06-18

Worked most of the day and am still not done.  What can I do?  I'm better at working late into the night than trying to get up early to finish.  My body takes a while to get going in the morning.   This morning we had to take our walk in the rain and got sort of soaked.  But this evening the rain let up for a bit and we walked the loop and came home dry.  Seems like we are getting all our rain in one storm.  Wish it came more softly so it would soak in better.  


Even when I am sewing.  Putting him up on the table keeps him quiet, he mostly just goes to sleep. 

Snoozing away.  Don't know why he has his tongue sticking out.  Dreaming of something good to eat maybe.

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