Miscellaneous, again 07-28-18

Not much to say except to bitch about the heat!  KoKo and I go walking between 6:45am and 7am in the morning and in the evening anytime the temp drops below 80F.  Today was cooler, only 88F, and we walked at 79F at 8:15pm.

Here is the little guy near my feet, but not ON them tonight.  The black thing in the lower right is the wheel on my desk chair. 

I read a newsletter from the BBC called Six Things to Read This Week, which has a different view on the world than anything USA newsletter/bulletin that I see.  You might enjoy it, too.  Yesterday they posted this interesting story about solar power in Africa:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171009-rural-rwanda-is-home-to-a-pioneering-new-solar-power-idea

If you want to try it out go to:

http://pages.emails.bbc.com/subscribe/?ocid=fut.bbc.email.we.email-signup

The subjects are quite varied and cover many aspects of life, I just skip the ones about rugby and socccer, but you might enjoy those.  

I haven't eaten all my See's candy, but it is temptinng. 

Thank you for the comments from those of you who post anonymously.  I appreciate that you read my blog.  

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Monday Browsing 10-03-11

Found this week on the Internet:

Edwina Huws - early art quilter  http://youtu.be/Tw58LOGkULU

Tips for making quilts for AAQI (Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initative)   http://wp.me/pZ0C5-CN

Star Trek busy book  http://juliegillrie.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-star-trek-quiet-book.html

An amazing ad on the front of a building 

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=XVTga6GmbGw&vq=medium#t=74

Australia art quilts "Australia Wide Two"

http://www.ozquiltnetwork.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=225&Itemid=243

And, on a sad note..  My weeping birch is really and truly dead.  The Tree Man will come in a week or so and remove it and the yard will be down to only two trees.   Nothing will go in its place for now. 

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Monday Browsing 09-19-11

Not really much browsing this this past week as I have been busy with pictures for the Surfside Quilters Guild, both the newsletter and the member directory. 

Here is a very funny Blog post that I came across on the Quilt Art list:
http://www.tanyabrown.org/blog/?p=889
I go for the socks in a silver bowl, but what would my granny say?

Only employees are allowed to pump gas in Oregon (and New Jersey, I understand).  So, each time I visit there I pull into a station, turn to open my door and find a man standing right outside.  It always startles me.  When I was growing up women couldn't pump gas in Oregon, but I don't know if there are now female station attendants or not.  When I stopped for gas in Ashland, OR, I saw something I haven't seen for years - one of those rubber "cords" across the pavement that rings a bell inside the station when someone drives up. Boy, that takes me back.  Here is a photo essay about gas stations of yesteryear:
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2082591_2292421,00.html?artId=2082591_2292421?contType=gallery?chn=photoessays

I don't watch TV much (except for Tom Selleck on "Blue Bloods") - it seems such a waste of time.  So, I was happy to find this Heidi Klum workout for commercial breaks.  Might be worth a try, only I'll have to leave the sound on so I will know that the commercials are over! 
http://heidiklum.aol.com/category/fitness-and-nutrition/commercial-breaks/

Remember the SAQA online auction - the 2nd week started today and there are some very nice quilts offered.  http://www.saqa.com/saqa-u.php?ID=1791

It is a good organization that does a lot for quilters everywhere.

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Monkey paw flowers - love those purple stems!

Monday Browsing 09-12-11

After being gone for three weeks and not reading any Blogs or "digests" I spent part of today trying to catch up.  I only save a backlog of a week on the digests since I know I will never be able to go back and read hundreds of messages, but just two days worth gave me a lot of interesting information.  Below are some that I found especially interesting.  But first here are "46 Seconds of Tranquility".

http://www.kvet.com/pages/joelburke.html?article=9096496

http://www.designerann.blogspot.com/   Interesting to see a survey of her work over several years.  And don't miss her favorite videos in the side bar under Favorite Sites
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdolce/5889863850/  Silk ribbons to make your heart ache.
http://shiborigirl.wordpress.com/  The lady who creates those ribbons.  Many fascinating pages.
http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/spirit_cloth/home-base-patchwork.html  Interesting thoughts on improvisational designing
http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/spirit_cloth/   Gentle words and thoughts and a magic feather project.
http://cynthia-stcharles.blogspot.com/search/label/Mail%20Art%20Project   Fiber Postcards
http://www.denacrain.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/How-Patchwork-Quilting-Changes-Womens-Lives.pdf
Dena explains, "As partial requirement for my quilt judge certification through the South African Quilt Guild, I wrote a scholarly paper on 'How Patchwork Changes Women’s Lives.' ” 
I printed it out to read later - it runs about 50 pages! 

From a Lummi Island, WA, garden.  August 2011

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More Stormy Weather 03-22-11

These two pictures are from Sunday when I took Corky back to Long Beach. 

It had been raining hard and the wind was strong.  The palms look so dark soaked with rain.

 

But on the leeward side every palm had a long dry line from top to bottom.  I've never noticed this before - it was very strange looking. 

I have been working on the Surfside Quilters Guild newsletter and thought you might enjoy these websites that I have listed in the "Quilting Online" column.

> Another publisher of needlework related books, Interweave has free e-books to download. They are derived from all the different magazines that Interweave publishes - quilting, beading, crochet, knitting, etc. http://www.interweave.com/Communities/

> Havel Sewing Co., known for their useful scissors, has a informative website and offers a weekly newsletter. http://blog.havelssewing.com/     Their tutorials look interesting - especially the one on Thread Painting with Liz Kettle. You’ll find it at the top of the right sidebar at http://www.havelssewing.com/prosewquitips.html

> This site is not quilt related, but it is fascinating. Check it out if only to see the wonderful late 19th Century “Old Lady Who Lived In A Shoe” images in the March 9, 2011 post. I’ve added this to my list of the Blogs I check regularly - Beatrice Behlen writes beautifully. http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/category/fashion/

Miscellaneous Online (No pictures) 01-04-11

When I began the job of Newsletter Editor for Surfside Quilters Guild in May 2009 I started doing a column "Quilting Online" which gives websites that might be of interest to the members of the guild. I try to do a mix of traditional and contemporary sites, but it means I have to do some research in between newsletters. Here are three sites I have found this month that may appeal to some in the guild.

http://3creativestudios.com/ This is the revised home of Terri Stegmiller and Vicki Welsh. It offers projects, tutorials, patterns, challenges and a different guest quilter each month. I think it will especially appeal to quilters who want to move into more contemporary work.

This Self Portrait Challenge shows different designs and techniques that might inspire a quilt maker to try something different, even if it isn't a self portrait http://aroundtheworldin20quilts.blogspot.com/search/label/self%20portrait

I feel sad for quilters who haven't discovered the world of quilters who Blog. There is so much of interest out there - something for everyone. Only one other person in our guild of 250+ has admitted that they Blog! Maybe they will look at the Quilting Gallery site which has lists of quilting blogs around the world—about 5000! - and decide to join the fun.

http://quiltinggallery.com/quilting-bloggers/

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Gifts 12-20-10

I've explained in the past that I don't "do" Christmas. But I enjoy giving gifts at other times of the year and this is an excellent time of the year to find really different items that someone might enjoy. Today I was 'surfing' the Internet and found a few interesting sites.

The first is Fred Flare.com. They offer serious and not so serious and downright ridiculous gift items. DO check it out, but don't miss the special tea infuser good for an early Beatles fan:

http://www.fredflare.com/customer/product.php?productid=6043&cat=316&bf=cto

Another site I found interesting is wearpact.com. which features underwear for a cause. I was intrigued by the innuendo in the wording of this ad. It is very current - notice the "on your junk" phrase - or was that in common usage before the TSA crackdown?

Nice print on organic cotton. You can see the ladies undies at: http://wearpact.com/shop/category/fit/women/ A little pricey, but imagine how great you would feel in your special undies thinking about lighting a light for a family in Haiti. The website offers an explanation of their "green" policies including a request for suggestions on what to do with the underwear when it wears out - other than putting it in the trash.

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Some Computer stuff 11-09-09

No pictures today because I have none that relate to this topic.

I always wondered how people learned all they know about blogging - I taught myself the basics by trial and error and, eventually, asking people I met through their blogs and going on the "forums" which I didn't find helpful because I didn't know enough. Such as what different things are called. Then I discovered http://www.blogdoctor.me/ But I still need to concentrate very hard to figure things out. If you want to learn more possibilities for your blog you might check this site.

I enjoy contemporary and antique quilts, art quilts and traditional - I'm just more interested in the contemporary work. Every month I receive "The Quilt of the Month" from the International Quilt Study Center in Nebraska. They are mostly traditional, but they sometimes post art quilts from their expanding collection. This month there is a fantastic Jan Myers-Newbury quilt using her own shibori fabric. And if you go down the list to April 2007 you can enjoy Elizabeth Brimelow's "Low Meadow" - a quilt I lusted for when I first saw it and still do.

http://www.quiltstudy.org/discover/quilt_of_the_month.html (Note the underlines)

http://www.quiltart.org.uk/elizabethbrimelo.html

You might enjoy a new TV show on the Internet - the new British series "Talking Threads" is dedicated to textile art. It is free on the Internet, anywhere in the world: http://www.talkingthreads.co.uk/

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Air Travel 05-20-08

I have posted before about my fondness for my daily dose of history from: http://www.reference.com/thisday/

May 20th is the anniversary of two momentous air travel events.

In 1927 Charles Lindbergh left from Long Island, New York, bound for Paris, France, in his custom build plane the "Spirit of St. Louis". He was the first person to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean.

Only twelve years later on this date in 1939 Pan American Airlines flew the first regular transatlantic flight from New York to Southhampton, England (making two stops along the way). It is amazing that after only 69 years we have air travel to almost every place on earth and into the stratosphere.

Incidentally, this would have been Jimmy Stewart's 100 birthday.

New glasses 03-26-08

Well, I diddled around and didn't take my prescription in for new glasses until this week. I had him put the lenses into my old frames which are large and have a wide bifocal area. I picked them up today and they are a little weird. I didn't realize that the standard focal length for the bifocal part is twelve inches! Whew! I don't think there are many things I have to see at twelve inches - certainly not my sewing machine and not my computer and not even reading a book. I left my reading glasses today for new lenses and can pick them up tomorrow. I don't see how people can see out of the tiny little lenses that are currently popular, some are smaller than my reading (half) glasses. So, I am impaired tonight and am trying to find things to do that are more than (or less than) twelve inches! Fortunately, I did tell him the focal length I need on my reading glasses. Meanwhile I have my nose almost on the monitor in order to read and write e-mail.

A friend sent me this URL for a new site (November 07) that helps to feed the multitude of hungry people on this earth and it checks out okay with Snopes. http://www.freerice.com/index.php It is like the vocabulary page in Reader's Digest. They give a word and four possible definitions. You indicate your answer and if you are correct the organization gives twenty grains of rice to feed the hungry. You need to read what they say on the website and then give it a try. I couldn't do much today due to my glasses, but I will put it on my regular 'play' list. And when I can figure out how to do it, I will put one of their banners on my blog sidebar.

"On This Day" 10-07-07

One of the things I enjoy on my computer is a free subscription to
"On This Day", a daily e-mail giving events, births and deaths that have happened on that day. Reading about these things gives me a sense of my place in time. Why that is important to me, I don't know! I suppose it is a sort of 'grounding', a pause in the passage of the days, which disappear faster with each calendar year.
http://www.reference.com/thisday/