More discoveries 11-23-19

You know when you have something to do that doesn't excite you very much so you find a zillion other things to do instead?  I do a lot of that in my life and blame it on old age.  Today I was looking for something in the garage and noticed a box sitting on a shelf, sort of behind other things. 

When I thought about it I remembered that it was part of a donation from a lady who was moving and had to downsize her fabric library.   The yardage and a bunch of other stuff went to philanthropy projects, but I saved the triangles so I could "whip up" a quilt to donate.  And I never did.  The fabrics come from the 90s when I was still trying to get my life in some sort of order after my husband died in 1990.

Today I laid out the triangles to see what I have, some piles are just one of a fabric and some are 18 -20.  Only a half dozen reds which are badly needed to cheer things up.  I went through my scraps, but all the reds are bright cherry or tomato.  So, I got out my oldest box of reds to find something from the 1990s, sort of cranberry, I guess. 

If you have been quilting for 30 years or so, you will recognize some of these fabrics.  Quite a few from Jenny Beyer and, from the feel, some from JoAnn.  No green or brown!

I'll cut some triangles from these to mix in with what I have and sit down to sew them together two by two.  Since I didn't pick any colors except the reds I wonder what it will look like sewn together.  Might have to do some sashing or something. Another WIP.  

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Friday Food 11-22-19

Tonight I have food yearnings!  Unfortunately they must be unfulfilled as Haven no longer serves the lamb burger. 

But if I could have a perfect dinner tonight......

This is the wonderful lamb burger with my fingerprint in the bun.  I started to cut it and remembered to take a picture. 

The burger is topped with sprouts and their "secret" sauce. 

Fabulous fries which are cut in house without any sulfites added.  The house-made catsup is also fabulous, but I found out it has cinnamon in it, which doesn't bother me, but does bother some close friends.  Diner beware!

For dessert I would have some olallieberry pie which I eat when I go to Pacific Grove, CA.  It is sometimes available at the Red House and also, sometimes, at the local grocery. 

Nice flaky crust and chockful of olallieberries. 

Along with the pie, a nice strong latte.  This one was at Jeannine's in Montecito, CA.  Forget the cookies, they were very tasty, but not with olallieberry pie! 

Instead for dinner I had canned chicken noodle soup (low sodium) from Progresso.  It is okay, but not my dream dinner. 

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Wordless Wednesday 11-20-19

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Tuesday Browsing 11-20-19

I don't seem to find time for much browsing these days, but Luanna Rubin of eQuilter always keeps us updated on quilt shows around the world.  Here is her latest from Quilt Festival in Houston, TX.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/luanarubin/albums/72157711747259863

She also has two interviews with Jacqueline de Jonge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xy1kE-dEMs&list=PLZgAQ0EdcSXiHs5JXT56Yws1HogmS2Lgi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxdXwznk0y0&list=PLZgAQ0EdcSXiHs5JXT56Yws1HogmS2Lgi

Christmas Shopping?
https://www.artbynatalya.com/collect

I also enjoyed viewing the creations of Susan Dillon:
http://sdfiberarts.com/index.html
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A Del Thomas quilt 11-17-19

I have looked through a lot of pictures lately in preparing for the gallery guide for The Ruth B. McDowell exhibit at Visions Art Museum in San Diego this winter.  It opens in January and I will post more about it in the future. 

Meanwhile I have been reminded of lots of events, travels, people, and quilts.  This is one I made in 2004 which is in a private collection. 

Inspired by a road cut on I-40 just south of Kingman, AZ.  I did several in a series and think I might do some more after all these years.  Some artists go back and forth in a series their entire artistic careers.  Why not?   

"Road Cut - Arizona" Del Thomas  2004  34" W X 28"L

Commercial cottons, hand-dyes.

Machine pieced, fused, machine quilted.  

DETAIL  The little dark rectangle at top is a shadow. 

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Rediscovering UFOs 11-16-19

I have temporarily moved my sewing machine table into the family room to take advantage of a medium sized table I can back the machine table up to so I can work on a larger quilt than I usually make.  Normally the machine table backs up to the dining table, but it is so piled with stuff I can't work on a quilt there.  It has worked well with some slight shifting of my recliner and KoKo's chair.   

And it gave me access to a couple plastic boxes of stuff under the dining table that I can't get to with the machine table in place.  So, I pulled those boxes out and discovered some ancient UFOs.  Oh, my goodness, some of them I just vaguely remember.  And many are partially hand quilted.  I haven't been able to hand quilt for several decades, since the arthritis in my hands got worse and worse.   I have no memory of why I stopped working on any of them, except a few from classes that didn't engage me very much.  I don't know what I will do with most of them, but I do remember this one and will probably finish it with machine quilting.  A friendship group I belonged to at the time did a project where everyone brought a paper bag with a certain number of cut squares (1-3/4").  Looks like the color choices were red, beige, blue, and green, but I don't remember how those were chosen.  Then we put the bags around a table and everyone went around and took a certain number of squares from each bag.  At least that is how I remember it.  For some reason they were called Laundry Room quilts - maybe because if they turned out badly they could hang in the laundry room where nobody else could see them.  We were to sew them together into a quilt adding whatever we wanted to add.  I was very much into spiky borders then and sewed many by hand as a carry-around project.  Here is "Red Bird's Quilt" from 1991!!!!

"Red Bird's Quilt"  Del Thomas August 1991

21.5W x 23.75L

Cotton & metallic fabrics, cotton batt, cotton thread.

Machine and hand pieced, hand applique, pen work,

machine and hand quilted.

This is the only spike that is quilted and it is out of align. 

Red bird on the back, a 13.5" block.  I paper cut this bird and used her in a number of different applications. 

Here is the label written right on the back right corner. 

This really takes me back in time when I was much more productive than I am now.  Gosh, 28 years ago. 

I will look deeper into the box when I have more time. 

Who knows what treasures I might find?

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Friday Food 11-15-19

Lunch out today with two friends.  We went to Fitness Grill in Yorba Linda, one of my standby places where the food is always exceptional and they have outdoor seating so I can take KoKo.  He is a very good dinner companion and the waiter brings him a bowl of water.  Since he is always excited to go out he always drinks water if offered.  

I did not take pictures of our main dishes, but we all had some kind of seafood, which they do so well.  Mine was a salmon burger that I ordered on sourdough and I ate half, bringing the rest home in a box for dinner tonight.  I wanted to have dessert and the waitress brought the dessert tray - hard decision.  I chose the Hazelnut Torte and it was fabulous.  I have always liked hazelnuts and buy them at TJoe's, but rarely see them on menus.  I did take a picture of that:

My two friends each had a tiny bite and I scarfed the rest.  I wondered if they put it on such a large plate so it would look like a smaller serving, in keeping with their fitness theme.  They have Keto, veggie, vegan, and such on the menu. 

There is also a Fitness Grill in Brea which I have not been to in many years, Yorba Linda is closer for me.

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