Lonely Highways 08-03-08

These days I sometimes find driving the SCalifornia freeways rather creepy! People are driving less, so there are fewer cars on the road. Unfortunately, this just gives more incentive for some drivers to put the pedal to the metal. So, some vehicles are going 85 and some are going 55 - much more dangerous than when everyone is creeping along together at 25 - 35 mph!

This was at 4pm on Sunday, driving west on the Garden Grove Fwy (CA 22). I'm coming up on what is known as the "Orange Crush" because several freeways cross here making high traffic times a "Crush". Obviously there was no crush here today.

A few miles further on, still not much traffic going west, the east bound lanes are heavier.

Looking behind in the rear view mirror also shows less traffic. It seems this way most of the time now, except at peak traffic hours. Somehow I keep thinking of the movie "On the Beach". Creepy is the only word I can think of that applies.

Walking 08-02-08

The only thing that gets me out to walk is Corky! He came home with me last night (Friday) and pretty much slept the day away. There has been a seven-year old grandson visiting his house and he had to keep track of him and what he was doing. so very little sleep during the daytime. The Poodle Mommy thinks Corky knows that when he comes to Camp Del he can catch up on his beauty sleep. Guess so, this time anyway.

Here he is in his blue bed (to match the Family Room floor) snuggling with his apricot pillow. You can see why sometimes I lose him - he blends so well with the lining of his bed.

Roses are still looking good if the rose growers pruned them properly - I did not. This one is growing in the front yard about four houses to the south. Not much fragrance, but lovely color. I'll get a view of what is blooming around Corky's house tomorrow when we walk in LBeach. His birthday was July 29, so there will be a dinner party in his honor tomorrow evening at a Belmont Shore restaurant that has a patio where dogs are allowed. His two Lhasa Apso girlfriends will attend along with their parents. They are all very well behaved and people always smile when they see them together - three very well groomed white doggies.

The Cutting Table 08-01-08

I'm still moving things around in my house. When Liz and I cleared off my cutting table (which I haven't cut on for at least ten years), removing boxes, baskets, stacks of fabric and mysterious plastic bags, she told me I should take a picture of it, in case I never cleared it off again! So, I did.

My husband made this wonderful ash table top for me about thirty years ago. It sits on top of a dresser and a two-by-four 'structure' set back to back. It is the perfect height for me and I never get a backache when I am cutting on it. The suitcases no longer have a home, so I am trying to find space in a closet for them.

Within a few days we had moved all the quilts from the guest bed to the cutting table. All of these quilts will not fit on the shelves because of their width.

Here is a view of the shelves w/rolled quilts stored. The shelves are only forty-six inches wide and there is no way to make them wider. I'm still trying to think of a way to roll the large quilts and store them on shelves. Thinking, thinking, thinking!

I hope you were able to access and enjoy the pictures from Quilt Festival Long Beach for which I posted the Web Album URL on yesterday's blog. Let me know if you have trouble viewing it, Picasa seems to be experiencing some problems. If they would only stop making changes!

All of the Quilt Festival pictures 07-31-08

Without know how I did it, I managed to get all the Quilt Festival - LBeach pictures on one album. I wonder if I will ever be able to repeat this feat of almost magic in the future. You can see all of them at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/DELQLTS/QuiltFestivalLongBeachCA072708?authkey=yll2yUpTJSE

The captions, naturally, are all my very own opinions. I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do at a QShow, but not because there weren't other wonderful quilts. I had six hours on Friday, about two hours on Saturday and I only went back on Sunday to retake a few images. I was going to visit Corky and his parents at their house in SE LBeach.

Liz was here today - cracking her whip again! Boy, I wish I had her energy! We drove some old paint and chemicals to the toxic waste collection place, which was a good thing because I REALLY needed to sit down. We also dumped all the scraps out on a sheet on the new workroom floor and pulled some bags of all one color - red, green, blue, yellow, etc. There are too many scraps to go in one big bag - it would probably weigh as much as Miss Chunky! And I doubt that I could even pick her up. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25937546/

Quilt Festival - Long Beach Part A 07-30-08

I am still struggling with Picasa. I've set up web albums at least a dozen times before, but now I cannot get the Web Album to show on the Picasa list. Any suggestions?

Meanwhile, here is Part A of the pictures I took of quilts at the Festival. Each image is preceded by the text that appeared with the quilt. Tomorrow I will work at Part B! But Liz will be here to get me going on Organizing, so I might not get to the computer until late evening.

http://picasaweb.google.com/DELQLTS/QuiltFestivalLongBeachCA072708?authkey=yll2yUpTJSE

Thur, July 31st - I did manage to put all the pictures on one album, so you can see them all at the URL directly above this note. Del

I went to Long Beach all three days of the Festival and had a great time. Sitting a booth for American Alliance of Quilts for two hours and another two hours at the Studio Art Quilt Associates booth was a great way to see people. I stayed in one place and they all strolled by! SAQA prohibited pictures in their galleries, but their exhibits were well received. Many people have told me it was their favorite part of the Festival. I do have pictures, which come from another source, of two of the "Sense of Place" quilts and I will post them tomorrow if I can. There were a few operating problems - not enough ticket sellers on Friday morning and no food after 11am on Friday and Saturday! There are lots of good restaurants nearby, but apparently they did not believe the Festival people who advised them there would be thousands of quilters. So, the wait for seating was long and the service rather slow. Maybe next year they will listen. And maybe next year more Festival goers will pre-order their tickets.

Shake, Rattle and Roll 07-29-08

Yes, we had an earthquake today - 5.4 on the Richter scale, which is quite strong. I was having lunch with a friend in Tustin and when the rolling stopped we judiciously moved to an outside table away from the large windows. But we didn't feel any aftershocks. There was one this evening that I felt, but it was minuscule.

There was no real damage at my house. Cupboard doors opened and drawers rolled out, but only these few things flew out of the pantry onto the floor. Several standing clocks were knocked from shelves to the floor, but only one seems to have suffered an injury. It was a "Free Gift" w/purchase thing many years ago, so no big loss if it doesn't recover. Books fell in the office and I had to get the tongs to move them a bite so I could get the door open to pick everything up and put it back in the bookcase.

The fabric shelves and boxes were fine, but I will make it a priority to have them anchored to the wall. All the tall pieces of furniture are anchored to keep them from toppling over in a shaker. The piles/boxes/bags of scraps were undisturbed (snort), but one of my small design boards flopped over - on the right in the picture above. So, all is well here. I am still having trouble with Picasa. I asked for some help on the members help list, but haven't received any answer. I never have on any question I have posed, but where there is hope.....! I will try something else tomorrow to get the Quilt Festival pictures posted.

RE: Quilt Festival LBeach 07-28-08

I have all the photos ready to go and Picasa is giving me fits! I have "launched" a question to the users' forum, but haven't had much luck in the past. I'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, here is the announcement for Quilt Festival - Long Beach, CA - 2009

Mark your calendars!!

Mary drove home yesterday so I am alone again and I vowed I would stay in bed all day today to just rest. But by 11am, after reading, dozing, reading, dozing, I couldn't stand it any longer and got up and got busy. Not that I accomplished a lot, but I made an effort. I haven't been to the market for too many days, but I will go tomorrow. Meanwhile I had dinner at "Fish in a Bottle" again. I'm addicted to that place. It was packed and I ended up sitting at the sushi bar - which isn't very comfortable for short people, my chin was in my plate! I'll admit it was easier to shovel it in!