Friday Fish 11-30-12

The day was bound to come when I had no feet and no fannies to post.  So, I decided to share this image which is from a display at the Naval Training Center in San Diego along the hallway we walk from Visions Art Museum to have lunch at Solare restaurant.  This picture just tickles me.


This lady is so nicely dressed in what I suppose is a cannery workers uniform, white stockings, a necklace and a gardenia corsage.  And yet she is holding a sticky, smelly fish.   This was surely before women were permitted to wear trousers, so pre-WWII.   What an incongruous image!  But that's advertising for you - tricky and deceptive. 
 

This is the sign alongside the picture, telling about a canning industry that has long ago moved overseas. 

Seeing Art Quilts - Enjoying good company 11-29-12

What a gift it is to spend a day with a dear friend visiting quilt exhibits, enjoy a lovely lunch and have a chance to talk to friends that I don't see very often.  My friend Liz and I drove to San Diego yesterday (stopping at Starbuck's on the way) to see the "Brainstorms" exhibit at Visions Art Museum, have lunch, and stop to see one of the parts of Quilt National - 2011 at Oceanside Museum of Art.  It was a lovely, sunny day but with rain predicted for the afternoon in Orange County.

We went first to Visions Art Museum.  Liz is not an art quilter, but she is interested in seeing whatever there is to see.  We chose our favorites and filled out the voting slips for Viewers' Choice. No photography is allowed, so I am showing you the cover of the catalog.  The photos are excellent - done by Eric Nancarrow of Alaska.

It is an outstanding exhibit - make the trip!  The exhibit closes Feb 17, 2013. 

www.visionsartmuseum.org

 

We had lunch at Ikiru a nice little Japanese restaurant about two blocks from the museum, but we had to pass on the green tea ice cream this time. They don't have just sushi, Liz had delicious tempura.  www.ikirusushisd.com/

 

Then we headed north on I-5 to Oceanside Museum of Art.  Back in March I saw two parts of QNational at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, so I have been eager to see the third part.  I wasn't disappointed, there are some wonderful quilts there. 
One thing we noticed in both "Brainstorms" and QNational - 2011 was the dominance of hand stitching.  Some of the quilts are entirely hand stitched (I.e., Carolyn Sullivan's "Mushroom") and some have both machine and hand stitching (i.e., Elizabeth Brimelow's "Rook Road").
Again, no photography.  www.oma-online.org/  The exhibit runs through Feb 10, 2013

One of the quilts I admire is this one (from the catalog):

"Firebox"  Jan Myers-Newbury - Pittsburgh, PA  2010  Dyed in arashi shibori techniques, machine piecing and quilting.
With the gallery spotlights it glows.  It is not all pieced, some of the lighter rectangles appear to have been blocked when another layer of color was applied.  Intriguing.
 

 

By the time we left Oceanside the clouds had rolled in.  The Pacific Ocean is just beyond the bushes (which are just beyond the southbound lanes of I-5).   The sun was struggling to shine through, but soon gave up and we had periodic sprinkles on the way home.  Not much and the traffic was light until we got into Orange County and were in with the "rush hour" commuters.

A lovely day with lots of friendship and artistic inspiration.  Thanks, Liz.  And Beth and Charlotte and Judy and..... 

Wordless Wednesday 11-28-12

 

Bird watching 11-27-12

I've been an occasional bird watcher since a was quite young.  In the 70's and 80's I was very active and only stopped my serious watching when I developed allergies and couldn't be outside during the times that certain trees, weeds and grasses were "active".  I still watch very casually and sometimes try to take pictures of birds.  This little sparrow swooped down to the fence post while I was parked along the road above Asilomar Beach in Pacific Grove, CA, last March.  I had rolled the window down to enjoy the rushing of the waves and the wonderfully clean air.  I took seven or eight pictures before he flipped his tail at me and flew away.  The last image is the best picture I have ever taken of a bird.  And it was taken with my Canon point-and-shoot camera.  Pretty awesome.

 

 

Song Sparrow at Asilomar Beach, Pacific Grove, CA  03-28-12

Monday Browsing 11-26-12

Modern Quilting

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d7a4d354e6a45344d44413d0d0a&blogview=true&campaign=blog_playback_link&playAgain=true   

See your house in a Snow Globe...Click on the site below, put in your address and watch – too cool!   http://www.draftfcb.com/holiday2011/

Sorry, I can’t make this last one into a hyperlink, you’ll have to cut and paste.

A virtual worldwide choir:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-whitacre/virtual-choir_b_2175526.html?utm_hp_ref=tedweekends&ir=TED

 

 

Quilt by Lynn Welsch in TCQC 11-25-12

This is another purchase from the SAQA 2012 Auction last month.  I purchased this one because it makes me smile - so colorful and silly - and I have it on my wall now because right now I am needing smiles!


"Taking a Break"  Lynn B. Welsch - Mimbres, NM  2012  12" square
Machine applique and machine quilting. 100% cotton fabrics; Superior Monopoly thread used for applique and quilting.  Beads and buttons as embellishment.
 

 
Lynn's machine applique is phenomenal.  Even with my magnifying glass I cannot see any stitches.  I wonder if she had trouble with tension using monopoly on both the top and in the bobbin.  I think the flower bunches on the heads of the birds is an added touch of silliness.  Each bird eye has a bead topped with a seed bead. 
 

 
And each flower is centered with a fancy button or bead.
 

 
Creative label, but no contact for the artist.  It is an important tool for possible future sales.
 

 
A back that coordinates with the front, something that I enjoy.  The striped binding is a great addition.

Lunch at the harbor in San Diego 11-24-12

On Wednesday I drove down to San Diego to learn more about the quilts in the "Brainstorms" exhibit at Visions Art Museum.   I have several session scheduled to serve as a docent, so I'd better study up on the artists and their quilts.   It was a fast track down there - it only took an hour and a half.  Since the schools were closed and many companies closed down for the Thanksgiving holiday there was not much traffic going south on I-5.  However, I knew that coming home in the afternoon would be slow, and it was.   Three hours and twenty minutes on the road, much of it at 10mph.  But I knew it would be that way and was prepared to be patient.  There were a few fender benders and one large accident which had the southbound I-5 narrowed to one lane - of course, all the ghouls going north had to slow or stop to see the accident.  As soon as they get past they hit the gas and try to get in front of everyone else.  Weird.  I never look for fear I will see a gory sight that I will never forget. 


With a friend I had lunch at another very good restaurant - Island Prime on the harbor. 
The food  was excellent and the service the best I have experienced in quite a long time. (I had the crab cakes which came with a small salad and my friend had a French Dip sandwich with skinny, skinny onion rings that were fantastic). We shared a dessert - Key Lime Pie - I think the best I've ever eaten.  I thought that CPK served a good one, but this was even better.  It is, however, twice as much as I could ever eat, so I was happy I had a friend.
 

 
The excellent company and the delicious food was enhanced by a drop dead view of downtown San Diego on the left and Coronado Island and the navy ships on the right.  In the distance is the Coronado Bridge stretching over the water.