The Library and museum at the Huntington in San Marino are very impressive, but to be honest – I go there for the gardens. This time it was a field trip specifically to the Chinese garden.
Gardens mean plants, spring has sprung (literally, it was 85 degrees). The first among the trees to bloom is the plum blossom.
Which are fleeting and beautiful.
The Camellias have started blooming, I even have some in my own garden. Of course the place to really go see in Southern California is Descanso Gardens in La Canada.
This bearded Iris was out in the main area but how could I not take a picture. My own Irises are on strike, no flowers this year.
The lotus flower dies back every winter and leaves this interesting pod.
Even more interesting when seen from the bottom side, with it’s own reflection. 
Color and texture can be found in leaves and berries.
Many flowers are carved in wood.
A fall flower, the chrysanthemum. 
I’m not sure which plant this is, but it is very very Chinese looking.
Even some of the corbels are beautifully carved.
Then there are the concrete elements.
Or the natural rock that mimics a tree trunk.
Next, the built environment in the garden.
Leah
The river was running very high, we are standing on the levee in Algiers Point and I’m pretty sure those trees aren’t normally in the river. Since I haven’t heard of flooding, I’m hoping that by now the river has receded.
On our walk we came across an Art Deco movie theater from the 1940s. I think I have mentioned that Art Deco architecture is really an American phenomenon, both North America and South. So even in a city with a rich history of much older Architecture, Art Deco found a foot hold. Movie theaters in the 1930s and 1940s all over the country were built in this style.
Of course it hasn’t been a theater for years, but luckily was saved from demolition and today is the 
I love how they utilized the actual theater section for the ovens and the glory holes.
And kept a few theater seats for visitors to sit on and watch the action. I could have watched for hours, Joel, not so much.
To me there is something fascinating about taking sand, silica, fire and gravity and creating one of a kind glass pieces.
This woman was busy making ornaments. The man was making bases for wine goblets.
Back in the front, what used to be the lobby and today is the shop, there are beautiful terrazzo floors. Another Art Deco building element. 
Of course I love the bright colors of hand blown glass.
Especially when it interacts with light.
I did buy myself a memento, a 
I don’t know if you remember this quilt that I finished in the summer. I never said what happened to it. It is a gift for a special person, there were reasons why she only got it now.
Yup, it’s for Shira!
She does love it, even if that means walking all over it with her shoes on. She slept very nicely under it as well.
Sometimes it’s scary how photogenic she is.
I also had a charm pack of rainbow solids, which is perfects since LAMQG is having a challenge with solids only. Score! One quilt for two challenges.
Churn Dash. I made this out of charm squares I won as well. I really wanted to see how this block will work using a 5″ charm pack. It works very well as long as your goal isn’t a 12″ block. It comes out more like 11.5″ which is fine for me since I’m repeating the same block, not making a sampler.
Ok, I’ll admit it, it is very hard for me to stick to just one block, so every so often I threw in a checker board.
I gradually moved onto the other colors.
I am not a big fan of the rainbow. I wouldn’t have chosen this if I were buying fabrics for the project. On the other hand, aside from buying the Kona Highlight, I set my own challenge of only using the other charm pack and not including any other solids in my stash.
I ended up being very pleased with the final result, now to figure out how to quilt it.
My Facebook friend Harmeet made this incredible shawl. We haven’t met yet in real life, but we were introduced by a very good friend. We share a lot in common, not the least of which is knitting. She knit this gorgeous 
In order to make the color progression you need two sets of gradient yarns, which means – enough yarn for two shawls, the second one will reverse the color scheme. These aren’t her colors – or so she says, she made this beauty to give away! She also won’t be making the same shawl twice, so I asked if she could send the yarn my way. 
These are so perfectly my colors! And I love the shawl!
So she did! She sent me the yarn! I am so excited, I have a secret knitting project I can’t share yet, but I’m going to ball up these skien and start very soon. Such a generous gift deserves a special thank you. Something every knitter needs, a project bag.
I went for my bright colors. Harmeet’s family is from India, she can handle bright.
This is large enough for a pair of socks on the needles or maybe even a shawl.
I’ve been good about putting on my label, will need to order more soon, might go with a very different look next time.
I’m not a fan of the Arizona dessert. It also was very cold, mid 50s. I brought my winter gear and was fine, but it certainly didn’t feel like an escape.
Water fountains take on a much bigger significance in the dessert.
The flora doesn’t excite me, although nice barrel cactii are fun. Looks like a few more weeks and these guys will bloom.
The one cactus that is really unique to this area is the mighty Saguaro. Though sometimes they do need help to stay upright. The one on the right has an interesting anomaly.
This crested fan is due to fascination. Look it up on Wikipedia. It is some form of disease that doesn’t harm the plant but results in the unique shape.
I went with a friend to the adorable town of Carefree. A small town built in the 1950s. The developers clearly had a good sense of humor.
Whats not to love about Ho Hum Road?
The antique shops are fun, my friend inherited this exact Singer sewing machine from her grandmother, although it sounds like hers is in better shape.
They don’t make them like this anymore. I love that these machines were not only functional tools, but made to be as beautiful as possible. 
Any current textile designers out there? Please knock off this cute print! Looks like a 1950s design to me.
The cat isn’t for sale, I just love his attitude!
A nice touch, making the relatively new buildings look old.
Of course I’m drawn to tiles – as kitchy as they may be.
Cactii, rusted metal art and Marilyn – as good as it gets.
We literally stumbled upon an adorable tea shop. 
I love the creativity of using the chipped and broken tea pots and tea cups. This was a delightful way to finish out an lovely day.
Who doesn’t like a friendly cat?
How about a menacing one?
A duck decoy works well on the fountain.
Don’t know how to describe this bird, is he always on the porch? does he sing and dance?
Only in NOLA can you have a gargoyle on your railing and it appears to be a natural part of the decor.
A fish out of water. In front the the Aquarium of course, I like how it stands out in front of the hotels as well
Staying in the same color family, an old sign on an old gas station. It was turned into a pizza joint and today is abandoned.
What to do with the old claw foot tub? Put it out on the side walk of course. This uneven sidewalk is very common.
Which is why people have signs like this.
At least the city isn’t responsible for the fence, that is on private property. Looks to me like the tree is trying to eat the rosebuds/skulls.
I come from a city that has a lot of public stairs so this intrigues me. NOLA is flat, very very flat, in order to prevent flooding they built levees. this one surrounds Algiers Point and is only 11 steps, but it qualifies as a public staircase.
I was quite surprised to see the bust of Abraham Lincoln looking out at me from a shop window on Royal St. There he his, there is even a sign in the window saying pictures are fine but please don’t touch. The wonders here never stop.
The New York beauty took a long time to piece, I really needed to think long and hard about how to quilt it – to enhance the beauty. First stage was pretty easy, to highlight the crowns, simply stitch in the ditch. You can see the difference between the left – quilted and the right – still unquilted. I am using a medium grey thread so it sort of blends with everything but the dark background. 
Here is a larger image of the quilt before I started stitching. The crowns all look lovely and I didn’t want to hide any of the fabrics under a quilting pattern.
Here is a large section already quilted. You can see how the crowns are more stable and they pop more. Yay for quilting in the ditch. I am also grateful to my Craftsy class Beyond Basic Quilting. A very in depth class on free-motion quilting. Not modern quilting, although somewhat free form. The most important lesson I learned, I can jump all over the quilt, this isn’t a long arm and since I did a good job of glue basting, I’m not getting puckers on the back. I therefore quilted all the crowns first and then thought about what kind of filler to use on the background.
Close up, hopefully all this quilting will also stabilize the blocks and make them stronger.
Working with a very dark grey thread that matches the fabric I got to work.
The busy quilting on the solid fabric makes the crowns pop all the more. I am very pleased! Also, my quilting is improving, I’m simply getting better at it – practice is the reason why.
Although I’m not ready to bind, I have already made my binding from the many fabrics that are in the quilt. I’m hoping to get to that point sooner rather than latter!
To see Mardi Gras beads dangling off signs.
Or just to see a sign with my name on it. No, I didn’t go in, I didn’t even try pralines, Beignets, Pecan Pie and King Cake were enough sweets for me.
Or seeing the sign for H Rault, the business has been around since 1845, don’t know if the sign is that old. I do love the keyhole. Good design. Btw they are a great resource for anyone trying to renovate an old New Orleans house.
I did go into the yarn store and I came out empty handed! How is that for self control? We had lunch next door at Sylvain, on a friend’s recommendation, it was delicious.
Then there is the broken glass on tops of walls. This is a known method of burglary prevention all over the world. I think it is pretty effective.
Even when placed right next to a pineapple finial – the sign of welcome and hospitality.
I don’t remember anymore what this chain was holding. But what a wonderful cast iron face.
Then there are the combination of textures, the old wood shutter, the stucco building and the S-shape wrought iron. I think it’s there to keep the windows sealed.
No matter how strong your fence, nature will have it’s way, it may take a long time for the tree to grow and push the fence out of whack – but the tree will win.
A railing painted white, surrounded by green.
On Bienville old French buildings were torn down and the only Art Deco building in the quarter went up. There is more Art Deco downtown, but shortly after this happened, a movement started to save the character of the Quarter.
Who are these guys? What are they discussing? Today this is a very high end condo complex. I love the reflection of the older building across the street in the windows, windows are a wonderful thing.
Right underneath him is a spa, for relaxing, Maybe he’s contemplating how to get down there.
And finally in the look up department. On the street car going to and from the Garden District, one passes this massive circle, Lee Circle with it’s 60 ft high marble column with General Lee Standing atop it. Yes, these days people want it to come down, I say those who erase history are doomed to follow the worst parts of it. Leave General Lee alone, he accepted defeat at Appomattox, he bravely fought the war and when it was time to admit defeat he did. Of course it is very hard to see him unless you are a good distance away, like in the warehouse district. Even then, it took enlarging the picture for me to see that a pigeon flew all the way up to his hat to find a perch.
I love multiple color blankets and 
A few months ago a friend mentioned the book Cast on Cast off was available for $3 on Kindle. Of course I grabbed a copy and I have used it when trying out different methods. This pattern called for a provisional cast-0n, as a reminder, I checked this book and found a gem of advice. Cast on over a circular needle, so when you go back to pick up those stitches, they are already on a needles. Sure it was a little confusing for the first few inches, and yes, I used the ‘wrong’ needle a few time. All in all I like this method and will use it again.
Here you can see the lovely yarn colors, not too harsh and glaring. 
Love the look, love how cozy and soft it is to knit. Which means it will be lovely for the baby.
It looks like a big hot mess right now, I’ve used two circulars to knit the border. I’m almost there, almost done.
And here it is! The blanket is finished. I did block it with steam, even though it is acrylic, it helped open up the pattern some.
Another artistic view. I don’t enjoy knitting blankets very much, even baby blankets. My grandkids are worth it though! Of course there should be a few more in the future – God willing, I’m not sure I’ll remake this pattern, simply because I’m always looking for something new. That is not to say that I wouldn’t recommend this, I think it’s a great pattern.
The winning shot.
I even almost lost my camera at one of the booths, luckily, they found me a few minutes later. Yeah, I was rushed and frazzled. Not a lot of pictures, these are miniatures, which is extremely impressive to me. I am planning on some sort of Bethlehem star for my newest grandson, so I’m looking at layouts, even though – no way would I do something this small.
Or this crazy op art! I get dizzy just looking at the photo! I am intrigued by this, one of the things I love about quilting is the engineering – no improve for me! 
In the modern section I snapped this picture, and there you have some improv within a grid of sorts. I cropped this photo of course and find that as an overall composition – it grabs my attention.
This one is straight out of Victoria Findlay Wolfe’s book
On my wish list is an Hawaiian quilt, I even found some 16″ patterns. So I was intrigued by this style of needle turn appliqué as well as impressed by the workmanship.
Not my style or my colors but once again, the ability to see incredible quilts with impeccable workmanship is a big reason for me to go to a show. 
The class I took was this pattern for this quilt, Chic Kisses with Jenny Pedigo. I have used her ingenious invention, the curved piecing ruler. So it was fun to meet her and take her class. I bought a different pattern from her, since I’m not crazy about this one. I do like the color choices here.
I brought scraps, and boy am I glad I did. Things didn’t go great, probably cuz I was cramming in show and full day class. Of course there was the drive out to Ontario and back, so it was a frenetic day. I made mistakes, it was great seeing how Jenny tried to resolve my issues – that is what having a class with the teacher right there, is for.
I got this far and no further. Jenny kept encouraging me to finish the block, but no, I’m not interested. For me that will be a waste of time. I may repeat this pattern with new fabrics, with the knowledge I learned in class and from my mistakes. I learned long ago, not everything must be finished. So much that is learned in a class is useful for the future, not for the project being made then and there.