More West Adams

My introduction to this neighbor hood was 24 years ago when I first arrived in LA. I met a woman (I don’t remember her name) who was also a sewer. She and her husband bought a Victorian in this neighborhood. Growing up in Israel I hadn’t been in a Victorian home. I went to visit her in ‘that scary neighborhood’. At this time people were just beginning to buy and refurbish old homes. Shortly thereafter she divorced and moved to Reno, but I always have a soft spot for West Adams.waha13During the depression, people sold homes to whomever they could – despite covenants that forbad selling to non Whites. This is the period when Hattie McDaniel bought her home, later to be involved with the Supreme Court case that banned such covenants. By the 1960’s the First A.M.E. church was looking to build a very large new building. They chose this site (in my previous post you may have noticed Cecil Murray circle – named for the famous pastor of this church). Build in the Mid Century style and designed by the very famous architect Paul R. Williams.waha14Across Adams Blvd is the Church built by the original mansion owners in the area.  At the time with was a Methodist Church, today, fitting for the neighborhood it is the Greater Page TempleWaha17Brick was a common building material until the Long Beach earthquake of 1932, demanded earthquake suitable building materials.waha19The original sanctuary is the social hall today.  In big commercial buildings downtown skylights are ornate, here they are simply functional.

Judson Studio glass Greater Page Temple
Judson Studio glass Greater Page Temple
waha18100 year old Wolf Stove
100 year old Wolf Stove

The original kitchen is still in use, with a Wolf stove from 1913, old, much used and still very functional. I wonder if the Wolf company is aware of this treasure that is in no need of being replaced.The new sanctuary is ornate yet dark, so all I was able to get was these wonderful stained glass windows.judson studio glassMade by our friends at Judson Studioswaha22Other things of interest as I walked around, the gate to an old apartment building on the corner of Adams and Hobart.waha24A cute old bench for a child.waha20This may be a Halloween decoration but I guess it was never taken down.waha21Speaking of holidays, if you plant Your Chirstmas Poinsettia outside, you get a beautiful bush that adds a lot of color to the yard. If you live in Mexico or SoCal, I doubt this will survive in cold climates.

Leah

Super heroes.

It is fun to make items for  very appreciative customers. especially grandkids.P1090446Quite the model,  Shira loves the Star Wars cartoon. She comes by this love naturally – it’s a must in her mom’s side of the family. So when I found this fabric at JoAnns’ I knew it had to become a dress.  I only bought a yard, so only had enough for the skirt and collar. I’m always happy to add another fabric, like the stripes at the armholes.  She is growing, must buy more fabric next time. P1090449This isn’t a party dress, she can run and play!  She was at the house when I made this, every five minutes she’d ask if the pretty dress was done.  She sat next to me while I sewed and played with pins, got to get them started young.P1090451P1090455Aytan still loves Spiderman but is open to other heroes like Iron Man.  Marvel licensed this fabric – perfect!  Same Oliver & S. pattern, we are now up to size 6. His first shirts were size 4.IMG_3309This is the Spiderman hand gesture, he knows his heroes.IMG_3311Not sure if this is Ironman or just a gesture, either way, these are the cutest customers ever for my sewing projects.  For Shira I can make all kinds of dresses, for Aytan it seems to be only shirts.  He loves them, so that is good and everyone at school marvels at these wonderful clothes. Win all around.

Leah

West Adams Heights

Always on the lookout for interesting things to do in Los Angeles. As soon as I saw the home tour in West Adams Heights I jumped on the opportunity.PicMonkey PhotoFirst the Rindge Mansion, the corner stone of this area.  More about this home later. WahaMy first stop is the Beckett Residence.  Built in 1905, these are the kind of mansions built for the wealthiest residents of Los Angeles in the early 20th C. This home has gone through many iterations, boarding house and for years used as a backdrop for movies. The current owner bought it just 6 months ago and is already making great strides in renovating.waha1The tiles and fireplace surround is typical for the era. Luckily this wood wasn’t painted, although there are no lack of such homes where people painstakingly remove the paint.  There is a secret behind the door.waha2A wonderful old safe.waha3
Upstairs Blair Larson regaled us with family lore. Her great-grandmother owned the home from the late 20s -50s. At this period it was a boarding house. A very common phenomenon for large homes. Her father grew up here and the papers she was reading from are the memories he wrote down.  If she looks theatrical, it is because she is an actress, who even worked in this house in a movie production.PicMonkey Photo

Hattie McDaniel the famous black actress owned this house, it was originally on the tour, but at the last minute we weren’t able to visit.waha4The host at the next house.waha5I pay attention to the details, like this old lamp by the front door.waha6Or the ornate cover for the doorbell mechanism.waha7

An incredible Craftsman designed by the team of Hudson and Munsell, who designed gorgeous Craftsman homes as well as much larger commercial projects.

waha8

 

Details!!!waha9A young couple has been doing an amazing job refinishing the home. The wonderful wall paper is reproduction from another Hudson and Munsell home owned by my fellow Conservancy decent Donald. I have to visit his home one of these days. They found remnants of the wall paper in their home and it is now being reproduced commercially.waha10Back to the Rindge Mansion. Built in 1902 for Frederick Rindge, best known for owning the Rindge Rancho, which today encompasses Santa Monica and all of Malibu. His Son in law is famous for building the Adamson house in Malibu, also worth a visit.waha12No photos inside, today this is the law office and home of Harold Greenberg. The interior is fascinating! So many incredible details, today the ground floor is a law office, but nothing has marred the interior. Sometimes one visits such a home and soaks in the details without taking pictures and that is fine as well.waha11Classic cars to go with a classic home.

There will be another post for other things I saw.

 

 

Leah

Another quilt finished

January Bom is done!LAMQG BOM January 2015, Liz HarvatineI added a border. I’m seeing a lot of quilts with this pattern, I like that I used both pattern options, the closed and open circle. I’m glad I added the borders, gives it my own personal touch.P1080847I used the prints in the binding, it really does bind it all together.P1080846P1080850Hand embroidered label of course.  No name for this quilt.P1080852Large enough for a nice cuddle.

Shared with the guild and thankfully Liberty got a great picture

January block quilt done!

Gave it as a birthday gift last night – I think my friend was stunned, of course she loves it, as does her husband. Quilt finds a good home.

Leah

Caravan Tote

The Caravan Tote pattern is very popular right now. People are making in it all kinds of pretty fabrics.P1090407I LOVE owls and these are not the cutesy ones, but nice fierce ones. So this was my starting point, but what fabric to combine it with?P1090403I want classy, not crazy quilt. It wasn’t easy finding the fabric. Be open minded, don’t just look at other quilt cottons. So I went to the sale rack at JoAnns and found this faux suede for $5  a yard.  Good thing I bought a yard since my attempt at ironing showed me why it’s on the sale table. It is backed with webbing, when ironing, the suede crinkles. So I was very careful to use a warm iron or a seam roller. As a bag, it’s not getting ironed.Caravan ToteDetails make the bag!  The brass zipper and brass snaps.  The perfect matching seams of the printed fabric.  The red leather handles, with the matching red fabric on the zipper tabs.  Ok, I ran out of brass snaps, so used black snap heads on the handles.  The handles are too thick to attach, so I sewed them on and punched a hole in which I glued the snap heads, sometimes it’s not functional – just beautiful.

Love how each small detail adds it’s own oomph.  Oh and I can’t forget using the beads as a zipper pull.

PicMonkey Photo5,jpgI played around with lining and pocket fabrics,  this is where the quilty fun happens, inside the bag.  I very carefully sewed the handles on with topstitching thread and a leather needle. The problem is there is always a mess on the back side. Solution,  serge some tabs and glue them over the stitching.PicMonkey Photo7The front has both a snap pocket and an internal pocket  – so much useful space! And room for more pops of color.PicMonkey Photo8An internal pouch, here I reversed the fabrics but used the same zipper pull.PicMonkey Photo1And added another fabric for the lining.zipper pullLoving the nice neat topstitching I get with the new Juki.  Probably could get the same with the old Juki, but I am really enjoying getting used to the new machine.Caravan ToteLOVE!  Sinple shapes, simple fabrics, a very balanced placement of colors.Caravan ToteSide by side, while normally the small pouch would be inside the larger one. The tote was designed as a project bag, so I will be putting some basic tools in the pouch.  I am using this as my summer bag, but it’s nice and roomy to just include my knitting and not need to bring another bag.PicMonkey Photo3Its’ June already but this belongs in memadeMay, the skirt, the shirt and the wonderful bag.

Leah

Little birds

I have quite a few hummingbirds in the garden, simple grey ones.  So many that I have two nests, one in front of the house and one in back.P1080814In both cases, right under the eaves on the twinkle lights.  As you can see, the nest is tiny.  So far, no action on the front nest.P1090396The back one is being used.  It isn’t easy getting a picture of mama bird. When I come outside she flies away.P1090401At one point when she was gone, I brought up the ladder and had to maneuver the camera over the nest to get pictures, of course I didn’t want to touch anything.  Two tiny little eggs.

If I am ever able to capture the actual birds, I’ll be happy to share.

Leah

On the needles

P1080798I bought this yarn during the yarn crawl, it came with a free cowl pattern. Interesting design, you start knitting flat, like a triangle shawl than then you join and knit a simple lace pattern in the round.P1080799The opening is where the neck will go.P1090411I made it a little shorter than the pattern called for, I wanted it to be a cowl, not a short poncho. Looks nice to me at this length.P1090412View from the back.  I think this is going into my gift pile yes, it’s lovely and will make a lovely gift.

P1090005Then I started socks, but this doesn’t look like socks! Well, I didn’t get far when I realized that I didn’t like knitting this yarn in a tight gauge for socks.  So instead, I started another hitchhiker scarf.  Love the way the color is being distributed, of course this might change radically as the scarf grows. Either way, it’s a fun easy knit.

Natalie from the knitting group was de-stashing, gorgeous yarns. So I picked up this.seduceSeduce is a linen blend, grey isn’t a color I wear often. But I like it enough so I am making a very simple tee shirt.  I looked on Revelry to see what people made with this yarn, which has been discontinued a while ago.  Two items, simple Tee or a pattern called Pucker by Norah Gaughan. Problem with that one is that one knits a band of puckers at the neck line, and then, there is too much fabric in the front of the shirt. This is one of those shirts that looks great on a larger woman and too baggy on a small one. As it is, my shirt will be loose and somewhat baggy, but I don’t see any reason to add any other design element.

It is knitting up quickly and I like the variation in the yarn.  I’ll probably finish the shirt first and then move on to the hitchhiker.

Leah

Falcons in action

P1090182P1090193Preparing the falconP1090192Launching. Taking flightP1090208
P1090206P1090203P1090215The bird is coming in right under her arm, but she swings it away.P1090217And he has to go back for another roundP1090221P1090350

In the raptor world, females are much larger than males, apparently the same is true of spidersP1090279Two birds leaving at the same time.

Yes, I have more pictures but I think I’ll stop now.

Leah

Falcon Force

P1090029Saturday was an amazing day. Joel and I got up at 3:45 am and drove over an hour to a remote field in the Antelope Valley.  We were there for a demonstration of the use of falcons and other raptors as bird abatement.  Go check out Falcon Force, I love human ingenuity. Over 4000 years ago the Chinese tamed and trained falcons as hunters to put food on the table, then for years, Falconry was the sport of kings. Today this sport is being turned into a way of controlling pest birds in agriculture, airports and even pigeon removal.  Thank you also to Obscura Society LA for arranging this field trip.P1090031Vahe with Shaman, a peregrine falcon.P1090074Becky, sorry don’t remember the name of this bird.

It takes special people to be falconers – it’s not easy to get a license, and then to care for these birds is a full time job.  Both Vahe and Becky are hunters, their respect and love for these birds is abundantly evident.P1090233There is a lot of training,  the birds learn to come to a lure, which is a tennis ball with pigeon wings attached.  They learn that once they catch the ball, they are immediately rewarded  with food – not much different from training any other animal – like dogs or orcas.P1090241And he takes flight! The birds are outfitted with homing devices. This is very important, Vahe has lost birds and was able to retrieve them because of the homing device. The safest  place is a small backpack which is what you see here. Leg devices can get damaged easily or can kill the bird if he accidentally lands on a electrical wire.P1090242This bird has both homing devices on right now.P1090164Some of the falcons can fly up to speeds of 280 mph,  so the handlers have to be very swift themselves with the ball.  The raptors have an incredible sense of space, their eyesight is like a telescope, one flew right by Joel’s head – without touching him – they are that good.P1090337Once the raptor catches the ball, he is rewarded with pigeon meat.P1090131P1090302When the bird is first released, it flies far and wide. The idea is to have them fly over a vineyard, or orchard and frighten away the birds.  Vahe doesn’t want them to come right back, when he wants them he calls and twirls the pigeon ball.P1090154Two birds at once, notice one is right below Vahe,  meanwhile Becky is photographing the other one in flight.  Yes, photography is another profession of theirs.P1090340P1090151Sometime the bird ignores the ball, hey they all have their own personalities, here he is simply tempting him back with a piece of meat.P1090152P1090178P1090351Training the birds to fly from one spot to another.P1090354This is very important for places like Sea World, pigeon and seagull abatement. There are raptors there full time, flying back and forth and keeping the birds at bay. You probably never even notice them.  A few years ago, we were in Trafalgar Square, a Falconer was walking around with a falcon on his gloved arm.  Never let it go, just walking around movingthe pigeons.  They immediately when a hunter is around.  Most people never saw him, unlike me, who is always looking around carefully at my surroundings.

One of the audience is a woman who runs a little hotel in Hermosa Beach, their pigeon problem in out of control. Falcon Force are not cheap, but they are trying them for abatement. They just started a few days ago, so they have to give it time to see how well it works,  she was extremely impressed by the demonstration.

I’m breaking this into two posts, more birds!

Leah

Having the right tools

I have mentioned in the past how unhappy I am with my Babylock Quest, well final straw was my inability to get decent buttonholes. My trial one would be great, maybe the first one on the shirt would also work out – then bam! It would all go wonky and I’d get very frustrated.

So I did the sensible thing, I traded in my machine.IMG_3269Now all my machines are Jukis.  This is a simple work horse, it lacks some features that I was very used to with the other machines – like the knee lift for the presser foot. Or the fact that unless I am making a decorative stitch, the needle stays right in the middle. It has the needle threader and thread cutter. Also a nice feature is that it locks in the stitches both at the beginning and end of the seam if I want to use that feature.  Since I bought this machine for garment sewing, yes I use this feature a lot.button holesFirst thing I did was try out all the button holes. Just in the way it sews them I can tell this machine can handle button holes. Not sure I’ll ever use the one on the bottom left, but the others all looks amazing.P1080927Finally, I could pull out this wonderful fabric I bought at Road to California and make a very professional looking shirt.  I adapted this pattern a little for a better fit, this is the second time I’m using this one, I think it will be my go-to for button down shirts.P1080935On the blog Male Pattern Boldness, Peter describes binding the bottom of a shirt with bias binding. Peter really knows his stuff when it comes to shirts, he took a class at FIT.

I have been using glue when binding my quilts. I realized that it would work just as well in garment sewing, here is the glue well within the seam allowance. P1080936Here it is ironed down, so lovely and smooth, much better than pins.P1080940And here it is, sewn down. I love how accurate the stitches are, for some reason the Babylock just didn’t give me these kind of beautiful stitches. I know, no one sees them when I’m wearing the garment, but I know!P1080939Now that is a beautiful buttonhole.P1080952A feature I do miss from the Babylock is the special foot and stitch for sewing on buttons.  No worries, turns out that my standard zigzag stitch is the perfect width and by dropping the length to zero – I have the stitch I need. Right now I am using my embroidery foot to sew on the button. It is a little fiddly, but I will look and see if Brother has a low shank button foot – since their feet fit the Juki perfectly.  At any rate, it was still a lot quicker than sewing the buttons on by hand.P1080951I even sewed the buttonhole and button on the collar stand. Something I haven’t done in years, not that I ever button that one, but it does look more professional.P1080950P1080954I am very proud of how perfectly the fronts meet, practice does make perfect or at least as close as is necessary.P1080941Being the quilter that I am, I had to incorporate a different fabric, just for a little spice. On the sleeve placket as well as inside the cuff, if I roll up the cuff, it will be noticeable.P1080944Enough for a little peek-a-boo on the collar stand.P1080946This one is a winner, love everything about it, and with the new machine, my garment sewing mojo is back with a vengeance!

Leah