Busy being creative
Last March a friend gave me some lovely handspan yarn, I think it may have cashmere in it, is was soft and lovely. I knew I’d make a hat for Joel. We are having a cold spell here and if I didn’t knit it up asap, he may never wear it.
I think this is the natural wool color, undyed. I started this morning.
And finished this afternoon.
He has kept it on all afternoon.
Oh and my son in law, who crochets and quilts has taken up knitting as well – Yay!
Noah on his quilt, he is happy. And as you can see, he has a lot of growing to do before he outgrows it.
Just a quick slide show with a few of the images from this year.
Glue basting the quilt, went easily and quickly.
Simple quilting, shadowing the shapes and quilting straight lines. I’ve been experimenting with rulers. Like everything in life – it takes a lot of practice, I am getting better at this. Of course there is no reason for perfection.
Very pleased with this quilt, graphic, bright and colorful.
Here is an example of the straight lines, not bad.
Hand embroidered label. Also, since this is a baby quilt, it has been machine washed and dried. Who knows what will happen, it’s going to a baby after all. It needs to be easy to care for. Having been washed and dried, Mom needn’t worry about throwing this in the laundry.
And now, off to the post office and off to NY it goes, luckily all the holiday lines at the post office are over!
I’ve tried to capture the color, the quirkiness, the unique in Puerto Vallarta, mostly in the old town.
Even on the Malacon one can find color and texture.
Day of the Dead has become a very popular theme.
We didn’t eat here, now I’m sorry, the sign is just lovely, yes more Day of the Dead.
Speaking of signs.
Doors are also interesting, loving the octopi.
Interiors are very colorful, this being a very hot climate, many interiors are open to the street.
Loving the color scheme.
This is a color scheme I’ve been using more, orange and Turquoise.
There is a quilt in here, need to give it some thought.
Manmade color
Nature’s color
Glass mosaic
Paper mosaic
Dragon
Tropical Santa selling silver.
Puppets.
I didn’t realize how beautiful and intricate the Cathedral cupola is until I enlarged the photo.
I have a friend who’s baby was due in January, so of course I took my time. Surprise, surprise he showed up 6 weeks early and I hadn’t done more than choose some fabrics.
Yellows, blues, oranges, at least I started gathering the fabric but hadn’t really thought about a design.
With my library card I can download a few quilt and knitting magazines through Zinio. It’s fun to look through them. Although I’ll be honest, I’m something of a snob, inspiration is one thing, but I can find ‘better’ ideas for a quilt. Guess what, it’s what you do with the quilt that makes it special – not the inspiration source.
I saw this quilt Alpha Bits and Pieces, and thought perfect, I wasn’t interested in the alphabet border, but the fun scrappy look would be perfect for a baby boy.
It really pays to take pictures as I go along, not just for the blog. There is something about a picture that highlights ‘issues’ that I might ignore otherwise. I like scrappy, but this lacked any cohesiveness. So I eliminated some of these prints and narrowed down my fabric choices.
It wasn’t just the colors, clearly florals weren’t going to work here, this was going to be a more graphic quilt.
Here are all the fabrics, enough contrast to make some blocks pop. I am using the Inspiration quilt as a guide line, not as a perfect template.
Here is the finished top. Larger than a baby quilt, so Noah will be able to enjoy this for many years. I’m pleased with how the colors and intensity are spread across the quilt in a pleasing manner. Now on to the quilting. He might just get this around his projected birthday.
A group of Facebook friends decided to do a gift exchange. We are all crafty people, so this was going to be a lot of fun. Of course non of us have the patience to wait till Christmas, well I tried, but once everyone else started opening theirs, I couldn’t wait.
I chose to make Sara Lawson’s Kennedy Bag pattern is classic with a lot of detail.
I was careful in cutting the fabric so it would line up perfectly.
For the lining, these are the fabrics I chose. Actually, the lighter grey is in the pocket, so is hardly visible.
I used Soft and Stable, it worked beautifully, as I mentioned before, I wish I had used it on my Weekender. Which reminds me, I need to order more, just to have on hand when I want to make a bag.
Here it is finished, lovely size, large but not too big. Stands up nicely on it’s own because of the Soft and Stable, which didn’t add much weight. No, this isn’t stuffed with anything to make it stand.
Zippered pocket with little charm. There are also two slip-in pockets for a cell phone and glasses.
The recipient loves it of course! And here is what I got, or should I say, am getting.
Sorry this is so fuzzy, it’s a photo of a photo. My skerit Santa is going to spin up this gorgeous roving for me!!! I know how precious hand spun yarn is! And these colors fit me to a tee!
An ancient tradition that has survived as a performance in Mexico today. Dance of the Flyers. There are terra cotta examples of this dance from the Jalisco/Nayarit area from over 2000 years ago. LACMA has one but unfortunately do not have an image available.
What they do have is this late 17 c. painted screen, where one can clearly see how the ancient religious traditions are being incorporated into Spanish Mexican life as entertainment. And so it continues today
We were walking along the Malacon and chanced to look up to see this.
Two fellows up on top of this tall pole while another 4 men were drumming up interest down below.
Soon they climbed up as well.
Getting into position, one man in the middle and four on each side, attaching a sturdy rope to their waists.
And then they let go and slowly the large metal square started to rotate and the four men flew gracefully like birds.
This is not a rapid fall like a bungie jump. It appears that they wrap the rope around their legs to control the descent.
Arms out like birds
Almost to the ground!
And over they flip onto their feet and it’s done. Last time I was here (about 8 years ago) I do not remember this performance.
Unfortunately for me, I no longer give tours at LACMA so can’t share with the children that this ancient dance is alive and well today for any tourist to see. I’m glad it’s been revived. I can’t say anything about the authenticity of the costume, I think that is up to the descretion of the performers. Btw, this took place in the late afternoon, I have no idea if it is performed more than once a day.
One of the pleasures of Puerto Vallarta in the winter is seeing the Humpback whales that come down from Alaska to have their babies. Along the West Coast, one can watch the whales migrate back north from February on. The difference is, that when in Mexico, the whales are playing. They have nothing to eat, but they also have no predators, they are not focused on moving north as quickly as possible – so whale watching in Banderas Bay is very rewarding.
It took about an hour to get far enough out and we came upon a pod of whales, spouting away.
They would surface all around us. 
And then they dive back into the water, only to resurface at a new location.
This picture is pure luck, I aimed the camera and shot non stop. I ended up deleting more pictures than I saved. 
The size and the majesty is unbelievable.
The underside of the tail is the fluke, it is the signature of the whale, sort of like our fingerprints. Here a rather dark fluke.
And here, a very white one.
On our way back we came across a two whales, I love the city in the background.
I don’t know how the tails get so ragged, but I noticed this on a number of tails. This is early in the season, the whales are mating, they will return north, the females will gorge on Krill, storing up for the journey south to give birth. They won’t eat for months on end, all that while nursing their young and then leading them back to Alaska.
Clouds in LA are rare and they create amazing sunsets.
I looked out and it looked like the house across the street was on fire, It wasn’t, it was the reflection of the sunset, so I grabbed my camera and ran outside.
I didn’t retouch the photos at all, but I did use the ‘sunset’ setting on the camera.
I wasn’t the only one, many of my friends were posting pictures like this from all over the Los Angeles area. On the shortest day of the year – it ended in an explosion of light and color.
