No Idle hands here

Sunday hike, Baldwin Hills Stairs

I love LA, I love that no matter how much I explore I know I will never see it all. So here it is, a cool overcast Sunday morning, perfect day to tackle the Baldwin Hill Stairs. First of all, I didn’t know that this area is a one hundred year old state park.Being middle age or slightly above, never go on a hike without water or a walking stick. We saw people on the path who wished they had a walking stick, next picture will show you why.The Stairs were built sometime after 2000 using old recycled concrete. As you can see, the stairs go straight up, 500 ft. elevation and they are NOT even, or even matching. So yes, climbing steps that are 10.5″ high is easier with a walking stick. Joel rides his bike every week for 40 miles, he had no problem climbing these stairs. Me, it took me a little longer with more stops. We saw many people who use this as their outdoor stairmaster. Anytime I can snap a picture of downtown LA, I am going to do it. Yes, I have an affinity for downtown. On a clear day the view is spectacular. Can I just say, walking under a hazy cloud was easier than the blazing sun.I made it to the top. That is west LA and Century City behind me. Also, there is a wonderful plaque on the ground extolling the wonders of concrete.Looking in the other direction, the oil fields of Baldwin Hills. We have many oil rigs throughout the city, many are camouflaged, these are right out in the open and I love them! Concrete and oil, it built the southland. Beyond in the haze you can see the control tower of LAX as well as the spider shape of the Theme restaurant at the airport – also known as Encounter. The ocean is beyond, not visible today – this isn’t LA smog – this is simply early spring haze. Within an hour it all burned off.Looking down at the Balona creek, now an ugly concrete channel. The subject of how and why the rivers in LA came to be encased in concrete is worthy of a book. Actually someone probably wrote one. I of course took the picture because of the large graffiti with someone doing just that – riding his bike. The bike path goes all the way down to the ocean, 6 miles away.

To finish off the hike, we looked for a Taco joint, most of our hikes have been on the east side of town, where the best tacos can be found. Instead we found this food truck and yes, I finished off my fish tacos before thinking of taking a picture of them. Trust me, they were good.

Wedding Flowers

The wedding is fast approaching. My son Yishai is in charge of the ceremony and all religious aspects. His fiance Yochanan is in charge of colors, decorations and everything else. The colors he chose are: black, white, grey and green. Gotta honor the Irish side, not just the Jewish one.

His two adoptive dads have an amazing succulent garden, somehow they had to be used in the centerpieces. So we came up with the idea of planting succulents in large pots (happening now, so they will be well established by May). Meanwhile, I found the instructions for these wonderful fabric roses on Pinterest, (yay Pinterest). And we got to work.
The pots are earth tone. The succulents will provide the green, therefor we decided that the flowers will be black and white. Yoch and I belong to the LA Modern Quilt Guild which meets at Sew Modern
Of course that is where we bought most of the fabric. Then divided it between the two of us and started cutting and sewing the strips for the flowers.Today eight of us gathered together to assemble the flowers I had to run out to JoAnn’s to get 3 more glue guns, so glad I have their coupons! Yes, there were burnt fingers, that hot glue is deadly but I know no other way to get a fast assembly line going.

Yoch with a very successful finished flower – his first!Here is the whole gang of flower makers. Friends, family and funAfter 5 hours we had made close to 100 flowers. Here they are all bunched together in the sun for their group portrait.And here they are, lined up with the obligatory green.

I’m hoping to see my friends making more of these wonderful flowers for other occasions. We are all experts now.

Spring dress

Although we didn’t have winter this year, one way to note the change of seasons is to sew new clothes. I bought enough of this printed cotton lawn for a cute shirtwaist dress. Going through my patterns I decided to combine these two.Pattern on the left for skirt, pattern on the right for top. I wanted pleats, not gathering in the skirt. I had to lengthen the top down to the waist. I also knew I’d be inserting a side zipper.

I need to get better at this photography, move away from the tree, readjust the clothes better. But now I’m too lazy for a re-shoot, so here it is. the finished dress.The skirt called for two pockets, I put in one since there is a zipper on the left side.It has a lovely flow, the skirt swings.I lined the whole dress. The front panels needed self-lining because of the collar, I used plain white because I had it one had. I could have bound the armholes separately but I felt the skirt needed lining because it is simply too sheer, so might as well line the whole thing.

close up of buttons — Buttons anchor the placket, but no button holes.

Had these cute buttons that match the green in the print.I am loving the evenness of my machine stitches, as well as the clarity of this photograph.

All in all, a lovely new spring dress, I am having so much fun using the new machine. Many more projects on the way.

Botega Louis, feast for the eyes as well as for the sweet tooth

Botega Louis gifts ready to go — Gift wrap is a treat on it’s own

Botega Louis black and white — Black and White

Botega Louis small and sweet — Bite size

Botega Louis, bars — Wonderful in any shape

Botega Louis French macaroons — This time I went for the lemon

Fine Arts Building, downtown Los Angeles

Yesterday I was downtown with a friend. We weren’t in my regular stomping grounds, but I knew of a gem of a building that is a must see.

Fine Arts Building-Fascade 02 — Had to grab this image from the web, first of all, buildings around have changed, also, no way I could take this picture. I don’t think I’d be allowed in an office across the street to do so.

I forgot my good camera so my pictures are from my phone.

Exterior plaques, Fine Arts, DTLA — 811 7th st. Dtla, go see this

One thing I always tell people, when walking on the street, look up! Most of us don’t do that, so when coming across this building, most people don’t notice much.

Wonderful gargoyles Fine Arts dtla — The whole exterior has this wonderful character.

Enter the beautiful front doors, and WOW:

Lobby Fine Arts, dtla — All of this is Ernest Batchelder Tiles

Ceiling Fine Arts Lobby DTLA — Incredible workmanship. The tile and painted ceiling are amazing.

Look up at the ceiling, also amazing.

Elevator, Fine Arts DTLA — Gorgeous elevators

For more information about this gorgeous building.

The Fine Arts Building

All the tiles in this building were made by:

Ernest Batchelder

I am falling in love with California tiles. It makes perfect sense that in a city where homes were built from clay (adobe) there will be a wonderful ceramic tradition, and there is. Ernest Batchelder has his own unique style, namely – he didn’t glaze his tiles, they don’t shine, he would paint many of them, and seal them. Notice the ones on the floor by the elevator, color, but no shine.

Many private craftsmen homes have fireplace surrounds with his tiles, in downtown LA, we have amazing examples of his work. This building is one of his largest commercial installations. Unfortunately you can’t go up to the mezzanine level to look down, it is a fully functioning office building these days and yes, the tenants are paying for privacy.

Sunday morning

After a wonderful sleepover, what is better than homemade pancakes, they are meant to look like Mickey Mouse.

Time for crochet

If asked what I prefer knitting or crochet, my first response will be knitting. Then I have to qualify that answer – garments, socks, shawls are best knitted. Crochet is very different and is wonderful for fine lace, Kippahs and softies – or hug-able animals.

Sometimes I see a pattern and that is exactly what I want -no need to put my own stamp on it, such was the case with
Fatty Lumpkin

At my local JoAnn’s I found wonderful baby skeins of colorful acrylic yarn. Yes, for soft toys, acrylic is great . I followed the 24 page instruction booklet to a tee, no getting extra creative here.

African flower, a wonderful new take on the granny square

Kudos to Heidi Bear for designing this pony, I am always happy to pay for other peoples’ hard work. I wouldn’t have the patience to figure out how to put this together.

Stuff as you go, otherwise it just won't work — Stuff as you go, otherwise it just won’t work

The eyes aren’t the animal eyes you can buy and insert, they are simply black buttons.

I wasn’t sure where this little fellow was going to end up living. With friends having babies, there would always be a good home for this fellow. Those babies will get something else, this pony isn’t going anywhere.

Spring knitting

Every year in April we have an event called: Los Angeles Yarn Crawl. It is a creative way for yarn stores to get more business on one weekend. I will probably go this year because it is fun to hang out with friends in yarny places.

Last year I stayed home, I didn’t want to spend money on more yarn, of course I have no problem spending money on more fabric.

Instead, I went out to lunch with two knitting friends, one mentioned that her stash is way too big and that I should come over and ‘shop her stash’. It was a win-win. I got a lot of sweater quantity yarn, and she got more space in her closet.

Meanwhile another knitting friend shared a great bit of information, with my Los Angeles public library card I can download magazines from

Zinio online magazine reader

In Knitscene Spring 2014 I found this cute sweater.

And I immediately set to work.

I’m a monogamous knitter, one project at a time. Of course I am not a monogamous crafter, what with sewing, quilting and other things that catch my fancy.

I had to tack the collar down to the sweater, it just kept rolling up.

The buttons I found at the sewing/craft show in Pomona. I ‘happened’ to have the knitting with me so I knew they would work well.

Guess what I’ll be wearing tonight to my knitting group.

WeHo Stitch and Bitch at the Original Farmers market.

Tools of the trade

I’m slowly learning how this blog thing works. I know, there are many tweeks I can make on the blog, but right now I’m concentrating on content.

Content means good pictures, which means good equipment. Let’s start with the camera.

Panasonic DMC-FZ200 Otherwise sold under the Lumix name. — Panasonic DMC-FZ200
Otherwise sold under the Lumix name.

I have a small Canon, I have an iphone. I had a nice large camera that was so old (9 years) it only took a 2GB card. So before our trip to Peru I did a lot of online research and bought this camera. I’m not quite ready for changing lenses, I didn’t want a simple point and shoot. This one came recommended as a very good high end one lens camera. I’m still learning the ropes. One thing that was very important was a remote control, I want to get pictures of myself in my me-made clothes. So yeah, sometimes you’ll notice that little clicker in my hand. Give me time, I’ll get better at hiding it.

Next, background, I know they often distract from the object. I need a simple white box so off to Michael’s I went and came home with this.

Which can be set up like this:

Ok, I have a lot to learn, like I think my camera lens needs cleaning.

The quilt that ‘killed’ the sewing machine

Well, not really, I was improperly inserting my needles. Tightening the clamp too hard until the screw wore down to a point and wouldn’t hold the needle in place. But this quilt is what finally caused me to just go get another machine.

Here it is quilted finished and labeled. Ready to go to a baby boy. It’s nice that friends are having children and grandchildren.

I love tools of the trade, anything to make the project easier or more interesting. I discovered this wonderful Quick curve ruler and had to start playing.

As a quilter, I have a stash, a lot of fabric on hand. I was lucky to be given this wonderful car fabric, what better for a little boy, add some solids and we have a palate.

Jenny started a QAL (quilt along) with wonderful instructions and a

Flicker ModOlive Quiltalong group

Of course I joined, and off I went.

As I went along, I played with the color layout.

All well and good, until I got to the quilting part. The missing clamp for my Babylock is supposed to arrive at the end of March. Who can wait that long?? No idle hands here! I must be creative all the time. So I broke about 15 needles, struggled with a very difficult FMQ (free motion quilting) job, but I did it!

My backs are always pieced, another way to highlight the fabrics. In this case you can really see the quilting stitches as well. Despite the effort the result is beautiful.

Final step

Now I get to play with my embroidery threads. I found this cute image of a flower, easy to turn into embroidery. Of course name and date and even enough room for the parents to write the name and date of birth of the baby.

I love the quilt, but that was it, I couldn’t quilt with this machine as is and I have quite a few projects on the docket. Joel agreed, I am always working, I should have the right equipment. When I tested the Juki, it was amazing how easy and smooth the quilting was. Of course I was working on a small sample, but I have no doubt, even with larger quilts – I am going to love working on it.