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I didn’t go to Road to CA this year, didn’t feel like driving 60 miles to be masked at a show. I heard it was small and nice. Maybe next year it will be bigger.

We had the grandkids this weekend, so it was easy to drive them home and go on a few more miles into Torrance to see the show.

In general

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, I’d say this was a small show with nice average quilts. Which is great, most quilters do this out of love, its’ nice to win ribbons, it’s even nicer to share your work with your fellow quilters. Not that this is humdrum, but for many in the quilt world, its’ just another Judy Neymeyer. Having made a smaller quilt of her design, this is impressive. I’m grateful it’s not the Hosta…

I enjoyed seeing traditional quilts with traditional colors.

Its’ not about breaking new ground, we are quilters, we are part of an old tradition. it’s lovely to see these quilts. You know they were made with love

I’ve never made a bargello quilt, this is a fun study in geometry. Great use of color!

Love this appliqué. Love the black/white/grey.

Wool applique, a combination of applique and embroidery. Not my thing, as you know, I am addicted to cross-stitch.

I do love how colorful this is! The market was small but fun, more pictures of what I bought soon. The best thing, I bought lunch and sat outside, at a table where people rotated in and out. This is what quilt shows are about, sitting and chatting with other quilters. To me that was the best part!

How cool is this tiny yoyo quilt, there were two of them. I think each yoyo is 1/4″ finished. They were deliberately put on top of another quilt to show how tiny they are!

And look at these labels, each about 12″ square, I’m sure they reuse them every show.

Next I’ll share close ups. All in all a great time. Meanwhile, while we were a small number of people not rubbing elbows, just a few miles away, 70.000 people were maskless in the Sofi Stadium for the Super Bowl. Release our children, get the masks off their faces! I can see the damage it is doing to my grandkids! And they aren’t alone.

Leah

Last Friday I started working on this SAL. I’m not seeing many posts, it looks like I’m the only one who has posted. Which means, I’m done with the SAL. Its’ supposed to be only worked on Fridays, I think I’ll do work on it when I want. This is the problem with online activities – there really is no real community. Once again, Thank God I started my own group that meets here at my home once a month.

I got this far and things weren’t feeling right. I thought this was similar to my Modern Folk Embroidery fabric. Well, it’s the same make and color, but this is 32 count, and one length of floss just doesn’t give the correct coverage. You can’t even see the white. The fox is way too pale.

I started over on the other edge of the fabric

, MUCH better!

Look how the white pops! This is what I want.

I’m slowly frogging the one strand side, can’t waste good linen! There will be a squirrel in this series and I may want to use the same linen for that guy. Fox for Shira, Squirrel for Aytan!

Leah

I don’t like the very short days of fall and winter. the days are getting longer, there was even time after school to go back down to the beach. Yes, the sun is low in the sky, but we’ve been having a heat wave. That is what happens, the midwest and east are buried under snow, we have the heat.

The brought shovels to dig a trench to the water. They need new shovels, the orange one survived, the green one broke.

They were thrilled each time the water came up high enough to flood the trench.

The waves washed up a sand crab shell.

There it is on the shovel.

Inside of shell.

Surfers were out, but not really catching waves.

This guy is out on a surf-hoverboard.

It has a keel, like a sail boat, also must have some kind of motor.

The advertisers were flying.

We also bought a box of Girl Scout Thin Mints. Turns out the mom is actually Wests’ teacher. She has been on maternity leave for a few months, so it took her a moment to recognize him. Also, Thin mints aren’t as good as I remember.

This weekend they came to stay with us – happy with the old fashioned lego!

Even Duplo still holds it’s charms.

A hot day, calls for cake and ice cream! Coming to our house means being spoiled!

Leah

Glued the names onto cardboard. Mine is pretty, Joels’ is legible.

Glued magnets on the back, they proved to be too weak, had to order more, the kind I find on the back of needle keepers, and now, I need to make some needle keepers out of buttons I own.

See, they are doing well even on a sweater. Oh, and at the synagogue some teenage girls came up, very impressed with my work, I should figure out how to teach them.

I have been working on Jacobs’ 2022 sew along. He finally put up a you tube explaining the sampler. It is an antique sampler from the northeastern province of Groningen. So the girl who made this is named Angeltje

, little angel.

Interesting, he talked about the two headed eagle that is one of the symbols of Groningen. I had a problem with that one, it is way to similar to the Nazi two headed eagle, not surprising, seeing that Germany is right next door. But I put it in. Jacob was taking about the two men with the large grapes. Of course I know it from the Bible, Joshua and Caleb go to spy on the land of Canaan in order to tell the Jews who have been in the dessert for 40 years about how amazing the land is.

Anyway, Jacob is concerned that people don’t want any Biblical references. This is my problem with the secular world today. A biblical reference (btw, so many samplers were completely religious) is a problem, and yet he is unaware of a symbol that is too close to the Nazis.

Speaking of the Nazis, who knew that today, everybody is a racist except Hitler?

I finished the crown and the vase on my own, I knew they’d be symmetrical. Jacob mentioned that the angel is a mirror image. So I flipped the chart. He did say the roses aren’t so they will wait. Also, continuing the border on my own.

I have to say, I’m enjoying the fact that this is not as intense as last year.

I fell in love with this fox and bought the pattern

, only paper, I have been able to get it into Markup RXP. Jan Hicks on her YouTube channel mentioned a Friday Sew along, so I jumped in! This is what I accomplished this past Friday.

I think it’s the same fabric I’m using for my Modern Folk Embroidery SAL.

Onto page two of Lady Hera. Coming along nicely. I am realizing that working on 2 or three projects is very nice, I don’t see myself having 40 WIPs (works in progress).

Leah

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A post shared by Samantha Blake (@sblakedesigns)

This is my designer, Samantha Blake, one of the pictures taken at my home from the photo shoot. About 7 months ago, I’m glad that she considers me one of the good clients. She should, I always paid on time, yes, I had some complaints, but that is why she got paid the big bucks – to take care of issues. All in all I enjoyed the remodel. I’m not in any hurry to do it again inside the house, although I’d like to redo the yard.

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Leah

I started a sock for myself, less stitches, this will probably go faster. Then I am with my knitting group this weekend, and one of the women has knit 25 pairs of socks in two months…. yeah, I’m a wimp

I walked to a different area than my normal nieghborhood walks. I admit to being very observant. Most of the poles that hold up street signs are very boring – this one looks very nice. Look at the green patina

, look at the finial.

Someone must have cleaned up the first one, this is old and rusty, and yet, still better than the plain poles most signs are on.

It is a glorious winter day, a lot of people out walking. A lizard has found the perfect spot to sun himself, on a concrete tortoise. I wasn’t the only one taking this picture.

Then, there are birds. I saw a woman walking with her Amazon Parrot, beautiful green bird. We spoke for a few minutes, but I didn’t take a picture. Sometimes it’s all about connecting with other people with out a picture.

A permanent Halloween decoration. I love owls, I prefer them with their muscles, and feathers.

So this is where they store him during the year! This house does incredible Halloween and Christmas decorations. Poor guy lost part of his arm. Also, I think it’s the angle that makes him look at tall as the chimney, he clearly is taller than the roof.

Same house, they don’t go all out for Valentines day, but this heart wreath is more than most people put up.

Look up! Look down

, here on the ground is an interesting plaque. I hope they are blessed indeed.

A lovely inviting front porch. No one sitting here right now. But further on during my walk I did see someone sitting out on their front porch – lovely!

Same house, fabulous Tree house. I know I’ve shared this before, but in the last days of winter, the branches are bare of leaves and you can really see how amazing this structure is!

Get out and take a walk!

Leah

Aytan has discovered what I already know, the window seat is very comfortable.

Elk and Mandy wee clearing out the garage, getting rid of things they don’t need anymore. Like this bike with training wheels. I grabbed it of course, Eyal is very excited! Paw Patrol and all. It came with the helmet, but he might need a different one.

We went to try it out, Einav still have the pushing kind. He has to learn how to push down and forward, which means work for his dads.

He is doing well for his first time.

I finished the socks!

Yes, they fit well.

Happy Joel!

I have enough yarn to make myself a pair, mine might be a fraternal set, not identical.

Another lovely walk on a winter day.

We came across a tar pit. one guy thought there is a leaking pipe. Nope this is 100% natural. Just a few miles north is Mentryville, the site of the first oil well in Southern Ca.

You can see the gases bubbling up. the black on the branches and the ground is tar – a good sign of oil. A stream ran by and the smell of tar was quite strong. The amazing things one sees while taking a hike in the mountains around LA.

Leah

Back in the summer I put out the word on FB that I’d be happy to host a cross- stitching group at my house. It has been a great success. We didn’t meet in December and after two long months, met again. A new member joined. We all agree this is one of the best things in our life. Four of us will be working on Jacob from Modern Folk Embroidery’s year long sew along. I’m working in black, Melanie in purple, don’t know what the other two chose yet, but it will be fun to follow our progress.

Work continues on Lady Hera

, a lot of work.

I’m almost done with page one. I switched two colors, a dark and lighter orange. Am I going to fix it? Nope, no one will be looking at the original picture, they will just see my work, and it is lovely.

Her face is pretty much done, those empty areas will be beads, something I will add at the end.

At some point I will be steaming this and then all the irregularities in the stitching will even out, will only do that when I am done.

first stages of the peacock. I’m not sure what is behind the peacock, a vase with some flowers? All I know is that I might do some more full coverage, but this may be it for me for Mirabilias.

We have found a new congregation, wonderful religious service, wonderful people. One member was wearing a name tag, great idea. So I am making some for us. Just waiting for some magnets to come. It is clear to me know, that mine might be prettier but Joels’ is much more legible.

I finished the first sock for Joel, once both are finished I’ll block them together.

I have had this Raggedy Ann doll pin for about 25 years. When the internet was young I joined a cloth doll group and we traded doll pins. I know I didn’t make something as cute as this. So I was the winner in that exchange.

January is really the best month for my roses.

Bringing them indoors and combining them with the leftovers from the supermarket flowers.

Leah

We get most of our spring flowers in late Jan -Feb.

Azaleas don’t do as well here as they do in the east or the northwest. So when they bloom, for the very short time they do, one must enjoy!

The bushes are smaller, the flowers are only around for a week or two.

The colors are lovely.

Same is true of the camellias.

Look at this beauty!

We do have Gazanias that do very well here.

And also come in very interesting colors. Here we have a great example of nature going for the complementary colors – yellow and purple.

although the flower is just pink purple, the inner section, which actually might be the real flower is yellow orange. Works every time!

Gorgeous day, 70s’ sunshine, beautiful. Despite the fact, that yes, LA has become a third world city. Much to our dictators’ surprise – doesn’t bother him that this has happened, it bothers him that the whole world knows.

Leah

Things have been slow and quiet. Got the omicron. Now I have natural immunity – and yet, in LA county all that matters is the number of vaccinations. Oh yes, I am vaxed. It was like having strep throat without a fever. My throat was very painful for a few days, and then slowly that went away. Joel had a lesser case. And then Joels’ birthday comes and the kids are scared to be around us – oh well.

At least, along with the rain, January brings out the flowers.

I have two Camellia bushes, both are blooming. This one has the flowers upright. The other has them hiding and pointing down.

They do make a nice floral arrangement with the roses. These roses are fine on the bush, they die quickly when brought inside. So for a day or two I have this pretty arrangement.

I mentioned Joels’ birthday. He asked for another pair of socks, I haven’t knit socks in years. So I went and bought some yarn and am knitting based on one I knit years ago, that is showing its age.

Went to my local LYS, The Altered stitch, yup, it is still the store that poops unicorns poop. A ton of hand dyed yarn, very little basics. I would have preferred a standard commercial sock yarn. They didn’t have any. So from the picture above, you can see, I bought two skeins. The light blue is Lornas Laces – it was on the de-stash table, I think they went out of business years ago. The other is a basic hand-dyed.

Andrea tried to upsell me at every turn. I get it, a small shop has to stay in business, but I wasn’t interested. btw, my friend Diane gave me some of these hand style hand dyed mini skeins, I have to figure out what to make. After the socks that is.

Some of the socks around the shop. At one point Andrea mentioned cables on socks and do I want to buy a pattern. No way to cables! And no, I will be making a basic vanilla sock – and no, I don’t need a pattern.

Andrea teaches a very good beginners sock class. As well as other classes. Not all the yarn is multi-colored – but it’s all hand dyed.

I started! Toe up, 72 stitches!

Birthday

, I went to get some cupcakes. Sorry, not a great picture, but Deja Vu cupcakes makes wonderful rich cupcakes.

The decor in the shop is adorable. They only make cupcakes, and they stay in business. God bless them, a small business that is surviving under all the stupid requirements of this city.

In the evening we went to a Peruvian restaurant, only customers inside, everything else was take out. I won’t name names, but no one asked for a vax card, when you are trying to survive – being the policeman for a city and health dept that really doesn’t care about our health – isn’t a job you want to take on. Leave that for the hipsters at the bars in Silverlake.

Leah