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Here it is! On the bed. Ok, I see that I could have made it one row wider. Well, I didn’t this is what it is.

It looks very good, but, it’s still too hot. as soon as I finished taking these pictures, I folded the quilt up. It will probably be another month before I sleep under this. I do have to say, I LOVE how this quilt came out.

I keep thinking that I should make a different wall quilt. Those owls have been there for 12 years. I could make a different wall quilt. Though, right now, I’m taking a break from quilting.

An artistic shot. I bet, the quilt will be in this position often. I’m not very good at actually making the bed…

And now, on to the label. I want to name this quilt in a way that reflects the period of pandemic and violent riots. To call it the Chinese Flu, or the beginning of civil war. Not so much. So I turned to poetry. Rudyard Kipling to be exact.

I’m going with cross-stitch. Go back to my post about Kipling, I didn’t mention the poem The Gods of the Copybook Headings. So I’m mentioning it here. Take the time to go read it. It speaks very clearly of the hubris of mankind, how modernity will often think that because of progress in the economic or industrial areas means that the the moral issues can go by the way side. It also means that we think that the ‘old’ maladies such as disease will no longer affect us.

I ended up finding a font I liked and literally hand drafting what I wanted. At least I had the company of a very good convention that ended with fireworks and beautiful songs. What we’ve all missed on the Fourth of July, fireworks, and live concerts.

I’ve been enjoying the cross-stitch, I am now looking at borders or some kind of image to add.

I should explain the title of the poem, since it is archaic. Back in the 19th c. and early 20th c. students would practice their handwriting. In doing so they would have copybooks, in which they would write a sentence over and over. Each page had a heading, hence the copybook headings. These were all basic, common sense saying. That two and two are four (today we are being told that that is not so). That all that glitters is not gold.

So I will end with the last stanza of this poem. Yes my quilt is bright and colorful, and yes, I recognize that once again, the Gods of the copybook headings are back to claim their due.

“As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man—
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:—
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return! “

Leah

We did the iconic thing one must do when visiting Big Bear Lake. We took a boat ride.

First, at the dock, we had to make way for ducklings. We did see ducks, but they steered clear of us.

Here is the boat, a paddle boat that made the trip all the way up from Florida. The paddle does turn as the boat moves, but it is not what is propelling the boat. Notice that white structure in the background? I thought it was some kind of pumping station.

I was wrong, it is actually a solar observatory. Not sure how much use it gets anymore. California is certainly a place where a lot of space exploration happens. See, if I hadn’t gone on the boat tour, I never would have known this.

Plenty of people enjoying this lake. It is a real pleasure seeing people out enjoying themselves. Especially these days.

Water, sun and sports.

From the water you can see how how huge some of the homes are. Btw, every single tour I’ve gone on anywhere, I’m told about the Hollywood people who own homes in that location. I don’t believe half of those stories. But here, it’s old Hollywood, Mel Blank, Ron Howard, Gene Autry. I believe this, back in the day, they’d come up here. These days to be honest, Big Bear has become a destination for many average people in CA. I think that is wonderful, but as we know, The Hollywood types might like to lecture us, but they don’t want to hang out with us.

Turns out, the moment you leave Los Angeles, you enter Trump country. I saw this when we went up to the central coast, I saw it here. Sure some will say, that is a very wealthy house, of course they support Trump. That may be, but I saw Trumps signs on average everyday homes. What I didn’t see, and to be honest, I hardly see in LA is Biden signs. Interesting time we are in.

Up here, the playgrounds are open!!! Enough torturing our children, they need the playgrounds, they need the company of other kids.

What a pleasure, just watching them play the way kids are supposed to.

Leah

I am so proud of my son and daughter in law. Both hard working go getters. One of things they are doing is getting into vacation rental. One of these days my DIL will also become a realtor, I have no doubt. so they are taking big risks, have borrowed a lot of money and bought a house in Big Bear.

Houses up here are selling within hours, so I am so grateful that they were lucky to get this home. Yes, it needs some work, which they are doing. It is in the Moonlight Ridge area of town, close to the slopes and even better, just a mile up the road from the quilt store!

Yes, I paid a visit to Bear Country Quilts, what a lovely shop. I know they offer a lot of workshops and getaways. So quilters, soon there will be a lovely option for a group to come and stay and be close to this shop!

The backyard back onto a very large empty lot. It is privately owned and has never been developed. Not saying that can’t happen, but right now, this is the view. The double chainlink fences were a dog run. The plan is to remove both of them, although, with the amount of work they have to do on the interior, that may wait.

I took a bunch of before pictures for them. It will be very exciting to share the after. The bones of this house are great, two bedrooms downstairs, with two bathrooms, and two bedrooms upstairs with one bathroom. One of the upstairs bedrooms is used as a game room right now, who knows what they will decide.

A very large kitchen. Yes, it could use some updating, but everything works here, and initially, it may be just the cabinets that get painted with new hardware.

Notice the wall next to the refrigerator?

Here it is, from both sides, well, it’s gone. The change is huge, it really opens up the space. One nice thing about this older house, is there is a lot of built in storage, but it also meant, small cut off rooms. Tearing this out might be a small detail but it makes a big difference.

The house came fully furnished, there will be upgrades, but for now, this saves them a lot of money. One of the big upgrades is tearing out all of that ugly brown carpet and putting down wood-like laminate. Also, as I type, workers are removing all of the popcorn ceilings, yes, there were traces of asbestos.

Standard stock bathrooms are getting a facelift as well. I am so impressed with my DIL, she understands that investing in the look and function of the place will bring in renters. Sure, there will be times when a large group of skiers just want beds. I know, from using AirBNB, that if a place looks updated and newer, I am more apt to rent that place over the standard, stock look.

Mandy knows how to achieve mountain look without this. The bedding is in the garbage, big buffalo checks and plaid will replace the ugly bears.

These oars might remain, the banisters aren’t up to code anymore and yes, this is a very good solution.

Very quickly they found workers, I’m praying that things go as smoothly as they can. Home renovations always have glitches. We will be having the boys here more often and once able, will probably go up there again, to entertain the kids while they work. And at the same time, to enjoy the beauty and relaxation that is Big Bear Lake.

Leah

All quilted and bound! I even figure out a use for the upstairs balcony. Perfect for displaying a huge 100″ x 100″ quilt.

I am so thrilled with the result. Yes, it was a lot of work and lot of time, but the end result is so worth the time and effort.

A friend mentioned that it looks like a lot went into this. Well, she is right. Although this is a scrappy quilt I really took a lot of time planning out each block. As for the final layout, there was planning there was well.

I tried to balance both the colors of the stars as well as the white backgrounds next to darker backgrounds. When sewing the background, a lot of thought was put into the placement of the circles. I wanted a pleasing balance between size and color of circles.

I quilted a simple pattern around the stars, leaving them nice and puffy. My borders ended up being too big, despite careful measurement. So I densely quilted the borders, that helped some. What also helped was that I had to fold over excess fabric and quilt ed it down. I have learned that I am not a machine. My work isn’t perfect, but then, no one will ever see the imperfections. Especially since this quilt will end up on my bed, when it’s finally cool enough to put a quilt back on the bed.

Here you can see one of those folder I did, there were plenty. Another way of controlling the wavy border is when putting on the binding, pull it tight. But not too tight. A very delicate balance.

I love getting this kind of image, the light shining through the back of the quilt, making it look like stained glass. Another art form I love.

I found the backing fabric online, I ordered the 108″ wide and still had to sew a strip on one side, that you can see here. So much easier than piecing a huge backing.

I mentioned the mishap on the back, where the fabric got too taut. I cut it open, and did a simply patch. When all was said and done, I used this one block to cover that all up. This is a perfect example of how hard I work on the blocks. Looking at this block next to others on the design wall, this simply felt too busy. Always good to find a good purpose for them.

The view from the back.

Artistic images, I will get more, I also am working on a label, that will be a whole other story. This quilt needs to reflect the time of pandemic, riots and massive changes that are happening all around. It brought me a lot of comfort to work on this, the name and label will reflect that.

Leah

A change of pace, away from Santa Monica to the southern tip of the city of Los Angeles. A study in contrasts. I wanted to visit the Point Fermin lighthouse. Yes, I’ve been to San Pedro before, but have always managed to miss the lighthouse. I have a thing for lighthouses.

There it is, peeking over the trees in a lovely little park. San Pedro is a very interesting place. Because it is right next to the port, it was annexed to LA over 100 years ago. It has it’s own vibe, as a working class city that is sort of lost in time.

At this point I’m not sharing the history of this lighthouse. Let’s just say I’m too lazy to do the research right now. It’s just beautiful, these days there is a light house at the end of the breakwater that goes into the marina. , I’m not even sure that one is in use, since the whole massive port is right behind it.

A few years ago I shared the story of the Banning House over in next-door Wilmington. There is a lot of history here. It is also such an interesting place. Unlike Santa Monica, yes, some people wore masks, but most didn’t. It’s true, the area wasn’t half as crowded. But just being outside near the ocean is a healthy place to be. People were really friendly, as we walked around the park, people waved, said hi, were just lovely charming people.

A seafaring, fisherman village, then having the biggest port on the west coast right here, there is a lot of maritime history. And of course, I love the arrested decay.

I also love these massive Maritime chains-cables. I’ve watched people make chains for jewelry, on a small delicate level. I wonder if that show, How it’s made (I watch 5 minute episodes on YouTube) has an episode about this?

There are all kind of homes here, yes, I picked out this lovely well kept sort of craftsman. And yes, I love the American Flag. I saw a lot of flags and patriotic messages on the homes here.

I’m so jealous of this veggie garden….

There was a gathering of the Old German car society. I love it when people have a niche hobby and are able to share it with other likeminded people.

A sense of humor is great!

We have the beach of course, most of the beaches are down long hillsides. But people go, because they want that water.

Right underneath the lighthouse are these rocks. I’m not sure how they got down there. But there they are fishing away.

Then of course there is the port, Unfortunately not very busy these days. But a true human accomplishment. In the foreground you can see the Marina with pleasure boats, and what you can’t see, is the breakwater that creates this marina, also creates a lovely sandy beach.

San Pedro has a lot going for it. Maybe the community likes being off the beaten track and forgotten. So, so different from The hustle and Bustle of Santa Monica is so many good ways.

Leah

A friend recently learned how to knit, jumped in at the deep end a got into lace quickly. Of course, things went wrong and there was a lot of frustration. But here’s the thing, I’ve been knitting on and off since I was five years old. And I will state that I have never had a project with no mistakes or mishaps. The mass production world has taught us that things can be perfect. They can’t.

First of all, I ordered yarn from Webs. Webs has a huge selection of yarn, unlike my local LYS which is much more limited. This is a fuzzy Alpaca, the color is basic mushroom. I was a little disappointed when it arrived. I normally like more of a pop than then. Oh well. And then I had downloaded a pattern. I don’t remember who I bought it from. Certainly not Ravelry, I was kicked off there a while ago, because people like me aren’t welcome on that site. So they will get zero money from me.

It didn’t go too well, the lace pattern has a lot of twisted stitches, something that is harder for me to do with my method of crazy knitting. So I went to my LYS and bought this yarn. It’s beautiful but… It is way too thin for a sweater. I tried, first with the original lace pattern.

That didn’t work at all.

So I started over with a different lace pattern. I do like the way the yarn is creating gradations of color. I think this is called kettle dyed. But… something was wrong, so I started over, going down a size and still, it simply didn’t feel like I was going to get anything that resembled a good fit. One of the huge problems in the knitting world, especially online, is that people learn how to knit, come up with something and then suddenly they are a designer. Most won’t use a technical editor and what looks pretty in their picture is one big hot mess. This was the case here. Back to the drawing board.

So I went to the tried and true. Ann Budd, a wonderful designer who has a number of books on basic knitting techniques. This is her book on Top-down sweaters. And yes, she even has a few patterns, which is great, because otherwise, it is simply formulas. I’m not in the mood of designing my own sweater right now.

Back to the original yarn. A very simple basic sweater in a very basic color. This should be good. I can see already that the number of stitches cast on at the neck line make sense. The other pattern was completely out of proportion.

I’m really enjoying the design along the increases of the raglan. The increases themselves are standard in the body of the work, between them are these two rows of twisted stitches. Oh, and they will continue down the side seams of the body.

Lesson learned, nothing creative just works, often I have to try, repeat and start over.

Another project, I found a silly book at the Dollar Tree, snarky cross stitch. This is the only pattern that appeals to me. But another mistake, I cut the fabric too small. I really haven’t been thinking lately.

Thats’ ok! As my grandson likes to say. I solved the problem, there is some cardboard backing there. I gave this to my son to who this really applies. What he’ll do with it, I have no idea.

I bought the Aida cloth at Joanns. Yuck, it was so hard to find the holes. I have a whole roll of this crap, but I’m thinking that I should look online and buy some quality fabric. The quality of the materials is directly connected to the end result. Who knows, I might simply bite the bullet and buy a kit from someone. I am going to need a long break from quilting. I have some small sewing projects, but I need more than just my knitting project.

Leah

We are having our August heatwaves, they will continue through September. October in SoCal is much hotter than May or June. I live in the valley, it over 100 degrees. Now I live in a corner of the valley that is slightly cooler, but not much. so what does one do when its’ so hot? Go to the beach.

Lets’ go to Santa Monica. I haven’t been here in years. I’m no fan of the communist republic of Santa Monica. I go to another beach where my son lives. But hey, change of scenery, lets go. For some reason they blocked the main entrance to the Pier, maybe to cut back on the crowds. That didn’t work, the whole area was packed.

Palisades Park used to be homeless central. Well, they’ve been moved out of here, away from this area but they congregate all over the rest of the city. Oh, I’m sure many have been dropped off in the Valley, my neighborhood is turning into a homeless shithole, literally, shit and garbage and tents everywhere. But hey, the city and State overlords want to empty the cities out of hard working people, problem is, the tax base is leaving.

No, The amusement park isn’t running. It’s sad to see it empty, meanwhile people are milling around and enjoying the cooler weather.

One of these days…. no I’m not going on any of these rides. But these are so essential and important to any city.

The old carousel is shuttered as well.

A lot of people are fishing, most, catch and release, like this little boy. He needed his dads’ help to remove the hook. The fish went sailing back into the water. I often wonder if the same stupid fish get caught over and over again.

Love this image, masses of fishermen on the pier, the blue ocean with crowds on the beach and in the water. The heat and haze are so heavy that the mountains are shrouded, and yet, this big fluffy white cloud. All the extra humidity going up into the sky.

My friend Teale Hathaway has been painting street lamps. She has requested images of lamps from all over. I need to send her this one. They got creative with the anti-pigeon, seagull apparatus. It works, the birds are everywhere but not on the street lights.

As you can see, the solar panel for this light isn’t bird proofed. The parking lot on the pier is empty, so one can get a good view of the fake palms.

You may think, thats’ not a lot of people. Maybe because at this moment I’m not seeing many bikes or skaters.

This is what we call a crowded beach. The beach is so wide, people can spread out, but they have all come for some respite from the heat.

Except these two, who came to get married.

Walking back towards town, Tongva Park, with its’ oddly shaped eggs that are also lookout points.

I always take pictures of mosaics. It’s a weakness of mine. Btw, the shops were full, people were buying and buying and eating in the restaurants where tables were set up outside. We even found a nice restaurant off the Third Street promenade. Third street wasn’t as busy as the pier. They only have chain stores there now and so many of them are shutting down. Our world is changing, no two ways about it.

You know me. I will always take pictures of old buildings.

Lovely Art Deco tower. Why have I never noticed the clock before???

Some very interesting new construction. I think this is an office building, where someone stuck a house on the roof. Doesn’t this look like a house that should be down on the ground with a yard and a picket fence?? Always happy to see modern creativity in construction.

Leah

This big of a project isn’t easy to quilt on a home sewing machine. But I’m determined to do it. There is something about the perfection of a well down Long-arm job, that is just that. It has taken quilting to levels that really, only an industrial machine can do.

Shoving 55″ of quilt into the harp space of 10″ takes a lot of work. Thank God I have my wonderful sewing machine, quilting table. This baby weighs a ton, and being able to have 90% of it resting on the table is the only way I can get the job done. The rest is on my lap, which can be a drag – literally. Here we have the center block out of 49 blocks. I don’t have big long passes with the quilting, but this one was the hardest. First of all, figuring out how I will quilt, second, just all the bulk all around.

By the time I took this picture I am much farther along with the quilting, much closer to the edge. This gives a good idea of how much of the quilt just gets piled up behind the machine.

Another view, letting the quilt fall on the floor. although when I am actually quilting, all of that bulk will be pushed up behind the machine, and some to the side on that side table.

Here I have the basic design. Quilt in the ditch around all of the colored pieces. Put a basic ribbon pattern in the larger background area, as well as create a full concentric square the joins the adjoining blocks. That is it. Enough of a design to flatten the background and make the flowers and cornerstones pop!

Can you see how huge this thing is??? From this distance it is a little hard to see that the center six blocks are quilted. I need to put this on the floor from time to time just to admire the work.

Better view, the flowers are popping. There is cohesion in the background, so even if the quilting isn’t very clear. The eye is seeing the same thing over and over, which is creating a pattern. Our brains need pattern to make sense of things.

From this angle as well, you can see the quilted vs. the unquieted.

And a closer look.

Out of 49 blocks, I only have 14 left along the edge. At this point the quilting is much easier, I make sure that the edge of the quilt is always under the harp. It’s been going fast now. One thing that I have learned is that when quilting, I cannot have long stretches. It’s got to be small contained areas. That way I’m not fighting with moving the quilt much. In this case, it is block by block, and the areas being quilted are small and manageable.

This time I took it outside for the picture. Yes, the driveway is dirty. I may end up vacuuming this beast. I think I’d break the washing machine trying to launder this.

Another angled view. I really love this! I am so pleased! Sure there are kinks and there are tight areas, but I’m the only one who will every be this close to every inch of the quilt. I think it’s stunning. Now that I am close to finished with the blocks, I have to start thinking about how to quilt the borders. There will be no outlining anything on the border. Those vines and circles will not pop, whatever I do it will be all over quilting. Stay tuned!

Leah

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared my grandkids, I’ve been blessed to see them weekly.

It was overcast and cold, so instead of the beach we went to the park. They have literally put a fence around the playground. I kid you not!! So next best thing, climbing trees!

I can’t believe how big these boys are getting! Well I should, their dad is very tall and their mom is as well. Their other grandpa and uncle are both huge, so they come by it naturally.

The next week we got back to the beach. For some reason they decided to drag around seaweed, or kelp. Kids will find all kinds of ways to entertain themselves.

This should be a poster.

The Jacuzzi is always fun and relaxing for Aytan and Shira.

I can’t believe he is almost 11! Finally, we can go back and have frozen yogurt!

Someone loves his grandmas tomatoes!

His sister has discovered the joys of kitchen toys.

Both love the jacuzzi!

Not my grandkids, I’m just very happy that our local park only put up yellow tape and it’s being ignored. Children need to play and interact. Lets’ just call this a miniature protest and the Governor and Mayor won’t be able to complain.

This lockdown shit has gone too far. The virus will find a way to spread, it’s what viruses do. Thank God it hasn’t really affected children. Meanwhile, our overlords have done a great job killing both old people and our economy. Way to go!

Leah

Millard Sheets in a native CA artist, born and raised in the early 20th century in Pomona, he had quite and extensive career both as a painter, designer of mosaics and a teacher at Scripps college as well at at Otis Design college, where he became the director.

In the 1950s Howard Ahmanson, owner of The Homes Savings banks commissioned Sheets to design mosaics and murals for these banks. Not just to be places of commerce but to celebrate CA and it’s history with public art.

Today these buildings are owned by Chase bank, unfortunately many are being torn down, while people try to figure out how to save the artwork. This one is a mile from my house in Studio City. I drive by here often, the other day I happened to be on foot and I took the time to take some pictures.

Give me a capitalist any day over anarchist Marxists who are hell bend on destroying our history and the art associated with it. By the way, Ahmanson was a huge collector and contributor to the arts. Just ask LACMA about what Ahmanson did for that institution. It is true, he ended up pulling back some promised gifts. But seeing how LACMA has deteriorated over the years, I’d say he made the right choice.

Luckily no Antifa follow me, so they won’t be aware of St. Juinpero Sera preaching to native children. I love that chicken the child is holding. Of course I love mosaics.

The cowboys and vaqueros are a very big part of California history, although the real cattle boom was over by the 1850s’ so no one remembers. Before that, during the Mexican period, rancheros raised a lot of cattle and made a fortune. Drought, that pestilence that afflicts California every few decades, put an end to the large cattle farms. Many a Southern California ranchero supplied beef to the hundreds of thousands of miners who came pouring in for the 1849 gold rush.

Next image is panning for gold. The gold fever wasn’t confined to northern CA, there was and still is plenty of gold in the San Gabriel as well as San Bernardino mountains. I know, here we have the iconic image of panning in a river. There was some of that going on in the mid 19th century. The gold in our mountains is much harder to extract. I have had the pleasure of visiting defunct gold mines in the San Gabriel mountains. Very hardy dedicated men who had to blast their way to the gold. No worries, it didn’t take long at all for nature to reclaim these mines. Once again, I love human ingenuity and the ability to extract gold and other minerals from the earth.

The final panel is another huge industry that shaped Los Angeles. The film industry, CBS studios, formerly Republic, formerly the Studio that Mack Sennet started in the valley is just down the street. As in less than half a mile away. This is another industry that is going through massive changes these past few years. The Pandemic is going to change it even more. So who knows, maybe this mosaic will simply end up being an historic record of Southern California, with few references to the present.

I love close up of mosaic work. I love how this was made to fit into the granite. I also can’t quite figure out if this is the signature of Sheets or one of the artists who worked closely with him on these monumental projects.

Creating definition, three dimensional objects as well as fire, all with mosaics. Most probably these are all glass tesserae, although some might be glazed terra-cotta. I don’t know.

Here is the chicken and some lovely flowers. I really like how many colors have to go into white, or grey. Mosaics are a wonderful thing.

So there you have it. I tell everyone who used to come on my tours, to take the time to look around their own neighborhoods and hometowns. There is creativity and beauty everywhere that man has settled. Its’ in our DNA to create stories and beauty. So go out there and find it, and then share with others.

Leah