No Idle hands here

I can’t believe that Eyal is about to turn two. Where does the time go? He is also moving on from day care to Nursery School, yes there will be a component of day care as well. He will be napping there and needs to bring his own sleeping bag and pillow.

I had just gotten an email about this new pattern. I have enjoyed Melly’s patterns before, mostly toys. So why not, give it a try.

Since Eyal means mountain goat in Hebrew, I went looking for goat fabric. I found some!! It was the end of the bolt, but I was going to make it work!

One of the first things I did was make the ears. The pattern is ok, I think she is writing it for people who don’t really know how to sew that well.

There was a lot of appliqué, I used the buttonhole stitch on the sewing machine. One thing I didn’t understand from the picture and took me a while to realize is that the face is on the bottom of the bag, so when the bag is put together, the kids’ head is on the face.

It is a mummy style back, Eyal will need to crawl in. I decided to make that a little easier for him.

I left some of the side open and put a large button, it can either be closed or not.

I put his name on the back. I love how the ears peek over the top.

The name is appliquéd as well, I ironed on a tiny label with my name. I need to get larger labels. Last time I ordered I got ‘clothing labels’. oh well.

Hanging out.

I made a matching pillowcase. As you can see, I only had enough of the goat fabric left for them to run perpendicular to the pillow case. Hey, at least they are there.

Here is a better view of the side opening with pillow case. I think it will make it just so much easier to use. I like this better than a zipper.

Since I’ve been on an animal kick, it wa nice to showcase them together. The elephant stays here, even though I think all the grandkids would want him.

The pillow case functions as a bag for the sleeping bag. It will up to his dads to get him a pillow. I know his will be the best sleeping bag in the whole school. I rarely sell my work, but boy do I love having it out in the world with people I love.

Spending a few hours with my granddaughter doing those fun things together. We went to the Farmers market for Sushi

…and ice cream. Summer is here, we needed ice cream. I’m not sure anyway pays any attention to this travel angel. He’s got to be close to 30 years old. This is from back in the day when NYC had cows all over the place, so LA chose angels. There are fewer of them still around. The reason this guy looks so good is he is protected from the elements, and to be honest I don’t think most people even see him

She wanted a hot pink LA hat! She also wanted some books. We did go into the American Girl store, just to look. Even though she probably would love one of those dolls, she knows that it is waaaayy too pricey.

Yes, she thought the Grove is amazing! Was mesmerized by the fountain. This is her book bag. Since we were walking around a lot I told her to only bring one book. But we did buy a couple of books at Barnes and Noble, no she didn’t need a bag for them, she brought her own book bag.

One of the benefits of being a docent at LACMA for so long is that I have free parking. There isn’t much to see at LACMA these days, they are getting ready to tear down the old and build new. But in the park behind the museum is the Page Museum, they have expanded with all kinds of displays about the tar pits and what they are finding in them. No, we didn’t go there either. We were looking for this.

This installation is called Second home Serpentine Pavillion. It will be here for a couple of months. It is some sort of collaboration between a British group and a Spanish artist. I guess there will be events taking place here.

It’s made out of tubing, plastic, mylar, and a lot of what looks like rubber bands.

Here is the central ‘room’. Bright, colorful and very hot.

Shira had enough of me taking pictures at this point. Which is unusual, she is quite a ham when a camera is around.

The bands create an interesting affect.

Especially if you look down on the ground to see the reflections.

Now here a great image. Good model, mylar walls and wonderful reflections.

Selfie time!! We had a great time, I won’t be waiting for her next birthday to do something like this again.

This year the flowers just won’t stop, my roses keep pushing out more gorgeous blooms. Usually by now they are putting their efforts into just staying green.

This time I combined them with some succulents from the garden, who are also having a field day.

An iris I haven’t seen bloom in years popped up. I probably need to transplant these to an area with more sun. But even the shade won’t stop these this year.

Not my gladioli, but look at those deep intense colors!

They go perfectly with the hot red Cannas.

According to the calendar, we are deep into summer. Here in So Cal, it has still been quite pleasant. August and September are our very hot dry months. But the flowers don’t bloom by the temperature, I think it’s the length of the day that signals to them to bloom.

I think of Naked Ladies being here in the heat of summer. As you can see, these bright pink lily’s bloom on bare naked stalks. That leaf in the background is from another plant.

Usually these are like cacti flowers, so ethereal and delicate in the hot blazing sun.

They are showing up and blooming on time. I just so happens that as the east and the midwest swelter – we are still having temperatures in the 80’s. That changes next week, hello mid 90 degree weather.

I don’t know what this is, but it is very unique.

OMG! Look at this butterfly! especially the last picture where I actually captured all of him! I know, as bright as he is, he gets lost in the lantana. I am loving my camera so much. It allows me to get pretty sharp images of this guy.

Sorry, not a great picture, took it on my phone through glass. I did want to scare this fellow away, but I wanted the picture. This little hummingbird has become quite territorial. He sits out here all day and scares all the other humming birds away. So where I used to have four birds on the feeder, now it’s only this guy. I guess all creatures can become nasty given the chance. I’m calling this guy my little socialist, he didn’t provide the food, all he’s doing is hoarding and keeping all other hummingbirds away. I guess he feels that he has the right to control the distribution. Oh well, even nature isn’t fair. If he is still doing this next week, I’m naming him Bernie.

I glue basted the quilt, it might very well be that I will end up with some folds and kinks on the back, I don’t care. This will be pretty heavily quilted, it will be lovely.

I know, you can’t tell, but I did some basic walking foot quilting with monofilament. That is a good way to stabilize the quilt so I can move wherever I want along the surface. This is the first time I’ve stood back from the quilt and looked at it carefully. Yes, I had it up on my design wall when I finished the top. That was a long time ago, and the room the design wall is in doesn’t give me much distance. I love the design, I love how I placed the lighter and darker reds. Yes, there were many rip-outs as I went along. I didn’t have the whole design mapped out before hand. Just a general idea. As it grew I ripped out and changed fabrics. I’m sure I could have narrowed the selection down some more, but I do like the scrappy red feel

A shot from the back with the light shining through. You can see my basic grid with the monofilament. I love the shadowy look of the red.

It is very different quilting with a large table. I don’t have that heavy drag of a quilt falling over the edge and causing all that stress and pain in my shoulders.

Having the quilt on the table, all the same level, it’s heaven. I also love the acrylic insert that keeps the machine flush with it’ surroundings.

First of all, I quilted the compass rose with red thread. I tried to leave the lightest areas un-quilted – to give that wonderful dimension. I’m using wool batting which helps a lot with that affect. Then I drew a simple grid with my frixon pen. I want the orange peel pattern, which isn’t too hard to do – unless you have all the ins and outs of the star rays.

I’m doing some ruler work, I love the echo affect. Taking pictures really helps, made me notice that I forgot to quilt a certain area, so back under the machine! I’m quilting the red areas in red and the background in white. Yes, there are a lot of starts and stops. This isn’t about speed, it’s about enjoying the quilting process and having a quilt I adore.

I think I’ll be quilting most of the red before I decide how to fill the white.

It was fun to stop, put the quilt on the garden wall and take a picture of the progress.

I am loving this so much. I ended up doing some ruler work on the inner border of stars. I want to think carefully about the quilting designs as I move out to the edges.

In keeping with the red and white theme, the back is solid white. So it’s interesting to see the quilting on the back, both the red and white.

Ok, I got some birds nests in the back. Even though I’ve been bringing the bobbin thread to the front, I guess I missed it a few times. Also, I now see that I missed an in the ditch seam. No, I won’t be going back, unlike the orange peel background, this is really not noticeable.

And now for a break, while I make my grandson a sleeping bag for pre-school.

You know how much I enjoy the close ups on my camera. Even with the regular lens, I get great images. Like each individual owl on the totem pole.

From bottom, going up.

I’ve seen bears and eagles, it’s nice to see owls.

What sewer or quilter wouldn’t want to live on Bernina Dr?? I know, it’s a region and a tunnel in Switzerland, but really the only people who recognize that name are those of us who sew!

Huge pinecones. Not all the pines died in the beetle blight of a few years ago. There are some trees here that produce giant pine cones. I saw them all over town, it was nice to see them on a tree looking out of our balcony.

Dead tree stumps always fascinate me.

As well as the live bark that was peeling off this tree. The old bark is a red brown, the new tree underneath is bright green. It will probably darken as soon as the old bark falls off.

We stopped to see an old Fire Tower on Strawberry Hill. Although a sign said it is open from 9-5, I guess that didn’t include weekends. A lot of radio towers around. As well as a cute couple from Australia who took a very nice family photo of us.

After taking one son and his family to Mexico, we took another son and his family to Lake Arrowhead for a weekend. Yes, we need to take third son and his family somewhere soon.

I think it’s been over 20 years since I’ve been here, and it’s only 80 miles from home. A gem of a lake. This is our view from our rented house. First time we used VRBO, not a bad experience, although, the bedroom situation wasn’t quite what we expected. Luckily the two bedrooms there were connected worked fine for the kids.

We started out in the village where we promptly took a boat ride on the Arrowhead Queen. I learned that although the lake was started as a reservoir for the farmers in the San Bernardino Valley, a law suit ensured that didn’t happen. It became a playground for wealthy weekenders instead.

Enjoying the views and the breeze. Earthquake damage threatened the dam that holds in the water. Residents got together and bought the Lake which is now owned by Lake Arrowhead Association. So, it’s now privately owned, with rules on boating and fishing. They also found an engineer who helped save the dam, by building a smaller dam and creating a small lake on the other side of the original dam. The pressure from both sides stabilized the dam.

We had two very cute captains steering the boat. There were others, but since they aren’t related to me, I felt no need to take their pictures.

Carved bears and eagles are very common in mountain communities. It was fun to find this owl totem pole. If you look carefully you’ll see the photographer reflected back in the glass.

There were also photo opportunities with dinosaurs. The Village is cute, definitely touristy. We enjoyed an early dinner overlooking the lake. As well as a concert in the evening. There seems to be a circuit of cover bands that go from one community to the next giving free summer concerts.

The waterfront stores sell duck food. Not surprising that this mom and her chicks came by to eat. As did carp and trout.

Our unit had a large balcony with a swing, a jacuzzi, a fire pit where we roasted marshmallows as well as a Bbq.

I brought a 1000 piece puzzle, we finished it the first day. So the next day, another one was bought and also finished within one day. Even the boys got in on the puzzle work.

We bumped into a friend who took us out on his motor boat. The boys had another chance to drive a boat. Then we went for a walk along the lake. The whole lake front has one dock after another.

The blue tower was meant to be where the was intended to flow down to the Valley, it doesn’t get used. The lake is only fed by rain and snow, no rivers near here. So there were many years of drought, and the level dropped. The last few winters have been better. This last winter brought the kind of storms that raised the level by 6′ in a very short period of time. The lake is back to it’s original height.

I think this tree is surprised to find itself in the water. If the level stays high for a while, this tree won’t survive.

It was a great weekend getaway, we shouldn’t wait another 20 years to go back.

So my yoke sweater is coming along. This one has a very interesting construction.

In the past, I’d cast on at the neckline and knit the yoke down and then separate for the body and sleeves. In one case there were some short rows to make the back higher. This pattern starts with waste yarn below the yoke pattern. there is some short row work in the main body color and then the pattern starts.

What stranded knitting looks like from the back.

Another interesting element of this pattern is there are about 3 rows with three colors, not just two. This of course makes for a more interesting pattern and is well worth the effort.

I started this sweater on larger needles and yes, it was more than the gauge that the pattern called for, but I though it would simply make for a looser knit sweater. It felt huge, so ribbit, ribbit, out it came and I started over with the smaller needles. I’m very glad I did.

Another advantage of this method is that I can try on the yoke. My big concern was that the neckline would be too open. Another concern I now have is that the blue and yellow are too close in value. This is a problem when you buy your yarn online. The closest knitting store to me only carries hand dyed or bright many hued yarns. They don’t have basic solids. So I ordered online and it’s hard to judge how the yarns will look next to each other. It will be fine, but….

Yoke complete, it looks al little wonky now. But once the weight of the sweater pulls the yoke down and I block it, I’m sure it will be fine.

Next I removed the waste yarn, did the tedious job of picking up 25o stitches and am now knitting down. There is more pattern at the bottom of the sweater as well as the sleeve edges. Otherwise, I’m in a stage of just knitting the green. There is some shaping so that will keep me on my toes.

I am continuing to make hand appliqué blocks.

So far, only flowers, but since this is Baltimore album inspired, there will be baskets, maybe a ship, maybe people. I may combine larger and smaller blocks. All ideas I’m toying with.

I am working off a pattern for this block, but the placement of the elements is more freehand, so the block won’t be completely symmetrical.

Great news, I just signed up for a class at Road2CA, with Rosa Rojas Rienda. She developed the Appliquick method. I am really enjoying her tools. The class is a master Hawaiian class. We will design our own Hawaiian style block. Her sample is quite large, I am very interested to see how this goes. Working much larger, not on small pieces. Anyway, I have to wait for January for that. Something worth waiting for.

I don’t need to wait for a fancy cactus show, although those are a lot of fun. I put on the macro lens on may camera and went out for a walk.

The macro lens really captures a lot of the details that one normally overlooks.

Shades of grey and sharp spikes.

This close up, the spikes look deadly. To someone, they are.

All the dust and webs make their appearance. Look at the pattern created by the shades of green.

Yikes, look at that gravel, when I brought this home the box tipped over and the gravel settled everywhere. In my purse, all over the car seat and in the crevices of the plants. Since then I’ve hosed this guy off.

Storybook image of a cactus.

Pull back a little and just enjoy the textures.

Ahh, the prickly pear. Native to Mexico, it found it’s way to Israel where it is called the Sabra. Prickly on the outside, sweet on the inside, just like most Israelis.

These are sports, a freak of nature, the only way they can survive is being grafted onto a strong base. I’m seeing all these little babies, that is how you get more.

These were not growing in someone’s garden. They were outside a store on Ventura Blvd. I remember the first time I saw a red sport, I was amazed by the color. Someone is propagating these, you can find them everywhere. Grafted on simple cacti of course.

I love celebrating the 4th of July. I always put out a flag.

Not a lot of neighbors do, so I always appreciate seeing the patriotic decorations.

For the past 15 years we have celebrated the 4th with our friends from Operation Gratitude out at our Friends house.

Here we are, well some of us. There were other OpGrat women there, but it takes an effort to get everyone together. So I’m thrilled with this picture.

When it gets dark, there are always backyard fireworks. Some of the towns around LA sell fireworks. In this case, South Gate sells the fireworks and the money goes to the local boyscouts. Works for me, what can I say, the could of smoke over LA is so heavy – everyone is shooting off fireworks.

I had gone online to see how to photograph fireworks. I probably got way too much light, but hey, it will be at least a year before I have the chance again. Here are my best, and I don’t think they are too bad.

Capturing light is pretty amazing, most of these pictures are cropped down and I like what I see.

One shiny star!

This is just so cool! Capturing light really is amazing.

A rainfall of light.

Aaron would go to the little table, light the fireworks and then step back to this chair. It was by accident that I caught this image and yes, this is a crowed image.

I am taking more images with my macro lens. I’ll be sharing more of these pictures, because personally, I love them. This one just looks like nature has made this firework. It is a bush in my garden, a version of Bottlebrush. This close up makes it looks all different.

So what name do I give this quilt? Why Dapper Dan of course.

I have to relearn how to quilt FMQ,, since I’m not fighting with the quilt keeping it in place!

I had fun with the quilting. I tried to make a cohesive spiral behind the boy, it’s a little wonky, but fine for free hand. I did use my walking foot, which created the drop on the fabric, I do need to wash this, so it might just pucker up a little more.

Just the boy.

Close up of the head and the swirls in the background.

The legs and the more angular quilting on the bottom.

Boy and girl together. I’m not sure why the girl is slightly smaller. I like that behind her I have a diamond and behind the boy I have the spiral. I also rounded the corners on her quilt and left the corners on the boy quilt square.

Side by side. I am hoping that some friend either has a baby or a grand baby. I have no one in mind for these yet. I’m sure someone will claim these soon. I have to say, I feel the boy colors are much more vibrant, I wish I had used stronger colors for the girl. Live and learn.

Artistic shot that isn’t all that artistic.

I’m so glad I had these labels printed up at Spoonflower. I even left some room for a baby’s name.

So, did I love this project? No, I’m not sorry to have made these, but no, I won’t make anymore. I know, the irregularities are part of the design, but I like a little more accuracy. That is a lot of work to create what sort of looks like cross stitch. I know that some very happy baby will get these at some point.

I have my Red and White to quilt, but I’m going to wait a bit, like a few days. I want to think carefully about how I will quilt it. These two I sort of thought of the diamond and swirl and then just used filler, I think I want to plan out the red and white a little more.