It’s the new year and we are off to an adventure in Belize. Why here? Joel wanted to try some place new, we’ve been to Mexico, to Costa Rica. Belize offers both jungle and beach. We started in the mountains, at a Jungle Lodge. 
We were greeted by a Goddess and by Rosie. This is the way I see her every day. No work for her.
More garden statuary.
These fearsome Collared Aracaris get first choice at the fruit. 
Only later can other birds join in. 
A Kinkajou is tempted down most evenings with bananas. 
30 years ago this area was stripped bear for farming, but wasn’t doing too well. The DuPlooy Family bought the land and painstakingly brought back the jungle. Along with the lodge they have created the biggest ecological garden in the country. 
some of the flora in the garden.
Jungle and bridge.
Bamboo is not native to Central America, it thrives. Look at the tunnel it creates. 
The beach, and the cliff on the other side of the Macal river.
It is a little chillier here than expected, part of that is the horrible winter storm up north. Part of it is because it’s been cloudy with a dense canopy. Now to go out and explore.
Leah
You saw me wearing this, I didn’t see any reason to have a full post on yet another shirt.
Four of them together? Why not? You can see how different fabrics really change a shirt. 
Time to make another one, for Joel. I bought the chambray at the Pearl Soho outlet in Irvine. I wasn’t crazy about their fabric selection. Chambray is wonderful to wear but not that easy to sew with.
Here was a tip from the Craftsy class that I had not used on any of the other shirts, not even the silk one. This piece of embroidery thread gave me something to hang onto while topstitching. It really does work and I should do this even on a cotton shirt. You can see that the tip of the collar is a little rounded, that is how chambray behaves.
Unlike silk where one gets a very nice sharp point.
So far so good. I sewed this while Joel was up skiing at Mammoth. I used the large size, I measured the body of the shirt against a shirt he owns and it looked very similar. What I didn’t do was check the length of the sleeves…
When I measured them against the store-bought shirt – they were a good 3 inches too long. Uh-oh! So Joel got home, tried it on and those sleeves were too long. So I started out carefully unpicking the underarm and sleeve seams. You guessed, the seam ripper slipped and a big gash in the back of the shirt.
I don’t want to end on a sad note, so here are my new socks, after I wore them and before I washed them, a little dirty, as socks should be.
Another hat for Eyal, he outgrew the first one, that kid is growing very very fast.
Even with life’s little mishaps, always remember to celebrate the wonders.
I’m pretty sure this was one of the first apartment complexes to be built at the time. The paint fob and decoration is new and fun. I used to park in that garage, they built a supermarket right across the alley. Well the supermarket failed and now that space is all kinds of smaller shops, restaurants, coffee shops, a yoga studio. One has to drive a mile or two to get to a supermarket.
Very large apartment development is happening all over. This is a huge plot of land. I was very concerned that an old house would be torn down. I kept on meaning to take a picture of it, but forgot.
So you can imagine my delight when I saw that it was being saved and refurbished. You can see that large complex on the left. Someone is fixing this up beautifully.
I don’t know if it will be a private home or something else. But I love it when some of the old is maintained alongside the new.
It’s unusual to get this image, no cars on Lankershim?? Well, fewer cars, I managed to capture this between cars. El Portal was saved years ago and is an active theater.
Walking along the side I spotted this. I wonder if there used to be more and this is all that remains. As I walked along this street there was a guy leaning against the wall. Usually, I’d just walk by, but he smiled, so I smiled back and wished him a Merry Christmas, at that point, he smiled back broadly and wished me the same. One of the things I love about the season.
Another old building that isn’t going anywhere. It was a bank, with tile work made by the famous Gladding McBean company. Today it is the Federal Bar, a really nice bar and restaurant that also has a performing space upstairs.
Lankershim is one of those diagonal streets, so although it’s a little hard to see, the buildings were built accordingly. 
I met a cat, she rushed over for scritches, which I gave her of course. But that meant not a great picture.
I’ve already blogged about this station that is now a coffee shop. In the background is one of the tallest and oldest apartment buildings in the area. With all the building going on, I’m still hoping that most won’t be this tall.
Another example of old and new. I don’t think this building is that old, it just looks it. but behind it is a brand new building I had not seen before.
Its’ a three-star hotel! I’m not sure it’s open yet, the lobby area looked like they were still working on it. I notice it is advertised as being near Universal Studio. It is near the subway station, one station away is Universal Studios. A few blocks away there is a new Holiday Inn Express. So I guess the area is really becoming hip and desirable.
Right behind the hotel is the adorable coffee shop, one of the oldest buildings around, hopefully, it remains. Next door is a beautiful church, across the street is a large park, with a community center, a pool, and a library. All the things needed for a vibrant neighborhood.
We used to go visit my cousins, but these days with all the kids in town and five grandkids, I’ve been hosting the dinner. I had fun making the tabletopper, finding a new way to fold the napkins and making a fun centerpiece.
I brine and roast the turkey upside down, which is why the breasts aren’t crispy. But they certainly were moist and yummy.
Alongside some of the traditional foods, I have added roasted Jerusalem artichokes. This is a nutty flavored tuber that is perfect for a fall meal.
Then the family arrived, and the mayhem began. It’s wonderful having a house full of noise, joy and good cheer.
I set up the camera for a family photo-shoot. In order to be able to use the remote, the flash is disabled. Which meant the smallest motion became a blur.
It is easy to see that Cameron is a perpetual motion kind of kid.
We all had a wonderful evening as a family, that is what really matters.
There were plenty of people around, which was nice. There were performances and food. There was also a large vendor hall.
I love Navajo weaving, there were nice examples, but nothing exceptional.
It’s nice to see the kind of loom that is used. This style of weaving is called tapestry weaving, each color is worked individually.
Here we arrive at the present day cultural sharing. Yoda as a local shaman?
It was nice to see many vendors, I hope they grow and succeed. But the quality here was OK, I didn’t see great examples of pottery, or weaving. I didn’t even take pictures of the many jewelry booths. There were a few original jewelers. Most simply had the exact same rings, earrings, and necklaces. Are they being made locally? I don’t know, I do know that I have seen much better work in the tourist stores throughout Arizona.
Which leads me to believe that although this is marketed as Southern California’s largest Native American Arts Fair, it isn’t attracting the real talent. They must have much better places to sell their artwork. If this is a stepping stone for artists, the first stop on their way to much better locations. So be it. I just know that there are incredible native artists making unbelievable artwork. Nothing wrong with a two day fair that is open to other artists. Maybe being the biggest doesn’t mean being the best.
Ahh! People watching, loved this outfit!
It has been so long, I don’t remember if I have shared this image. So many people are posting their completed samplers. Each one I see reminds me why I don’t want to simply make a sampler out of 100 disparate blocks – the question is, have I achieved more cohesion this way?
Slow hand sewing, there is something very relaxing about this.
Am I getting any better at this needle-turn applique? I must be, even if it doesn’t feel like it. 
Then I have to remind myself, no one will be looking as closely at these blocks as I am. So stop stressing and enjoy the process.
Then the question becomes, am I overwhelming the smaller blocks with these large applique ones? Maybe, there will be more small ones on the front, although I think most of them will end up on the back of the quilt.
I do enjoy seeing real shapes emerge from blobs. 
Some of these blocks have very high contrast, others don’t.
My final decision for the top is to make two half squares of applique for the top and bottom and fill in the spaces with a few more of the sampler blocks. I will probably add a solid border all around and then I have to make some serious decisions about the quilting.
This is a very traditional guild. The modern quilts on view are actually from the Valley MQG. So I’ll be showing some of my favorites that clearly fall into the traditional category. I didn’t take down any of the names of the makers, sorry. Applique is certainly a big draw for me these days. From very traditional…
… to art quilts.
Here is a great example of how the quilting enhances the object. Sure this reads as a hand, but with the quilting, all the details of the hand are present as well.
This is lovely, not something I’d ever make, but something I can enjoy and appreciate.
This on the other hand, looks like something I’d like to adapt. It is called Baltimore Sea by Sherryl Zurek. At first glance, it’s a traditional Baltimore album quilt.
On closer inspection, most of the elements are from the sea, seahorses, turtles, and seashells.
An octopus!
I like the combination of piecing and applique.
I’m trying to pay more attention to the quilting itself.
Here is the ultimate in a traditional medallion quilt. Applique, piecing, very simple somber colors. I’m glad it won a ribbon.
Pineapples, very different from the pineapple block quilt I have been working on.
As are these roosters by Harriet Sartinsky.
The class was advertised with this sampler. I signed up and hoped for good instruction.
Jenny is a delightful teacher, very informative. Our first design, basic swirl, or squiggle. Now I know, working on a 15″ square of fabric isn’t hard, but she had good tips on how to get this design ‘right’.
A little bigger is a little better.
Two views of the meander, same piece, different angle, and lighting. There is a method to this, it isn’t random. This is a very traditional filler. During the class, Jenny spoke about how to handle a large quilt. That is the rub, that is where all the issues arise, on a large project. Well, I’ll have to try some of her suggestions and I need to realize that it’s going to be slow and hard, wrangling a large quilt. There is no magic solution.
The ever popular pebbles. A very tedious design that looks great. Jenny had some good tips, and yet…
…the best advice is doing be too ambitious with pebbles. Use them sparingly. They take up too much time, thread and effort.
This scallop pattern is great. Jenny calls it ‘charity quilt background’ because it looks complicated. It is relatively easy and is great to cover a whole charity quilt with. Most people who quilt charity quilts want it to look good but not be labor intensive. This fits the bill. It would also make a good background on selective areas of any quilt.
As you can see, we did each of the designs in the sampler, but we never put them all together in one project. The class was billed as an introduction class. Turns out all of us had some kind of experience, so we moved along quickly from one design to another.
So much so, we even got a quick feather tutorial. Now I’m quite good at feathers, I use them in most of my quilts. Experience is really a great teacher. And yet, Jenny had some good tips to share.
There was a professional photographer, so at some later date I will put up better pictures. I was really too busy to take many of my own.
Yesterday I was busy setting up whatever I could.
Early in the morning, I was busy getting the tables decorated and the food put out.
It would have been fine to only have 3 large bagel platters, but 10 packages of lox from Costco worked out just fine.
We actually had way too many sweets, I don’t think I’ve planned an event for close to 100 people before.
The Mohel (the one who performs the circumcision) absolutely loved this sign, he took it home and is planning on putting it up in his garage. Andy Schpall is amazing, this is our 4th grandson he has circumcised and he was chocking up a little. All the people, all the joy, all the love welcoming Eyal to the family and the Jewish community. 
We weren’t the only one who was trying to guess the name. This is was as good a guess as any.
I should have given her a marker, it’s very faint, but there is his name Eyal Noam. He is named after three strong women, two of whom are deceased, all had Ann in their name. I know, EN isn’t Ann, but in Hebrew, אן, is. Yoch chocked up as well as he said the name and explained the significance. 
A little goofing off.
Then the cousins helped out with opening the presents. What a wonderful day.
I only had about 8 rows left, I think the dark brown creates a nice border.
It is 100 degrees here now, no way am I putting on a wool shawl for photography. These days my dress form gets more use as a model than for sizing my clothes. Oh well, at least it’s getting used.
I like the border, a nice finishing touch. What we call a design element -really I meant to have it there all along.
Front view.
Side view.
Folded view, this is going into the gift pile. Someone lucky will receive it at Christmas time.
I continued work on the guild block. Apparently, I’m the only one working on a block, a number of people are working on the borders. There will be 4 central blocks, so I’m way ahead of the game.
Now, to add more layers.
I’ve gotten as far as I can get. Waiting for instructions on a central yellow yo-yo. I have the fabric, just waiting for an email with the size of yo-yo.