First of all, I want to share the quilts of Valor that Ruth, Irene and I made.
We worked off the same pattern Storm at Sea. You can see how color placement changes everything. This is one of those things I love so much about quilting. Our fabric choices and placement make all the difference.
My quilt.
Irene’s’ quilt, she is hiding behind the quilt, that is Ruth peaking out.
Ruth’s quilt. She worked with a design program (not EQ) and came up with this stunning version. So now, we are mailing them off and since there is always a waiting list for quilts for veterans, I’m sure they will find good homes very soon.
It’s springtime, which means spring break. So the cousins went to Griffith Park to ride the ponies.
Then there was the train ride, no pictures.
Shira does love being a big cousin.
Passover started this week, I was very busy cooking. Thursday night we went out to have our last meal with bread for the week.
Beer is liquid bread.
Any healthy eating habits go out the window on Passover. This is a must, Maztah with peanut butter and Israeli chocolate spread. When my kids were little, they took sandwhiches with this spread to school. These days it’s a once a year treat.
Eyal had a good time as well, he tried the matzah, what he really liked was the chopped liver.
I love knit fabric, especially one that is mostly rayon. And look at that print, those roses! This took two hours to make, I love my serger. The only thing I did on my sewing machine was sew the hems.
The sun is in her eyes, otherwise, I can assure you, very happy granddaughter. Look how her shoes match perfectly.
Who doesn’t love a dress that twirls?
Another shawl, although, sadly, despite all the work, it’s more like a scarf than a shawl, it does cover my shoulders, but not enough.
Knitting with two yarns takes longer than just one. The narrow bands are one skein that gradually changes color.
Interesting shaping, which is what attracted me in the first place.
I’ve already wound up another ball of yarn, even if my knitting has slowed down a lot, I have to have a project on hand.
Look at these bearded irises! After a few years, my irises have died, I think I need to get some more. I know, the blooms are short-lived, but they are so worth it.
Don’t know what this is, but boy do I love the bright orange.
California poppy is popping, especially at the 
I bought this fellow there years ago and it’s a large bush now.
They have garden tours, it was too busy today for that.
This is a great place for any kind of information about native plants.
$80 for this cactus, must be rare.
I came home with a few penstemons, they will have beautiful blue-purple flowers and should bloom for a few months. That is unusual with natives, most have a burst of flowers and then that’s it. If all goes well, next year I’ll add more natives to the garden, since my garden is a little sad these days. 
The the next day, I grabbed a friend and we went on the Pasadena Historical society home and garden tour. No photos allowed except from the curb. I understand that. Sometimes it’s about the experience without the photos. So here is an amazing Mid Century, it’s hard to see, but there is a glass bridge that connects the two sides of the house. Oh and the wife does a lot of mosaics!
A 1908 farm house. Today there is a small nursery in the back, all this on a rather busy street.
The McNally Mansion in Altadena is up for sale! Built in 1887 it was a rea treat. They still have gas chandeliers!
Although this view is from the curb and today is used as the front, this is actually the back of the house. The house just went on the market! It is a historical home, so it can’t be torn down, what a gem! Well worth the visit, which is why I love these tours.
The station was packed with people, some traveling and many others, like us, there to enjoy the music.
333 years is a long time, the balloons were decorating the station, both inside and out.
Oh look! There is a paper mache Bach!
Someone with a Bach bag.
No, I cannot explain this Vaccaro with his stuffed pheasant, all I can say is, they both enjoyed the concert.
No explanation for this tiger head either. It’s LA.
This gorgeous half dome is atop the Patsaouras Plaza in Union Station, a newer addition to the complex.
Kids from all over Los Angeles are learning music through the Harmony project and what great musicians they are.
After some music, we went for a walk, a huge limousine pulled up in front, not sure if they were there for Bach or not.
Past Chinatown to the new park at the old cornfield. Today it is Los Angeles State historic park. It needs to grow into itself, but it is lovely to have this park in a dense part of north Chinatown. People were enjoying the park and I had to get a picture of City Hall.
This time I even treated myself to banana cream pie, with real bananas. Then back through Union Station, where the finale concert was taking place in the old Ticket concourse. Down to the subway and home.
I sat down with a nice cup of tea and drooled, thinking of all the things I want to make. Then I put a pattern to good use.
I’ve been concerned that the light blue ring doesn’t really stand out. So, add some applique. I modified the pattern some, but just by removing some elements. This also gave me the chance to practice some more with my Appliquick tools. I am getting better!
There are so many new apartment buildings, Little Tokyo is hopping. This mural over a parking lot really grabbed me. I think I have a thing for birds these days. Not to mention that it looks like embroidery, cross stitch and all.
I think they prefer this cat in this neighborhood.
That looks like the Challenger, lets go take a closer look. Indeed it is a memorial to one of the astronauts. Although I was in Israel at the time, this disaster was very big news. We all heard about Christa Mcauliffe, the teacher from New Hampshire. 
The Japanese American community has not forgotten, I am grateful for that. We don’t hear much about this community because they overcame the indignation and horror of internment during WWII by president Roosevelt, and went on to build good meaningful lives. One of them was Elison S. Onizuka, I’m sorry he died when he did, I’m glad his community honors him.
Redbird is in the rectory of St. Vibiana. You can see the new apartment block in the background, the whole neighborhood is filling up with these. St. Vibiana is the original Cathedral in Los Angeles. Once the new Cathedral was built, there was nothing holy or consecrated about this building. It almost faced demolition and these days serves as an event center.
I wish we had more address signs like this. Beautiful.
A very upscale homemade smores, with marshmallow ice cream, decadent and amazing.
Yup, very very happy with my birthday.
Darlene Zimmerman created these templates. Two issue, One has to cut the pieces out by hand, some with a rotary cutter, but those small segments that make up the melons would are a hassle no matter what.
Then I went ahead and ordered the dies for the Accuquilt Go. I bought this exactly this purpose, to so why not get these dies and make my life easier. Another great thing about the dies, those little notches that mark the centers of the pieces, a real life saver.
I’m using modern and reproduction fabrics, the larger segments allows for more of the prints to be visible.
Having a design wall upstairs means more exercise for me. First attempt, don’t like the prints in the center, bring out the seam ripper.
Much better! It may be hard to see here, but I am using white on white prints which hopefully will add depth and texture. There is nothing modern about this except for some of the prints.
I’m trying to add some interest, can you see the ring that is made only out of the lighter fabrics? Probably not.
Now it’s easier to see, but once the quilt is finished, it won’t be that apparent. I’m leaving this one as is. I will probably add a few more light rings but will make the inner segments light as well. I’m having fun playing around.
I planted this Camelia years ago, now it’s full of blooms since I haven’t done much to my garden, I should probably get some more of these.
This hibiscus blooms year round, in the summer it’s white with larger flowers, this time of year the flowers are smaller and tinged with more pink.
A South African native, some sort of bottle brush.
Not all succulents offer up beautiful flowers, if you get close, even these cluster are very pretty.
The freesia bulbs come back every year. Should plant more.
Another South African native, the Gerbera Daisy.
When the focus on the camera doesn’t work, I was aiming for the flower, got the Pepper tree in focus instead. Btw, this tree is also a South African Native, since both climates are called Mediterranean, it’s no surprise that imports from there thrive here.
Second time a charm!
After the photo shoot, I went around cutting flowers to bring indoors.
My grandson loves ‘mingos’ so I’m noticing them more these days, especially ones that come in new colors. I hope that whoever developed the mold for these plastic birds is making a mint!
Aytan took this selfie,
As well as this one.
Shira is always in motion, which is why my pictures of her are a few months old.
Two little chefs.
A fireman.
Boys and their trucks.
Fun with grandparents.
Eating solid foods, he’s ok with the broccoli
Yes, this is what I call heaven, the only way to get him to sleep was rocking in my recliner.
First of all, I LOVE wool batting! The quilt moved smoothly, I did a lot of ruler work and didn’t have problems. I don’t remember why I took this picture with the seam ripper. I think it’s just to show scale because I didn’t rip things out.
In the close-ups, you can see a combination of ruler work and free motion quilting. My favorite, using both.
On the solid back is where you really see the two styles of quilting. I also had the pleasure of switching out thread color. 
I have mentioned that these are not my favorite colors, and yet, I am thrilled with the result. I think this quilt is stunning, I just need to figure out who will get it. Yes, this going to the gift pile. I can’t keep every quilt I make. I can already see the comments: pick me! pick me! We shall see.
I shared this quilt at one of my guilds. Someone came up to me with an interesting comment. A lot of people love to make tops and then they ‘quilt by check’ – give it to a longarmer to quilt. The cheapest option is an all over design. This woman said that she really appreciates how I matched the quilting to the design and therefore it really pops. I couldn’t agree more. All over quilting flattens a quilt, more on that later.
I like my style of designing a quilt, it sort of happens on the fly. I knew I wanted to use my Lemoyne Star ruler so I started making blocks with different stars. Then I chose a center, which ended up being paper pieced. Sometimes a quilt is a wall hanging, usually is it meant to be used. Therefore I don’t like them square, even if it is a medallion quilt, so I build in more borders horizontally in order to make a longer quilt.
I could have shared many close-ups, but I needed bore you.
Once again, a pieced back.
How cool is this with the light shining through?!
My next finish is the charity quilt, I finished this after my trip. I’m going to blame jet lag on some of my problems. But not all, I used a 80/20 cotton batting, it’s not as smooth as the wool. I had my usual problem with the ruler, going from right to left no problem, back in the other direction – a lot of breakages. I probably should have switched out the needle, it was the same one I used on the purple quilt. So at some point, I just kept moving the quilt back to the right.
The overall result is a great looking quilt. In this case, I have an all over pattern, you know the kind of thing that flattens out a quilt? The result here is perfect, it helps tie all these blocks together, nothing really stands out, which is a good thing. There is a purpose for everything, also, I’m not telling people what they should do, just pointing out things that I like.
The quilt is 42″ wide, so I was able to use one piece of fabric that I had picked up at the sew day. It brightens everything up even more.
Artsy shot.
Another finish! Remember I made one of the center blocks for this quilt? From this angle, I’m not sure which, but it is all finished and is available as the raffle quilt for 
Getting this behemoth into the apartment was tough. Luckily it did fit in the elevator, but doors were removed and hinges taken off. They aren’t moving anytime soon. They also had to rewire, since this is an industrial oven.
Making the starter. Sarah works with both sourdough starters or in this case – homemade yeast water. The yeast water was a few days old, bubbling away, from this stage until baked bread – it took 1.5 days.
She made the yeast water starter on Wednesday night. By Friday morning the dough itself was ready to be formed.
Each ball is rolled out, then twisted into this little braid, it’s not a challah, it’s much smaller.
Letting them rise some more, then they are dipped in water and poppy seeds.
She mentioned a German name, seeing that see grew up in Austria, I know it has the word Muhn in it, since that means poppyseed. These are not sweet at all, but oh so yummy.
Using the same dough and this finger trick, she also made Jerusalem bagel, which is covered on both sides with sesame seeds. Same dough, different taste because of the seeds.
This is true sourdough made from spelt. Yup, all kinds of interesting grains out there and each needs it’s own starter.
Obligatory images of the piles of vegetables at the open market.
As well as fruit, the citrus season is ending just as the strawberry season starts.
I know, it’s not food, but I did deliver the quilt, the parents are thrilled.
The baby couldn’t care less.