Once a month at least 100 people come out to walk with Charles Fleming. He wrote the Secret Stairs book. Most of these walks are based on the book. Today was different, we walked around Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale.
This cemetery was built in 1905, one of the first to embrace the parklike environment. A place to celebrate life. In a dry area like this, fountains are a must.
Replicas of world-famous art is a big draw here. If you can’t travel the world, come here and see some very credible replicas.
Hmm, who is that peering over the wall?
A plaster mold was made out of the original and this one was also carved from Carerra marble. 
In the oldest part of the park, tall tombstones were used. But Eaton, the man who developed the open concept of cemeteries, decided to use plaques in the ground, so the overall feeling is open and expansive.
He even created two heart shaped plots – these were meant for babies and children. Interesting to look down the hill and see not only the heart but the busy commerce just beyond the fence on San Fernando Rd. 
A large European castle? No, the mausoleum. 
Here is Charles (in the white shirt) describing the ornate burial site of Aimee Semple Mcpherson. She of the Four Square Church fame, the first radio evangelist, and Show-woman for God.
I bet Hollywood would love to use some of these shots. It looks like a real castle.
It is easy to see which areas hold the newer graves. They tend to have flowers and in this case – flags. There are people visiting and tending to their loved ones. As time passes, even the loved ones end up in a graveyard – so in the older areas one doesn’t see people or flowers.
There are strict rules about how one can decorate gravesites for the holidays.
As well as this warning. Another man took the same picture, then admitted that his mother used to do just that. Steal flowers from another grave to put on her loved ones. She didn’t want to spend the money…. 
A Church or Chapel on the top of the hill.
Quiet and peaceful, but not open on a Sunday. There is also a large museum, I have visited it in the past and really should do so again.
An hour and a half, three and a half miles of walking up and down the hills. A lovely way to spend a Sunday morning. Then instead of tacos, we had some juicy burgers for lunch. A little break from our ‘after-walk’ tradition.
Leah
I redid the button bands and collar 3 times and I’m still not that happy. The sweater is fine, I was hoping for something that fits a little better. This is the problem with sweaters, you just don’t know until you are done.
It is meant to be worn like this, I don’t think I was supposed to put that top button there. But the neckline is way too big. When it’s cold there will be a massive shawl or scarf underneath.
The pockets are a nice design element, the sweater itself it a little too boxy. I didn’t like the instructions. I bought the pattern from Ravelry, the designer went to great detail, but it wasn’t written like most patterns. So I plugged along and knit away.
I’m down to knitting just one sweater a year. I have many left from years before. I don’t knit as much, so socks and shawls will be it for the rest of the cold season.
I know I’ll get good use out of this. I usually don’t like to knit pullovers, but I’m thinking it might be time to try again.
This is more purple and is a different pattern, but I do like variety. The fabric is delicious, warm and very cozy. 
I serged most of the dress, I used my sewing machine for the keyhole opening and to install the collar. Oh, and to hem the skirt and sleeves.
It’s a fun pattern, can be made into a shirt as well, which I am thinking of doing, maybe using two different colors.
Yes, knits are my friends.
This first sign caught my eye. Owls! I have no idea how a store like this survives, mostly cards, a few gifts and simple jewelry. I’m not in the business of figuring out the economics of these stores. I’m glad they exist, even if I’m not their best client.
This got me to take pictures of owls. This one was outside that store.
Even though the owl craze has died down, there were still plenty to be found.
Not that they enticed me to buy them, especially not Christmas Tree decorations. 
This was probably one of the nicest ones I saw, a picture on a matchbook.
This was the ugliest! But I did take his picture, even if I’d never let something like this into my house.
Better, I think I have one like this.
Even better!
Nope, not at that price, even not at half that price, since there was a sign saying this table is 50% off. I like the small one, but not gilded. I’m just not a gold girl.
Two sides of a sign. This is one of those antique malls, with many stalls. I love the creativity of the signs!
You didn’t expect me to leave empty-handed, did you? One display case had beautiful silver thimbles. I bought one, at a very good price.
I found one that fits my tiny fingers. Came home and sewed with it.
Not easy to see but there is a hallmark in there. I’m just thrilled to have another wonderful well-crafted tool in my sewing box.
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!
I thought I’d try to hand quilt around the applique. Yeah, right! It’s probably been 20 years since I’ve done hand quilting. I even went and bought a quilting hoop! No go! Within five minutes I realized that I couldn’t do it. Maybe I could do it on one block, but the quilt was heavy and unwieldy. Echoing the shapes on the machine worked out just fine.
I only used 26 of the hundred blocks on the front of the quilt. So most of the rest ended up on the back. Sure if I had bordered each block they might have stood out more, but this is why I don’t like samplers made of small blocks. There really is no place for the eye to rest.
Of course, the quilting has no relationship to the blocks on the back, which also means – no focal point.
But for the back of a quilt – this is impressive. It also makes the quilt much heavier – all those seams and thread. Since this is going to be my snuggle on the couch quilt – both sides will be visible.
The small blocks all got a lot of detailed quilting. The border bands got none, which means they stand out as real frames. I used wool batting which was wonderful to quilt with, really smooth. It does give the quilt more loft, definitely more than cotton.
I’m very pleased with the result. I shared this image on the Splendid Sampler Facebook page. Pat Sloan herself commented on it. She really liked how I made the project work for me. 
It’s not about having cookie cutter quilts, it’s about personalizing the project.
I embroidered a simple label, after all the work, I simply wasn’t up to making an elaborate label.
Look what I found at Candy’s Quilt Emporium. She carries a lot of Cuddle and fake fur. For my first try, I wanted something as simple as possible.
First let me say, there is fuzz with this fabric, but it wasn’t shedding all over the place.
Paula has a simple trick for making sure the muzzle stays stuffed. 
Here he is, all put together, now to stuff! I have to say, two years ago I made a hippo out of knit fabric. I had seen the sample at a booth at Quilt Con. I guess I should have used interfacing, the thing grew and was completely out of proportion. The knit backing on the Cuddle isn’t like that at all, there is some give, but in general, stuffing was easy and I ended up with a nice firm little bear.
Remember about a year and a half ago I made a flying bunny? That was 
Look at that face! As much as I love keeping many of my stuffed creations, this fellow will be gifted to a new baby. Therefore I couldn’t use beads or doll eyes. I embroidered both the eyes and the nose.
No sitting up here, but he sure is warm and cuddly. 
Yup, I put my name on him.
And the back view.
These two buildings are going through some renovation. Both are named for their developers – The Chapman Brothers, same ones that donated enough money to a small Christian college in Orange – so it was named after them.
The plaza was a first of it’s kind, all the stores face inward to a large parking lot. Good old LA, drive your car in, shop for groceries and then drive out again. The first Korean BBQ that attracted the general population of LA was here. Today the whole complex is restaurants and bars – and is very successful.
Across the street is Chapman Court, retail on the ground floor, apartments on the second. In some cases, the apartments were connected to a large studio – for a business or an artist studio. The tower was it’s own apartment, with tenants who only left a few years ago.
A local resident of Ktown walking by. The facade is made to look like stone, along with that heavy decoration – Churrigueresque.
The main arcade opened onto stores and went back to an open courtyard. The plasterwork is original, not sure about the paint, but it certainly fits in with the feel of the building.
Wonderful castiron design. The new style of Art Deco (or Moderne as it was called then) was all the rage. A new style doesn’t take over right away, many designers are still work in the old familiar styles.
Look at this metal work, so different from what we saw at the Wiltern.
An original storefront cut up into smaller rooms for Bank of America. Once again, even though they created drywall partitions, look at the care taken to cut around the column and the crown molding.
For almost 30 years the building was owned by one man, he lived in one of the apartments, where he paneled the whole place in wood. Although the library is full of law books it’s not clear he was a lawyer. Maybe he just chose law books, because they look good.
Another element that probably predated the paneling – an interior Juliet balcony.
The view from the tower apartment. This is iconic Los Angeles, palm trees as far as the eye can see.
Our first stop was at the Wiltern Theater. I have been there years ago, this is a gem worth visiting. Our day started with a panel, with Wayne Ratkovitz, The Developer who set out in the 1970’s to save many of our Architectural gems. This is one of his big saves. We also heard from a professor and City Councilmember David Ryu about how this area became Ktown. The LA riots, 25 years ago had a lot to do with bringing the community together. Up until then, the Korean community was another invisible hard-working group of immigrants. They suffered terrible losses during the riots, and I’m sure vowed – never again. It also made the community aware that they need to become American, part of our local fabric and they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Probably to the point that some older Koreans wish their kids were less American and more Korean.
Here is a great example of the success of both Ktown and the Wiltern, these aren’t homeless people, these are kids who camped out overnight to be first in line for a concert. These days most of the events at the Wiltern are aimed at a very young crowd. To my mind this is wonderful, it means that when these kids get older and discover that conservation is a good thing, their fond memories of the Wiltern will make them advocates for maintaining this beautiful building. 
This building is an example of the height of Art Deco in Los Angeles. Initially, the theater was a movie theater, with retail on both sides and offices in the tower. It never did well as a movie theater, there was competition from a much larger theater down the street. As a live performance location, it has fared much better.
The interior is amazing, so much plaster Art Deco elements all over. On the pillars, along the ceiling. Even on the ceiling.
Inside the theater is this wonderful sunburst. Most of these elements were in such bad shape when Wayne bought the building that they needed a lot of repair work. The sunburst used to have 9 rays, now it has 7.
Take a close look, each ray is a representation of an Art Deco skyscraper. This is how people imagined Wilshire Blvd would look like, except the depression happened and building stalled.
All of the light fixtures were gone, Wayne went searching and paid a lot of money to find this original and put it back in its rightful place.
Not easy to photograph a light in a dark room. Love the details on the frosted glass. Inside the theater are more lamps, some were bought back from antique shops, but that became very expensive so many are reproductions.
More examples of the wall decorations.
Tile was very important in the 1920’s-30’s. The whole exterior is different shades of Turquoise glazed terracotta. Inside we have a number of these drinking fountains.
The railings! That wonderful industrial aspect that Art Deco has!
Here it is, a fun colorful dress.
With pockets! Pockets are always good! these aren’t in the side seams, they are in the middle of the dress, very interesting construction.
I had a weekend of visiting Art shows so why not wear something artistic? Good thing I did, at the Brewery Artwalk I met Teresa who commented that the print looks like one made by 
Then I met Teale who also recognized the fabric. Others around the brewery simply commented on how they like the dress, even if they knew nothing about the fabric designer. I love getting those kinds of reactions.
I knit a sweater for Eyal, perfect color for the season.
It is probably a little big right now, that’s ok, he’ll grow.
Laying out the quilt, I like breaking the symmetry.
Here is the final top, you’ll notice that I have a section of the background in the gazelle block. I love that secondary design and it only showed up once, so I encroached on the gazelle.
Here is the result, nice clean ruler work, but what would happen when I go home and work on actual patchwork? Eyals’ quilt was the testing ground.
See how nice and straight the outline is? I’m showing the back here, because the quilting is invisible on the print fabric I used.
It wasn’t all ruler work, on the animals, I tried to highlight their shapes and then echo around them.
Using the quilting to emphasize the owls’ eyes.
On the dark brown chevrons, you can actually see the ruler work, on the green diamonds you can’t even see the quilting.
Finished! Well, except for a label that I need to embroider.
How cute is the back? I used up a lot of my animal prints, a whole forest back there.
I showed the quilt to the Dads and put Eyal on it, he is still small, it will be fun to take pictures of him on it periodically. Right now, I need to make a label, show it off at my guilds, and then give it to Eyal.