An Afternoon of Bliss

My husband and I commute about 100 miles a day to work. Yeah, I knhow, I hate it, too. I live in a beautiful country town and for now, I am willing to pay the price in gasoline and seat-time, usually 2 hours and 15 minutes per day total. Normally Terry drops me off at work and drives to his job 3 miles away and hikes in to his office from the north-40 parking lot. My clock started the second I walked into my office. Terry comes and gets me 10 hours later and we go home. So by lunch time on Friday, I have done my 40 hours. So I decided that I wanted the car so I could run some errands. What a great day.

First, I drove a co-worker to the airport.

I braved the militant homeless guys in Point Loma and went to Staples to stock up on several items for a drafting class I have on Saturday. Compass, triangles, graph paper and a couple of other things. I found everything plus I found the lead and erasers for my favorite mechanical pencil.

Feeling emboldened by this score, I went over to Dixieline Lumber and found outdoor solar-powered malibu lights, regularly $36.00 each on clearance for $6.99. I scooped up 6 for our front sidewalk. I have been asking Terry to get some for months but, well, you probably have a similar story.

I want to replace the interior "builder's doors" on our house before we try to sell it. I found the perfect doors for $141 each. They are 2 panel with an eyebrow top panel solid wood, fir, I think. I almost fell over a plastic shower curtain for the guest bathroom. We had used the old one for damage control when we had the roof leak about a month ago. I have been meaning to order one online, who can remember a shower curtain if it is not in your bathroom?

I scooted over to Smart & Final and got some cleaning supplies. The back of the Trailblazer was full, so I had to stop shopping.

I still had 30 minutes until time to pick Terry up for work so I parked on the quaywall near the Star of India on San Diego Harbor. This is one of my favorite spots. All along the quaywall are these enormous pots containing pieces of artwork done as part of the San Diego Public Art Program. It is a great place to stroll or sit and watch the sailboats, ferries, and Navy ships go by.



Across the street is the San Diego County Administration building. It is a popular area for small weddings. I lucked out and got to see two small groups all dressed up for weddings under the copse of palms.



Yeah, it was a good afternoon.

Madison's Quilt

Isn't this a sweet panel. I just added some half-square triangles on the top and bottom. I tried quilting it with my DSM. It looked awful.... Oh, yeah, that's why I bought a longarm.

Hope

I have never looked forward to an Inauguration Day with such anticipation as this one. I think that President Obama will lead us through this time of change and healing. I have is hope. It has been a while since I looked to the future with anything other than dread. I am hopeful.

Guild Philanthropy Day

These guild get-togethers are done during the day and since I work, I usually cannot participate. Since today was the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, I was determined not to miss out on this day. The Philanthropy Dynamic Duo, Jean and Lee, lured us to the Fellowship Hall at the Penasquitos Lutheran Church with promises of making snowballs in our 80 degree weather.


Actually, Jean and Lee and several projects going at the same time. They had quilts in various states of completion. About 20 quilters showed up. Some were stitching snowballs, some were quilting and some were applying binding. We had a design board area for a Kaffe Fawcett snowballs, an ironing station set up with 2 or 3 ironing boards plus tables set up for each quilter. It was a well-organized event, Jean and Lee kept us all busy with various assignments but also made sure that we took breaks and got up and stretched.



We all brought something to add to a huge mixed salad. There were tomatoes, jicama, olives, carrots, radishes, chicken, celery, spinach, broccoli, onions, and several choices of salad dressing. It was fun to sit and get to know others in the guild.

We worked 9 AM - 3 PM. We gathered all the quilts and all the quilters for a photo at the end. Smiling faces were everywhere. It was great fun.

Danielle's First Quilt

For those of you who have not read my blog from the beginning, allow me to introduce you to Danielle. I first met Danielle when she was 15 and working at the CraZy 9 Patch, Ramona's premier quilt shop. Well, Ramona, CA is a small town, so the CraZy 9 Patch is our only quilt shop. Danielle was a rookie with everything fabric related. But she was anxious to learn and she is a quick study. She set about learning how to use a rotary cutter, how to piece quilts and how to apply borders correctly. Danielle is not the typical giggly teenage girl. She is mature, focused and has a positive attitude. She does quite well in school and was a member of the Ramona Water Polo Team. As busy as she was, she kept her grades up. Since she was a member of the staff at C9P, some of us forgot how old she really was and had to feed the Cus Jar when we used bad language around Danielle. Our idea, not hers.

Once a month, the C9P has a club day where veteran artists come for Embroidery Club in the morning and Applique Club in the afternoon. Danielle decided that she wanted to learn how to applique so she joined the club. She set about learning applique and has made two very complex quilts, My Sisters Dresses and Woodland Creatures Serenade. Did I mention that she was focused?

Well, a few weeks ago, she mentioned that she had some quilts that needed to be quilted. Since she is now a starving student in college, I volunteered to teach her how to longarm. We started with the basics. She has great hand-eye coordination, is strong enough to move my Gammill Optimum Plus and she is fearless. Alarms went off, thread breaks, she takes it all in stride. We did muslin practice pieces the first couple of lessons. She picked up the mechanics of longarm quilting as quickly like she learns everything else. I had her do loops in both directions aka Wax On Wax Off. She mastered precises square spirals immediately. From those lessons she worked on meandering a charity quilt.




Well, today was graduation day for Danielle. She quilted a Carpenter's Star. She designed the motif for the star points to be wavy lines, like water, in opposing directions. She used a loop design in the white areas. She continued the wavy, watery theme into the border in a square rhythm, 4 lines left-to-right then 5 lines up and down. It has a pleasing rhythm and style. I think she did great job.

So here is Danielle and her first longarm quilt.

Other Danielle posts:
Danielle's T-Shirt Quilt
Her Bright Pink Quilt
Danielle's Dresses