Of Endeavour and Paris Snapshots

 Probably I should have uploaded these pictures in reverse order, since the Parisian ones predate the space shuttle shots--but oh well. Please bear with me.

I returned from Paris on Saturday night, and on Monday night my brother arrived in town for a very brief stopover. He likes to drive out (from Mass.), spend some time in Arizona with his kids, come to visit me, and then head back home, generally stopping either in Vegas or Denver to visit with my daughters and their families.

 This time wasn't much different. We like to do one kind of "touristy" thing whenever he gets out here, and this time he wanted to see the space shuttle Endeavour, recently arrived in L.A. where they are building her a magnificent new home. Meantime, she's housed in a giant hangar at the ScienCenter (their spelling, ugh) as part of the Exposition Park/LA Coliseum complex.

The floating space balls are in the rotunda of the building. The magenta color is due to the magenta skylight at the top of the structure. Lots more pics on my Flickr page if you're interested in seeing more of the rotunda, or a space potty, or some planes, or maybe a few closeups of the shuttle. She's still covered in space dust. Pretty awesome, and it's amazing to me the sheer size of the thing. I mean, I've seen the pictures of her stately progress from the airport to her new home, but dang, that thing is BIG.

One thing that really disappointed my brother is that you can't go inside/see inside. There are lots of displays with scale models and pictures, but I think he would have liked to see the real thing.

Then last night we had dinner with The Daughters and their families, which was about as raucous as y ou can imagine with 4 kids 7 and under! Fortunately, Islands in West Covina has a nice outdoor patio with a fence all around it, and it was cool enough and breezy enough (and maybe totally noisy enough) to discourage anyone else from joining us out there. They did turn on the heaters and it was just right, warm enough but not so hot that we felt cooked!

Now my brother's on his way home, with his little SUV loaded with goodies for the Denver and Conn. branches of the clan. I had him almost talked into taking the blue recliner home with him, but he'd have had to lash it to the roof and that was just too much hassle.

So just a few pics from France--if you want to see the 1600+ that I took, you can go to Flickr. Most every day has its own set, except for the days when we were in St-Remy-de-Provence and were limited to the lobby computer for wifi access. I asked the girl at the desk if she could reboot their server, but she only knew to reboot her computer. Which did nothing. Oh well, a couple of days in, and "someone" figured out how to fix the problem! Minor glitch really! I think this whole wired world has sorta spoiled me, but really all our hotels had great rooms and great access.

Not that a lot of time was spent in the rooms! One thing about traveling with Jeanne is that  she plans lots and lots of things to do every day. Of course one can choose to opt out of something that might be too strenuous or even dangerous, but for the most part the pace, while brisk, was eminently doable even for someone like me with some mobility issues.

Our hotel in Paris, the Muguet, is just a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower, and from our room we had a lovely view of the gilded dome of Les Invalides. That meant that we could take a short walk in the evening to see the tower light itself up and sparkle for a few minutes. Quite impressive. Of course the whole edifice is impressive. There are lots of details that don't always show up until you get close, like the names along the frieze that runs around the first story. I assume that they are scientists, but I don't really know, and should make a point of finding out.

This was as close as I got to the Louvre this year. The crowds in the forecourt were truly awesome in numbers, and this is outside of normal tourist season. However, it was Fashion Week in Paris and there were lots of venues set up all over, so perhaps some of that was overflow. I think one of these years I will plan a quick visit to Paris in the dead of winter so I can tour the Louvre with fewer other folks. We'll see how that works out!

Meantime, still working on plans for the purchase of a new place to live and the sale of the old one--I came home to a broken water heater and an inch or so of water in the basement! Not a good situation when one is tired and smelly from traveling! I also seem to have a bit of a cold, sigh. However, I'm feeling cautiously optimistic that things will proceed well and all these problems will be resolved.

Just a cockeyed optimist!

Bonjour from France!

Just a quick post from a very tired and rather footsore me! I was hoping to do a better job of blogging on this trip, but alas there isn't always available wifi. So here's a bit of eye candy for today and I'll see about doing a better job!


Sunset in St-Remy.


Tiramisu at da Peppe's.


Fabric printing at Les Olivades. This is a Schumacher fabric.


Have a little fabric?


- printing process. Totally fascinating.

Lots more photos on Flickr! Au revoir for now...

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:St-Remy de Provence

Getting Out of the House

 Today was the first Open House since the house was listed for sale. Since the worst thing to have at an open house is the owner, I decided to take myself out for a while.

Warning: there is no quilting or knitting content. The closest thing is the poster over there <-- a="" for="" href="http://huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary_02.aspx?id=11540" target="_blank" the="">needlework exhibit
I wanted to see. Sadly, they did not allow photography in the exhibit, so I can't share the wonderments with you.
I've always had a particular love for old schoolgirl samplers. At one point I had a pretty good collection of Scarlet Letter kits for making reproductions, and fully intended to work them. Well, we know how that goes.

It was a great experience to view this exhibit today. Not only was it a cool and pleasant oasis on a particularly steamy day, I was apparently the only person who wanted to see it. I had the whole (small) room to myself. Well, except for the guard, who looked pretty bored but might have gotten unhappy if I'd taken my camera out. Only a few samplers, but really nice ones, and I was able to get right up to the glass on their frames to examine the stitching. Extremely fine work, mostly silk on linen, and not a nice evenweave linen of the kind we can get nowadays.

 Of course I did some more wandering around the gallery. There's a north wall with a sheer expanse of windows and some bronze sculptures displayed in front of them.

This one's a Remington, and even though it's smaller than many I've seen, it's got that wonderful energy and movement that comes to life while you gaze at it.

This one's  quite a bit more modern. To me it looks like a tree, almost an echo of the large trees visible outside the window.

I could have read the  little information card, but I decided I liked my own interpretation of it.

Every so often I get in this mood: don't confuse me with facts, my mind is made up. Luckily it's usually about something relatively unimportant, like whether this is meant to be a tree or if it has some deeper, more existential meaning. 

 Antelope and Hound. Graceful figures and again, I don't really want to know if they are hunter and hunted. I like to think that they are kindred spirits, gamboling and playing.

Doing my best ostrich imitation.

There are a couple of paintings in the wing of the gallery that seem to echo this same pairing of hound and antelope, dog and deer. Maybe a little research for another day.

This piece is called Benediction. I think I take pictures of her every time I'm in this gallery. I realized, after I'd snapped this one, that she's a favorite of mine.

By the way, these photos were all taken at the Virginia Steele Scott Gallery at The Huntington. 

Their newest exhibit examines the legacy and history of the mission era in California history. Included with the maps, artifacts, photos and displays, are some contemporary pieces and some "rewriting" of the old idyllic visions of the time. Built around the iconic form of Junipero Serra, the exhibit examines the man and his works and legacies. I will probably go back to see this again, as there was much food for thought in the presentation.

I should add that a lot of it feels very personal to me, since I've had a San Gabriel mailing address for most of my years in California. The San Gabriel Mission has been our parish church, it's where my children were baptized and confirmed and some of them even married there. The old Mission Playhouse was the first job for most of them, too. It's been over 50 years for me, living here, and I am fascinated by the history of this place.

 The Scott Gallery has a nice wing of A&C furnishings, including this dining room ensemble by Frank Lloyd Wright.

There's an entire room dedicated to the Gamble House. I was reminded once again that I need to pay another visit to that spectacular place.

So many wonderments, so little time to see and experience them all!

 Stained glass window in a very art-nouveau style. I can see this as a quilt.

Reminds me that I have a FLW window quilt in progress in one of those tubs that's either in the garage or in the storage unit. I need to get it out and finish it.

I did finish one piece that I had started in that Asilomar class so many years ago--in fact, I finished it in about 3 days of the session, and then started the more ambitious piece. I'm thinking that might become a blog post all its own, once I get settled in and can start quilting again!

 It's been one of those days--well, weeks really--when we have lots of clouds and the humidity ratchets up to east-coast levels.

But they do make for a pretty sky.

This is the view looking south from the portico of the Scott gallery. On a clear day, you could probably see Catalina from here. Back in the days when the Huntingtons lived here, they had a view to the south of rolling hills and a lake.

The lake has long since disappeared, but there are traces of it if you know where to look. It's how Lake Avenue got its name (Lake Ave. is the premier shopping section of Pasadena, home of posh shops and proper ladies back in the day). The old lake bed is now Lacy Park, in San Marino.

 After I took the picture above, I turned around and this is the view looking north from the same spot.

Diana the huntress--and her hound.  Hmmm, there were a few hounds in today's visit.

The last couple of pictures were both taken facing north toward the mountains, though the greenery hides them. One of my firends commented on Facebook today that the sky was showing every possible variation of cloud--and I believe her.

The only thing we didn't have was rain clouds...

The Pinwheels Are Packed Up

Prize package!  from the Ho Ho Ho Hop

 ... as are most of the things in my house!

Deciding to move was not as spontaneous a decision as it may have seemed at first, really. It's something that's been in "the plan" for a long time.

However, it did kind of all hinge on finding the right place to move to, so when I was pretty sure I'd found the "right place" it made sense to jump on it!
But getting this house ready to show has been a hugkie endeavor.

Well, it is a huge house. Luckily for me, I have some very energetic and dedicated daughters, who have not stinted in providing backbone and muscle-power too! Not to mention the sons-in-law  who've assisted with the schlepping and the shoving and taken over kid duties and all kinds of other things to let this happen. I am truly blessed with a most amazing family. Even the long distance people have helped in many ways.

 Now it's done and the house is listed. Photos taken tomorrow for ads and the broker's office will caravan on Wed. First Open House next weekend.

So it's quite unreal to be living in this showplace!

 Let's look at a couple of quilts, shall we? Just because my machines are packed up and stored in the garage, there are other people who can still sew, and do! These are all Anne's--we had talked about making Log Cabin quilts, and while mine is still languishing, she's finished two tops!

Anne's Second Log Cabin

Anne's first Log Cabin

Anne's Thanksgiving Quilt

The Thanksgiving quilt is going to hang in the dining room at her community. It's going to be smashing--I do love that panel with the saltbox houses. Reminds me of Deerfield and other towns back East.

Just a few peeks at the house if you're interested.

Lots more pictures on Flickr, including some before and during shots that seriously look as if they came from Hoarders.

 Why of course I'm not a hoarder.

Much.

 This is my "Harry Potter" closet under the stairs. It really would be big enough to stash a bed and a couple of other pieces in, should I happen to have a little boy I wanted to hide.

Or one who wanted to hide from me.

This has generally been pretty full and is one of Shyla's favorite hidey-holes.

Well, it was till we took all her boxes and hiding spots away.

One thing that's missing from all these pictures is my cats. They've had to go to "summer camp" to get away from all the fuss around here. The theory is that the house will show better without cat boxes and cat accoutrements all over the place, not to mention cat barf surprises and floating cat hair.

 I agree. But I still miss my babies!

Oh well. I have to admit the house looks terrific.

All that work is about to pay off, or at least we hope so!

Anybody want to buy a big old house?

G's Sweater

My bedroom. Breezes blowing and soft light.

But no cats.

So, there shall be knitting, because it's easy to hide at a minute's notice and portable.

Besides, I have a couple of UFOs that could use some work, so might as well do that.

Oh, and reading.  That doesn't make a mess either!

A Different Kind of Progress

Feral rosebushes--before

 Getting my house and  yard ready to sell is a daunting proposition for me. After 41 years here, things have gotten pretty, shall we say, comfortable where they are?

Yes, we did a major renovation 5 years ago. That's part of the problem--it was 5 years ago!

However, the house has now been washed down, so it looks all clean and neat again. The trim that was peeling and chipping (reno contractor did a job that can only be described as sloppy) has been redone.

Rosebushes, tamed

The yard is being tidied up. Case in point, my beautiful but untamed rosebushes. Yes, they do look scalped. That's because they are.

But  it's a good kind of pruning, and they are already (three days later) showing signs of rebounding. In fact, the biggest rosebush has dozens of new sprouts!

 So it's all good. Today they are trimming two of the big trees in front, and doing some more work in the back. More pictures to come.


 Meantime, I had promised Amy that I'd put the "recipe" for my Enchilada Casserole here. This dish started out as a rather naive me making enchiladas for a family dinner one night. Doubled the recipe and made 48. At the time I had an infant and 4 smallish children, so that sounded like enough for two dinners, right? Nope. They motored through that like locusts and, feeling discouraged, I decided no more enchiladas.

 Then the brainstorm hit. I could layer all the ingredients in a casserole dish, or a 9 x 13 baking pan, and put all the fixings in. This became one of my staple dishes.

 Yes, I use the spicy enchilada sauce and the kids gobbled it up. I never heard anyone complain!


This starts out with onions and black olives going for a spin in my beloved food processor. I've had this for *mumbledy* years and it's still going strong. I've replaced the work bowl and lid once, and the knife blade, but the motor is still happily chopping and grinding away.

My "old school" Cuisinart

So, this batch used a 9 x 13 glass baking pan, and here's how the layers went:

Sprayed the pan with cooking spray. Splashed some sauce on the bottom, spread it around, added a layer of tortillas. I used 6, corn tortillas of course (I dislike flour tortillas), then about half of the chopped onion/olive mix, some chunks of chicken (cheated and used some pre-cooked from Trader Joe's) and a good sprinkle of shredded cheese. I had both cheddar and a Mexican blend. Another layer of tortillas, the rest of the onion/olive mix, the rest of the chicken, another layer of cheese, some sauce, then the last layer is tortillas, the rest of the sauce--I put a little water in the can and shoosh it around to get all the goodness out, and the water makes the sauce go a little further too. Topped it all with cheese.

Ready for the oven! Baked at 350 for about 45 minutes. 

That's it! The beauty of this is that I have used the same recipe with a variety of ingredients--ground beef, especially when we had leftovers from Taco Night; leftover Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey (then we call it Turkey Adios), shredded beef and pork left over from a big roast, even done it with no meat at all.


We hosted three teenage boys from a traveling jazz choir one time--my kids were in the HS choir--and I made up three of these for dinner in my biggest casserole dishes. All gone!

And you wonder why I have trouble cooking for just myself?? 

This tasted really good the first day, and then I put the rest of it into meal-sized portions in glass containers in the fridge. I don't mind eating the same thing over and over when it's this tasty!

And this week? I didn't want to have to think about cooking or "what can I eat?" all week. Not with a yard sale looming and all the sorting and packing and dispersing that needs to be done!

But what about the pinwheel quilts, you may ask?

Oh come on, I know you've been wondering about whether I can just pack this project up and not look at it for a few months, right?

Right?

So the answer is that my Quilting Supervisor and I have been destressing a bit by spending some quality time together with the sewing machine and the pinwheel blocks.

I've nearly finished the last set of 50 blocks--halfway through the last seam on them all. My wild idea is to try to get all the tops done and then send them off to the quilters while I'm doing the move. May or may not work out, but we'll see. My back pain isn't letting me do much at a time, which makes me feel frazzled, and the sewing is a good way to get off my feet and still feel as if I'm "doing something."

So  that's progress on a couple of big projects! Now it's on to a whole day of doing these things and being hopeful to get some done!

A Big Thank You...

To everyone who came by to visit yesterday, and lelft me such sweet comments,

thank you!

It was so much fun to read all the comments! Especially with all the chaos going on around here right now, it was so nice to have an oasis of love and quiltiness to step into. 

May thanks to Carol and Madame Samm for organizing it all! Now here are today's links:

August 9

Moose Stash Quilting

Cathy’s Chatter

Darlington Delights

Life in the Scrapatch

Quilt n Queen

Forget-Me-Not Stitches

Quilted Delights

AnnieOak Designs

Sew Peace to Peace

Wips & Tuts

Just Keep Swimming

Sew We Quilt ( yep, ME)

Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop August 8

 Tis the season to celebrate! Well, at least the season to prepare to celebrate "the most wonderful time of the year."

After all, it took me a while to piece this bit of exuberance, all 60" of it! Going to take a while to quilt it, too. I really love this piece and can't wait to get it quilted and bring it out for the holidays! I blogged about it back in February and March and there are lots of in-progress pictures on Flickr, too.

Celebration Tree Skirt, pattern by Judy Niemeyer for Quiltworx

There are other holiday pieces in progress, too. These little house quilts surfaced in a recent spelunking expedition that also turned up several more WIPs.

Not that I'm quite sure where the line is drawn between a WIP and a UFO. These certainly had been "marinating" for quite a while.

Life sometimes throws us curve balls and provides us with upheavals. All we can do is hang on to the bar of the roller coaster and go along for the ride!
There are two of these quilts, both 4 blocks. It's a good size for a wall hanging or to toss on the back of the sofa or across the table.

The upper picture shows a close-up of the fabrics I'm auditioning for borders. I think with careful cutting and piecing I can just make it with them.

This lower picture is an overview of the whole piece as it stands. Some of it blends into the tile floor, but it really is square.

When you see it in person, the beige backgrounds blend together a little better than they do here. I'm hoping to get these finished before Christmas, too, so they can go to some of the family to brighten up their holidays!


The Laurel Burch panel (there are two of them on this cut of fabric) just needs borders and quilting and will be ready to pass along as well.

For anyone who's new to the blog, let me just say that I have a fairly large family, so there's no shortage of places to pass my quilts along to!

Laurel Burch has always been one of my favorite designers, going clear back to the days when she was Laurel Birchtree! I could see one of these little quilts as a table centerpiece, while we sip coffee or tea from some of my Laurel Burch mugs.

 This little piece was in the same treasure-trove as the house quilts. This one is all finished now.

I quilted it with curly squiggles to give the feeling of a golden garland. Do click on the picture to see the larger version--the print itself is quite charming, little old-fashioned children and toys.

Please excuse the ripply look--I took this picture on the stairs, so trust me that the quilt itself is straight!

Gee, I seem to be saying that a lot tonight...

 These little "feather tree' quilts are decorated with a lot of old buttons and a few newer ones.

I have loved buttons for a long time, and remember going through my mother's button tin when I was little and finding all sorts of treasures. When I started to sew clothing, it was fun to find the "right" buttons.

Yeah, my button collection is perhaps slightly out of hand. But these special buttons are safely sewn down to decorate the trees!

 I didn't make this quilt; it was a gift from a quilter friend. Again, photographed on the stairs for that charming "ripple" effect.

I do owe you an explanation of why these pictures aren't the finest examples of photography, don't I? Well, let me tell you that things have been more than a little hectic around here lately, as I'm in the throes of getting this house ready to sell.

After 41 years of living here, you can just imagine what it's like. The new place is smaller, by half, so there will be a lot of downsizing involved. Also much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth--and that's just the cats. However, looking ahead to the holidays is cheering me up and helping me to focus on the end result: a smaller, more manageable space to deal with.

 One last quilt. I made this one quite a while ago, and it's still a favorite. The block is, I believe, called Grand Fir, and I'm especially fond of the colors of the attic window sashings.

Well, that's my Ho Ho Ho Roundup. What did you think? Let me know in a comment!

August 8

Quiltscapes

Marla’s Crafts

A Stitch In Time

Mehitabel’s Musings

Buzzing and Bumbling

Transitions For Meee

A Little Bit of Lorene

I Piece 2-Mary

Under the Presser Foot

A Reformed Heath’n

Just Sew Quilter

The Boon Docks( she got her day wrong)

Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop August 7

 

I signed up for the Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop and have been somewhat remiss in posting every day's links. Tomorrow is my turn, and I'll be posting my Christmas projects (past, present. and future!) but until then here's today's list of participants. Go, visit, see what they have to show off! I even heard there may be giveaways--I'm thinking of doing one, too! Until tomorrow... 

 

August 7

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio

From This to That

I Like To Quilt Blog

Leah @ L3designs

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much?

Just Quilt It

Meadowbrook

Peanut’s Patchwork

Around the Homestead

Feathered Nest Studio

In The Boon Docks

MO Broker, My Creative Side

 

Where To Begin?

Once again I'm having issues with Blogger wanting to lay my pictures out in a different order than I'd like to have them. Guess we'll just have to deal with it!

Up first is Louise's blue batik quilt. She made this for friends who love blue and who have a king size bed. It's large.

No, bigger than that. Probably bigger than a big king size.

It took two full packages of Bali Crackers plus more fabric. The backing is 108" wide Stonehenge in...blue.

It's quilted in a pattern of undulating waves and ripples, very appropriate for a couple who live on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Quite an accomplishment!

As an example of wonky uploading, this is a closeup of Anne's quilt which is shown below in the whole. The pinwheels where the blocks meet is pretty subtle in the picture but a little more obvious in real life.

It's backed with that purple medallion fabric and she quilted it with a lot of stippling.

What did Santa bring? His elves??

Then there's Ethel, with one of her pillowcases. She's getting ready for Christmas already!

Feed me, I'm starving!

Hi-Hi wanting his breakfast at the first light of dawn. I swear, I went from having a morning-person husband to a morning-person cat. Come to think of it, I guess it's because Bob always got up early and he had a lot to do with training this guy to be a "lark."

I'm definitely a night owl.

Anne finished three of her Dear Jane blocks today! I didn't work on mine; instead I finished cutting sashings and cornerstones for the pinwheel quilts.

Anne's Dear Jane blocks

Pinwheels still in progress.

I needed to have at least 720 sashing strips, so I decided that it would be a good idea to cut 750. I had cut 500+ the last time we met at Sandy's, so I only needed another 250. After a little dithering, I wound up clipping them into bunches of 25--few enough so they could be clipped  without stressing out my hands opening the clips wider than they wanted to go, and a pretty easy number to manage.

I cut and cut and when I did my final count tonight I came up with 749.

That is good enough.I did not count the cornerstones. Enough is enough!

Anne's quilt with stars and pale blue pinwheels.

Sashings, cornerstones, oh my.

So there are big changes coming in my life. After a lot of time spent looking at houses and  condos and neighborhoods and possible places to move, I've found a condo to buy.

I'm in escrow.

The good: it's close enough to let me keep the same doctors and keep on with quilt class and keep up with the knit group. The development is beautiful and feels comfortable. It's all on one story and the floor plan is open, it feels airy and light. It has two patios, one small one and one larger one across the back.

The bad: it's half the size of this house. Less than half.

This house is pretty full. No, make that VERY full.

It isn't as full as it was a few years ago, but there's still an awful lot of stuff in it. So there will be more purging and giving away and selling and generally downsizing.

There are closets full of stuff and the garage, while well organized, is still full. However, needs must and all that.

So it begins.

There's already been one day of clearing and assessing, and a couple of boxes have been designated for yard sale.

Except that they may not be, because some of the things in them have more value than I originally thought. And, of course, there's the sentimental aspects for not just me, but the offspring as well.

I think it's time for an adult beverage and a little TV time and then try to get a good night's sleep.

If a certain fur person will let me!