A Quick Post

I can't resist sharing a photo of my new grandchild, Samantha, in the sundress I made for her. She's outgrowing it already. I have made her another one, and will post a photo soon.

By the way, the designer of the original online pattern that I adapted is Rae Hoekstra, at http://madebyrae.blogspot.com/

And the cute green sweater I knitted for Samantha came from Mission Falls' Wee Knits 3 book.

Okay, while I'm at it I can't resist posting one more photo. They tell me she's over 7 and a half pounds now, and her hair and eyes are lightening up. She's 5 weeks old.

Okay, twist my arm, one more photo. Here she is in her swing. I hear she likes it a lot.

Many Quilts Out and About

Several of my quilts can be seen out and about locally. I will have two quilts and one mixed media book at "Fiber Artistry," the first ever Art Quilt exhibit at the Orange County Fair through mid-August. (more details in previous posts) "15 Selvedges" is one of them.

"Happy Birthday 2 Me!" is also at the Orange County Fair. I hear it's an outstanding exhibit, featuring works by Jamie Fingal and other Orange County fiber artists.

My mixed-media book, "Inner Children," is also there. I don't know yet what page it will be opened to - so many choices.

"Summertime Cat" is appearing at Soft Expressions Upstairs Gallery with the "Summer" exhibit. The address is 1230 North Jefferson Street, Suite M, Anaheim. Phone: 714-630-7414.

Last but not least, "It's Your Fault" will be in the special exhibit, "Beneath the Surface," at the Long Beach Quilt Festival. The dates are July 22 - 25.  This event is at the Long Beach Convention Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd, Long Beach. More info at http://www.quilts.com/, and I'll be there for some of it. I'm excited!

artful tour of the southwest '10

I feel like I'm hardly ever home lately - we've just been on a 9-day trip to visit relatives in Colorado Springs. Most of the time was spent driving from here to there. Here are a few photos, chosen with an artful point of view.

This is a view of Santa Fe from our hotel room.

We love Durango and always stay at the funky Hotel Rochester B&B downtown.

These are the Helen Hunt Falls in Colorado Springs. Betcha didn't know Helen Hunt had her own waterfall!

An architectural detail seen at the historic Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs.

Downtown Telluride has lots of quaint shops and restaurants.. You can see Bridal Veil Falls in the background.

Although it was hot, we also spent some time on the creek trail close to downtown.

There were lots of photo opportunities in Moab, Utah. We drove through Arches National Park where we saw this balanced rock.

We saw several arches. Since it was 113 that day, we missed the arches that required major hiking.

This is called the Three Gossips. Look like anybody you know?

What I've been doing lately

I have a couple of new quilts underway, but I can't show them yet. However, I can show you two finished clothing projects.

First, here is a tiny baby sweater I recently finished. It will hopefully fit Samantha next fall/winter. I am enjoying getting back into knitting! And the thing I like about making baby sweaters is that they go fast. I did this one in about three weeks.... I actually knitted another sweater before this one, but it turned out so boyish that I'm embarrassed to show it. I'm hoping that a heart or flower embellishment will save it. I'll show it at some point. (maybe)

This photo shows the sweater before I sewed it all together, plus the ball of yarn and the pattern book. As baby designs go, it's kind of chunky and primitive. Hope it looks cute on her.... I have already started another sweater!

I made this sundress last week. I mailed it off right away, because it's meant to wear now. I found a pattern online which I changed quite a bit - I didn't do the bias tape hem they suggested, and I added a tie in the back to make it more form fitting. I hope it will be adjustable so that it will fit Samantha for a while. I will post the designer's name of the original design next time.

This view shows everything untied. It was pretty fun and easy. Maybe I'll make more.

Fiber Artistry - Orange County Fair

"Fiber Artistry" Curated by Jamie Fingal, from Friday, July 16 to Sunday, August 15, 2010
Orange County Fair, Costa Mesa, California
The Beat Goes On - to present a premiere exhibit, an amazing art quilt exhibit made by artists from Orange County. Featured quilt artist is Jamie Fingal, showing a retrospective on her work.

Other artists are: Joanell Connolly, Cindy Cooksey (moi), Grace Errea, Stacy Hurt, Jean C. Impey, Julie Schlueter, Teresa Shippy, Susan Slesinger, Vickie Valdez Green, and Terry Waldron.

Art quilts and mixed media round robin books by the Cut-Loose Quilters of Orange: Peggy Calvert, Joanell Connolly, Cindy Cooksey, Anne Copeland, Jamie Fingal, Stacy Hurt, Julie Schlueter, Terry Waldron, and Vickie Valdez Green.

one more post on the farm

Some people have expressed curiosity about the inside of the farmhouse. They wanted to see some of the old-timey details. So here are a few.

There's a nice old footed tub.

There is a whole upstairs with lots of potential. The stairs are a little steep.

Here's one of the bedrooms. Notice the interesting shape of the ceiling.

Here's a wonderful old stool. I wish I knew its history.

This darling little cabinet is hiding in the back of a pantry room, off the living room and near the kitchen. Nearby was another cabinet full of old recipes. So many things to explore... I am so mad at myself for forgetting to photograph the beautiful little antique crib. It was a gift from Jack's mother for the new baby, and it's just wonderful.

On a different note, here's a hole where the woodchucks live, high in the pasture area.

There are recently formed bales of hay in the pasture. The heifers were due to arrive any day to graze the pasture, to get good and fat for milking. They must be there by now. It was sad to say goodbye to the farm, but we will be back before too long.

chickens

Bear with me, I have a few more photos from my recent NY visit. This post is for those wondering how the chicks are faring. I'm referring to the 20 chicks that arrived in late April, when we were there before.

This is the chicken coop where they've been living. It's in a space at the end of their barn. Maybe you can make out the little row of boxes along the wall. That's where they will be laying their eggs, when they are ready.

There's a door to the outside. They've been coming outside in the daytime and noshing on the bugs in the nearby grass. They like to follow Jack around.

They are not full-grown yet, but they look more like chickens now. They're sort of like teenagers. You can make out one of them flying a little ways in this photo.

All original twenty chicks have survived. There are Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orphingtons, Dominiques, and Silver Wyandots. (I had mistakenly called them Silver Turandots)

The Dominiques and Silver Wyandots are both mostly black. I still get them mixed up.

This Buff Orphington is strutting his stuff. This variety seemed more confident and self assured than the others.

Amazingly, they stay close to the door and seem to know they're supposed to go back indoors before nightfall. I want to make a chicken quilt someday.... The black ones speak to me.

random baby sightings

Here's a sure sign that a baby is in the house - diapers and tiny clothes hanging from the clothesline. My daughter is using cloth diapers. Woohoo, I salute her!

This is the finished hexagon ball toy that I brought for Samantha. Most of the fabrics are flannel. I embroidered on the solid fabrics. Ribbons were scraps I had.

A second view of the ball.

Here's a view of grandma, Samantha and Ginger on the couch. At this point Ginger had decided that the baby's feet needed washing.

Samantha had plenty of cranky times in her early days. She became much more mellow as time passed.

Jack spent a fair amount of time rocking Samantha. Swaddling is another technique to relax her.

A little mother-daughter bonding going on.

Samantha started getting sunbaths after the doctor said she had a touch of jaundice.

Baby makes three, and Ginger makes four.

Ginger has her own doghouse out by the old apple tree.

food at the farm

Since I took so many photos during my last visit at the farm, I'm going to group them loosely according to themes. The pictures in this post are about food.

Here is one view of their garden. You can see corn in the front, plus peppers and tomatoes. It's a big difference from our last visit in April, when it was mostly dirt.

Rhubarb's growing in the back.  Peas on the left, I forget what's on the right.

One night I baked a rhubarb pie, with rhubarb cut fresh from the garden. It had been a while since I'd baked a fruit pie, and I'd never done a rhubarb pie. Martine helped with chopping and ingredient guessing. Here it is about to be baked.

It was delish. Just the right amount of tangy flavor.

Tomatoes in the front, salad greens, chard, onions, radishes in the back row. We picked salad greens for dinner almost every night. A couple of times we had the chard - it's especially yummy in lasagna.

Another view of the salad patch.

One afternoon we went off to look for berries. Martine found a few ripe raspberries here.

She found a handful of wild strawberries, too. They are tiny but have an intense strawberry flavor.

This potato patch is located behind the pond. No potatoes ready yet, just lots of pretty green vines.