Visions, Jelly & Mariachis

I went to Oceanside with friends last week, to see the Quilt Visions exhibit at the Oceanside Museum of Art. My favorite one was Velda Newman's enormous flowery quilt. Afterwards we went to the harbor for lunch.

I made strawberry guava jelly a couple weeks ago. I have just one tree, with guavas that ripened in small groups over the past few months. They sat bagged up in the freezer until I was ready to process them. I tried to make it last year and it was a big failure - this time it was a success. The trick is not to squeeze the guavas when you are straining them, or else the jelly will be bitter.

Here I am on the left, at a wedding for the son of old family friends. Linda in the middle is the mother of the groom; Elaine on the right used to live next door to Linda in Orange. I remember the three of us baking cookies in Linda's kitchen decades ago. Fun wedding - loud mariachi band!

video time again

This is the last video that I made while my granddaughter was visiting at our house (yes, her mom and dad were here, too). It's too fun to keep it to myself.  It's as if she can't decide what to do next: clap? wave? try to crawl? practice making various noises? play with big red cuddly dog? The cuddler dog was a gift from her cousin Alex and his family.

hearts in the mail

I received a sort of valentine in the mail on February 14th: two complimentary copies of Simply Mini Quilts by Lark books. That's my heart quilt on the cover.

Directions for this quilt and many others are included in this soft-cover book.

My "Flora del Coronado" is in the book, too, but I think they call it something else.

art quilt in progress

I still make art quilts, really I do. Here's a photo as proof, a detail of a work in progress. It depicts my California desert tortoise, Gramps (aka Grandpa T), who likes to hang out in the space between the air conditioner and the house.  It still has a ways to go....

I made these fingerless gloves for my daughter and gave them to her when she was here recently. They're the same pattern as a pair I made for myself, but with different yarn. The pattern comes from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. I just love that book.

Here is my shitake patch during its second flush. I had already cut off two enormous mushrooms. This harvest totaled 12 large shitakes, and we're still enjoying them. Yum - they go with almost anything: swiss steak, steamed broccoli, any kind of soup, chicken, etc. In two weeks I'll start the third flush (growing period).

newest samantha video

There's not a lot going on in this one, other than my grandbaby sitting there staring at the camera and looking adorable. Cute ending. This is another one that I made while she was here in California. So nice that the weather cooperated and that she could wear a sundress on this day.

samantha in California

We were lucky enough to have my daughter and her husband and daughter stay at our house for 8 days. They just left on Thursday, back to the snow in Mid-State NY. Here are the best of the photos that I took:

Samantha was curious about our wall-to-wall carpet.



Here she is with the little flannel quilt that I made for her for Christmas.

She knows how to patty cake now.



Grandpa and Samantha with remotes.



It doesn't get much better than having a grandbaby dandling on my knee.

She gets lots of comments about her strawberry hat.

She got to meet her uncle.

This is one of my favorite shots. How fun to wear a sundress in January!