Shuttle Endeavour

On Friday, October 12th several of us went to see the shuttle Endeavour.  It was parked in a commercial parking lot just outside the Los Angeles, CA, airport.

That's me in the wild t-shirt.  We couldn't go up to the shuttle but we were not very far back from it.  Even though the news media had announced that there would be a lot of security it wasn't very restrictive.  The people were moving all the time so the "crowds" were not bad at all.

Here are the "crowds".  People kept coming and going since the shuttle wasn't moving so there was no great mass of folks.  The only time it got crowded was when a schoolbus would let of a crowd of kids - but they were there and gone within a short period of time.

If you enlarge this photo you can see the news vans parked around the outer edge of the parking lot.

We did not get to see it move through the streets [we had to be back home before it started it's trip] but it was fun to be a part of the excitement that day.

Cleaning [ who? me?]

Still here - although not very verbose lately.

I cleaned out my closet by my front door [it's a full closet filled with "stuff" including 2 giant tubs that have been there for over 5 years].

The above photo is "BEFORE" - can you wonder why I never knew what I had?

Here is "AFTER" - so much fabric.

The hanging clothing and shoe holders are just perfect for fabric [and some shoes]

I found some little homemade dolls [purchased] that will sit and guard my 'stash'

Just to let you know that I'm still alive and kicking [well, walking anyway].

Twenty of us residents and 5 administration got to eat lunch with Huell Howser about 2 weeks ago and here's proof!

I'm also still quilting like a fiend - making a large quilt for our annual live auction at our Cinco de Mayo celebration and a smaller chili pepper quilt for our silent auction.

I had to have Chico euthanized this last November. His kidneys finally gave out with all his medications. He was 13 years old and I had been his Mom for 11 of those years. While I was sorry to see him go, he also had arthritis that made it difficult to put on his harness for walks and I felt guilty leaving him at home.

Little Bit and I will check out dogs later this summer [I have a friend who works at a vet's so will have and "in" with rescue dogs].

I'm baaaack! I was in the Duarte 15th annual Route 66 parade on Saturday the 18th of September. Got to ride in a '58 Corvette with a nice man as my driver. You can't really tell it's me, but it is - hat and all.

The bus from Westminster Gardens was also there with a 3rd vehicle [an old truck - sorry, don't know the year or make or model] with one of our couples sitting in the back.

I went to Asilomar for the Empty Spools Seminar in June with Louise [she wasn't in my class] and Marie W. and Sandy [who were in the Dear Jane class with me]. Fun week with lots of food, walking and just plain fun! The teacher, Brenda Papadakis, was fun.

Yes, I've been quilting all this time. Among other things, I've completed a bed quilt for one of our residents, a lap size quilt for the home office [SCPH] annual golf tournament, and several tops for assisted living. Each incoming resident to assisted living gets a quilt when they have their "welcome" party.

I'm going to try to behave this year and post at least weekly on the blog.


Our mini-group has decided to swap pairs of 5" blocks this year, with each month being a different color. With 11 ladies in the group - and 3 different pairs of fabrics from each one - that is going to be 396 pairs of fabrics at the end of the year [totaling 792 5" squares]











We started with orange fabrics - and here are a few of the sets. There wasn't a single one that was a duplicate - what fun!







Then I started playing with scrap fabric from my stash to see what pattern I think I want to work with for a year. My first one was Crossroads to Jericho - but using 4 different fabrics in each block meant that I was going to have to wait 4 whole months before I could make blocks from my swap fabrics.














The next trial was this Tripel Four Patch block. I will use 2 different patterns - one with just 3 fabrics and one with 4 fabrics.

I think I like the 4 fabric one best, at least in these colors.

For those of you who were following last years blog - our quilting group on the retirement grounds finished 31 quilts [well - I did 27 of them] and we gave them to the residents of our assisted living lodges at their Christmas party. They still comment on them [favorable] and there were extras to be given as new folks either moved in permanently or temporarily [for illness].

I am president of our resident's association this year and have been attending a variety of meetings outside the campus - along with Westminster Garden Board of Directors meetings. This, of course, meant that I had to find some "presidential" clothing [so far a suit jacket, light colored sweater, black pants that are actually dressy jeans, and black shoes that are NOT tennis shoes]. I've picked up a couple of tops to wear under the jacket, and will look for some scarfs [scarves?] to dress everything up.

9-Patch Blocks & Lap Quilts

Sorry I've been away so long. I've been busy [well, lazy, more likely].

Here are 3 more of the quitls that are being made for our Assisted Living folks. The quilt at the bottom [bright block with black and bright border] has been bordered and needs to be quilted - I'll get that one when it's finished.

The blocks below total 54. There are 5 of the blocks that you can't see well that are made with 2 prints - for a funny 9-patch quilt

The 2nd photo is blocks that are brights cut 3" with a white background - there are 21 of those,

and the 3rd photo has 28 6" blocks.

I am trying to keep up with CrazyMom at http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/ She is working on 1 9-patch block per day. I tried that for a while, but then found that if I cut my blocks one day, I could get a weeks worth done at once. I'm also working on 3 different 9-patch quilts at once, 2 brights and one that will be just a little more subdued.

June 2nd was the 37th day of the challenge, but I think most of us are keeping up.

I drove to Morro Bay the first full weekend of June, both to see my son and dil, and to go to 11 quilt shops in the Central Coast California Shop Hop. I did well with purchases. I picked a quilt to work on [in some future year] and bought fabrics for that quilt - only slipped up once and picked up 1 yard each of a dog and a cat fabric [and a pattern to work on another year].

Weather was great for driving - it was overcast with sprinkles - and the drivers were acting nicely [you know, nobody had to be anywhere 10 seconds before anyone else].

I also gave a quilt to my grandson [in his 30's] with lots of motorcycle stuff on it. I had shown it at the retirement facility where I live, and several folks were either horrified or loved it [depended on whether they knew a bike rider or not].

The dogs stayed with the vet over the weekend and Chico came home healthy [he's on lots of med's for congestive heart failure] so will continue to leave him there when I travel. Little Bit will go to the kennel where they let him out to play in a grassy area every day.

I'm also knitting when I'm not sewing or quilting - still working on caps and scarves for the merchant seamen in New York [that is where several of our residents worked either before or after they were overseas].

Auction quilt done!

Here are photos of a quilt that Gail M. made [well, she did all the hard work and made the top]. She offered it to me for the Cinco de Mayo auction/celebration. The border is a Frida Kahlo print [self portrait] that will be perfect for our auction.

The quilt came out to 70" x 70" and was more fun to work on than I imagined. I had a tough time starting it because I didn't want to ruin it, but once I got started, it was fun to get help with figuring out what should be quilted in the different areas.

I was going to make a twin size quilt top to put on e-bay, but this one turned out so busy that I made two lap quilts instead. The patriotic one above is one of two small quilts [one will go on e-bay and one will go to our assisted living group]

Here is another quilt - this one for e-bay.

The quilting group on the grounds has been busy helping me make tops for assisted living. We have 9 lap quilts finished and 3 more ready to put the binding down. Since my goal was 3 quilts a month, we are doing really well.

Two of the women have made tops and I will get those quilted soon.

I'm also making a motorcycle quilt for my grandson. The top is finished and I started putting the backing together [it will be "back art" with all the leftover parts of the front].