a visit to the lighthouse and a visit to see Ruby

On the coast north of San Simeon is a lighthouse named after these rocks...Piedras Blancas. We toured today and learned about the history, the native vegetation and some of the marine wildlife that frequent the area.

The top of the lighthouse was damaged in an earthquake and removed in 1948. There are plans of restoring it but in the meantime, it still has a working light fixture. No fog horn though.

I thought some of the architecture was interesting. The window is actually on another building which houses machinery which I can't remember does what!

The rocks have a large number of sea lions resting on them.

And the next pic has a favorite beach for some Elephant Seals. You can see the sand bathers in the upper left corner and two sparring males in the water towards the middle of the scene.

After touring, we went for lunch at Sebastian's in San Simeon. And then we went to see Ruby :-)
All perked up and settling into her new home.

new luckypup in the family

My mom wanted a little dog and the local animal shelter just happened to have just gotten in a pure bred Pomeranian. So Ruby, 8 years old, came to live with her today. She was not spade yet and thus had to have surgery this morning. She is still recovering from the anesthesia and decided under the bed was the best place to do that. She's probably right because we are going to have a hard time not petting her :-)
Ruby is awfully cute. It seems like so much for her to go through in such a short time...move to the pound, meet potential owners, wait over the long weekend, have surgery and then move to a new home....but that's how they do it with county animal control. At least she will have a quiet, safe place to start over.

not much sewing going around here

Had to work most of the past week but stitched the border on this little baby quilt for a co-worker. The LQS had easy kits of fabric put together and so I grabbed a couple. Since the next grandbaby in our family is to be a girl, I picked up a second kit with pink, red and white in it. A very shabby chique start for her. Will start that soon.

getting to the finish

Elinor here, looking out the window...and as always, away from the camera. She is sweet company even if she won't pose for me.
We have been working away stitching the binding on these placemats...only 3 to go. I tried the turn the backing over method but couldn't get the mitered corners the way I liked them. So I gave in to binding each of them..It's a good excuse to sit and sew by hand though.

Last photo is of the roosters on the back.

I'll be happy to finally put these birds in the mail this week!

2 favorites

This is an Olfa ruler 6" x 24" that advertised being slip resistant. I have been using Invisigrip on the back of my rulers to prevent slipping, but I find this ruler works better. I purchased it last week at Beverly's with a 40% off coupon and am quite happy with it. My old Fiskar rulers that were my favorites had lost the markings as I hadn't put Invisigrip on soon enough. :-(

The markings on the Olfa don't seem as vulnerable. Time will tell.




Marianne is helping show my other favorite. My reordered Organic English Breakfast tea came yesterday from Donnalynn with Sensibiliteas. She really knows tea! Donnalynn shares lots of information about where the teas come from and the differences, etc. I learned that I'm taste specific to teas more from Ceylon than from China. She keeps me happy with delicious flavor :-)

Donnalynn also knows quilts and helps with the MQX quilt show in the spring....well, April, not always "springy" in New Hampshire.

too tired to think

Work was simply too much to take today. So to turn my mind to things that are more fun...I have my photos of the first and latest quilts. :-)

This first beauty was actually the brainstorm of my freshman college roommate and I. Why be like everyone else, we'll buy fabric and sew it together and make coordinating bedspreads. No instruction, no pattern....can you tell it is 1970? Orange was my favorite color for years...till we 'learned what season' we were...I'm a 'winter' (remember that?)...it doesn't include orange. And as of 2006...I'm still in a lime green phase....I just don't wear it.
We never actually finished the bedspreads. My granny finally folded the thing over a really thick batt and tied it for me. I am so glad she finished it for me. What an sweet memory.

It occurred to me though that maybe I could show the first quilt I made when I was actually learning from someone who knew how... This lovely Debbie Mumm Noah's Ark quilt was made in 1994(?) on my brand new Bernina. Capistrano Sew and Vac's Steve paid for my first quilt class for the purchase of my most beloved 1090S. That class was an awesome gift!

So my latest finished quilt was actually the Imagine quilt shown in a previous post. Almost finished are these gol' dern placemats that are taking forever to make. I'm quilting 'chicken wire' and I'm going to bring the backing around to the front for binding....really hoping that works.

just a little progress

The rooster placemats are coming together here. Here's a picture of the 'parts'. I have pieced the blocks and put a very dark brown border around each group. The backing is on the quilting machine and hopefully this week I'll have time to quilt the chicken wire pattern on them. I really enjoyed these rooster mug shots. The backing is a different rooster fabric that seemed to coordinate fairly well. Finish pics in a week or so...depending on how I do the binding. I'm hoping to fold the backing over and finish with mitered corners as a binding rather than cut and sew regular quilt binding.

Just purchased this cute flannel on Friday to make a baby quilt for a new great grand baby entering stage center this fall. I was sure it was going to be a boy but yesterday we got the news 'It's a girl'! This sounds pretty exciting! The parents are wonderful and the first born son is a sweet heart. He will be a nurturing big brother to the baby girl. But do you think these pale greens and blues will work? Should I pursue pink?