Thursday, October 30, 2008

There

The original title of this post was "Here and There," but I realized I won't have time to do justice to both this morning. Stay tuned for "Here" in the next day or two!

There is California, where I went to visit my family and the Pacific International Quilt Festival. On the last post I linked to my niece's slide show of many of the quilts there. I'll do a more in-depth presentation of a couple quilts for now. I couldn't possibly choose a favorite, these are just two that caught my attention again this morning as I scrolled through my finally downloaded photos. Don't forget to click on a photo to enlarge it if you want a closer look.

This quilt by Jo P. Griffith shows the wind farm at Altamont.
I have always loved the look of these huge windmills -- so graceful, so powerful. As I looked at the quilt, I started imagining lots of ways to incorporate that image into a quilt. But the other thing that caught my eye was the pieced background and border. I love pieced squares that are all different but all part of the same. It adds so much texture and interest!

This next quilt, The Gold Lady, was put together by twelve members of the Ocean Wave Quilters of Fort Bragg, California. (Such a gorgeous town, right on the coast!)
They enlarged a photo and divided it into twelve parts. One quilter took each part and, without consulting the others, recreated it using any materials she wished. Then they were all joined together. Much like the pieced background above, this is so much more interesting for the variation. I really like it.

At the show I also got to meet two other quilt bloggers, Tami of Lemon Tree Tales and Julie of Floribunda.
It was wonderful to meet them! My niece Laurel took the photo, and a kindly passerby took a photo of the four of us, but the sun streamed in across the top of the photo and the faces are hugely overexposed.


This little basket photo I took at home this morning, but wanted to put it up after I saw a photo of a similar basket on Julie's blog. She had just purchased a basket from Ghana to use to carry her groceries, and about a month ago I purchased a similar basket from the food co-op. I think I'll keep mine for projects in progress, as I find it's a little bulky for shopping.

The rest of the trip I spent visiting family. I won't bore you with family photos, but I met a new member of the family, born in July, and she deserves a welcoming photo. Here's Maggie (being held by my older daughter, Jocelyn).
And here's the I Spy quilt I made for her and her brother and sister. Their mom (my niece Andrea) hung it on the bedroom. I love seeing my quilts in use!

As a belated birthday present, my daughters took me to the city for dinner at Millennium Cafe, where I have wanted to go ever since it opened. Wow! Scrumptious, delicious, succulent, juicy, superbly balanced -- the list of superlatives to describe the food could go on and on! We stopped in at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art beforehand. There it is, that circular building seen from the Yerba Buena Gardens. I love the circles and stripes in that building!
And finally, on a crafty note, here's a stamped cross stitch sampler I made in high school.
My father used to love that quote, and so when I saw the kit I made it up for him. I asked my mother about it when I visited, and she still had it. I asked to see it because my niece Laurel recently changed her blog name to Set of the Sail, and I got to thinking about it. My mom has now passed it on to Laurel, which is absolutely as it should be. The sampler is clearly made by someone who knew nothing about cross stitch, but the words are powerful.

15 comments:

Cathi said...

I adore that windmill quilt! I'd love to see pictures of that sent to all our elected officials here who started a plan to put up windmills, got one put up and then seemed to lose interest!
Love the little cross-stitch.

Joyce said...

The strangest thing about the wind farm quilt is that there is a wind farm with the same windmills here in Manitoba near a village called Altamont. What are the chances??

Quiltdivajulie said...

What a wonderful post... full of so many good things! I especially like the windmill quilt but, even more, the concept of the gold lady quilt (and how VERY much more interesting it is with the 12 'blocks' within the photo).

Wow.

Twisted Quilts said...

I really like the windmill quilt. I remember seeing them when we were in California. I was absolutely amazed at them. we should have them everywhere.

Kate North said...

Ooh, I love pictures of bloggers. I more or less knew what you looked like from your blog & FB photos, but I've never seen Julie before, so that was fun (I don't "know" the other blogger).

Kate North said...

oh, and PS, I meant to say, your daughter is gorgeous (the baby is cute too)

Libby said...

I love the Gold Lady!! What a great idea for a group project...

em's scrapbag said...

Thanks for sharing the pictures of the quilt in the show. Enjoyed seeing your eye spy on the wall. And I love the quote in your cross stitch. Lovely post.

laura west kong said...

Wow! Thanks for sharing all those great photos! ^_^

Tonya Ricucci said...

so fun to see you and family too. wheee I Spy on the wall. That building with the stripes is awesome and your meal sounds yummy.

Clare said...

Amazing shapes in the second to last photo.

Like the Wind Farm quilt.

Toni said...

What a great post!! I don't know where to start! I love all the pictures and the cross stitch quote! The new member of the family is too precious.

I love seeing the 3 bloggers together, what a great picture!!

Sounds like just a peaceful wonderful trip!

floribunda said...

Cheri, did I ever tell you that my DH works in wind energy? Our very first date was when he took me up to Altamont and let me photograph the windmills up close! It's so funny that the windmill quilt was one of your favborites!

Laurel said...

Hi Cheri, I love love love that your cross stitch has been passed down to me. I feel honored! I had no idea you did a cross stitch when I named my blog. Very very cool.

Paula said...

I just found your cross stitch saying about sails....I love it. I think I need to make it my motto. No more complaining about the gales, just use them to push the ship where it needs to go! Thanks!