Hubby's Hobby

When he's not remodeling the house or wrangling baby-grands, hubby does a bit of wood turning.

 

Most of his turning time has been taken up making crochet hooks for my buddies and the shop,

 

but every once in a while he'll disappear into the garage wood shop, 

 

reappearing a few hours later, covered in sawdust and smelling of varnish.

 

Early last week he received a block of buckeye burl in the mail.

 

I thought it would go into his stash woodpile, to be made into something eventually.

 
But look what was waiting for me when I got home last Sunday. 
 
Gorgeous!
 
I love that he was able to keep that rough section in the final piece. And the inlaid turquoise gets me every time.
 
And that he took the time to get photos for me as he worked? 
Major bonus points.  

Flowers of Mystery

Not sure what these plants are (please chime in if you know Lynn says these are New Zealand flax and, judging by the pictures I found online, I think she's got it!),
 
but the hummingbirds LOVE them,
 
they're drought resistant,
 
and they photograph very nicely.
 
They don't flower for long, so the hummerbees* and I will have to enjoy them quickly.

* That's what my kids called hummingbirds when they were little. The name stuck and I'm teaching it to the baby-grands.

Museum Winner

I won tickets to the Museum of Ventura County through a Facebook contest - my love of Ventura history was finally good for something - so we took Leia and headed down there today.
Leia working on her storyboard.
 
I hadn't been since their expansion a few years back and the remodel looks good. Hubby and I were both surprised that there wasn't more room for exhibits; the expansion seems to have been directed toward adding a new courtyard, waterfall and meeting room.

Current exhibits were "Shooting For The Stars", with fabulous photos of Hollywood royalty by Guy Webster; "Quiet on the Set", showing where in Ventura County films had been shot (answer: everywhere), and including a great hands-on, kid-friendly section that Leia loved; and my favorite, George Stuart's one-quarter life size replicas of historical figures. The Stuart Gallery is worth the price of admission, all by itself. 

My prize also included tickets to the agriculture museum in Santa Paula. If the weather cooperates next week - and stays out of the 100's - we may take Leia to visit the tractors.    

A Girl And Her Slinky

I made "cheater" dresses for both Leia and Leanne last week. 
Leia loves hers - she's worn it twice already, but no pics yet since I couldn't find a camera either time.
 
Leanne, on the other hand, had to be tricked and treated into putting this on today. 
  
Thank heavens for peanut M&M's and sneaky grandmas who can quickly get little girls dressed while they are distracted by 'num-nums'! 
Once it was on, Leanne actually liked the dress.
 
She quickly mastered lifting the skirt with both hands, when needed, and loved twirling to make the bottom flare.
  
Wearing a long skirt obviously didn't slow her down.
  
And she loved going outside with grandma and her camera.  
 
I think she's going to be just as big a ham, and camera hog, as her Cousin Leia.

Running With The Quilts

A friend (hi, Reyna!) and I decided to do our first quilt run this weekend. Rather than taking a sane 2 or 3 days to do the 11-shop, 312 mile (round-trip) event, we did it all (almost) in one 13-hour day. In hind sight, it was crazeeeee, but boy, did we have FUN!

Stop #1 - and the best shop of the day* - was Old Town Quilts in Orcutt.

I found fat quarters to go with the dragon fabric I fell in love with earlier this year; pre-cut, iron-on leaves to appliqué;

and this great fall leaves panel that will become either a quilt or wallhanging.

Love those colors!

Stop #2 - Sew Stitchin' in Grover Beach.

 

Another great shop; I had no idea I loved Asian fabrics (shiny!) until I saw their selection.

Stop 3, and the only place I didn't find anything I wanted to buy, was in Pismo Beach. Cute shop, friendly staff with great Alice In Wonderland costumes, but their fabric just wasn't my thing. Oh, well.

Stop #4, Sew Fun in Atascadero is also a Janome dealer, so I got the rolled hem foot I've been wanting,

and found a little must have fabric too. Probably wouldn't return here except on a quilt run; the staff almost totally ignored us. Every other shop we visited, the people were super friendly and welcoming.

Quilter's Cupboard, stop #5, also in Atascadero.

Nice people, nice fabric but this was the shop where I didn't loooooove what I bought.

Like it; know what I'm going to do with it; but wouldn't miss it if I didn't have it.

Stop #6, the Quiltery in Paso Robles, was the furthest point on the Run - 156 miles from home, give or take a detour or two.

The temp was 97, at least 20 degrees hotter than anywhere else we shopped. Needless to say, we hustled through the parking lot and took our sweet, air-conditioned time picking out our quilty treasures.

Stop 7, The Cotton Ball in Morro Bay, was our second favorite store of the day.

Beautiful fabric, huge selection, (ignore the orange/yellow/purple stuff; it snuck into the wrong photo . . .)

very nice sample quilts (love this idea for a table runner),

and my favorite find-of-the-day:

 

Only way this could be better was if it said "for-freaking-ever." Want!

By now, we were running out of steam, and time. We hustled to San Luis Obispo and stop #8, Betty's Fabric.

Love this place! It's a full fabric shop rather than a quilt-only store, with great samples of quilts,

table runners,

bags and more.

I went a little crazy, buying the fabric and pattern for the table runner,

and the gorgeous red poppy fabric for either another table runner or the bag.

On the loooong drive home, Reyna and I both decided we were going to finish the quilt run, one way or another. So Saturday, hubby and I hopped back in the car - we'd already planned to spend this weekend relaxing in San Luis Obispo - and hit the shops I'd missed the day before.

Quilt Ventura, my home store, was first and I picked up a pillow case kit to make for the hubster.

Then on to Roxanne's in Carpinteria (my second "home" store),

where I bought the kit for their cute fishy quilt

and the makings for tutu skirts for Leia and Leanne.

AND where I accidentally dropped my carefully stamped at all 10 quilt shops Run card. Fortunately, I realized it was gone about 10 miles from Roxanne's, so back we went to claim it.

Our last stop was Betty's Fabrics in Santa Maria, where I turned in my Run card for the grand prize drawings and then went a little crazy in celebration. I picked up some remnants - for pillow cases and little girl dresses -

and bought yet more Asian-inspired fat quarters.

Crazy, huh? But, I have a plan! I'm going to combine all the Asian fabric into one quilt top, probably using an "I can't stand to cut it" big block pattern. And for the centerpiece?

Who could resist a shiny seahorse?

P.S. Reyna finished the Quilt Run too AND she won Sunday's prize basket at Betty's in Santa Maria. Whoohoo!!

* After Quilt Ventura and Roxanne's, of course. I love my home stores!

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