The Color Peach

Peach is the fourth color in the challenge from "15 minutes play".  While not my favorite color, I really like the way my block turned out with the soft greens.  Now I have to wait until Wednesday to find out the next color - this is a really fun challenge, using colors way out of my comfort zone.

Lilies

I love to receive flowers.  Yesterday, these beautiful lilies arrived in the mail from my swap partner Miki. She made me this wonderful little quilt that speaks Spring, blooms and blue skies forever.

Thank you Miki, I will treasure this always.

Tuna!

Yesterday we visited Balboa Park's History Center to see an exhibit honoring the tuna industry of San Diego.

What made it really special to us was that my husband's father Emil, was a fisherman with the San Diego tuna fleet for over 30 years.  He's pictured on the left making squid hooks in an article from the "The Saturday Evening Post" magazine dated April 10, 1948.

I love this tuna sculpture - the scales are made from tuna can lids.

While in Balboa Park, we also visited the Botanical Building which is filled with beautiful flowers, ferns and trees.

Paradise!

Patterns

In our watercolor class last week, Jane instructed us to create a page filled with repeated patterns.  I made a template of an aloha shirt and got busy with my pen drawing Hawaiian details on them.
                                              
I had so much fun designing my shirts and then watercoloring them with bright colors.

This is just the first process in a two step assignment and I will share my finished art next week.

ALOHA!

Another Challenge

The current challenge from 15 minutes play is color.  Each week we are assigned a color that most people seem to avoid when making a quilt.  So far we have used mauve, ochre and avocado.

I've also given myself the challenge of choosing most of my fabrics from the charms I received in a swap.

I wonder what the next color will be.

Thursday Outing

In the historical area of Old Town in San Diego, there is a delightful custer of Victorian houses surrounding Heritage Park.  We spent a beautiful, sunny morning wandering the gardens and enjoying the views.

Just up the hill from Old Town is the Mission Hills district.  I love this small nursery tucked amoung stately Spanish style homes. 

 I think this must be the only nursery in the city with chickens wandering freely along the paths.

We ended our adventure back in Old Town at La Pinata Restaurant for margaritas, cheese enchiladas and shredded beef tacos.  Another great day.

no room

Just one week before major surgery, Parris's film "no room for ROCKSTARS" is released in 30 cities across America.  It becomes Itunes top downloaded documentary on April 4, 2012.

Way to go Parris - YOU ROCK!!!

Recipes

In watercolor class this week, everyone was to paint a favorite recipe.  I chose "Broccoli Slaw with Oranges and Crunchy Noodles", a wonderful salad we always enjoy.

I decided to use a stencil for the recipe amounts and I like the way the numbers pop out because of their size.

For the soy sauce bottle I used an actual label, Jane had suggested adding different elements into our paintings.

All of the recipes we drew will be combined into a cookbook for the class, this was a great lesson.

Eye Candy

Adelaide's Florist in La Jolla always has the most beautiful (and expensive) flowers.  My friend Sherry and I love to visit the shop and drool over their displays and bouquets.

1000 Cranes

There's a beautiful Japanese legend that a wish will be granted to someone who folds 1000 origami cranes.

With a lot of help from her high school students, our younger daughter Jill created these wonderful cranes to send good wishes to Parris for his speedy recovery.

Grids

In class last week, Jane instructed us to create grids on our journal page.  We then watercolored a collection of objects in each space.  I chose hearts, each one holds a special memory to me of family and friends.  I filled in 3 of the grids with heart quotes.

We machine stitched around the grids to make each square a little painting on it's own.

This was a really fun exercise and I'm already thinking of other collections I can add to my journal.

Flowers For Miki

I signed up to participate in another swap through 15 minutes play.  This time, everyone created the same 12" lily quilt using made fabric.

My partner is Miki from mikisquilts.blogspot.com  I mailed her quilt not realizing she was out of town so her husband took a photo and sent it to her.  She will have to wait until Monday to see it in person.

It was a really fun pattern and I added a lot of hand stitching.  The borders are finished using a blanket stitch with beads.

Happy Spring Miki!

Class Lesson

In watercolor class last week, our assignment was to paint something from nature using torn text as a background.  I selected daisies from our walk at Mission Bay Park and ranunculus from The Flower Fields.  My text is from an old German book.

I also want to share a page I created after our visit to Los Angeles.  Parris, our daughter's boyfriend, is doing great and will need no further procedures (I'm sure it was because of the flags!) - we are all so very grateful.