A Walk in the Park

Wednesday was beautiful out so we headed to Balboa Park in San Diego for a day of adventure.  Our first stop was the Natural History Museum to see an exhibit on chocolate.  We learned about the origins and process of making this delicious treat.

I just had to purchase this very expensive delight from Madagascar - when opening it, I felt I had won a golden ticket to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory!!

Tucked away down a wooden path, we discovered this amazing tree.  It's a Ficus Macrophylla Columnaris.  The roots form tall column-like structures.  My husband is 6'5" and looks like an Oompa Loompa next to this tree!

We also visited the San Diego Hall of Champions and had lunch under the umbrellas at The Prado.

Another great day as homegrown tourists!!

Story Quilt Progress

I've been adding to my Story Quilt, Mary Lou recommends you make the borders first.  I'm finding that certain colors don't pop out on the black background so I have done a lot of ripping and resewing, this is going to be a long process but also a lot of fun.

The Start of a Story

For a while, I have been fasinated with Mary Lou Weidman's Story Quilts.  I decided it was time to try one of these whimsical, colorful quilts for myself.  I'm starting with flowers, some of my most favorite things.

Brown Garden

During the winter months, my small back garden gets no sun.  We have also had near freezing nights and some heavy rain.  This is how my garden looks now - but warm, sunny days are ahead.  I can't wait to start planning, planting and enjoying the future flowers that will grow here!

Mini Me

These patterns are the first two blocks from the 12 month paper piecing series I signed up for.  The patterns come in a 6" and a 12" size.  After making my 12" blocks, I had a lot of scraps left over so I decided to make the 6" ones also.

The mini blocks will be used as fillers in my quilt.
 

A Request

When I gave my friend Cookie a mug rug for Christmas, she liked it so much she asked me to make another exactly like hers so she could give it to someone else.  I love making the little 6" rugs, it's like completing a mini quilt in just a few hours.

2013 Calendar

I'm making a calendar for the year.  Using a wonderful 4-part video series by Joanne Fink from tanglepatterns.com, I drew the date for my cover page.

We have to most beautiful sunsets in January so I decided to start the year with warm colors.  The days are tags I cut from scrapbook paper and I sewed them on with beads.  (I ended up having to glue them also because they didn't stay in place!)

We are celebrating many birthdays this month and I couldn't resist adding the little boy clown I found in my late mother-in-law's photo box.

Thanks to Annie for sharing the link thekathrynwheel.blogspot.com - the inspiration for the calendar.

January in San Diego

Yesterday, my husband and I went for a walk along a channel off of San Diego Bay.  It was sunny, warm and so clear you could see the mountains in the distance.

This is the USS Recruit.  It was built to 2/3 scale of a destroyer escort and served for instruction.  This is the Navy's only commissioned ship to never reach water and is now a California historical landmark.

We had a wonderful day walking and enjoying delicious sandwiches at Con Pane in Liberty Station.

Tomorrow it's suppose to rain and it will get down to 54 degrees!

Practice Piece

This is the first pattern I received for the BOM paper piecing.  It's a practice block and my first attempt was too large and the fabric was way too busy.  I took it apart and started all over, I'm happy with the results.

Paper Piecing 2013

I signed up for a paper piecing block of the month club at dontcallmebetsy.com/  Each month during 2013, I will receive a paper pieced pattern for a Lucky Star block.  The first one pictured above is the "Funky Star".  I have decided to use teals, pinks, yellows and greens for my fabric choices - a Caribbean color scheme.