What a frustrating week….no internet at Mom’s house in California and no internet cafe’s and no wi-fi on the laptop, then when I finally got to a hotel with high-speed, Paul’s laptop (which I was borrowing for the trip) doesn’t allow Java, which I needed to blog! AAAARGH! I need my own laptop with wi-fi! Better start saving!

Anyway, have not been to visit Ma for a LONG time. Last visit was for her 85th birthday, in December 2 1/2 years ago. In 2004, we ended up moving cross-country…no time, no money….from Washington to Maine. In 2005, Paul had a heart attack and bypass surgery (he’s all well now), so no money. Finally, time to go. Number two son looked woebegone when I suggested I spend mother’s day with Mom and not here, so I decided to go in advance, which is better anyway…restaurants are way less crowded.

My dear sister in law Joyce came up to visit on Sunday, and along the way connected with another relative who came to brunch on Sunday. Here we all are at Greens, a famous and venerable vegetarian restaurant at Fort Mason in San Francisco:

From left to right: Percy, Mom, Me and Joyce.

Mom lives in a retirement community (very upscale…sigh….but beautiful) in Marin County, and the grounds are spectacular. I took over a hundred photos in just a few mornings, so I’ll be blogging just about everyday this week. If you are on an “alert” feed of some sort for my blog, check in every day (even if your settings are for two days or whatever) because I’m hoping to upload TONS of photos. And by the way, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new Panasonic DMC FZ-30 digital….it is awesome. And I’m actually learning to use it…but sure need to keep the manual handy for some less-frequently used tricks (like macro, and manual focus macro shots).

More soon!

Remember a while back I posted about the Godspeed, a replica of the Jamestown ship that was built right here, in neighboring Rockport? They launched the ship in March I think it was, and since it has been at anchor in the harbor. They raised the masts, and set the rigging and sails. I finally remembered to stop by and take a few pictures before she sets sail for Virginia (soon). I hope that they announce in the papers when she will depart, and hope she will sail (not motor) out of the harbor, though that may depend on the winds. I’d love to see her under sail!

This first picture is of something, I have no idea what, on the shore, but it looked cool against the screaming blue skies:

Here’s a picture of the entire ship, tied to a pier next to Rockport Marine:

And a close up of the rigging…I love the interplay of the ropes and the trees / branches in the background:

Here’s another of the furled sails tied to the (ummm… sailor-type folks, please help me here if I get this incorrect) spars:

And one more of the rigging:

I think there may be a play, an abstraction for a quilt starting in these lines…….

Pictures below…Joyce, don’t look!

I finally figured out what to do for Janome-America in exchange for being part of their artists loaner program (I’m currently using a 6600 which I love love love!)….a totebag pattern for their magazine! With customizable pockets. I wanted to do something that wasn’t necessarily quilty this time (last time I did an applique pattern using Bali Fabrics’ “Flanneltiks”, the Balinese Garden one, pattern available here — scroll down).

I saw the Japanese-inspired cranes fabric on eQuilter (although it looks like this colorway is already sold out), and knew my Mom would probably like it, so I ordered that up to maker her for Mother’s Day, then realized SIL’s b-day is at the end of May (speaking of which, Joyce, if you are reading this…please STOP reading ).

Please scroll down…. want the pics and next comment below the first screen….

keep going

thanks…..

So, made one for her, and as long as I was at it made two more. I’ll keep one of the tropical ones so Joyce and I have “twins”, and will have the extra cranes bag to send to Janome for photography.

Here’s a picture of the insides of the bag (or did I already share that?)…. I added a “key leash”…. about 18 inches of grosgrain ribbon with a ring at the end. You can clip your keychain to it. When you need to find the keys, just pull up the “leash” and there they are. If you have an armload of groceries or whatever, you can just drop the leash inside or outside the bag, and deal with them after you are through the door and have set down your load. As you can see, I’ve got two zippered pockets (the bottom one “bellows”), a water bottle holster, pen and cell phone spots, sunglasses and the (not in this picture) leash.

If everything goes as currently anticipated, the pattern will first be published in the Fall/Winter 2006 International Janome Digest magazine!

And maybe I shouldn’t have? This fabric had stripes running from selvedge to selvedge. I didn’t want pants with horizontal stripes, so I laid the pattern pieces out on the cross grain, so the stripes would run up and down. Hmmmm….

I definitely won’t be wearing this vest and top with the pants (which are summery weight). I think if I wear a top that comes over the top of the pants, they’ll be OK…maybe even tunic length. I aligned the strip carefully with the grainline on the pattern, but they just don’t want to hang straight.

The fabric is a rayon-blend I think, almost crepe-y, kinda crinkly so that if I were to iron out the crinkles, the legs would be siginificantly longer. I’m wondering again if laying out the pattern on the cross-grain was such a good idea. Oh well…that’s what happens when you buy fabric on the internet and can’t actually unroll a length and drape it to see what you’re going to do with it! (original idea was for a jumper or skirt, but since I never wear the jumpers and skirts I have, I nixed that idea after I ordered the fabric……) At least I remembered to pre-shrink the fabric!

Well…after some serious procrastination last week when the boys were home for spring break, I finally resumed work on Tableau, and made a nice leap forward. I gave Joseph a cloak (which helps him stand out against the stable), got the interfacing / foundation for the shepherds cut, ditto for the animals. Here’s a shot from yesterday evening:

I also “foiled” for the first time, to make the halos for the angel (just head and halo at the moment), Mary, Joseph and the baby, and used an extra small halo as a stand-in for the comet / bright star (along with some gold sheer).

I’m testing overlays for the mountains to tone down the white. Will also play with a wash of paint, but of all things think I like the camo mesh from (shudder….) Wal-Mart on the right!

By the way…that’s a cat in the front, bottom /center….I figure if Mary picked up the baby from the warm manger, it’s probably like my house with a cat wanting to move right into the warm spot (there will be a manger in a few days….).

I’ll update with the “colored in” animals (goat, sheep, mule, cow, cat) anon…hopefully before I head to California next week to see Ma.

And a tease: see the lower right corner of the photo? …that’s a box with the other thing I did last week…totebags! I’m going to do a pattern for Janome America (my part of being on the Artists’ loaner program) so developed this tote bag, complete with cell phone pocket and water bottle holster.