Butterflies & More

 The South Beach Botanic Garden is located not far from my son's family. They love it, so I gift them with a family membership each year.

They had a butterfly exhibit there while I was visiting. Most places now have areas designed for photos. We should all be butterflies!

Not many people were lucky enough to be the landing spot for a butterfly.

This was as close as I got, but it was still fine by me.

They have lovely flowers, an entire bleeding heart garden, and a stunning rose garden, but I find myself attracted to the Cactus garden.

They were in flower, which was really cool to see.

We had some terrific food. Here my DGG is taking a picture of my son and DIL.

While there I read Haroun and the Sea of Stories **** to my DGD. I really didn't need to. She is able to read very well. Once I stopped to take a drink of water, and when I tried to find my place to resume reading, she pointed it right out to me! It's a fun book, and when we got to the end of one chapter and she said, "Do we have to stop? Can you please keep reading?" I knew she liked the book as much as I do.

It's always fun to see quilts I made a long time ago. This is the Petals quilt I made in 2015. I slept under the Dinosaur quilt!

Before I left, I set up my DGD's iPad so she could FaceTime with me with just the push of a button. As you can see she is getting tall. She'll be nine next week, and I'm pretty sure that the next time I see her she'll be taller than me.

I had a grand time.

**** this from Amazon about the book: 

Immediately forget any preconceptions you may have about Salman Rushdie and the controversy that has swirled around his million-dollar head. You should instead know that he is one of the best contemporary writers of fables and parables, from any culture. Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a delightful tale about a storyteller who loses his skill and a struggle against mysterious forces attempting to block the seas of inspiration from which all stories are derived.

“This is, simply put, a book for anyone who loves a good story. It’s also a work of literary genius.” —Stephen King

Happy Birthday Darling!

 Happy Birthday to my darling granddaughter,

Somebody is 8 years old today! And as. you can see she loves the PRIZM quilt, so now it lives in California.

The cat loves it too. He hasn't stopped cuddling with it since it came out of the box. (The soft frisbee is a gift from Mémère as well.)

yeah, those two are definitely connected....

Family!

 

My son and granddaughter arrived a couple of days ago. Their flight was delayed by 2 hours and they finally got to my house about 10 PM, and they were hungry! So I fed them, and they both perked right up. 

The next day they came over and my DGD and I baked a cake and then I asked her to crawl under my worktables to fish out some fabrics and tools I had dropped back there.

We added the stitching for gathering the skirt on the Dino dress I am working on. DGD expressed an interest in sewing herself, so I Gabe her a strip of fabric and let her practice.

The next day she sewed the hem on the dress.

My son took pictures of us, and he asked us to be a little bit silly.

Jet lag finally caught up with the both of them.

A Dino Dress

My granddaughter will be visiting next week and she has expressed a desire to sew with me. I figured I better get going on her dinosaur dress.  I have completed the bodice, above, and assembled the big parts of the skirt. All that's needed is to gather the waist and attach it to the bodice, then sew the hem. My granddaughter has no sewing experience, but I think she would get a kick out of doing that part.

I've really enjoyed the Olympics. I love watching the Equestrian events along with Water Polo, and that's in addition to the usual - gymnastics, swimming and tennis. Then again, pretty much anything is interesting to watch.

Fancy Dress Up Day

 

It was Fancy Dress Up Day at my granddaughter's school on Monday. Naturally my daughter-in-law took a picture of my DGD and my son.

Pretty in pink, the two of them!

BTW, my seminole patchwork basics tutorial is available here, in my Etsy shop. The band on the bodice of her dress is more complicated than it at first looks, but the instructions are in the tutorial.

A Little Ham...

This is my granddaughter in the Pink Dinosaur Seminole Dress. 

Pretty sure she likes it. 

Seeing these photos (and the others my son sent), reminded me of what his pediatrician said to me during one of his exams.

"There's a little ham in this kid."

Clearly it runs in the family.

Dinosaur Seminole Dress

 

This is the bodice of the dress I made for my granddaughter. I wanted to make a dress that featured Seminole Patchwork. But when I saw the fabric with the dinosaur eyes, I thought my granddaughter would be happy if I could include it in the dress.

I sent the photograph to my California family. My DIL said my granddaughter said, "I think I might faint" because she liked it so much.

This is the back of the dress. I really didn't need to have the patchwork panel on the back of the dress, but I didn't want to drop the ball.

I added a band of seminole patchwork along the bottom of the skirt of the dress.

Here is the finished dress.

I sent a photograph of the dress to my daughter-in-law and her reply was "Woooooow! Showstopper!"

The dress will go to out to California on Monday!!

OH! And the tutorial is almost ready! Stay tuned!

What's Next

 

Now that I know the dress fits my granddaughter, it's time to make "the real thing."

I'm cutting out the pieces.

And I am "making" the fabric for the bodice. The bodice is lined so there is no need to worry about all these seams.

OOOOOOooo!

As you can see, the dress arrived, and it fits my darling granddaughter perfectly.

She LOVES that it has pockets.

 My son & DIL sent me an awesome video. That funny sound at the end is my son. pretty sure he's making a happy sound. Anyway, the video, to me, is seriously awesome and damned perfect!

Woo hoo!

Not a Quilt, Part 2

 

It's hard to make a piece of clothing for somebody who lives on the other side of the country. Sizing is interesting, so I decided to make a test dress for my granddaughter to see how it will fit.

Of the fabric I had, DGD chose this print. I felt the purple would be a great contrast. Although my DGD loves pink, I didn't think a pink sash would really show up.

DAMN! This is gonna be adorable!

Quilt in Action

We're supposed to have snow her in New Hampshire today and tomorrow, but it's sunny in California.

This is my DGD with the quilt I made for her as a baby.

I gift my California family with a membership to the South Botanic Garden each year. These pictures were taken there.

How cool is this?

Then again, this is pretty cool too.  Pink and Green, one of those perfect combinations. Quilt and Granddaughter, nice pair also.

 

Hey Mom, Can you...?

 

An hour and fifteen minutes before we were supposed to leave for the wedding (which was an hour away), my son texts me... "Hey Mom, can you sew a button? It needs dark gray thread."

Can I sew a button?

Is the sky blue? Is the Pope Catholic?

I grabbed my portable mending kit, threaded a needle with dark gray thread and went outside to wait for them. They arrived a few minutes later, and I got into the car and sewed the button on the drive to the wedding venue*.

Crisis averted.

Memories preserved.

My son was an officiant and my granddaughter was the ring bearer. A very good time was had by all.

*My portable mending kit is nothing more than a chocolate tin with a small magnet affixed to the cover. Inside, as you can see, are pins, a small pair of scissors, a needle threader, thimble, set of tweezers, seam ripper, needles, thread and of course, a band aid. The whole shebang is smaller than my wallet. It's handy as hell, and quite a little lifesaver.

 

SEVEN!!

This is my darling granddaughter. She is now, officially, seven years old. As you can see she has QUITE an attitude. I love her to bits.

I was worried over the weekend with the storm headed to the City of Angels, but they were lucky and avoided most of it. Sunday afternoon I practically had a coronary when my DIL texted me "We got an extra bonus earthquake!"

I am fine. Thank you to those who have contacted me to ask. It took about a week for me to get over the jet lag and the fatigue. (This getting old stuff really sucks.) Then I got sick and spent a few days sacked out on the couch, very uncomfortable. I have no quilting going on and I am not quite sure what to do next. I have to get in there and Pick Up The Pencil. (It's a blog post I wrote years ago. It's still apt today.) 

I've been binge watching the Great British Baking Show and writing up the story of the Alegretto quilt so I can gift it to my nephew and his bride. 

I've also been reading. In California, when I was not reading Chitty Chatty Bang Bang to my granddaughter, I was reading "Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World." which was really very good. I'm a sucker for Romance so I also read a series of novels set in the Regency era by Mary Kingswood that I found tremendously entertaining. (Hey, I read about 12, one right after the other, so that should tell you.) I just finished I Didn't Do It by Jamie Lynn Hendricks, which I really enjoyed. 

I am pretty sure I know what my next tutorial is going to be and by the middle of next month I will have dropped off three flimsies to my long arm quilter and picked up Black Abacus to finish.

Oh and the mice chewed more than the dishwasher drain. They also chewed through some of the electrical wiring in the kitchen so THAT has had to be redone. Color me MEGA frustrated.

Oh, and I got new glasses. When I was in California we visited a Trendy Optical boutique. I had been frustrated with my old glasses - the frames were too small for me to see properly so I was looking for something bigger and a bit different.

The frames are light as hell, and barely there, but they are purple and I just love them.

 

A Perfect Day

Bye bye New England, and Atlantic Ocean! I always get a seat near the window so I can look outside. This was taken right after takeoff from Logan International Airport in Boston.

I am always amazed how densely packed the LA area is. That's downtown LA in the distance.

It's easy to say I went to California to see my granddaughter, but of course I was eager to see my son.  I arrived in sunny (dry and not too hot) California at lunchtime, so we went out to have some lunch together.

This was the view from my seat. Can you see the Pacific Ocean? Yeah, how tough is that?

OF COURSE we had to get ice cream! I had Strawberry with Balsamic Vinegar and Black Pepper! It was so good. And YES, I bought a new pair of glasses frames. More on those later. This was in Manhattan Beach. After our ice cream we walked down to the pier.

I have long learned to believe that everything I have ever heard about California is true. After all, where else would you see a guy lounging in an inflatable pool AT THE BEACH? No, we don't know how the portable pool got filled with water.

My son kept getting compliments on his shirt (he got it at Old Navy).

There is a small aquarium in the Manhattan Beach pier. My DGD and I got to touch live starfish and sea anemones.

Later I started reading Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to my DGD. (Yes, it is by THAT Ian Fleming, and it is wonderful. NOTHING like the stupid movie of the same name. This is an excerpt from the Vogue book review at the time: "The car is divine. So is the book.") I am happy to say she got more excited the more I read and we were able to finish the book before I left.

(That is my Digital Pinwheels quilt on the couch behind us.

Later, my DGD and I donned aprons and we made lemon curd. I was showing her how to separate the eggs in the photo above. After we put the eggs in the pan, I had her measure the sugar and add that to the pan too.

"SUGAR? Memere," she asked curiously. "SUGAR? In Eggs??" She wrinkled her nose. "Are you sure?"

I smiled, "Yes honey, you'll see."

Next we grated the rind of a few lemons (DGD and I both LOVE lemon!), added lemon juice, butter a bit of salt, and then started cooking it on the stove. DGD was bored by then, until I put a spoon in the custard and offered her a taste. Her whole face lit up! "THIS IS GOOD!"

I laughed.

I got to sleep in DGD's. bed when I was there. Can you see the dinosaur quilt I made for her? The the pink quilt in the foreground is one of mine too. My son's house has what I call the greatest concentration of Lynne Tyler quilts anywhere in the world aside from my house. It's fun to get to know my own quilts after some time apart.

We had dinner, and then went to bed. I slept like a rock.

It's taken me a week to recover. OH! I had the best time.  

More later.