We drove back to Ventura from L.A. today. It was a long, traffic-filled drive because apparently everyone decided to go to the beach or just be out on the road for Father’s Day. Tomorrow we head back up to Morro Bay, so that will be another two and a half hours in the car. I may have a finished sock to show you for tomorrow night’s post.
I’m typing this entry in a hotel room at the Hampton Inn in Carson. Sean and I drove into L.A. this afternoon to see the L.A. Galaxy play Philadelphia Union at the Stub Hub Center. The game starts at 7:30 PM, but we have to leave in a few minutes to allow for the time it takes to walk the mile to the stadium, get through security, check out assorted L.A. Galaxy merchandise, buy me cotton candy and a soft pretzel, mill around with the rest of the crowd, and find our seats.
I brought my knitting along and worked on my sock during the drive. You can’t really tell from the photo, but I’m up to the gusset, which is where things start to get a little more exciting, because I’m that much closer to turning the heel. Unfortunately, as much as I’d like to bring my knitting to the game, I’ve been to enough of these events with Sean to know that’s not a good idea. So I’ll leave the knitting for now and pick it up again for the drive back home.
Last year on September 1st, one of my neighbors was offering a young angel’s trumpet plant free to anyone who wanted it. This neighbor had recently learned that the angel’s trumpet (aka brugmansia) was poisonous. She had a couple of dogs that she let run around in her backyard, and she didn’t want to take any chances of accidental dog poisoning.
Having no children, pets, or any kind of nice flowering plant in my front yard, I quickly volunteered to take the free brugmansia. Sean and I went over to her house with a bucket, and her husband dug up the little plant. It was only about three feet tall and pretty much just a forked, leafy stick at the time, but we took it home in our bucket and planted it in the front yard. Coincidentally, that day was also my birthday, so it was a neat little way to mark a new year in my life.
I don’t typically have a green thumb, but with a little bit of luck and some internet research, I was able to nurture that forked leafy stick into an actual thriving plant. After a few months, the trumpet flowers started to bloom.
The bummer, though, was that beetles were eating the leaves. I wanted to wipe out those little critters, but I also didn’t want to douse my plant with pesticide. I looked into organic alternatives and decided to order some ladybugs online. The smallest available quantity was an order of 1,500 ladybugs.
They were supposed to arrive via UPS two-day air, so I told Sean (who is currently on summer vacation) to stick around the house and wait for the UPS guy since I had to be at work all day. At around 11:30 AM, I was in my office when the phone rang. It was Sean.
“Just wanted to let you know your ladybugs arrived,” he said.
“All right!” I said. “Did you open the box to see if they’re still alive?”
“Yeah,” he said. “But how do I get them all back in the box?”
I was speechless. In that moment, I could just see 1,500 ladybugs flitting around the cathedral ceiling of my beautiful Morro Bay house, while I sat helplessly at my desk inside the prison.
I said, “Are you serious?”
“Nah,” Sean said and laughed. “I’m kidding.”
“Ha ha,” I said. “There better not be any ladybugs flying around inside my house right now.”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll let them loose when you get home.”
So that’s what we did, but not all 1,500. I’m going to ration them out a little at a time over the next few days.
And even if they don’t get all the beetles, they’re still very pretty to look at.
Yesterday at work, I kept feeling like it was a Thursday and then realizing that it was only Wednesday. Today felt like it should be Friday, but then I would remember it was only Thursday and that I still had one more day of work to go. Such a disappointing feeling. Have you ever had that kind of a week?
I knit a few more rows on the sock. The sock itself made for a boring photo, so I threw in one of my little unazukin toys for an added bit of kawaii.
It doesn’t look like a lot, but I’ve been making some progress.
I went back to work today. It’s always tough getting through a 10-hour-day after returning from a nice long break. Now that I’m home, I could just eat dinner and go to bed, but I started my half marathon training plan last week and still need to go run for thirty minutes.
In other news, I started a new sock.
My mom’s stay in Morro Bay is over. She’s now in Houston, visiting my brother and having all kinds of adventures there.
After Sean and I said goodbye to her at the airport, I was feeling a little sad. We went out for lunch in San Luis Obispo and then drove back to Morro Bay. On our way home, we stopped at Grandma’s Frozen Yogurt for a bit of a treat. They have a nice outdoor patio where you can enjoy your frozen yogurt and do some people watching. That’s where I spotted the small pots of pumpkin seedlings in the corner. The sign indicated that they were free to anybody who wanted some. According to the sign, if you planted the seedlings now, the pumpkins would be fully grown by Halloween. Naturally I helped myself to one of the free pots.
“Take as many as you want,” the woman who rang up our yogurt urged.
So I took three more.
Sean had to stop at Miner’s Ace Hardware to purchase a few items, so I tagged along and browsed through the gardening section. That’s where I saw The Gnomes. I wanted to buy all of them, but they were kind of pricey, so I only allowed myself to pick two. I figured I could always go back and get the others after payday. When Sean and I got up to the cash register, I set them down on the conveyor belt and the cashier looked at them fondly as if they were old friends. She even patted one on the shoulder.
“Hey, guys,” she said. “Looks like you’re off to a new home.”
She rang up our purchases and didn’t say a word to me about the gnomes, although she was completely friendly and nice. Just an average, every day, unremarkable hardware store buying and selling experience.
At the end of the transaction, she handed me the receipt and smiled and turned back to the gnomes. “Okay, guys,” she said, giving a final affectionate pat. “You be good, now. Bye.”
I couldn’t help feeling immensely cheered after that.
Two little pumpkin seedlings and the garden gnomes in the late afternoon sunlight.
Close-up of Gnome #2. No woman could resist his charm.
Remember last week, when my mom was visiting from Hawaii, and I started piecing together the appliqued blocks that she began hand-sewing back in 1987?
Twenty-eight years later, it’s finished!
If you missed the earlier posts about this quilt, here’s what we started with:
My mom began this project back in 1987. She cut those blue squares with scissors instead of a rotary blade. (I don’t even know if rotary blades and self-healing cutting mats were available back in 1987.) Then, sewing by hand, she appliqued those little sun-hat-wearing figures to the blue background, using embroidery thread and the blanket stitch. Her original plan was to hand-sew each of the blocks together to make one large sheet to cover a bed.
I’m not sure exactly when she stopped working on this project, but she didn’t get around to seriously picking it up again until just last year. About three months ago, she sent a photo of the blocks to me with a text message: “Look at what I’m working on.” She had completed a huge pile of them.
I texted back and offered to sew the blocks together on my sewing machine. She was planning on coming out to California in June for my nephew’s high school graduation, so I figured I’d do it while she was in town for her visit. Fast forward to last week, when she arrived in Morro Bay with her luggage and goods from Hawaii.
When I saw the actual blocks, I realized that they’d look a lot better against a contrasting fabric, rather than sewn side by side. So I purchased some yellow cotton and went to work.
Here is a recap of the steps:
Cutting fabric with rulers, a rotary blade, and a self-healing mat. No using scissors here!
This cute little guy needs a yellow frame to really stand out.
Each one getting his own frame.
Filling in the squares.
Sewing strips, and then sewing the strips together.
The finished quilt top!
I didn’t take any photos of layering the backing/batting/quilt-top sandwich or any photos of the actual quilting, but here’s what it looked like toward the end:
So close to being done!
And there you have it…
Ta-da! The finished quilt in all its glory.
A labor of love for my Mama.
It took a few hours, but I finished hand-sewing the binding to the quilt.
I thought you would enjoy seeing what the back of the quilt looks like.
Stay tuned– I’ll post more photos of the full quilt tomorrow!
Remember this photo from yesterday?
I sewed together those two ends. The last thing I need to do now is hand-sew the binding to the back of the quilt, using the ladder stitch. It will take me a couple of hours, I think, and then this project will be done!
365 Days Handmade 