Pyramid Lake

Finally! Here are some pictures of our trip to Sparks, NV.

This is Pyramid Lake. It's on the Paiute Indian Reservation. We stopped at the visitor center because we needed a permit to drive onto the reservation. Turned out we had to get it at the Nixon Store, but we got to see the museum.

Here is Joseph and me in front of the rock formation that the lake is named after. The rock formations here are called tufa.

There are lots of pictures here for Grandparents.

They had some great displays there, including some quilts. We met Ben Aleck, who went to art school in Oakland. I am in awe of people who went to real art school and was too embarrased to talk to him about art. I felt like such a bumpkin.
Ben told us about an exhibit of Native American art at the Wilbur D. May Museum in Reno, so we went there the next day to see Ben's art.

Joseph and Grandaddy by the lake. Amazing that a huge lake with clear water is right in the middle of a desert.
Us again, from the flip side. Most of the pictures make us look very very small. I felt very small.

Home

We are home.

We went to the art exhibit at the May. It was all Native American Art. It was great. The Ben Aleck at the museum by Pyramid Lake told us about it. His work was in it.
The next day we went to the auto museum. Also great. The drive home was long and we arrived with a camera full of pictures and a battery that needed recharging. That is what is happening now. Recharging.

Janow is doing well, considering. Silver was glad to see me. I didn't know if she would be, or if I would be able to tell. It was pretty obvious. Whiskers showed me the pantry, and Mary Shelley took until about 2:00pm the next day to forgive me for going away.

While the battery is recharging, I can show you some pictures of the other window shade that is in the ironing stages.

Here you can see how it looked before I put any wax on. I put a few details in Shiva paint stick. The composition book shows some of my planing sketches.
This is after the first wax and dye.
Here you can see the back after I waxed it and dyed in again.

Now that I am home, I am back to working on the silk screens for the tank that Erica wanted. I don't have pictures of that because the camera battery is charging and the picture card is full. Wait 'til you see the pictures of Pyramid Lake.

Pyramid Lake

We went to Pyramid Lake. It's huge! I couldn't believe there was so much water in the desert. No trees, very small bushes, almost no grass. Huge lake. I took lots of pictures, but you will have to wait until I get home to see them.

Living in the desert is different. It's very dry, so the air feels very soft. There is a lot of static electricity. While we were at the melodrama in Virginia City, I went to the ladies room. I plucked the tissue paper toilet seat cover out of the dispenser, but I pulled it hard enough to get it out, but failed to maintain my grasp so it went wafted through the air. I grabbed it easily and put in on the seat where it clung. It transferred it's cling to me when I stood up, so I plucked it off to send it down in the bowl. It did not go into the bowl, but clung again to the seat. I grabbed it off the seat to send it down and it jumped sideways and clung to the toilet paper dispenser. When I pulled it off the dispenser it jumped up my arm. I wadded it up and dropped in. What an experience! I felt like I was channeling Mr. Bean.

Yesterday was Paper Piecing Day One. I taught my mother to paper piece. It was hard, I was patient. She was pessimistic but she persevered. She started out by repeating that she could never get this! She ended up sewing away saying: "All quilting should be on paper, you can just sew on the lines." We made 14 flying geese units.

Today we continued paper piecing. It began with the knowledge that she remembered nothing from the day before. However, with me merely watching, she was able to get most of the steps the first time. She made 7 Economy blocks.

Tomorrow we are going to an art exhibit.

The Perils of Pusher

Whiskers is waiting for me to return.

It's a nice thought, but not true. She just likes to see how small a place she can hide in. She's a cat. Except for 4am and 4pm, when I give out cat food, she probably does not miss me. Dave is in charge of playing and lap. He is still home, so she is fine.

Last night we went to Virginia City to see a melodrama at Piper's Opera House. The Perils of Pusher was presented my the Misfits. We had a great time. Pusher was the name of the town because it was at the base on a steep incline where trains would need and extra engine to push them up the hill. They sang "I've been working on the Railroad." I laughed so hard. Joseph was embarrassed.

When he was much smaller, he was afraid to go as far away down the hall as the bathroom. When I couldn't go with him, I would sing that song very loudly so he would feel like I was closer. Then he could go. Dave didn't know about this until when he was home one day and Joseph ran up to me saying: "Sing 'I've been Working in the Railroad.' I have to go to the bathroom." So I started to sing at the top of my lungs and Joseph ran to the bathroom. Dave was bewildered until I could explain. Of course, I had to keep singing until Joseph was done in the bathroom! Dave does not like waiting for an explanation.

batik window shade

This is a batik window shade I was working on while my computer was under the weather with a virus.

It's one of two that are still in progress. I'm making them for Maura and Jeff. When these are done, they can pick the one they like.
I was afraid to make one because it might have fated me to accidentally ruin it and have none.

Here it is after the first wax and dye application.

Right now, I am in Nevada, visiting. I put these pictures in blogger as a draft, and I just have to copy them into today's entry. That's OK since I could not make any entries for a long time while my computer was down. The pictures stayed stuck in my camera.


It is still in this ironing stage.

These are really interesting when they are lit from behind. I also made some Jack O' Lanterns on broadcloth. The Boy Scouts have a silent auction during the quarterly Court Of Honer awards potluck. The proceeds of each item go into the individual Scout Funds of each boy who bring the item. I haven't taken pictures of them yet.

lick

Here are some pictures Dave took last weekend at the Lick Observatory. The air was so clear. Amazing after the smoke from the fires.

You can see the road we came up. One of the turns was so tight it had a mirror posted so you could see around it.

You can see a lot form up there! We took binoculars and just looked at everything.
Here is Dave by the seismograph. He has those flip up sun glass lenses so he looks real touristy. Never try to look like a native, people might ask you for directions.

Tuesday, he did not have those lenses. We were in the car and he remarked how much they helped. "Mom was right." So there you go Peggy! Thirty years later, you were right after all. But you knew that, didn't you?

Maura, I spelled seismograph right!

Beneath the Planet of the Laptops

My laptop has returned for the sequel. There are many pictures still in the camera, waiting to be uploaded.


This is the last saddle pad of it's kind for the summer. It's finished now, but this is what it looked like before. The finished pictures are 'still in the camera.'







over and out

bags

Bags? Well, the pictures on yesterday's post are saddlepads, not bags, but Ambleside Designs makes bags. Carryall size and handbag size. Not being a bag type person, I hadn't even noticed. I have enough baggage, I don't need more. But Kyra noticed, so even if you are not a horse person, you may want to look.

The bags Kyra mentioned are on this page:
Ambleside bags

I went to Kyra's blog by following her name/link in yesterday's comment. Can you imagine metal quilts? "No?" Go to her blog and see them. "Yes," you can imagine metal quilts? Not like these, you can't! You still need to go to her blog and see them!
Black Threads

Still no laptop.......

I saw the movie Donnie Darko. I had read the reviews, but nothing could have prepared me for that. It was very good, I have to see it again. It was weird.

Ambleside Designs

Look at these! Great saddlespads, each is unique. I don't know how they got the machine to do this. I wanted to do this, but found that I needed a walking foot to go through this thickness with layers, and walking feet are not good for machine quilting.
Ambleside Designs


Still no laptop and no pictures, but I have somebody else's pictures! Here are some great pads from Ambleside designs:





I put their link in the sidebar to the right.

still no pictures

Still no pictures, no laptop, no photoshop. Today I plan to sit and stare at Dave while he does it. I think that's what he has been waiting for.

BSA Troop 92 is going to Raging Waters water slides today. Joseph is supposed to be ready and at the departure point at 8:30. So far, at 7:47am he has migrated to the sofa. I have placed apple juice and bacon nearby. I have blown the smell of the bacon onto him. I think I'll go turn on the TV.

I don't understand these people who try not to move until noon. They miss the best part of the day. I have already read some of my current book: Reaper Man. I boiled another batik and it is now cooling. I finished prepareing the second canvas and blocking it out. Then I applied the first layer of color. Now I have two of those ready for wax.

After that, I cut PFD, four fat quarters for crackle dying, and three 14x14s for pumpkins. Pumpkins are fun to batik, and they always find homes before Halloween. Not like other holiday stuff that hangs around until next year.

I dried and folded two loads of laundry. Silver came out and went back in when she was ready for her raisens. She always goes back in by herself and she always gets raisens, or sometimes bannana.

I fed the cats. We are almost out of cat food.

Janow is much improved. I will see him after I drop Joseph off with his troup.

I'm looking forward to doing hot wax today. It has been too hot all week, the wax would not have hardened enough and would have wicked out into the wrong part of the fabric.

Snap Fish was having a penny print sale so I ordered a bunch of snapshots. The shipping is high unless you get a lot of pictures printed, so I save them up to do big batches. I ordered over 100. Some are copies for granparents. If they come, I will hold them for ransom. For the laptop.
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Just checked on Joseph. Still comatose. The bacon was gone. The apple juice was not. I woke him up.
"Did you eat the bacon?"
"No."
"whiskers!"

You snooze, you lose.

still

Still no laptop, so no pictures. I started two new pads this week, and completed the batik on one. It is ready for wax removal.

I had an embellished pad almost done, just needed to add the binding. When I started to put it on, it was the wrong color, so I picked a new color and made binding, but when I started to put it on, it looked aweful, so I tried the old binding that I had decided was wrong. It was much better, very nice, in fact. I don't know why it was wrong before. I can sew that on today and get that pad done.

I also did some sketches for a window shade. I came up with four designs, two that I like enough to work on more. I cut two pieces of canvas and got them stretched out on tubes, now I wait for them to dry. When that is done, I will look at my sketches again and see how much I still like them.

The the design on a foundation-pieced embellishment based on flying geese is finsihed. I drafted the foundation for a pad and a half before I ran out of foundation stuff. I can select fabric today when there is better light. Right now, there is no light, but the birds say it is coming soon.

Dave and Joseph are going up to My Hamilton for the 4th weekend. Janow is still needing lots of care and I am not going. If I went, I would be a mess and not have a good time. I would also be likely to ruin everybody's good time. There was a lot of pressure to go. I can't do everything. If I went, and Janow died, I would take the hate to my grave. Sometimes there is no 'right' answer and you have to pick between wrong ones.

I had a new primitive sweatshirt idea, so I got it started. Then I had another idea and I started that too. The next part is hand work and I can take it to the barn today to work on between handwalks and medication.

I can hang with Silver this weekend too. She is so funny. I need to get her a new project towel at Savers soon. The old towel piece is mere lace.

bummer fun

Summer continues. Having a preteen with friends on myspace has somehow resulted in my laptop being corrupted. I had just recently backed up, so a lot of files are saved. I have managed to save the rest, I think. Now the whole think needs to be wiped out and everything reloaded. I don't know when that will happen.

Everybody waiting for pictures is going to have to wait longer.

The Boy Scout returned from Camp Wente with three merit badges and ready for rank advancement after a conference with the troop leader. He also has some pretty good respiratory irritation from breathing smoke from wildfires. He wa shoarse when he got back, and has a bad cough still, three days after getting back.

As you may know, California has hundreds of wildfires burning, really, over 800 at last count. Most started by lightening. This counts as weather. We may not have ice storms, blizzards, or hurricanes, but we have this. This state leads the nation in wildfires, both by acreage and perecentage. They destroy homes and businesses, cause evacuations, effect health. Billions of dollars are spent fighting them. We are not dangerously close to any here, but we get ash falling on our cars, and the sun has been shrouded for weeks. The air quality is so low they are advising people to stay indoors if they can. People with allergies and asthma are having a particularly hard time.

Janow is still having a lot of difficulty with his feet and I am medicating him three times a day. It is wearing me out. I feel so bad for him, and scared too. That is throwing a lot of summer plans in jeopardy, if not out the window. I want to not care about my summer plans, but it is disappointing other people.

I am getting more pads started,as well as finished, but with computer problems, I cannot upload photos to show you.

I also have three good floor cloth/window shade plans and I need to prepare the canvas for those this week.

Just another quick home improvemnt project.....

Here is a picture from Vertical Challenge, the helicopter show at the Hiller Aviation Museum.
There were a couple of other pictures I wanted to put here, but Blogger is having trouble uploading right now.

Yesterday we got Joseph off to camp. I went early because I had to give Janow some Isoxsuprine for his feet and break a $20. Joseph needed $34-$40 in small bills for camp activities and getting meals on the drive to camp and back. The treasurer adult hods the money and gives it to each scout as needed, helping them make wise choices. After I did these, I met Joseph and Dave at the place they were mustering. Joseph was wearing worn out sneakers, so I rushed him home to get his hiking boots. After that, everything went smoothly.

I have been a little unwise in time usage. I logged on to
test adventure games again. I haven't looked there in maybe 5 years or so. These are text based games, no graphics. I get into them easily and have wasted many hours on these in the past. There are new ones since last time. I am in one called Fantasy Quest II, which is supposed to be medium difficulty. I is not hard, probably because I am not stuck yet.

We went up Mt. Hamilton yesterday because Dave had to do something to the spring. I thought we would be there forever. He said it wouldn't take him long, but I know how these short little projects can stretch out for hours and hours. This one didn't! He was done faster than he thought he would be. Then we unloaded a bunch of stuff and put the new Ikea sofa together. We had to come home because Janow needed more Isoxsuprine.

I worked a little on a saddlepad and the pillows I am covering, then we went to La Milpa for dinner and came home to a movie. We watched Once, an independent film about Irish musicians. Chris, I thought about you and you might like it. It was a bit different but I liked it a lot. It was a totally different kind of movie from the last one we saw called Fool's Gold that was all big money Hollywood Glitz and action.

sewing, yesterday and today

Yesterday, I covered the seat cushion for this wicker chair that Joseph and I got at Ikea.
Then I covered the two little pillows with chicken fabric.

The Oakland As fleece that is draped on the chair is from Joanne's, where we were getting the chicken fabric and some other home dec fabric to cover pillows I wanted to get today from Target. You can see that fabric in the saddlepad picture where it is the background. Joseph saw the fleece and wanted a blanket, and it was 30% OFF, so I bought a yard and a half, cut off the selvages and put a zig-zag hem. I had to use the Pfaff Smart 100, which is a very lightweight machine. I am used to bigger more pwerfull machines. Every tiem I went too fast, the thread jammed. The littloe Pfaff likes to go slow. SLow with a zig zag stich is really slow. It was hard to make myself pay attention, I was so tempting to look around for something more interesting.

He is satisfied with his As throw, but it is too hot to use it now.

Then I photoshopped the Small House batik on to the sofa picture from yesterday. The sofa was too wide so I squished it into a loveseat.


I worked on this foundation pieced star yesterday and today. This dressage pad was finished today. The star I am working on is for a navy blue pad. I've been using the Juki TL. Dave oiled the clutch and it makes a huge difference. Now I don't want to sell it.
Janow's feet are Bothering him a lot. I feel awefull. He got new shoes yesterday and I had Phil put wege pads back on. I had to get more Isoxsuprine, but it hadn't come yet. Jay had some I could borrow from Domino, so he got it this morning. His came today while I was at the pharmacy getting stuff for me and at Target getting those pillows and a new coffee grinder for horse pills.

Joseph is at the American Cancer Society Relay for Life With BSA troop 92. He didn't want to volunteer, but since we will be at Vertical Challenge tomorrow when they are having the car wash, I told him he had to. Car Wash or Walk for Life(and miss the helicopter show). Then he found out that some of his friends from our street are going to be there, so he was excited to go.

Today is shorter than you think.

It's turning out to be a busy summer. Tuesday, Joseph lead the flag ceremony at City Hall for the city council meeting. He is helping the set up for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life on Friday with his scout troop. Sunday morning he leaves for a week of Boy Scout camp at Camp Wente. He is signed up for swimming in August.

Dave oiled the clutch on the Juki industrial and now it works great. I don't want to sell it after all. I used it yesterday to work on this pad.

And I took a picture of the sofa to use with Photoshop and put some art into without unpacking it and hanging it up and dealing with the glare from the glass.

I.m getting better at photoshop. Two of my ETSY listings have batik pictures that are photoshopped onto the wall.

Janow's feet are bothering him again, so I am going up twice a day to give him meds and walk him to keep the circulation up. The walking seems to help the most. Of course, it is the hardest to do! He really likes dusk and dawn the best. I think it's the glare of sunlight on a white face with dark eyes. I got out some acrylic paint and put football smudges under his eyes. They seem to water less that way.

Someone on ETSY was having trouble taking pictures of a jar and it was suggested that she try the mountain setting on her camera. I'll have to try that.

warm fuzzies

Warmfuzzies, this one is about 3 feet square. It won a first place at California State Fair.
It's $465.00

Click on it to make it bigger. You can see more detail.

more misk

Still many many things happening at once.

I'm reading "Guards! Guards!" by Terry Pratchet. I really have a good time reading about Discworld.

We have the key to the chain on the gate and we are recorded with the county, so now we own dirt in the mountains.


We attended Joseph's 6th grade promotion ceremony. Dave was sad that the elementary life was over. I was happy to be moving on to a middle school Mom. Joseph was business-like about the whole deal, so I don't know how he felt. Probably a little of both. But....soon forgotten. The boredom of summer vacation began one hour later.


He's been practicing his skateboard.

I've been making saddlepads. Still progressing on the same 13, none finsihed yet. Finally got Google Shopping Cart in place. That was hard, my credit union was having a hard time getting me the info I needed.

Busy? Still?

I haven't blogged much lately. It's not that I haven't been up to something. I've been up to lots. Here are some photos or things I am working on. At last count(yesterday) I had 13 saddle pads in progress. That's not a lucky number, so I really need to do one of two things; start a 14th, or finish one so that I have 12. Which one do you thing I'll pick?
I have been doing a lot of things other than making saddle pads. Bill Wall is the featured artist on my website this month.


Click here to see some of Bill's work in oils.

I've also been reading some books. A wide variety. I get them from the library, or Sarah gives them to me after she reads them. I and up reading some things I wouldn't pick if I were spending my own money on them. When there is less at stake, it feels less risky to begin a book you aren't sure you will like. The spookiest book lately is one I would not have ordinarily picked, but I was in the supermarket, an older smaller one, and the selection was limited. I bough Heart Shaped Box by Tom Hill. It was about a guy who bought a ghost on an on-line auction site. Very creepy. I read how they made decisions on what to do or what not to do, then ended up doing it anyway. I was thinking "No! Don't do that!" "Oh Geez!" "Bad things are gonna happen now!" It was interesting that the characters in this book were not made of what they thought or what they did, but how they thought of the others.


I have also been spending lots of time going here and there and signing papers. Not to mention phone tag. I hate phone tag. There are some people who never answer the phone, they let voice mail take it. When they call back, if they don't get a live person, they don't leave information. I guess they only deal with people who are never in a spot where they can't answer right away. One person, on being instructed to "leave any questions you have so that I can answer them if I call and get your voice mail" left the very informative message: "I have some questions."

Monterey

Here are some photos of our recent trip to Monterey.
We went there to celebrate Joseph's birthday. The main destination was the Prisidio Museum. That was great. It's an old cavalry installation. At one time there were 2000 horses there! That's a lot of horses. There were also a lot of cannons.
We spent a little time in the Maritime Museum, also great. We went on the beach for a while, but it was cold and cloudy. Joseph forgot to pack a jacket or sweatshirt, so I bought him a fleece jacket at a gift shop. We ate lunch at a seafood restaurant that assured everyone they served only fish obtained by sustainable methods. I guess I'm not the only one who won't eat fish because it is not sustainable.

Following the death of Chica(who as a breed and age that made her very susceptible to heat)I tried to get a new chick so Paula would not be lonely. After nearly a week of trying to introduce Audrey so she wouldn't get pecked to death, I got two more chicks. Maybe if Paula had to choose which chick to peck they would hang around long enough to not be strangers needing pecking. Chickens, however, are stubborn in their dim wittedness, and after another week, there was still too much pecking. All three chicks went home.

Joseph's birthday dinner, on his actual birthday which was the day before we left, was meatloaf. Both Joseph and Dave love meatloaf. Dave was going to do the shopping, so I said "Get ground beef for meatloaf." So he brought home a package that was just shy of one pound. So I made a one pound meatloaf. It was about the size of a St Bernard poop. Dave said "That's a small meatloaf."

Now I know the real reason Dave loves meatloaf. He thought it was my special method of morphing one pound of meat into two pounds of meatloaf. Two for the price of one. It was a tasty meatloaf and it cooked real fast in the oven.









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I'm back

Finally finished backing up and getting snapshots ready to send out. I waited too long. Lots of other stuff has been happening. Frantic on our end, but boring to tell about.

Joseph told me, Monday night, that he had to make a 3-D model of the Roman Coliseum, due Thursday. That's not a lot of time. Scouts is Monday and Tuesday was new student orientation at the Middle School. Even without those things, three days to make a model of the Roman Coliseum is not long at all. So, he didn't do a model. I helped him make this mosaic. I had to shop for the materials while he was in school. Working parents could not do this. The concept was mine. He did most of the sticking. We used Avery peel and stick labels, colored with watercolor paints. It was easier than putting glue on each piece and it went pretty fast.

I have been trying to get some stuff done too.