Tomorrow will be a big day! I am heading up the road to Ontario, California! What is in ONTARIO, you ask? The big Road to California Quilt Show, of course! No, I am not teaching! WHOOPEEEE! I get to be “one of the girls” and attend a workshop with Melinda Bula.  Her work is lovely, and I am only taking a 1 day workshop to learn her technique.

The Ontario Convention Center is a big beautiful place with a view of the nearby San Gabriel Mountain range (on a clear day). We are predicted to have rain so it might be stormy. See you there!

January 15th   FOLLOW  UP!   The workshop with Melinda was relaxing and creative play time! I enjoyed the day away, and the quilts at the show were PHENOMENAL. The dense quilting was particularly amazing – I feel like an amateur compared with these master quilters! Click on both slideshows for a peek at Road to California, and Melinda’s work on YouTube.

 

Don and I started a new year’s tradition – to see and explore more of our local surroundings. We went over to the coast near Torrey Pines and La Jolla (pronounced la hoya) to see the Children’s Pool Beach.  This small sheltered cove has created years of controversy…… philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps funded the sea wall construction in 1931.

The grant stated…”That said lands shall be devoted exclusively to public park, bathing pool for children, parkway, highway, playground and recreational purposes…..”  The sheltered cove created within the sea wall proved to be a perfect place for California seals to sunbathe and rest with their pups, and also a place for the public to watch seals in their natural state.

Legal debates have ensued over the years, with various parties filing injunctions to erect baracades to protect the seals and humans particularly during pupping season, and whether to eradicate the seals, conduct an environmental cleanup and return the pool to its original intended purpose – human recreation. With all the news coverage, year after year, we wanted to see the Children’s Pool Beach!

I traveled north to teach in Montana – what an adventure in February! Brrr! My hostess, Karen Vosen picked me up at the airport in Great Falls, and drove me to her home town in Havre, MT. We stopped and saw the sights along the way, which I am sharing in a travel log. The most interesting things I saw were the great big open sky, the wide open prairie of eastern Montana, river ravines, historic Ft. Benton, and two great quilt shops! Ok, here is a peek at the day!

Our southern California skies are frequently clear without clouds…. and cloudy skies provide the most specatcular sunsets! Here are some photos from my home of a lovely evening when we had some scattered clouds – enjoy!