Still getting ready for Sue Benner class 02-22-18

I brought some fabrics from my fabric library, some that I purchased at the Quilt Cupboard going-out-of-business sale, and about nine yards that I purchased at Back Porch yesterday.  Today I sliced all the fabrics up into fat quarters and half yards, and put one set of fat quarters in my box I share with my classmates.  Then I went through all the fabrics and selected those for the class.  Then I cut (as Sue indicated on the materials list) 9"x18"  pieces to apply fusing to the backs, a task I will complete tomorrow.  I have 27 fabrics at this point. It takes a lot of time and work to get ready for a class like this.  But I know that it is imperative to fuse the fabric before one gets to class, or spend the first day fusing - waste of class time.  I will have all the rest of the fabric in a box in the classroom so that I can change my mind, or Sue can change my mind.  I can always go shopping at the on-premises Cotton Patch shop or drive into Pacific Grove to Back Porch.  Which I will probably do anyway!  I continue to add to my lifetime collection, even though I know I shouldn't.  The temptation is too great. 

It has been very cold here, as I understand it is everywhere.  I don't watch the news or read it on the computer or listen to the radio.  The time at Empty Spools and here at Mary & Joe's house is purely vacation and I just cut myself off from everything else.   So, wherever you are, I hope you are able to keep warm and dry.  There were some sprinkles here today, but they didn't amount to much.  

Mary has offered me the use of her camera (Nikon Cool Pix) but I can't make it work and the manual is not a lot of help.  I'll have to call someone for help tomorrow.  There is no cell service up here in the canyon, but I wonder if my phone will still take pictures??  I'll have to give it a try in the morning before I start my fusing marathon.  

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Camera Cover 10-12-17

Gotta get sewing again if only to make a new cover for my camera.  Even though I wash it periodically, it is looking very sad these days.

 

First camera cover which wore out on 11-09-12

Second camera cover when it was new.  11-11-12

 

Almost five years later it is a little tatty.  The black is paint from a fabric painting class.

This side doesn't look quite as bad, but worn.  

 

I'll get to it - SOON!

 

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Camera Tossing 10-06-15

Have you ever tried camera tossing?  Check it out on Google.  I have tried it several times and find that night time is a colorful time to do it.  You must, of course, hang on tightly to the strap on your camera or you will have a broken camera.  These were all taken with a little Nikon pocket camera in 2009.   These might not be "officially" camera tossed because I held onto the strap - I'm not any good at playing catch, especially with a "loose" camera. 

 

I frequently got "stitches" from some of the lights.

 

I just did it to see what happened, I haven't done anything with the images.  But I find them intriguing.   Here is a page of camera tossing pictures:

https://www.google.com/search?q=camera+tossing&biw=1280&bih=602&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ7AlqFQoTCIf0yfDxr8gCFQHugAodVeAFUQ&dpr=1.25

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A New Camera Cover 11-10-12

Is this just pitiful or what?  This camera cover is about eight years old and long past its "expiration date".  I have washed it several dozen times, I'm sure, but the colors have held up well, I think.   Finally, today I made a new cover. 

 
It needs to be bright so I can find it in my purse.  I like the polka dots on the periwinkle ground.

 
The back side is yellow/white/acid green/red - I ought to be able to see those colors in the dark depths of my purse.  .

Of course, the actual camera doesn't fit quite so tightly, but since I was using the camera to take the picture I had to stuff a little jewelry box inside to fill out the case. 
I'm so pleased with myself that I did this small bit of sewing.  Maybe there is more to come!

What a difference a day makes... 03-30-10

After three days of clear skies and the temp around 85F today was overcast and only about 63F with rain expected tomorrow night and Thursday. Perhaps our last little rain of the season (which ends July 1st, I believe). The Department of Water and Power (DWP) in Los Angeles is considering financial rewards for people who tear out their grass lawns and put in something that is less thirsty. It is something I have thought about doing since we moved into this house in 1986. I sometimes drive around looking at front yards and thinking what could be done to ours.

The dark clouds above and the light ones below that block the view of the hills are rather colorful. This is basically the view from my kitchen window and the slider where I sew, but I went outside for the pictures so there is more foreground than I usually see. Where you can see a flat end to the road in the distance is a major north/south four- lane road. When the trees are bare I can see, just to the left, the hospital where I had my "procedure" last Friday. Of course, I have to go around by the roads which amounts to about seven blocks - so close and yet so far. On the right in the foreground of the picture is the little park where Corky and I sometimes walk.

Every evening when it is not raining these three ladies bring their dogs to run and play. They each have two dogs and they are very careful to pick up after them.

While I was standing there taking pictures there were several lesser goldfinches feeding on the sow thistles gone to seed just over the short wall at the back of the patio. I do love to watch them, but I suppose the neighbors hate me for letting the thistles go to seed - they replant themselves everywhere. This is the best image I could capture and it makes me determine to get out the book on my new Canon camera to see how I can improve my pictures.

If my head wasn't so soggy I might do it this evening, but this head cold has my brain dulled down to almost stop, so it will have to wait for another day. I finished the Surfside QGuild newsletter last evening and Nancy Ota posted it today. http://tinyurl.com/y96unyy With three pages of templates for the Block-A-Month it comes to 19 pages. Isn't it wonderful that we can post in online instead of mailing it - with the cover page it would be ten double sided pages and that would cost a lot to mail to our members since we are not large enough to apply for bulk mail. When I trained on computers in the late 60s I didn't dream that they would become a very large and important part of my everyday life. Life is change. Whether we like it or not!! I like it - I like it!

Camera on the mountains 01-25-10

I could not get online last night late, or at 3:30am when I tried again. Do you suppose there are just too many bloggers on line at those hours?

On Sunday I drove off early to see if I could find some better viewpoints of the snow covered mountains. My intent was to try out the new Canon digital camera to get a feeling for the range of settings.

This and the next two pictures were taken at a spot about three-quarters of a mile from Bastanchury Hill. Here the barriers are more challenging due to the plexi-fence that completely surrounds the housing development below. After the fact, I thought I should have toted along a stool to stand on! This picture is the normal setting on my camera.

Turning on the telephoto option gives a closer view.

Turning the telephoto all the way on magnifies 16X the normal setting. Although the instructions say 10X is the max.

I drove south and east to try to find a better viewpoint. But this is the best wide angle shot I could take - at the intersection of Hwy 91 and Tustin Ave it is quite close to my house. Anaheim Lakes are just behind the white building on the right. Try clicking on the image to see the full wide range of the mountains.

I found a spot in Anaheim Hills that has a rather good view, but there is no parking on the main thoroughfare and trees/building block the view once I turned off that street. So, I parked in the median strip! The traffic was very light - I suppose a lot of good Orange County Christians were in church at that hour.

This area is all rolling hills and upscale housing developments - lots of gated communities, walking paths, luxury vehicles. I like the symmetry of this picture with the mountains arching overhead and the street dipping down in the middle.

The mountains look imposing here - rather like the front range of the Rockies. Now they even have the dense housing in Colorado. Hope they can control it better than SCalifornia has done. I had hoped to find an orange tree to show against the snowy peaks, such as the postcards showed fifty years ago, but no luck. There are very few orchards left - they have all moved to the central valley or Imperial valley. Mostly we just have backyard citrus trees and they are getting fewer and further between - much easier to buy one's sunshine at the market.

Presaging the storm fronts 01-18-10

These clouds presaged today's storm. Very odd looking and widely separated 'rafts' of clouds, but where there were no clouds the sky was so clear it hurt my eyes to look at all that blue.

Just a few miles further on the 22 Fwy I took this shot of Saddleback with a ruffled scarf of white cloud. The bank of clouds behind the mountain continued to grow and eventually most of the sky was covered.

My new Canon camera is okay. I just can't figure it out! Somehow I have managed to turn off the flash (am I haunted or something?) and though I try to follow the instructions in the book, I cannot seem to change it back to ON. I have the instruction book, which I put in my handbag with the knowledge that I would need to refer to it many times. But I put the disc and all the other paper back in the box to look at later and I put the box in some logical place for safekeeping. My logic seems to have deserted me now and I cannot find the box.

I cannot seem to switch to twenty-ten and am still writing and typing 2009. I do believe that complete senility is just around the corner.

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New Camera!! 01-11-10

I made a decision! I had no choice, even though my brain is still a little soggy I need a camera for the Surfside Quilters Guild tomorrow... err 12:41am, I guess that is today! My lovely Nikon has traveled with me everywhere for about five years, but the flash will not work and the fellow at the camera shop convinced me it is not worth the money to have it repaired. They just don't make things with the idea of having them repaired - in this disposable society when something breaks you just throw it away. How did we get this way?

With my new camera still in the box I stopped at Starbucks to familiarize myself with the Canon SD960IS Elph. First I plugged the battery recharger into a Starbucks socket, then I ordered a latte (I figured that was my 'payment' for using their electricity and their 'facilities'), and then I started reading. It was not as difficult as I feared, certainly not as confusing as my first digital camera (the Nikon) was. I can't help but smile at the tale I heard then of a lady who called the store to ask if she had to change the memory card in the dark so the pictures wouldn't be exposed. It had crossed my mind also. Recently I asked someone if the memory cards ever wore out, seems a logical question, and the answer was not that that person had ever heard of. When I had enough charge in the battery I took a few pictures to be sure I knew what all the buttons did - scared these two ladies who smiled when they turned and saw me with the box, camera, book, etc.

All the electronic stuff is so foreign to me and, I imagine, to lots of 'old ladies' who are trying to keep up with the modern world. I was delighted when a young woman clerk (although I suppose they are not called clerks these days) came up to me at Best Buy this evening and asked if she could help. I don't remember saying a word about quilting and I was not wearing any quilting "gang signs", but before long she asked if I was a quilter! Maybe I act or look like her mother, who is a quilter and teaches at 'city college', though I didn't ask which city. How did she know? Pheromones? Are there quilting pheromones? I know this is going to bother me until I seek out the same clerk and ask her how she knew. Maybe she could help me with a DVD player - the only one I have is in the Lexus and that isn't really where I want to sit and watch DVDs of quilting teachers. I suppose if I have a DVD player I will then have to get Netflix and then will acquire some DVDs of my own, which will need a shelf or something for storage. Then a new technology will come along and I'll put the DVDs in the garage in the same boxes as all the video tapes I don't know what to do with. And the color slides and the 8mm films and..... well, you get the idea!

After taking the two shots above I tried the telephoto (X16) with this result. I was sitting in exactly the same spot, so I could see the results of the enlargement - really amazing. And the image is quite clear, I think, for the distance. By this time Starbucks was ready to close and I came home to complete the battery charging and install the software in my computer. I managed it all without a hitch. Maybe I am not so dumb after all.

New Fujitsu "Lifebook - S series" 05-16-09

This is a little larger than a mini - it is 11-1/2" w x 9"deep x 1" thick and weighs about 4 pounds.
I know I started out to buy a mini (smaller and lighter), but they don't have a jack for dial up and I need dial-up at Mary's and sometimes at motels in out of the way places. I wonder if Beaver, Utah, has computer service of any kind now - they didn't two years ago. Nor did they have cell service.

I went to visit Corky this evening while his parents went to the theater with their group. If I weren't here he would have had to stay home alone - horrors! But I needed a some doggie loving and he is a little lover. Of course, he slept most of the time while I messed with this new computer and read my current book. I keep feeling that I have forgotten something important - perhaps it is going on a Road Trip! Where would I be tonight? In the past I have stayed at Santa Rosa, NM, on the first night out, but I can't drive as far in one day as I did even two years ago, so maybe Gallup? I needed to be at Ruth's by Monday night, but figured I could make it if I stopped for a nap mid-day. Old age has given me the gift of power naps - they are wonderful, even if the old age isn't. People tell me that 70 isn't old, but it truly is the beginning of the last (maybe two) decades of most people's lives. I just think I am being realistic, something for which I have always strived.
[The Blogger spell check is so odd, they say it should be
'st rived'!]

Now that I have a new car and a new laptop, I need to start looking for a new digital camera. The battery access door won't stay closed, so I use packaging tape to keep it closed. Duct tape or masking tape is too obvious.