Day 5 at Empty Spools with Sue Benner 03-01-18

I must admit I may be getting too old to being doing even an week at Empty Spools.  I am so tired tonight that I can hardly type straight.  It was a very windy, rainy day and I feel fortunate to be in the same building as my classroom.  I ate from my food bag for breakfast, another student picked me up a sandwich when she went to the snack bar for something for herself, and I ate the other half of that huge ham/cheese sandwich for dinner.  So, I didn't go outside at all until 4pm and time for the "walk about" when all the classrooms are open for other students to walk through and see what has been going on all week.  I drove over to Merrill Hall to see Lenore Crawford's class and to pick up a BIRD quilt a bought from her.  Then I stopped at Jeannette DeNicolis Meyer's class where they have been sewing all sorts of curves, and finally at Kathy Doughty's room where everyone was making a different quilt using 60degree angles (diamonds, triangles, hexagons, etc.) - it looked like a color wheel had exploded!  Very exciting work was being done.  I  moved quickly and only got a tiny bit wet.  

Back in Sue's classroom I really pushed to finish my eleven blocks.  I had to make the extra one because I didn't have enough dark fabrics to balance all the blocks.  They are pinned up on my design wall in a rough order  and I will not do anything more to them until after I return home and finish the Surfside newsletter which will be late! I like to get it out about 10 days before the meeting, but I haven't been able to work on it since I came up here, so I will be lucky to have it out a week before the meeting.  Sorry, ladies. 

Here are my eleven blocks.  Several have a tiny bit of brighter yellow and I will try to add that to each block.  One of the blocks has no aqua and I haven't yet figured out a way to add that.

This is my favorite block.  I imagine it is because it is the most flower like.

We will all pack up in the morning; we must be out of our sleeping rooms by 10am, and out of the classroom by 11:30am.  Lunch is included, but I think I will go to the Red House for lunch, stop at Back Porch one more time, and then head for Mary's where I will spend the night.  Saturday morning I'll be on the road home and on to San Clemente to pick up KoKo.  I surely have missed that little guy.  

I am exhausted! 

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San Juan Bautista, Pacific Grove 03-03-10

I drove up I-5 again last night, but it was dark, so no pictures of almond trees blooming!!. No rain, surprisingly. Tthere were a zillion stars shining and a gibbous moon, so everything was bathed in a pale blue light. I haven't driven this route at night for quite a while - it was very beautiful. Each trip I find it harder to 'get it together' and packing for a long trip in the Lexus is a new experience. Finally, I left some things behind - some on purpose, because there was no room, and some because I forgot them. I've already hit Mary up for thread (of the right color) and fusible. It is hard to make a list for a trip like this because each occurrence is different.

This morning we drove to Pacific Grove to meet up with some friends who have been taking classes at the Empty Spools Seminars Session II. We tracked down Franki Kohler, who had a "Tuesday Tote" package for me, and our friends from Washington state. It would have been better if I had been able to drive up on Monday and see them yesterday because today was the last day and everyone was packing to get out of the rooms and on the road. But we had a few hugs and Mary and I were able to see some of the classwork in Reynola Pakusich's class. Very nice.

Mary Leakey, Suzanne Lucy, Reynola Pakusich, Mabel Huseby when they were almost packed.

They have everything in except their design boards. They always manage to get everything in and they each have a seat! Rather amazing, but they have years of experience. That is Mabel on the right.

Suzanne and Franki were in Jeannette DeNicolis Meyer's class (along with two ladies we know from previous years who were already seated when we arrived at the Red House) and they all raved about Jeannette's class. You can check out her work at http://www.jdmeyer.com/ She is going to be on the schedule for 2011, but I suspect you'll have to be quick to get into her class.

Mary and I then went to lunch at the Red House. We had to laugh at ourselves because we never talked about where we would go. There was a parking place directly in front of the House and we automatically parked and went inside. They had Olallieberry pie! We thought about just having that, but needed something a little more substantial, so chose the soup of the day - curried cauliflower. It was very tasty, if a little salty for me.

Of course, we also ordered the pie which was, as always, spectacular. We decided we like it with whipped cream rather than ice cream (even homemade). And it was warmed to just the right temperature. A most satisfying lunch.

It had been raining off and on since we left Mary's house and it came down very hard at times. After we were back home it REALLY rained. I spoke to Mabel about 7pm and they had only gotten as far as Eureka and were going to spend the night. They had serious rain and hail that slowed them down. I hope the weather clears up before they have to drive over the Siskiyou mountain summit tomorrow. No fun.