Road Warrior

Home again, home again, jiggety jog.  wow.  zoom, zoom.  What a week!

I started on the road at 5am Monday morning.  First stop:  Ontario, where I helped behind the scenes in the judging room.  I was there all day Monday & Tuesday.  Don't ask me anything, other than logistics.  What happens in the judging room stays in the judging room.  :)

Tuesday night, I moved on to Escondido, to visit my dad.  We had dinner, I spent the night, had breakfast.  It's sad to see what has become of my mom's garden.  Her absence is visibly present.  The jacaranda tree is dead.  The green whatever-it-is that used to be a small background bush has taken over.  A few narcissus are still valiantly blooming.  I was tempted to find a machete to hack through the underbrush and look for some of the orchids that used to be behind the jacaranda.  I doubt they have survived.

 After breakfast, I was on the road again, up to the San Fernando Valley, to visit my sister.  I wish I had taken pictures.  Her home is a showplace.  She's been there for about a year.  Some of her friends have encouraged her to have a magazine spread done, it's that beautiful.  If she were to have exposure, I think she could become one of the most sought after decorators in Beverly Hills.  I'm not the only one to think so.

On Thursday morning, I was back on the road to Ontario, this time to see the Road to CA quilt show.  oops.  My bad.  I kinda forgot to look at the quilts.  ;)  I'd seen them once in the judging arena, so I thought, "I'll hit the vendors first."  I have no idea who made what quilt.  I shopped until the show shut down.  :)

I brought home sewing threads, fancy threads, needles, printing blocks, trim, a novel, 2.5 yards of fabric, a wool batt (it was on sale!), some beads, and various other treasures.  Wanna see?

On Thursday evening, I dined with the Visalia Dames.  Thank you so much, ladies, for inviting me!  I had a lovely time.  Anyone in Ontario for dinner is encouraged to try Rosa's.  I had one of the best meals I've ever had.  It was incredible. 

On Friday, I took a long-awaited class with Allison Aller, the crazy quilter.  For clarification purposes, she's not crazy, she makes crazy quilts.  She guided us through appliqueing a base heart for embellishment, using monofilament thread to machine applique.  Here is the result:

Class ended at 4:30.  I packed up my things, took them back to my car, then did one last pass through the vendors to track down a few items at the Artistic Artifacts booth.  whew!  Found them!  Then it was on the road at 5pm, and home again by 9:15pm.  zoom zoom.  What a great week!