CaliforniaGirlinOz (now just California Girl)

We're all moved in, and here's me doing my first post from the new house. Just to keep on topic, there are two quilts in the photo: my Wonky Star lap quilt, and my DH Ross' Cowboy Nap Quilt. The container arrived on schedule, there was no damage to any of our stuff, and we got things put away pretty quickly. Just in time to return to California...tomorrow! Then we'll be making the big move Down Under on Oct. 25. Here's my sweetie, Ross, with two of our donkeys. Blossom, on the right, is so jealous she will hardly let you pet either of the other two. Teddy, on the left, is very shy. Stella, the grey one, is nearby, grazing. This morning we awoke to some spectacular early morning fog in the distant view. Even as Ross took the photo, it began to recede. Just beautiful! Here's the new living room. Amazingly, all the furniture fit in just fine. It's a much smaller house than our California one, but sending some of our furniture to the condo in Oak...

It's off to Sydney tonight, to receive our furniture and household stuff, get the house there set up and ready for us to live in (especially the Internet connection!), and then we'll be back here for about 3 weeks before the really big move with the cats. Poor little darlings have no idea what an ordeal they're in for...we visit them at the Kitty B&B every day for playtime and combing. Just as they're getting comfortable and used to the B&B it'll be another big change...poor babies. We took our oldest GS to the zoo yesterday to finish celebrating his 9th birthday. Here's a pic of Thomas and me in front of the giraffes. As you can see, it was a GORGEOUS day in Oakland. Not sure when I'll be able to post again...I think our Internet connection should be up at the house on Saturday, but you know how THAT might go...so, later, Folks...

Here's a quilt I made for a little Aussie friend who is liviing in London for awhile. I hoped it would help him get to know his Australian animal friends as he grows. Actually, he visits Sydney regularly, and now that he's two years old he probably doesn't need a cheat sheet any more. This quilt was designed using Margaret Rolfe's paper-pieced block designs. If you haven't used her book/disk combo (I have the Australian animals one, obviously), then I highly recommend it. Oh, and I promised to report on the big reunion yesterday afternoon. What fun that was! There were people there I hadn't seen since I left the ballet company in around 1978...amazingly, we pretty much look like ourselves, only mostly a few pounds heavier and a bit more wrinkly. What a treat to spend time with old friends.

Well, I'm going to try Tonya's suggestion and load my photos in the center instead of to the left, and see if that helps any with the spacing problems I'm having. So let's try putting up Dad's River Dreams Quilt that disappeared yesterday: Well, that seems to have worked...I think. So, let's add a couple of kids' quilts I've made over the years. Here's an I Spy for my grandkids. Can you see that I added their names, as a crossword puzzle, among the I Spy squares? Well, by gum! That seems to have worked, too...thanks, Tonya! Shall we go for a trifecta here? How about a little bluework quilt I did for my nephew. I found on-line coloring book images, printed them out and traced them on white fabric, then embroidered them in blue, setting them in stars afterward. I liked the result, and so did he: I'm on a roll now! What about one that was WAY outside my comfort zone. I'm not an orange person, but a friend in France had a baby girl. Mom loved ora...

So, in addition to not being able to load photos once I've started editing my posts, here's another question: Why do I have such trouble controlling all the space before or after photos? Preview doesn't really get it...it looks ok in the preview, but when I post I have all this dead air I don't want. I must be a total dummy...sorry, folks! I know it's annoying to read posts that look like mine!

So, I started quilting in 1999, and the first few quilts I made were for my grandkids, and a couple were donations to my local humane society to be auctioned. Then I decided to made a quilt for each member of my family...quite an undertaking! So, here is one I made for my Dad...it's a nap quilt...Dad loved to fish, but by the time I made this quilt he was having problems with his legs and couldn't really manage standing in a cold river to fish any more. So this quilt is called River Dreams. Dad used it and loved it...but he died early last year at nearly 87 years. I'm so glad I got to this quilt in time. (Well, the image I put here got erased when I was correcting a typo in the text, and blogger won't upload it again...WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN? Makes me SO mad!) And here's one I made for my DS. He's a lawyer, a big reader, and an Oakland A's fan. So I used Christine Thresh's bookcase quilt pattern to make this quilt. Greg loved an earlier quilt I'd mad...

Today is my grandson Thomas' 9th birthday...Happy Birthday, Thomas! He's shown here earlier this summer, wearing his Sorcerer Cats quilted jacket I made for him. I hope he's having a great day today...can't wait for his party in Tilden Park on Saturday afternoon.

Well, I've been working on the antique quilt remake (I really have to come up with a name for this quilt...maybe it should be AQR till then?) today, and the chain piecing is making me sleepy. It also makes me hungry to work on OTHER quilts. Before I packed the container for Australia, I made a good bit of progress on a quilt I'm calling As Time Goes By, because it was inspired by the old BBC series by that name. If you've never watched it, you should. Judy Dench and Geoffrey Palmer are sweet, funny and totally charming. Many episodes have them climbing into bed at the end of an evening, under a wonderful old-looking pinwheel quilt. After seeing it many times, I finally decided it was time to make one like it for our bed. So, I started collecting lovely fabrics in soft red-browns, blues, greens and old golds, to combine with Apple Cider naturals and similar neutrals. It was coming together beautifully, and then it was time to pack! I'm wishing I could be working on it as...

I am having SO much trouble trying to make Bloglines work. I loaded the Sub from Blog link to my favorites, and clicking on it seems to take me to the "add this blog to my feeds" place, but then the blog never appears when I click on "My Feeds". Obviously I'm doing something wrong. Can't seem to find much detail about this in the FAQ...any ideas?

Well, let's give this a try. I've been wanting to show some of my quilts, but have had a little trouble getting photos to load. Here's my most recent completed quilt, The Devil's in the Details. I saw an antique Devil's Claw quilt a few years ago and it stuck with me. When my DH wanted a black and white quilt, I decided to design something using the Devil's Claw block. It's huge! California King size, with enough to tuck under pillows and fold over...is this a bedspread? I guess so... Well, that one came in. Should I quit while I'm ahead? No, let's go for it! Here's some blocks I made for a charity quilt, called It's a Dog's Life. Couldn't photograph the entire quilt very well because the detail just doesn't show up in small. So here are a couple of the individual blocks. This quilt would have been nothing without this GREAT fabric! And here's another from the same quilt: So far, so good. Shall we try one more? Well, awright! ...

Today was the first day I was able to do some serious quilting since we moved from our house in Novato to the condo in Oakland. It really feels good to be sewing again. I have this great antique quilt (it's on the container in the Pacific, steaming toward Sydney, at this very moment). Sadly, it's so fragile now I don't like to use it on a bed. So...what else to do but remake it! Here's the design, made in EQ5. Today I made some of the blocks and set 9 of them together. I think I'll continue that way, rather than have rows and rows to deal with at the end. Easier to work with smaller bits and put them together later, I think. Here's a pic of the 9-block piece I made today: In the original quilt, the pink middle squares are actually an old red and white calico-like print that has faded to a nice pink color. Trying to find a new pink that would mimic that look proved difficult. Anyway, it is what it is at this point! I ransacked eQuilter.com for a zillion plaids, s...

Well, today was close of escrow on Upland Lane. I guess those folks are actually buying our house. So as of today, we're homeless, until the escrow closes on the condo in Oakland. We're moving that up to July 17, I hope, so we can begin to move stuff over there. That will help clear the decks here for the move to Australia, which happens around the first of August. So what is there to say? This was a short and sweet 18 months in Novato, where we always planned the house to be just an interim house. Just hadn't counted on the interim being only 18 months! And so the next adventure begins. California Girl becomes California Girl in Oz...

I remember this...boiling hot days with a hot wind. It was such a day as this in 1991 that our house in Montclair burned, along with the houses of 3,000 other Oakland/Berkeley residents. Still, dry mornings with a tempting hint of cool in the air, but by 8AM you can tell it's going to be another scorcher, and then in the afternoon the hot winds kick in. Ross is working downstairs...a million telephone interviews today...so we'll have to use the air conditioning all day, and probably all night. Sigh! Time to start sifting and sorting, deciding what to take to Australia, to Serendipity, the little 25 acre farm near Exeter, and what goes to Oakland to the condo. Hmmm, I meant to post a couple of pics here, but didn't do that yet. Here are a couple of Serendipity: This is the screened in sunporch off the kitchen, with views to the rolling hills around Exeter. And this is the view from the kitchen, dining room and sunporch. Looks a lot like California, doesn't it? And here ...

A slow start to this blog, but I have a good excuse. This month, we've sold our Novato house and bought a condo in Oakland. And found a good place to stash our 7 cats once we leave the house and move into the condo before we all take off for Australia. Whew! Getting 7 cats settled ANYWHERE isn't easy...just schlepping all the cages into the car wears you out. But get this, they will stay at the Feline Bed and Breakfast in El Cerrito, where they will have two "suites"...little rooms 3' x 7' on the floor and 10' high, with lots of little shelves and hidey-holes for them to lounge around in. Four cats will be in one suite, and three in the other. This is all complicated by the fact that two of our male cats, formerly feral, hate each other with a passion. It's always tricky getting them settled without mayhem occurring...lots of eyeing each other off and growling. In Novato the cats have these incredible cages: The cats roam around outside during the day,...

Well, thanks to my cousin, Nicole, in London, I've finally taken the leap and started my first blog. Thanks, Nicole! After a late night because one of my cats, who shall remain nameless...well, OK, it was Patchy...stayed out late and wouldn't come up to his cage as he's supposed to. Ross, my husband, was already sawing logs, and I was feeling very put upon, when the little darling finally condescended to follow me up the hill and settle down for the night. Today it's off to La-La Land to see my niece and nephew in The Wizard of Oz. Then 400 miles back home (Novato, CA) tomorrow. Actually, temporary home, because we'll soon be moving to Australia. More details land pics later. And speaking of which...later. D.