I am more than a little behind in posting what's been going on lately. I've actually done more than just eat. A few days were spent quilting at Asilomar and, well eating. They do feed you plenty and often there.
This time the quilting adventure was with Empty Spools. They put on wonderful quilting events. The week was spent working on my own thing in a class with Becky Goldsmith. My quilting friend spent her week designing with Jeannette DeNicolis Meyer.
The first morning started out with excitement as we heard the news of the earthquake in Chile and the tsunami warning for Hawaii. One of the instructors lives in Hilo on the Big Island so we were all checking our phones for news updates. Access to the beach for us was closed as rough surf was expected. More people then I have ever seen on the beach were lined up around 1:00 pm waiting to see if we'd get a tsunami too. Luckily no tsunami for us since it didn't look like too many of them could run particularly fast. Good waves though.
I drew and sketched and fiddled with fabric but didn't actually get to appliqué much. So, no pictures of my blocks just yet.
I did, however, notice a huge and flat lot for sale across the street from our classroom. How wonderful would that be? I took some pictures to show my husband thinking I could suggest that it would be an ideal retirement spot. Then I saw the sign...
OK, so I've seen the sign every year, but this year the quilters had stories. Turns out that last year the mountain lion was hanging around the buildings. One of the quilters in my class was working alone in her classroom when the phone rang. She was told to stay put because the mountain lion was on the roof over the door. At one time all the classes were on lockdown because of the mountain lion. Maybe not such a peaceful spot for our golden years.
This trip there weren't too many walks on the beach as most of the week it poured rain. Not sprinkles, but actual pouring down making rivers of the trails and soaking our shoes and pants rain.
On our way to lunch the last day it was merely drizzling and we spotted these cool cones on the trees. They could be a neat quilt inspiration.
As fun as it was to be able to spend such concentrated time quilting, it is sure great to be home. And dry. It's really, really great to finally be dry!
-- marcella
It looks like a beautiful area, Marcella -- mountain lions aside. ;)