Traveling With The Traveling Quilters - Last Day, April 28th

After breakfast we continued our journey. Our first stop was The Creation Station in Buellton. A most unusual quilt shop, with many intriguing ideas and innovations. "Dad" met us first-timers as we got off the bus, and gave us a tour of the shop. I had met "Mom" and her daughter at a short class at the LongBeach Quilt show. A wonderful family!

 Everyone visited the lady's room. (you have to see it, even if you don't use it). An extra treat - besides the neat "goody bag"the quilt shop gave us,  the Solvang Bakery (which is next-door to the shop) also gave us each a cookie. (It was almost too pretty to eat - almost...)

It's a button!

We stopped at Solvang for shopping and lunch on our own.  I found inexpensive lace trim at Buttons and Bows, and cute buttons at Rasmussen's fabric.

Actually - lace, zippers, and inexpensive fabric

 Lunch, unfortunately, was not so good. Well, you can't win them all...

The Elf-Skivers were not made with real elves.

Our last stop of the day, and of the trip (sigh) was Cotton and Chocolate in Thousand Oaks. Another nice selection of fabric and supplies, and more lovely salespeople and inspirations.

I was sorry to end this trip, even though both I and my suitcase were heavier than we started, and my wallet a lot lighter.

If you go:

What should I wear?
Wear layers: There is no way you can get a bus load of quilters to agree on what the right temperature should be inside the bus. If you take a light sweater you can use it for warmth, or to stop up the cold-air coming out of the vents...Also, good walking shoes are a must, and a hat if you are sensitive to sun.

What should I bring?
A suitcase with gussets. Lots of cash. I took my iPod with music and audio books on it to listen to as we rode along as I don't like to read while I'm on a moving vehicle. I also really wished I had a small craft project I could carry with me because seeing all the wonderful examples of fabric art made my fingers itch. I also took two cloth bags for purchases a list of fabric and supplies I would need for upcoming projects, and a list of thread colors I was low on.

What shouldn't I bring?
You probably shouldn't bring husbands or boyfriends unless they are active quilters, and even then they might feel conspicuous being the only male in a large group of women. Check with the tour leaders if you are not sure.

What should I do beforehand?
I googled all the quilt stores we were going to visit to see what their specialties were.  I also tried to divvy out my cash so that I wouldn't overspend my budget the first day.  I wish I had done more research on restaurants for the times we were on our own.

What should I expect?
Well, think of going on a quilt run, only you are going outside of your usual neighborhood, and you won't have to drive or navigate, and you will also be able to eat at nice restaurants and do a little sight-seeing while you are with the group.

Will my trip be like this one?
No. Even though the same basic itinerary may be repeated, The Traveling Quilters crew is constantly researching and updating their lists.

Last thought: I think that there must be a law somewhere that all quilt shop owners and staff are friendly, generous, and creative. No two shops were alike, and every one of them was full of wonderful examples of quilting and sewing projects.

With the Traveling Quarters - Second Day - April 27th

Next morning, after a continental breakfast at La Cuesta Inn, we boarded the bus to continue our adventure.

The first stop was The Quilters' Cupboard in Atascadero, another lovely quilt shop.

After leaving there we drove to Kiler Ridge Olive Farm in Paso Robles  where we had a guided tour of the facilities and an olive-oil tasting, followed by a delicious meal where each course included a different kind of olive oil. This was a unique experience for me, and I learned a lot, the most important thing being that a lot of commercial olive-oil is adulterated or over-processed, so you need to do your homework.

After an exciting ride down Kiler Ridge Road we went to the Seven Sisters Quilt Show, which was being held at the Madonna Inn Expo Center. This was a good-sized quilt show and the time I spent there went by fast.

What I bought today: Fabric, thread, sewing kits, and olive oil!

After the quilt show the bus took us back to the La Cuesta Inn, where dinner was on our own. Fortunately, the Apple Farm Inn and Restaurant was right across the street. Even if you don't eat there, it is fun to walk around the lovely grounds.

Part of Apple Farm grounds 

Traveling with the Traveling Quilters, Day 1 = April 26, 2013

I had been wanting to take an overnight trip with The Traveling Quilters ever since I had done a day trip with them. I was lucky to be able to take advantage of a last-minute cancellation on this three-day trip to The Seven Sisters Quilt show (the trips fill up fast).

The first day:

The first departure point was from the Fullerton AmTrak station. We left at 730 in the morning in a clean, modern bus with a restroom. The bus was driven by our excellent driver, Liz.

Starting out on our adventure.

After we picked up the second half of the group in Redondo Beach, our first stop was Roxanne's in Carpenteria.

Roxanne's - "A Wish and a Dream"

So many beautiful fabrics, patterns, and tools. It was hard to decide what to buy.

Next stop was downtown Santa Barbara. The bus let us off near Macy's on State Street and we were on our own for about two hours. I love window-shopping and was especially taken with Tienda Ho on State Street. After a bit more walking around I stopped at Artistic Nails and had a pedicure.

These little piggies went to Santa Barbara

More window shopping, then I grabbed a pecan pie bar at Jeannine's downtown location before I got on the bus.

The second quilt shop of the tour was The Old Town Quilt shop in Orcutt.

A large store with a great variety of fabric, patterns, and notions.

The inside of this store is a lot bigger than it looks from the outside.


Next stop was McLintock's restaurant in Shell Beach. This meal was included in the tour price and we had the choice of several entrees.  I chose the salmon.

Salmon entree at Mclintock's.

The last stop of the day was the La Cuesta Inn in San Luis Obispo. This was a very nice 'boutique' hotel. I especially liked the rubber duck in the soap dish.

The end of a perfect day.

Guilty Pleasures

Heavy Weights

This movie, with Ben Stiller, is one of my guilty pleasures.  I love watching Ben Stiller, as the psychotic fitness entrepreneur, versus the misfit kids at Camp Hope Fat Camp.

Christopher Moore

With this author, nothing is sacred, even angels. I have read most of his books, from Practical Demonkeeping to Sacre Bleu with enjoyment, but also a little embarrassment, because well...you wouldn't want to read any of these books aloud in front of nuns. I especially enjoyed the latest, Sacre Bleu, which will show you some of the great painters like Toulouse Lautrec in an entirely new (blue) light.

Second Life

My entry on Second Life has been moved over to "Warty Bliggens"

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service

This is a Japanese manga translated by Toshifumi Yoshida and published in America by Dark Horse comics. The manga is about young students at a Buddhist university whose skills - channeling, dowsing, ESP, etc...are not in great demand among the living, so they make a living carrying out the wishes of the dead.  Not for the squeamish, but not just a blood-and-guts bash, either. Volume 13, for example, includes translations from the poet Rimbaud, and information about ancient fertility goddesses, and about the Japanese jury system. Great endnotes with information that makes the manga more accessible to western readers.

downloaded from online manga site

My Review of the New Hobbit Movie (Spoiler Alert)

We saw the new "Hobbit" movie yesterday, and I wanted to make some comments. I haven't read any other reviews yet, and I suggest that you see the movie before you read my review so as not to be prejudiced in any way.

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My one word review would be "Bloated".  I had wondered how they could make a one-volume book into three movies. Now I know. Perhaps they listened to the people who complained "They left out Tom Bombadil" in the first Lord of the Rings movie and decided nothing should be left out. Then they added dialogue and actions and whole new sub-plots until what could have been a nice hour-long movie became over two-hours long and was not necessarily better. In fact, I predict that at some future point someone will edit this and the next two movies so that they become one movie and it will be much more entertaining.

I especially disliked all the added violence and the "should have been fatal" collisions and falls and near-escapes that kept happening until I came to the conclusion that the dwarves and Gandalf must have been made of titanium. My Mom's one comment after seeing the movie was "I thought The Hobbit was a children's book".

And did they need to change the plot? My husband says that Steven Colbert explained that this was the way Tolkien would have changed it after he wrote the LOTR trilogy. Hogwash.  The book The Hobbit is the story of Bilbo, his adventures, and how he got the ring. If there are contradictions in Middle Earth as depicted in the book The Hobbit and the books The Lord of the Rings, so be it. We are humans, we are very good at having contradictory opinions.

Perhaps the producers/writers/directors/financiers (I wasn't sure who to blame) thought that they could improve on Tolkien? If so, why not make an entirely new movie, perhaps "Further Tales of Middle Earth" to include the scenes with Saruman and Radagast and the high elves?

I also noticed at least one scene where the dialog didn't seem to synch to the actors' lips. Were these scenes left over from the LOTR movies that were repurposed by adding voice-overs?

I do not know why the original book was expanded into three long movies. My husband's guess is that the financiers realized there would be greater profit in putting out three movies, rather than one. I am thinking that perhaps someone kept saying "Wouldn't this scene look great in 3-D!" I also suspect there is a component of "I am too great a genius to be edited" involved.

Random thoughts: Gollum has the greatest range of emotion of all the characters. The dwarf king is much too young.  The orcs and the goblins could use a good dermatologist.

And who am I to curmudgeon about what has the core of a great movie? No one - just a Tolkien fan who is hoping that some day they make a movie of the book The Hobbit.

Recommended Read

I would like to recommend the book Building My Zen Garden by Kieran Egan. The author was born in Ireland, schooled in the U.S., and was teaching in Vancouver when he wrote it. He had already published 15 academic texts, but the zen garden project started out as a hobby. The book was published after recommendations from blog readers. I got the book from the library, but you can read the original at http://www.sfu.ca/~egan/Japangardenhome.html. In some ways I prefer the blog, because it has color pictures.

This is not a 'how to' book, rather it is an exploration of how you can turn an idea into reality, and is full of humor, philosophy, poetry, and observations on everyday life.

The Democracy of the Roads

Earlier this year I was driving along a Southern California freeway when a small red roadster with two passengers passed right in front of me, left to right, and proceeded to cut across lanes and traffic until it got to the diverging route on the left. In a brief flash of concentrated attention - the "life passes before your eyes" moment - I saw the passengers' identical platinum manes blowing in the wind, their mouths open in laughter, and the too-smooth-to-be-natural skin of the passenger's face and neck.

After regaining my composure my first thought was "Those people must have either fame, influence, or money to drive so recklessly. " That led me to think about how one of the very few places where "a cat can look at a king" are our public freeways.  Jaguars share the space with hippy vans, but I have noticed that the less pretentious cars tend to make way for the more expensive ones - you wouldn't want to ding those Mercedes - their owners probably have lawyers. I also suspect that the owners of the luxury vehicles probably don't get ticketed as often - otherwise why would "Famous Person X was given a traffic ticket." be newsworthy.

And I have also wondered about what happens to those cops who have ticketed or even arrested governors and other influential people.  Do they ever get promoted or do they find themselves in some dead-end job somewhere?  In fiction the maverick who upholds the law is often made the hero, but I suspect not so much in real life.

Watch out for small red roadsters.