SoCal in July 2023

The 2023 International Quilt Festival was happening in Long Beach, Friday July 6 through Saturday July 8th. I co-ordinated my visit to SoCal to be able to take my two granddaughters ages 7 and 9 to the show with me one of those days. I flew down Thursday evening and returned home Monday morning. The show was held at the Long Beach Convention Center, about 40 miles northwest of where my son lives. He drove the three of us there shortly after 10:00 am on Saturday and picked us up around 3:15 pm. While we were at the show, he took his 5-yr-old son, William, to a one-on-one fun day at a Boomer's entertainment center. My daughter-in-law heroically stayed home for the day, potty-training their 2 ½-yr-old daughter, Irene.

I was a bit apprehensive at first with taking two children to the show. Would they be bored? Would other show attendees frown at their presence? There were no age constraints stated in the show's advertisements and I knew the girls were bright and well behaved, so I took a chance. We got only positive responses from other attendees. There were encouraging remarks like "Start 'em young". Some attendees interacted directly with Vivian and Lillian by asking if they sewed and what they sewed. When the girls have visited me, they have sewn to a small extent. See my 2/7/23 DianeLoves2Quilt post for examples. The show layout also worked in our favor. There were 400+ quilts displayed in the blue carpeted area and 200+ vendors in the red carpeted area. We alternated between the two areas, making the switch between each whenever the girls wanted; this approach kept them from getting bored.

The girls were as good as gold, showed an interest and expressed opinions on the quilts displayed. I told them I would not photograph all the quilts but I would take their picture in front of the ones that they particularly liked. These are three of the ones for which they showed a common fondness. They liked bright colored abstracts and animals, in particular: Inner Cube, Corona Wedding Dish, and Dear Humans.

Vivian's special solo choices were mostly by bright colors and humor. Here are two of them. She liked The Armadillo and the Cow with the disproportionate sizes and the cow perched on the rainbow colored armadillos' back; she thought the story that went with it was funny. She then read aloud to me the reasoning behind the Pointless Parroting quilt and agreed emphatically that the term "Blah, Blah, Blah" fit a lot of people.

Lillian's solo choices were based more on theme. She loves horses and she takes horseback riding lessons. Her bright blue eagle eyes spotted the small quilt with a horse theme titles Horseback Riding. I also shown an enlarged version of the quilt. Then she saw the large quilt of a Stargazer Splendor and stated that since her name was Lillian, like a lily, she needed her photo by that one. Yes, she is wearing daisies but a flower is a flower is a flower... sort of.

On the vendor side they were mesmerized by the embroidery machine and watched as the form of Minnie Mouse emerged. We had to go back to that booth several times to check on her progress. 

An adjacent embroidery machine stitching flowers captivated their interest as well.

They had a blast trying their hand at the long arm quilting machine. After a few minutes of hand-over- hand training time, the vendor let the girls play with it on their own. So many of the booth staff were so kind, patient, and welcoming to Viv and Lil, especially this lady from Handi Quilter.

The asked many question about the fabrication of beads from fabric and covered with acrylic. The intricacy of bracelets and statues made with tiny glass beads also aroused their curiosity. A closeup of Lillian's wrist shows a fabric bead and glass bead bracelet. They learned to make fabric circles with Applipos. The vendor also told Lillian if she found fabric at the show for sale with horses on it, the vendor would make Lillian horse circles. I bought a set of Applipos so when they visit me, we can make more circles to appliqué and find a project for them to do .

One quick trip back to a vendor to get Vivian a charm pack of fabric squares she'd been admiring. She convinced me she needed these since all of her project fabrics were felt but these were woven. She said she loved how the colors changed from red to beige. We bought these and did one final check on Minnie Mouse's progress before leaving the show. It had been a great, successful day and I am so happy I took the girls to their  first quilt show.

Dan picked up up outside the convention center and we drove back home making a slight detour to locate and drive over a bridge William had seen from a distance and thought was interesting. Beneath was a storage yard with trailers that my son said looked like a quilt.

Back at the house I played card games with the three oldest kiddos. We played Go Fish, Uno, and Old Maid. We needed to modify Go Fish because Irene had taken a fancy to a number 6 card and a number 12 card and absconded with them, so we only had three of each of those and could not make a set of four. Why those particular cards? I have a theory (unproven) that the 6 card looks very much like Nemo and the Number 12 card looks very much like the shark the song Baby Shark do do do do. We played with 40 cards instead of 48. We modified Uno also. Per William the real rules are to draw four card if you forget to say Uno when you are down to one card. But he solemnly explained that people do not like to play that why and cry if they have to draw four more cards near the end. They change the rules to keep folks happy. We played Old Maid with no modifications but then, it has been so long since I have played Old Maid, that I would not know if the rules had been bent a little.

While Irene napped and Lil and Will went off to play with neighborhood kids, I continued to play Go Fish with Vivian only. She spiced up the game by singing every request and response. "Do you have...🎶...?" and "Go fish...🎶." The serenade made me smile. She really had me laughing out loud and shaking my head on the next game though, when she rapped each request and response, complete with sound effects as if she were puffing into a microphone and doing the hand motions of a jive. Viv and I then broke out a dragon game she'd gotten for her birthday in April. The two of us struggled to figure out the rules but we succeeded. Hopefully she can teach it to her dad and play it with him some time. The dragon statues and dragon eggs make it a pretty tactile experience.

On Sunday all seven of use went to the Sawdust Art Festival on a sloping hillside layered with wood chips beside route133 in Laguna Beach about 15 miles or so south of their home. The weather was gorgeous and there was a glorious breeze from near the beach. 

We watched glass blowing, molded with clay, and looked at photographs, paintings, sculptures, and jewelry. We listened to musicians and had lunch there. Before heading back home for the afternoon and Irene's nap, we tossed coins off the wishing bridge.

Next time Frank and I come to this area we would like to try out the Laguna Beach Trolley that visits several points of interest in the area.

My final night there, Dan and I cooked a Gobble dinner. His family uses them weekly as an efficient measure to cut down on food planning and shopping time. Thursday we had stir fry chicken, Friday we had ground turkey and Saturday night was beef. The chicken and turkey were great, though in my opinion the number of pans and steps to make the meal was too many. Maybe my palate is not accustoming to being adventurous with international cuisine but the third beef meal was awful. I do like beef but the third night was Korean Bulgogi Beef & Beet Burger from Gobble. There were unknown Korean spices; and when beets are ground up and mixed with the meat the combination is all red and it is impossible to know when it is sufficiently cooked. The slaw that went with it was very tart. Neither Dan nor I nor the kids were a fan. Carrie could not render an opinion; she may have liked it. She was out that night with some of her girl friends and did not have a taste.

While I was there Irene was busy getting potty trained and trying to make up her mind if Grandma was a non-scary person to be around. Our interactions were from afar. I did manage to get one photo of her out in the garage when she positioned herself in her play camp chair with her pretend muffin that she "baked" and her ever important cell phone very near by in the cup holder of the arm rest.

I hope to get to know Irene better on my next visit. But I thoroughly enjoyed taking Vivian and Lillian to their first quilt show and it was a supreme success. William was a great little card player and his solemn instructions about the rules were a kick. Grandkids are great!

Alameda County Fair 2023

The Alameda County Fair in 2023 ran Saturday, June17th – Sunday, July 9th. Frank and I went with Alex on the first Sunday, June 18th which was Father's Day. The weather was spectacular — bright and sunny with temperatures in the low 70's accompanied by a slight breeze.

I had entered two quilts for display. For each quilt and its $2 entry fee, I was given a free fair ticket. We had to buy only one ticket for the fair. The two I entered were X Marks the Spot and Quilt by Number. I won no ribbons this year, but I was pleased to have them displayed. They were hung suspended from the ceiling. It was when I went to pick them up Tuesday July 18th after the closure of the Alameda County Fair that I remembered I had not blogged about our visit there this year.

A fair would not be complete unless Alex visited the rabbits in the livestock section. This year the bunnies were in a different building and yay, this year that building was air conditioned. It was much more comfortable hanging out in the cool while Alex investigated EVERY! SINGLE! BUNNY!

The educational posters were informative. I never knew that domestic rabbits and wild rabbits cannot cross breed. Also, my two Oklahoma grandkids are campaigning for a guinea pig. I warned their mom that guinea pigs are social creatures and it is advisable to get more than one, per item #4 on poster.

I generally like to look at the decor of the different exhibits. My SoCal grandson is very much into construction and so would have enjoyed this place setting.

I never did understand how a display of the jars and bottles that contained the preserved edibles was of any use since nothing could be tasted. This year I liked the hanging boards of stenciled utensils hung behind the food items display. At least the artsy creation gave me something to visually enjoy.

We did not arrive at the bleachers early enough to get a seat for the pig races, but we had a good standing location at the end of the straightaway just before the finish line. It was fun seeing them hightail it down the home stretch, leaping a hurdle on the way.

We of course visited the model railroad exhibit and then made sure to have our classic fair treat of lemonade and funnel cakes.  It had been a low-key, fun day.