As usual, after about ten days of wall-to-wall TV programming that I have no role in selecting and the tricky dance of determining a meal that my brother will actually eat (and failing half the time) plus my own inability to read while here, start to get to me.
Don’t get me wrong, it was cool to watch the final two Knicks’ games and the World Cup is kind of engaging, but?
A catastrophic fire at a large cold storage facility about six miles south of here continues. It looked like it had been put out after two days, but then the fire reignited.
Because it’s a cold storage facility, it is piped with ammonia and one of those pipes leaked. The contents of the facility are now also of concern. Most of it is meat.
The city’s handing out masks and air purifiers but also running out of them.
The dog panicked the first day — we think because of the chemical smell to the cloud (which we could see from the front deck). Now the air merely smells of fire.
June gloom. It’s a thing — often caused by “the marine layer.” For some reason the term amuses Ken and me and we walk window to window, announcing, “Oh look! It’s the marine layer.” At least we’re past stumbling over the California highway naming convention: “the 110,” “the 5.” We’re perhaps a little too satisfied by this.
The fog usually clears by noon. Today the smell of fire and ash spices the marine layer. Maybe that’s now also an LA thing?
Fortunately I can manage to quilt while here.
Don’t know what this is. It started as a central heart with a few smaller hearts to the bottom left — mostly blue with a yellow border. I added a moon and then orange around the heart. I’ve been filling in with some of the flimsy cloth I brought along with me — many are scraps cut from garments purchased in Longmont. That source occupies me some as I stitch.
It’s weird to spend so much time on a piece that is chaotic and unpleasing and that doesn’t really show any signs of future resolution.
But maybe that’s apt: chaotic, unpleasing, with no resolution in sight. Of course I’m not talking about quilting.
It’s a good reminder that there are no answers .
I wondered about that fire…
Yes. And perhaps to let some of the striving for answers to go.
Yes. Yes.
When watching a show that takes place in New England, and someone Says, “Take the 95” Or somehow references interstate 95 as THE 95, I think ‘ Not enough research California writer folk.’
It’s such a tell
Also : the Massachusetts General Hospital. It’s either “MGH” or “Mass General.” It drives me nuts.
Massachusetts General Hospital-They are thinking of Genie Francis and Luke and Laura, reaching back to my General Hospital watching days.
Probably. You were a fan?
High school and college. Jeanie Francis lives (or lived, maybe?) in Freeport. Imagine my surprise being seated near her in a restaurant by LL bean.
Your stitching feels and looks very therapeutic. You reminded me how my mom calls I-5 “High-5.” A mix of highway and dyslexia. Wishing you safe peaceful travels.
High-5 is funny. And thanks. A direct flight is fairly hassle-free.
L.A. always stuck me as an industrial wasteland even when I was 12, visiting my Aunt Jeanne. Back then there was smog and one could only occasionally see the mountains. Back then, my Aunt showed us her super8(?) movies shew would on film so we could see the mountain views – which *are* stunning.
Love the this quilt! I mean… all your works are paintings from my point of view, and your Process is that layering from start to finish just like painting on canvas takes layering – a big part of the beauty that leads you to the finish of a piece that, in your case, is always a wonderful experience. One is drawn in with an attention to the beautiful details of fray and stitch, color and pattern DENSITY. So great.
May you find time to read on the plane. May you find the leafy jungle of the east coast a place to breathe in and out of the greenery and get more oxygen. xo
Smog is better. And as I’ve gotten to know East LA a little, the city feels less monolithic. Less intimidating. Billy’s place offers extraordinary views and is generally pretty quiet. Funny about your Aunt Jeanne’s movies!
Funny you mention painting because w/these sheer layers I do feel like that’s what I’m doing. When I view it like that, it seems like with enough layering and time something might emerge that I actually like. It can be tricky though because layering can make the piece difficult to quilt. This one already features a heavy blue upholstery cloth.
It is tricky. Part of why – when one hits barrier or sees a “mistake” – there is a moment of “why did I do that?” but that can (but not always, I realize) cause you to push “the work”. Ultimately you find your self moving from quite a distressing stage of the work to something quite gratifying that leads you onward?
I’m remembering that many many quilts go thru a loathing phase. “I hate this,” I think. Shrug. Continue. This feels different from that tho and not sure I can say why.
You get me thinking.
Likewise.
Dee~ Aw, home again, home again jiggity jig! What a bummer (?) you were here during this fire. The air quality has been a mess for sure. I question if it is a bummer only because it also has the potential to let you experience something that your brother lives with a lot, so a different kind of understanding. Not that I would want to visit someone and live through a tornado! lol
And yes, the smog of the 1970’s was awful and well known. It seems like the air quality has been really bad recently. At least that is what my asthma chest tells me. But, all of these things have a name or a story because they are a real thing. We have not gotten a lot of June Gloom out here and I do miss the coolness factor.
What I don’t understand is why so many feel a need to dislike CA so much. It seems so popular a thing to do, especially politically. As a SoCal gal most of my life, I know the weather and the wildfires…I know the phrases and the downfalls…but, don’t most places have ‘something’? So, yep I will say The 5 til the day I die because that is what I know and what sounds correct to my old ears. And I frankly don’t know why it matters. Every place has its own colloquialisms, which I find charming (like the different ways people refer to soda!). I’m sure if I lived elsewhere, I’d pick those up too! My dad used to joke around about saying or doing or driving routes like a “local” when I lived in NV. He always joked, wanting to fit in where my heart resided. I loved that. In fact he still took the local NV newspaper years after I’d moved back to CA. haha Boy, I guess that was my own rant, that may be as unclear as you feel your cloth is! ugh.
I like the connection made between your cloth building and painting. I’d not thought of it that way before, but yes, it makes sense. As far as how you feel about it or how it looks to you right now…it seems to be that maybe it needs to hold those chaotic and unpleasing factors right now. You have been in very unpleasing times, perhaps expressing that is good? Your choice to use the fabrics of Longmont may be serving a purpose here? I don’t know. Just throwing thoughts out there. But, I will be interested in seeing where this one goes, if it shifts over time or location (once you are home) and where it says it is ‘done’. Mmm?
Have a safe journey home. I bet Finney-boy (now older guy) will be happy to see you!!
Being amused by “the marine layer” is not a put down. Nor is noticing the way Californians refer to highways. We’re taken with the term “inland empire” too. Not put downs. Yesterday we dug down and discovered that “Sigalerts” were named for a long-ago journalist who introduced radio reports to keep track of traffic. Billy didn’t know.
Lots more to think about in this comment but “I’m all out of puff” as one of the boys’ favorite picture books used to say.
Dee~ Yeah. Knew I was being sensitive, but let myself be so anyway. CA gets so much darn hate and that highway thing is very often said as a put down – as we are d.u.m.b. for saying it that way. Like the insults some phrases elsewhere get treated. So dumb. I still love CA, but sure wouldn’t mind being on the Central coast! My fav.
And even the other day, we were talking about our trip to Sedona years ago. I loved it there so much! There are so many beautiful places to love. I sometimes wish I had been able to explore more of them years back.
I hope you get to see many more places here and there too!
I had heard that about the Sigalert, but of course it was buried in my memory somewhere. haha Funny how something can start out one way and just get so embedded in the language that no one even thinks about the origin anymore.
Sorry if my being curious or amused came across as snide.
I just changed it up a little bit
Had no idea you were so close to that fire .. it’s been all over the news and I kept thinking .. those poor people. Glad you’re heading home tomorrow .. safe travels!!
Close enough to see the plume and smell it a little. Fortunately not close enough to be endangered by it.
Moving to Texas 17 years ago (!) I was careful listen for local pronunciations, something we were actually talking about with my daughter and son-in-law the other day … a classic example is Bexar County (San Antonio) which is pronounced “bare” … that said, we also have to be aware of audience as the pronunciation of Spanish place names varies significantly by birth language
As for the sheer cloth quilt, I couldn’t help but think that adding layer after layer is a form of quilting in and of itself … and that whatever quilting you add at the end doesn’t necessarily “need” to go through the backing in places where the cloth is already well secured … which you already know of course … sheesh … Liz A
Yes good reminder in securing cloth to top layers only where the going gets tough.
Bexar is bare?! Wow.
@LizA cool. but I would never have thought of that obvious solution. Because I paint 🙂