Quilt Retreat!

Every year my quilt group, the Mendocino Quilt Artists, rent a house on the coast, plan some kind of project, organize meals, who stays where, etc.  This year we decided we needed a bigger house.  The one we rented had 5 bedrooms and 3 baths and was comfortable, but what was most spectacular was the view from the living room, where we worked every day.

We looked slightly left to see this beach.  The view to the right was the green coastal hills with cows grazing here and there.  We walked down the street to steps that led down to the beach.  This is definitely the best house we have rented because of the beach walk and the view.  Also, the house faces north, so no problem with bright western sunlight which can be intense.

In the months leading up to the retreat, we kick around ideas for the theme of the project.  Once we have consensus, it's up to each of us to gather supplies and be ready to start work at the retreat.  It's a bit of a madhouse as we all get started, but this year we decided on a new strategy - silence for the first 2 hours.  It made a huge difference to me.  I know I'm easily distracted, so this really worked for me.  Here is a view of some of us at work.  You can't see the beach, but we can.

And we are, Friday night, all present and accounted for:

More mushrooms

I'm still finding lots of trumpets, but also some lovely hedgehog mushrooms, aka Hydnum Repandum.  They tend to occur in clusters and seem to glow with their cream and slightly peach blush.  They are small and somewhat fragile and hard to clean, but delicious nonetheless.  I think they taste a little like chanterelles.

You can see how these would be hard to spot.  The hedgehog mushroom, on the other hand is hard to miss because of it's color, though it is small, perhaps the largest of these is only 3" across.

 

The underside of the hedgehog mushroom has spines rather than gills, hence its name.

Leap Baby

Our nephew and his wife had their baby very late on the 29th - a Leap Baby - Maxwell Calhoun Apfel.  All is well and all are extremely happy.  Congratulations Josh and Jen!  Note this photo is a later one, but it's so sweet.