Wining and Dining

The weather here in Hemet has been changeable and wetter than usual. Fortunately, it most often rains at night and then stays dry during the daylight hours. It rained pretty hard Wednesday night into Thursday morning, but Thursday was dry with blue sky and puffy white clouds. I worked on my embroidery in the morning and finished up the northwest corner.

Now I have just a little bit left to do in the southwest corner.

It's hooped up and ready for this morning's stitching. I doubt I'll finish it today, but you just never know.

So after that, I got out for a walk. I didn't quite make my steps yesterday, but I got close. We had a date with our friends Lenelda and Bill at the Wilson Creek Winery. This one was just a little ways down the road from the Chapin Family Winery we visited last week.

This is one of the larger wineries, and the grounds there were lovely. They had grapevines stamped into their concrete sidewalks.

The buildings themselves wrapped all around this courtyard where there were tables for sitting. There was also a creek with a couple of bridges and this was a very nice place to spend a sunny afternoon. To the right in the image below was the door to the restaurant, and we headed there for some lunch first.

Certainly one cannot have lunch at a winery without enjoying a glass of wine, and so we imbibed.

After that, we headed to the tasting room. We had two-for-one coupons, available on the website. Regular price was five tastings for $20, but at two for one, it was $10 per head for us. Mike and Lenelda had a selection of reds. Bill and I enjoyed their sparkling wines. The tasting fee also includes the glass. Mike and I have all four of our glasses. We're holding the glasses hostage until Bill and Lenelda come to pay us a visit at the Three Cats Ranch B & B in Oregon. Actually, Bill and Lenelda are flying back to their home in Texas, and so you might say we have the glasses in protective custody. I like the hostage idea better.

After all that wine, we took a short walk up into the vineyards. There, this poster was kind of interesting.

It was a pretty day...on the coolish side...but still nice enough to be out. The sky was pretty with those puffy white clouds.

Up the hill, they were setting up for a wedding. The employee there told us they can hold as many as 5-6 weddings in a week there at the winery. It would be a nice venue, and there were other wedding venues right here at this same winery.

After that, we made another trip to Temecula Quilt Co. I visited here last week, but Lenelda hadn't been before. Heck, I'm always up for a visit to any quilt shop, any time.

You might remember this image from the post about my last visit.

I didn't notice this on my first visit, but those blocks are all signature blocks. I wondered how they were collected. A request on the Temecula Quilt Co. blog, perhaps? Many are from Temecula, but there were plenty from out of state as well.

Also, I noticed this quilt folded and lying on a shelf under the cutting table. The store employee told me it was made by the owner's grandmother. Hexie yo-yos! These were about the size of a quarter.

My own grandmother made a yo-yo quilt too. Hers was made from half-dollar sized yo-yo's, and it's pictured in the image below. I can't even imagine the patience it must take to make something like this.

Don't look for anything like this to come out of my sewing room.

Oh yes, and I must have had my eyes closed when I passed by the ruler boxes last trip because there they were, right at eye level.

They came in several sizes. I can only say I must have been blinded by fabric.

I came away with this one. I keep a little box of tools...scissors, tweezers, stylus, and seam ripper (not that I have a need for a seam ripper, or anything). I've been using an ugly metal box that came with something else. This one will be a nice souvenir.

So that was our day, and we enjoyed it. Good food, good wine, good friends...can't beat that. The quilt shop was the icing on the cake.

Today will be a less fun day...grocery shopping...and you know how I feel about that. For now, I'll do some stitching. That always gets the day off to a good start no matter what's on the agenda.