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18 SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | MAY 2023 The SDV Pickleball Club recently held its March Men's and Women's Tournaments with eight men and 10 ladies participating in a round-robin format. The Men's Gold medalist was Tom Baker with Richard Clarke winning the Silver. The Women's Gold winner was Teresa Moreno and Belinda Lyons took the Silver. Thank you to all the players who participated, the club officers who ran the events, and a big shout-out to Janet Davis who provided the amazing "Uncle Mike" homemade muffins! Pickleball By Elaine Giometti, Resident On a rainy early morning (six-dark-thirty) in March, eight brave women from Solera set out on a new adventure. Pictured are Carolyn Whitaker, Lonora Bee, Pam Yang, JoAnne Heale, Beryl Holcomb, Kathy Byrd, Gay Smead, and Elaine Giometti. We were traveling to Mission Viejo for a tour of a fabric manufacturer - Hoffman Fabrics. The tour was due to begin at 9:30 so we left early to get through the traffic and the bad weather. Thanks to our wonderful drivers we arrived in time for a short respite before the tour began. Inside the Hoffman plant there were pallets of fabric everywhere. We had a speaker who told us the history of the plant: It was established in 1929 and the fourth and fifth generations are now running it. With its proximity to the ocean most of the family are avid swimmers and surfers. There were surf boards stuck here and there around the perimeter walls and a whole collection of surfboards in a high corner of the building. On one of the family's surfing vacations to Bali they struck up a conversation with a man who told them about how the natives of Bali produce their fabric, called Batik. The fabric comes in all colors and patterns and is quite remarkable. Most of the quilters enjoy working with Batiks because they are very easy to sew with. Long story short, the Hoffmans contracted with the native people of Bali to produce this wonderful batik fabric. Almost all of the Hawaiian shirts you see today are their fabrics. Batiks are still made today by a handmade process, dyed six or seven times. Each Balinese family has their own recipe for their process, and they do not share it with others. After a two-hour lecture on the history of Hoffman and seeing many samples that are currently being produced, we had a walking tour of the plant followed by an opportunity to purchase a few items currently on sale. If you happen to know a quilter, then you know we never have enough fabric! Leaving, we traveled a mile from the plant to a recommended quilt store. Here we could purchase fabric, kits and just generally touch and feel the fabric. Following our busy morning we traveled to San Juan Capistrano. Here we stopped at a Mexican Restaurant, the El Adobe, for a delicious gourmet meal. We learned that this restaurant was a favorite of many past presidents, the walls surrounding our table were covered with pictures of Presidents Nixon, Kennedy, and Reagan to name but a few. The service and the food were excellent. After our meal, the weather had improved thankfully, we began the trek home from a fun-filled day. Quilters Take a Road Trip