hilda's hideout

More thrift shopping

2012-02-09T06:30:00.000-07:00

I was on a good thrifting roll. We went to Santa Fe for a birthday outing and I thought a stop in Moriarty was in order.

Look what I got:

A three yard piece of the great graphic design fabric, and some wonderful yarns. The yarns were $1 a skein/ball, and retail for $7-10 each, Hempathy and Tahki Cotton Classic! They also have just a wonderful feel.

Next week I'll be heading for the yearly retreat in Phoenix. There's a Savers close to the hotel we stay in, and Phoenix has wonderful Goodwill stores. It's birthday month celebration!

Also stopped at the new Wal-Mart in Santa Fe and they had a fabric department. I picked up two 6+yard bolts of great quality cotton that I can use for backings at $2/yd.

Back to cotton...

2012-02-08T11:11:00.001-07:00

When you know better, you can do better. Saturday at our longarm quilters meeting, I was given a copy of On Track, a quarterly publication from IMQA (International Machine Quilters Association, Inc.). It's a very good read, but one article made an impression on me, Safe Batting Choices for Baby and Invalid. Follow the link to read the article online.

I never considered the flammability of battings, but after reading this I'm going back to cotton. I had been using an 80/20 blend because of the price, but since I predominantly make quilts for children, I will go back to cotton batting. Some of the newly diagnosed diabetic kids I make quilts for are unfortunately infants, and I cannot in good conscience continue to use poly blend batting.

On a more fun note, I stopped at Savers on my way home and scored! I got the squash colored duvet cover, the buttery colored king cotton sheet, the twin plaid sheet, and the yard piece of striped fabric all for $17. I love using sheets for backings. I don't have to piece them have never had a problem stitching through them with even the highest thread counts.

I also finished this little wall hanging from a pattern I won on Painted Threads blog some time ago. It's for a friend of a friend that loves polar bears. Nice to finally use the pattern.

Stack-o-quilts

2012-01-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

I met my goal of finishing a half dozen quilts in order to take them to Albuquerque since I have an appointment there today. Unfortunately the need for these quilts hasn't slowed any, and Dr. Kaufman is still getting 2-3 newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetic patients a week.

I got the another BQ3 finished up with Cars themed fabric. I quilted it with a truck pantograph by Dave Hudson. I also used a pinwale corduroy for the backing which washed up soft and cuddly.

I was able to make another pillowcase to go with this one from the leftover fabrics.

A glorious sunrise this morning, but pictures didn't do it justice, so I just enjoyed the quickly changing colors.

Another BQ3

2012-01-29T08:22:00.000-07:00

This pattern is becoming my "go to" pattern lately. Pat sent me this awesome fabric as a challenge for a BQ3. I don't know that I love my combination, but hey, it's done.

I had just enough of the focus fabric to make a coordinating pillow case. I used the clouds and lightning bolts pantograph. It went well with the fabric. Also, thanks to Pat, I had the perfect backing (shot cotton) and binding she had previously made. There is plenty left of the binding to use on her quilt with the same focus fabric.

My 250th post came and went. I wanted to do a giveaway of some sort. Maybe I'll come up with something worthwhile and wait until my 300th!

Tent kitty

2012-01-27T07:42:00.000-07:00

(Princess) Sophia is the only survivor of whatever decimated our outdoor, wild cat population last year. She's a tough cookie, and has survived despite losing her two (grown) kittens and K.D. (a cat we think was the kitty daddy). She's plumped out with quite a thick coat and takes her duties as quilt inspector seriously. She's lately gotten into trouble for once again liking to make her bed on a quilt loaded on the longarm, and making it sag. It's a cat hammock, isn't it?

Yesterday I went back to the sewing room, and I knew I hadn't left a quilt loaded--since I had just taken one off. I used the excess backing and batting to quilt some place mats, which I left draped on the top roller. I guess it looked like the perfect tent for a kitty. You can see that I barely disturbed her slumber.

Begin anywhere...

2012-01-25T07:39:00.000-07:00

So much good stuff out there. Doing my daily early morning blog hopping, and came across this, Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, via Kathleen's blog. What a lot of things to ponder!

Growth. Change. Open Mind. Trying to stay young, curious, open, despite the external aging forces. In my head, I'm still young...only wish my body wouldn't belie my youthful thinking.

Trying to get familiar with Pinterest. Seems like a good way to save cool pictures, sites, etc. without having to bookmark the whole world online. There's so much good stuff out there--all free (well for the price of internet connectivity) for the taking...

Back to the sewing room.

Good things come to those who wait, and wait, and...

2012-01-24T07:14:00.000-07:00

Back around Thanksgiving, I was the proud winner of a Go Baby on Victoria's blog. My forum friends congratulated me...I bragged that I had won it at the longarm meeting. Then nothing! I waited a couple of weeks and contacted Victoria.

She was surprised, and contacted Accuquilt for whom she had done the promotional giveaway. I found out I got to pick three dies, selected my dies, and waited a while longer. Nothing! Then it was the holidays, and somehow my prize got lost in the holiday shuffle of emails.

Finally my Go Baby was on its way...but wait, they sent it to Victoria instead of me, and she had to ship it to me herself. Yesterday while we were walking to the post office FedEx delivered my prize. I had left a note asking them to leave the package at the back door with a signature, and hoped that I'd be back before they delivered. Usually deliveries from UPS and FedEx come late in the day in Willard. We saw the FedEx truck going to our place and then on the highway as we were walking home.

Finally! It looks like a wonderful tool. I cut some tumbler blocks. I'll have to play around more with it to figure out how to minimize the waste on the sides. Looks like a great tool which should save on cutting of repetitive pieces.

The weather has turned to winter again with a bit of snow, and gray clouds. Good for cooking and quilting.

Another litter of kitties

2012-01-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I got the second kitty quilt finished. Now I'm out of blocks unless I participate in the upcoming swap for more kitty blocks on About.com.

I also got a BQ3 all cut and partially pieced. Pat sent me some great fabric for a BQ challenge. My quilt is not very inspired, but will be finished in short order. Have enough fabric leftover for a coordinating pillow case.

We'll be going to "town" on the 30th for an appointment and I should be able to have another half dozen quilts to deliver to Dr. Kaufman. Her need, unfortunately, hasn't diminished.

Still pondering a weekly creative exercise, but nothing has clicked yet.

Inspiration, work, etc.

2012-01-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a lot of great stuff on blogs...leading me here there, and trying to come up with a commitment for doing some sort of art daily, weekly, or monthly. I was awed again this morning with an awesome sunrise.

This was the spectacle as I stepped out the back door. Thankfully the snow is finally gone and at sunrise everything is nicely frozen and firm for walking.

So back to inspiring blogs, I followed Lynne's post from The Patcherie Menagerie to this paragraph. I do think that art is much more dependent on work than inspiration. I think just starting is more than half the battle.

I want to commit to at least a weekly exercise in creativity. I read this post this morning and followed through her journey of creating bundles. I could go in my sewing room and easily create half a dozen bundles. I'm always bringing home bits of stuff from my daily walks to the post office, bits of "treasures", interesting sticks, bits of glass, rocks, debris. My excuse is a collecting materials for a mosaic wall of some sort. Creating bundles would be an interesting exercise.

I'll mull it over some more and come up with something to do...probably on a weekly basis...

Kitty quilt

2012-01-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

It's so nice to have blocks ready-made to work with. I participated in a swap for cat blocks some time ago on About.com quilting site. They are having another swap, and I'm debating if I want to join again. It's nice to pull out blocks and put together a quilt.

I had the perfect backing--fish in a flannel. I also used an inexpensive fleece throw that Pat got a while back for batting. We thought we could use them as backing without batting, but that didn't have wonderful results. I have another kitty quilt top put together and ready to quilt.

They are a little more time consuming as I like to do my own design on the kitties, and then the frames, etc. But the second one should go faster!

Bright finish

2012-01-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

At last year's retreat in Phoenix I got a bunch in fabric, blocks, etc. These unfinished blocks came together for this bright quilt. Hope it won't keep some child up at night!

I put it together with some bright frog fabric I had, and a really bright flannel stripe for the back.

Used a frog panto for the quilting. It's nice to build quilts from other's UFOs.

I need all this brightness because today it is cloudy and raining a bit. We still have a patch of snow at the back of the house, on the north side. It's melting and turning into mini lakes which thaw and freeze, but the ground won't absorb it...it's too cold and saturated. I scored a pair of lined jeans from LL Bean at Savers yesterday--so bring on the cold!

Perseverance

2012-01-10T07:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I had another opportunity to photograph the moon this morning. It was a little later going down, and so more light. I did some reading on the camera manual and tried different settings.

It was a little cooler out there this morning at 19 degrees!It was too light to use the "fireworks" setting. But at least I got some pictures that were keepers with just minor brightness and contrast correction.

I did finish the binding the crumb blocks quilt, and it's a nice size for a teenager. I used my new Kokopelli panto, and it's a good one--flows nicely. If you look closely you can pick out the Meandering Kokopelli.

So close...

2012-01-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

I was so close to finishing... I put a top together from crumb blocks I found when looking through some stuff. I just needed two more more blocks to make a nice sized quilt set on point. Got it loaded, quilted, and was pretty close to finishing the top stitching on the binding, when the power went off!

No warning, no thunder and lightning, no flickering. One minute everything was on and then everything was off. It stayed off for a little over an hour, enough time to light a bunch of candles, and light the stove to warm up leftovers. I'm always grateful that we have a gas stove, heater, and water heater when our power goes off. It was too late to go back out to the sewing room by the time the power came back on, but I'll finish it up this morning.

I already went out to turn the heat on in my sewing room and to try to capture pictures of the setting moon. It was gorgeous, but not one of the 10 or so pictures I took was a keeper. I fail miserably (with rare exceptiongs) at capturing the moon, and really should work on learning how to take decent pictures of it.

Half dozen and a rant

2012-01-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

After having the previous quilt loaded on my machine for what seemed like forever, I finished up this quilt in a day. It brought the total number of quilts to deliver up to an even half dozen, and we delivered them to Dr. Kaufman on Thursday. Unfortunately, she's still getting 2-3 new patients a week, so I need to ramp up my finishes.

Pat couldn't remember who had these blocks, but she put them together to make this wonderful sampler top, and I added borders to make it a little bigger.

And now for my rant...(Please feel free to ignore.) I don't normally bash my homeland, and frequently try to keep my dad and friends of his generation from going on about how things in Brazil are terrible, and it "sucks" there. I've heard this same song for most of my life, being fortunate to have grown up in the U.S.A. I continue to hang on to my Brazilian citizenship, but this latest saga in trying to get a passport has me wondering if it's time to give it up. I've had my passport in my married name since shortly after I became Mrs. in 1975. I have all my previous, expired passports with this name. When I saw the itinerant Brazilian Consulate in Albuquerque in December with what I assumed was all my required paperwork for a new passport...I was missing my marriage certificate. It wasn't listed on the necessary items since I already had an expired passport issued by same consulate in my married name. She asked me to send her a copy of my marriage certificate, which since I wanted to get it right, didn't need to be notarized.

I get a phone call this week, and I believe the same person who assisted me in Albuquerque asks about my Brazilian marriage certificate. HUH? I didn't get married in Brazil, and don't have one of those. Then she asks how did I get a passport in my married name. I told her I've had it in my married name since 1976, and I got that passport from the Los Angeles consulate. She now informs me that without a Brazilian certificate (registering my American certificate with the consulate) I can't have the passport in my married name. She said she would call the consulate in Los Angeles to see if they had my Brazilian certificate. I told her as far as I know, that had never been done. She called them, and called me back. Apparently back then, they didn't require that you register your foreign certificate in order to change your name. So now, the requirement is to register your marriage certificate and they can't issue my passport in my married name without it. The catch...another $20 fee, email them a filled out form, and then appear in person with the consulate in Houston or an itinerant consulate--they will be in Albuquerque in December--or Denver in May, or El Paso in August. Let's hope I don't need to go anywhere anytime soon. Why can't they grandfather it in like most changes in requirements. And then the passport is only good for five years! Arrrggghh! If I could get my fee back, I'd be considering getting my American citizenship instead. Bureaucracy at its finest!

A new year...

2012-01-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

I almost finished this little quilt before the year's end, but didn't rush to complete it. It had been loaded on the longarm for quite a while, and I didn't think I needed to rush the finish. I got the top last year from the sell off of a departed friend's stash. I decided to make it a sampler of fills. Owing to my insecurity about my freehand quilting, I used a thread that blends into the plain print squares. There is a lot of texture in the whole quilt. I'll be taking it to the Phoenix retreat for show & tell.

I've been watching Pan Am, and while the show is less than stellar, it's brought back a lot of memories and made me wax nostalgic. My mother was a "stewardess" for a small Brazilian airline and told me stories of dirt runways with dangerous termite mounds when aviation was still in its infancy. Later she worked for Pan Am in Sao Paulo as a PBX operator and I have a few items from her time there.

The key chain is the most prized in my large collection of advertising key chains. The lighter was well used for many years...by both my mother and I. My, how times change...ushering in 2012!

And the snow continues...

2011-12-24T04:32:00.000-07:00

It's certainly going to be a white Christmas here! We had quail feeding in our carport where the feeder hangs, cleaning up all the fallen seed, plus whatever I throw on the ground for the ground feeders. We've seen them passing through our yard but never feeding. They must be really hungry to hang out for a long while--they left when I went outside to throw more seed on the ground, and then came back!

Wednesday was a momentary break in storms and we went to town. We needed a few things, and I figured it would be our only opportunity. They've done a great job of predicting these storms and were right on again. It snowed Thursday, and yesterday it snowed all day. Dale braved the weather, shoveled a path to the garage (sewing room) and within a couple of hours it filled in. Highways closed again all around us! He walked to the post office, and came home with my order from Keepsake Quilting. Woo-hoo!

This last storm tracked more south, and so I-25 north of us was open and clear even on Raton Pass. Looks like we may be able to get to Colorado! I finished a couple of last minute sewing projects yesterday and baked bread. I blogged about this bread here, and it has become my favorite bread recipe, always consistent. Yesterday I substituted the butternut squash with sweet potato, and it came out just as good. This weather is certainly great for baking! Happy Holidays everyone!

No shortage of snow!

2011-12-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

This was the scene outside our windows yesterday all day! Lindsay and I had a very productive weekend. We made our dipped chocolate candies--which still need their chocolate coating, mocha brandy balls, lasagne for her to take to a potluck, and cardamom bread for another pot luck as well. She works Christmas eve and Christmas day, and they have potlucks on both days.

We also did sewing and crafting. Got stethoscope covers made, and the little ABC Already Been Chewed--aptly named by Marcia of Quilter's Cache) wool gingerbread man ornaments. I was surprised that Geoff made it to pick her up from Albuquerque and then back home again. Shortly afterwards they closed I-40 from Albuquerque to the Texas border.

Seems like it will be a white Christmas here. This latest storm joins the snowfall that started December 3rd and still hadn't completely melted! Seems like we're going to get a bit of sunshine today, which will help a lot with gain for our sun room.

This sunrise picture is through the window in the sun room door--Too cold and I wasn't suitably dressed to go outside to snap it! Keep warm everyone!

Robt I and Robot II

2011-12-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

Jackie asked me to make robots for the boys--like one she saw in a magazine. My first attempt wasn't it. It resembles the magazine robot, but the head is floppy, and I just wasn't happy with it. Of course I cut two at a time, so have arms and legs for another like this one.

I decided to use wool to make a different style of robot, after doing a lot of looking online. First attempt with this design didn't work out either. The wool was too thick and I couldn't sew through two thickeness of it. This brown one is going to be it. Now I just need to make another one just like it--well same size, shape, and body wool. Will probably change up the face a bit.

I also saw this potholder, and was inspired to make one. I thought the "girlie" western fabric was a good fit for the front.

I've been rather lucky this month entering blog giveaways... I got my copy of Stitch Gifts today which I won from Jessica at j.m.b. In my quick look at this magazine, there are a lot of projects I want to do.

Freezing fog

2011-12-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

This is getting to be a habit around here. The freezing fog settled in again this morning. Yesterday it kept us from observing the lunar eclipse. Bummer!

We spent the day in Albuquerque, where a visit with the itinerant (Brazilian) consulate will hopefully result in a five year passport for me. It warmed up nicely there.

Seems like we are under a heavy blanket of cold air, and we still haven't lost much of our snow with more forecast for the coming week. This is still the view out our sun room window of our street. We've been able to walk daily to the post office with adequate layers, sunshine, and no wind. Looks like it's lifting a little earlier today, which will make the birds happy I'm sure.

Wow!!

2011-12-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled to hear from Dr. Kaufman that this quilt made over $5,000 in the raffle for JDRF. I'm so happy that it did so well. I can't thank my quilting buddies enough, and especially Colene, who gave me this top at last year's Phoenix retreat. This is just the impetus I needed to keep making quilts for newly diagnosed kids. Dr. K. also shared that she'd had 13 new patients in the past two weeks! We remembered this past week, the "anniversary" of sorts when Lindsay was diagnosed 14 years ago at the tender age of 12. Dr. K. is gifting her winning quilt to Lindsay.

We continue to enjoy a winter wonderland. The snow isn't exactly melting with our cool temperatures, but it sure is a lot more tolerable with sunshine. It hovered around freezing yesterday, but we were able to sustain comfortable temperatures without using heat and the house opened to the sunroom.

Back to the sewing room--I've had the heat on in there until the sun takes over in a couple of hours. I'm inspired to get more quilts done for my next delivery.

Winter is here!

2011-12-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the longarm meeting in Albuquerque and the roads between Willard and I-40 were not driver friendly, at least for this driver. However, Dale was nice enough to drive me to the meeting, 80+ miles, and entertain himself with grocery shopping while I had a good time. He came to pick me up just in time to enjoy our pot luck lunch.

We've had several snowy days now with freezing fog, blowing snow, and frigid temperatures. The temperature above is after a low of -14, but the best part is the little sun symbol. Our sun room is doing an amazing job of maintaining temperatures, although this morning it was a chilly 45 in there. However after less than two hours of sunshine, it's already nearing 60. On sunny days the temperatures easily top the 80s with the room open to the rest of the house. It's performing much better than we expected.

Yesterday we finished trimming out the windows with drywall. Today the plan is to clean up the drywall dust, and put up our Christmas tree.

I love the flocked trees outside from the freezing fog, but enjoy it more with sunshine! A couple of days of freezing fog and blowing snow without sunshine was more than enough. I need to turn on the heat in my sewing room so I can go out there.

Glorious sunrises

2011-11-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

I almost always see the sun come up since I am an early riser. Winter sunrises are pretty spectacular around here. I know, it's not technically winter yet, but close enough.

Our sun room has been performing better than our expectations. Dale is frequently working out there in shorts, as on sunny days the temperature tops out close to 90, and that's with the door open to the house. We've certainly used less heat already. Even on a couple of overcast days the temperature climbs to comfortable 70s!

I finished the last of quilts from the tops Yetta sent me. I backed this one with pieced flannel. It's a soft, cozy quilt.

Now I'm working on Pat's crane quilt interspersed with cooking foods to take for Thanksgiving. So much to be thankful for!

Three on one back...

2011-11-12T08:10:00.013-07:00

Pat picked up some shot cottons on sale. They are beautiful, but rather thin. It took ironing with a lot of starch to be able to load on the longarm, but provided backing for three quilts.

The color achieved from the threads makes the fabric shimmer. This top Pat put together from blocks we acquired at the retreat in Phoenix in February. There is already a lot of buzz for next year's 10th anniversary retreat on the About.com quilting forum.

The next two are from Yetta. I've already got four quilts for my next delivery, and a fifth ready to load and quilt. Thanks to all my friends whose extra blocks, tops, etc. help make these quilts.

The sky was ablaze yesterday morning with color. The day in comparison was gray and cloudy with the ever present breeze. The sun room is already performing even on such a cloudy day, and was able to keep the temperature at 70 throughout the day.

Plugging along

2011-11-06T08:03:00.010-07:00

I got this top finished that Pat put together while she was here. The center medallion was from Judy H., and I think it made a wonderful, bright top.

I finally used up the last of this yellow batik, except for a few scraps. I bought it for a couple of dollars a yard at a store closing in Minnesota.

It's beginning to look a lot like...Halloween??

2011-10-27T08:24:00.000-06:00

They were predicting snow, but I really didn't expect to see this when I looked out my back door up this morning. I'm hoping the sun will come out and do a lot of melting before I head up to Colorado. Driving in snowy, slick roads is not my idea of a good time!

It is beautiful to look at, and we certainly need the moisture. Hope some of it is making it over to Texas, where they need it even more.

Thanks Yetta!

2011-10-26T19:21:00.000-06:00

Yetta sent me a bunch of tops besides the guitar quilt to quilt for her grandson. This is the first one I finished, and there are several more that just need borders to grow them a little. Thanks Yetta!

I finished this one to deliver 11 quilts to Dr. Kaufman today. It was a great day, all our errands fell into place in a timely fashion. I found convenient parking spaces everywhere I went. Some days are just like that...the stars align and everything works well. It didn't end perfectly--we brought home our repaired TV and there was no power cord in the box! Oh well, all in all everything else went without a hitch.

...with a little help from my friends

2011-10-25T06:05:00.000-06:00

Having quilty friends makes it much easier to get a lot of quilts finished. Especially when one of those friends comes for a week and is a production quilter. Thanks Pat for putting together these quilt tops!

Judy A. gave us the center Corvettes and Ellen (if memory serves, which it frequently doesn't anymore) gave us the backing. Pat had made yards of bias binding from a diagonal print featuring signal lights some time ago. This was a most appropriate use of it!

It's a great quilt for a boy. It seems harder to put together "boy" quilts from our stash.

Cathy gave us some blocks, and Pat magically transformed them into this top using a Savers fabric from my stash that picked up the colors for a border.

I also had a perfect backing fabric, a woven plaid also from Savers that was wide enough not to have to be pieced. Yay!

Thanks again friends! A lot of children are going to get some comforting quilts!

Space for a girl

2011-10-24T06:23:00.000-06:00

Pat put one more top together from the space blocks she had along with some of my stash fabrics. We thought this one would be more of a girl's quilt, since it had purple binding and a flowered backing.

I'm hoping to finish a few more so I can deliver an even dozen to Dr. Kaufman on Wednesday.

Cranking them out...

2011-10-21T05:54:00.000-06:00

Pat picked up the space blocks as part of a kit--for a wall hanging. She combined them to make three tops. I had some space fabric as well to add to it.

We used a sheet from Savers that must be really high thread count, although we didn't discover a few holes in it until we were rolling it up on the longarm.

Pat added a little applique of space fabric to cover the holes on the backing, but not without bleeding on it in the process. In washing it out I noticed that the backing is such a tight weave that it holds water!

Our stack of quilts is growing, and I'm going to deliver them next Wednesday so I'll be able to finish some more.

I also quilted Pat's beautiful zen quilt. It came together wonderfully, and the binding fabric was a batik that was a dream to use besides being beautiful. It's waiting for something else to run a load in the washer. The week is going by much too quickly. Back to the sweatshop...the third space quilt is waiting for binding.

Another finish

2011-10-19T06:29:00.001-06:00

Another quilt from Kathy E.'s blocks. I don't have 30s in my stash except for one small piece of vintage blue with little white characters--a small piece and only 36" wide, so after I put together these blocks I was having a hard time adding anything to it to make it a little bigger and more rectangular.

Pat has a good eye for putting things together. Works for me, and another top done for one of Dr. Kaufman's patients. Thanks Kathy E! I have a quilt to bind...back to the sweatshop.

A friend's quilt

2011-10-17T07:32:00.000-06:00

A friend from AZ, Yetta, made this wonderful quilt for her grandson. When I saw the picture of it on the quilting forum we frequent, I thought it would be a fun quilt to do. She entrusted me to do the quilting.

I'll be mailing it out to her today. I hope she's happy with the results!

Lemons, lemonade and such...

2011-10-13T07:07:00.002-06:00

We recently stopped at Schwebach Farms in Moriarty on the way home and I bought a buttercup squash. Had never tried it before, and it looked appropriately like fall with bumpy outer skin and witche's moles here and there. I planned to make a squash and goat cheese filling for tortellini.

Well, the best laid plans. After I roasted the squash and mixed it with the goat cheese, it was a bit too watery, and would just squeeze out of the tortellini as I tried to fold them in the appropriate shape. I decided to abandon the squash and just stuff my torts with plain goat cheese. We had them in a thin chicken broth with a few slivered vegetables, and it was yummy.

The next day I looked for some yeast bread recipes featuring squash and found this one. I think this may be one of the most delicious yeast breads I've ever made!! What a wonderful way to use up the squash, and I'm sure the bit of goat cheese that I had mixed with it didn't hurt the bread any. I froze a couple of loaves to have when Pat is here.

I may get squash to just use in breadmaking now! Looking forward to a week of sewing (and eating) when Pat's here.

Another one finished

2011-10-06T06:57:00.026-06:00

It's good to have quilting friends that give you blocks and pieces parts to make quilts for our cause! Kathy E. was very generous with blocks from swaps she participated in on About.com quilting forum and wasn't going to use.

I made this blue and white quilt from the sampler blocks. I had the perfect backing in my stash. I love it when I don't have to piece a backing. This one just fit.

Thanks Kathy, and I'll be using the other blocks soon in a quilt!

From leftovers

2011-09-14T06:34:00.000-06:00

One of the times Pat was here she made a quilt using a wonderful cactus print. She always has great scraps and I hoarded what she didn't use. I came across them the other day and put together another donation quilt.

I think I'm about out of donated tops to quilt, and I'm going to have to start putting more tops together. I do still have a number of blocks, which makes putting tops together faster for me since I don't love repetitive piecing. I also need to do some scrap reduction.

One to donate, one to sell

2011-09-06T10:16:00.000-06:00

I finished a couple of quilts. The first is a little doggie themed quilt with some orphan flying geese blocks. Thanks to Pat, I had the perfect backing, a flannel with doggie prints.

The second quilt is one made from my stash of Route 66 fabrics. This particular print features the "Bluebird Hotel" sign which bears a striking resemblance to the Blue Swallow Motel, which we used to own. I'm sure it was a deliberate attempt at bypassing trademark issues, which at the time the fabric came out we would not have pursued. It is a generous lap quilt, 64 X 79" and I'll be selling it.

I quilted it with the clouds and lightning bolts pantograph. The backing is a solid, celery green color.

Room done

2011-09-03T14:01:00.024-06:00

Our addition is finished! Well, at least the part we contracted to have built. Now comes all the work Dale will be doing to wire it, and finish the interior. I'm just the gopher and helper. My favorite part is acquiring things for the new room! Our new front door will be a dark turquoise color.

We've been busy with a few other things, Thursday afternoon we had a really loud lightning strike which took out our power. We thought the whole area was without power and so never called until four hours later. They came out and restored power with 45 minutes. Lesson learned, we'll call sooner next time.

When the power came back we learned we lost our DSL modem, flat screen TV, a satellilte tuner in my sewing room, and the electronics in our satellite dish. The modem is replaced, satellite restored, and now we're just waiting on the flat screen.

Lots of progress...

2011-08-25T06:31:00.002-06:00

Our sun room is going up pretty quickly. Dale and I will be doing the interior finishing, and of course Dale will do the electrical. It will be our fall project. We got a great deal on the fixed pane windows for the front from Restore in Albuquerque, the Habitat for Humanity store.

Our new entry will face east. I'm looking forward to having more room for indoor plants. As fast as these guys are going, we may be waiting for the entry door which we had to order.

Starting on the sun room...

2011-08-20T19:48:00.031-06:00

The front of our house faces south, and we wanted to take advantage of all the potential for solar gain. We are building a sun room addition to the front. It should be a nice spot to spend sunny winter days. We are usually blessed with abundant sunshine here.

We decided to go with a colored cement for the floor which we plan to seal with polyurethane. Should be more durable than painting which is what we did with my sewing room part of the garage.

I also finished quilting another donation quilt from Yetta. As always I'm so grateful to have friends that help with my chosen cause. Of course getting little notes and pictures helps keep me motivated...

One more

2011-08-17T07:06:00.000-06:00

I got one more quilt done before Monday's delivery to Dr. Kaufman. This was Judy H.'s mystery quilt which she kindly gave to our cause. I was able to take an even half dozen, and though there was a bit of a lull of newly diagnosed diabetic kids during the summer, Dr. K. was expecting it to pick up again.

I also made a couple of "taggies" for the boys. I'd been saving clothing tags for some time, and I hope they'll enjoy the different textures and colors. I backed them with flannel, and didn't use batting.
I'll be heading up to Colorado a week from Friday, and I can't wait to see what they're up to now. I couldn't wait for my babies' milestones, but now I know how fleeting that time is, and I want to savor it with grandbabies.

One for me

2011-08-14T09:54:00.001-06:00

So, in between finishing a number of charity quilts, I managed to get one done for us. After our last trip with the camper it became evident that the quilt that's been on the queen bed for a while, didn't really cover two people simultaneously. Most of the time it's not a problem because I'm frequently too warm for any covers--a definite shift from my youth.

While I was at BCI, I was able to get a new top done from a friend's borrowed BQ3 pattern. It's a great pattern for prints that you don't want to cut up, and can showcase the fabric. It's going to be an improvement, and the smaller quilt can be for the couch in the camper which opens up into a double bed.

The next quilt comes with a warning. Stand back. It's best viewed from a distance...do you have a horse you can gallop by as you look at it? I used to be less afraid to do free motion (not a pantograph) quilting when I was newer at this. Now I seem to prefer pantos all the time. But I gave myself permission to just go for it on this little quilt, which I put together from orphan blocks from Chris' stash. I suppose if I don't get more practice, I'm never going to feel confident in my ability to do anything except pantographs. Just don't look too closely, I sure don't need to anyone to point out the imperfections...I bet I can find more than anyone else, but maybe it'll just cheer up a child's hospital stay...

Getting some quilts done

2011-07-30T09:37:00.001-06:00

I was able to get three quilt tops done while at Bear Cabin. I used orphan blocks from Linda H. to put together a "hockey" quilt. Also had flannel with hockey motifs for the backing. It's nice to be able to make some quilts that work for boys.

I also put together a four patch with fabrics I got in February from Chris' stash. Chris was a hostess at the AZ retreat I attend, and lost her battle with pancreatic cancer earlier this year. It made a bright, cheery quilt.

I enlarged this liberated pieced center also from Chris' stash for another bright quilt.

It's so much easier for me to get tops done when I have some orphans or pieces parts to work with. I also bordered this panel of tropical birds for another quick quilt.

Quilt camp

2011-07-25T09:18:00.001-06:00

I had a lot to do on my return home. I had two big queen quilts to quilt for Pat. I wanted to get them done so that I could take them with to a planned trip to Bear Cabin Inn where I was meeting up with friends from Phoenix.

I did get them done, but not without a hiccup. Measure twice, cut once is a lesson I keep having to learn. I measured out lengths of backing--Pat had bought lots of homespun yardage to use for backing. I sewed the lengths together, loaded them on the longarm frame...and I thought it looked a little short. I place the quilt top on the backing, and it is--very short. I had to take it off the frame and add pieces to each of three lengths. Arrrggghh! No pictures of the finished quilts. I meant to do that at the retreat where we could have tall people hold up the quilts, but forgot.

Got back and quilted a top for Yetta, who had so kindly donated a number of tops for Dr. Kaufman, and also a finished quilt.

Grandbabies!!

2011-07-06T09:06:00.001-06:00

We finished off our vacation staying with the kids. The boys have grown so much, and we were there to enjoy watching their first forays with solid food.

It was a wonderful visit. We came home to clearer skies. Fortunately, the fire near Los Alamos, was north of us and not a factor in our air quality.

Lava Hot Springs, ID

2011-07-01T20:46:00.002-06:00

As far as our trip goes, we saved the best for last. We discovered Lava Hot Springs, ID. We camped in town at the KOA before discovering our favorite spot, Big Spring campground just north of the town of Lava Hot Springs. It was everything we wanted...Cooler high country, early spring flowers, not too many people.

We spent our days just lazing around, and every evening we went to town to enjoy the huge pool and then finish off with a soak in the hotter pools. The water was amazingly clear with no sulfur odor, and very hot. It was one of the best hot springs we've ever been to.

On our way to Colorado to finish our trip we went through Soda Springs, and caught their captive geyser. It was pretty spectacular.

We also filled up a couple of bottles with their natural soda water from the spring. Dale enjoyed it...I preferred my store bought bubbly water.

Also happened to catch the slag pour at the Monsanto plant near there. Probably the closest I'll get to what looks like an active volcano.

The drive through Wyoming and Colorado was uneventful, though I have to grit my teeth and just get through Denver. I don't enjoy going through traffic in a big rig.

Jordanelle SP, UT

2011-06-25T20:33:00.001-06:00

We headed north in search of cooler weather, and made our home at Jordanelle SP for a few days. We checked out Bridal Veil Falls for a day.

The surrounding mountains were still covered with snow, and our attempts to go to higher country were met with closed roads.

We did find a nice picnic spot with a field of wild irises.

Also had dinner in Park City, home of the Sundance Film Festival.

Moab and Arches NP

2011-06-23T20:16:00.001-06:00

We made our way to Arches NP, and of course the NP was full, but we actually found a great place to camp after one night in private park in Moab.

Upon recommendation from a park ranger, we camped at Sand Flats Recreation Area, just above Moab. There was no water or electric, but we filled up with water before heading up, and we had solar panels. Our setup worked great.

We spent most of our days checking out Arches NP. The number of arch formations there were unreal. The number of people made it less desirable to us. It's a busy national park, and it's easy to see why. We were happy to return to our less populated campground every evening.

It started heating up, and we were ready to leave in search of more remote places, but not before being rewarded with a gorgeous sunset.

Capitol Reef NP

2011-06-20T19:56:00.000-06:00

Capitol Reef was amazing. I was surprised that we were able to go towards the end of June and not be roasting. I really thought we'd have to head north more quickly, and skip Arches National Park.

We did one impressive hike to Hickman Bridge. My "new" (TKR) knee held up pretty well, the other knee complained a bit. The trail is pretty easy follow, and well worth the reward.

Petroglyphs are within easy view of the park road. I want to try my hand at making my own with the Dremmel tool on sandstone.

Procrastination is my middle name

2011-06-18T19:24:00.004-06:00

Okay so it's officially two months since I last posted. The longer I go without posting, the less inclined I am to catch up. I wanted to blog about our vacation. We went so many places and saw so much natural beauty that I wanted to have a record of it. It's almost two months since we took off, and so I'm going to back date these posts as I remind myself of our trip.

We left kind of late, as we really don't feel the need to set a time to leave for vacation and then drive ourselves crazy trying to get out of the house with an arbitrary schedule. It is vacation after all...we leave when we're ready. We didn't get very far, Farmington, but it was a bit cooler and we enjoyed dinner at Three Rivers Brewery. Farmington didn't seem to be as dry as our part of the state, and it was great to escape the smoke from the Wallow Fire in Arizona.

It was easier to get an early start the next morning, and we made it all the way to Capitol Reef National Park. The drive to get there was spectacular. Of course it was too late to get get a camping spot in the NP, but we found a nice private campground in Torrey, UT just outside the park. It was quiet and with magnificent views of its own.

We spent several days and thoroughly checked out the park with drives and hikes. I don't tire of the the rocks. They speak to me like no other landscape. It was never boring and each canyon and rock formation, was better than the last. This was the best slot canyon we found. We were the only ones there until we were leaving.

Taking refuge

2011-06-12T18:33:00.000-06:00

Today has been really windy but this wind was a blessing as it was keeping the smoke from the AZ fires away from us. I've been taking refuge in my sewing room. Got my Amish doll quilt loaded and am done with the quilting I wanted to do on the longarm. It's also going to require some quilt in the ditch on the domestic sewing machine.

Yesterday we finally put up my new design wall. We had to cut down the 4X8' half-inch insulation panels, and I covered it all with batting. I'm really happy with my new design wall, 87X144" of space! We sure could have used it when Pat was putting together the queen quilts. I used the three pieces we cut off to make a bulletin board.

Of course since I had everything moved around, it was a good time to clean and organize stuff. An ongoing, forever kind of task that's never finished. I'm trying to weed out some stuff to sell or trade with other quilters. I'm participating in a challenge to clean up my sewing room on about.com. I also discovered ants were invading and I sprayed the exterior of my sliding glass doors and entry door with some "natural" product that I hope is going to be a deterrent.

I don't have much left to do, and then on to bigger quilts that I need to get done.

This & That

2011-06-08T09:09:00.000-06:00

Our skies have been smoke filled from the Wallow fire in AZ, creating some eerie, other worldly sunsets. Yesterday the wind was blowing in such a way that we had relatively clear skies, but then in the evening when the wind quit blowing, you could actually see the smoke pouring over the Manzano mountains that separate us from Albuquerque.

I finished a couple more quilts and delivered three quilts to Dr. Kaufman. I did freehand designs on all of them. Seems like I'm on a roll. Thanks Yetta for the quilt tops.

I used the leftover backing to quilt some pillows. I've been wanting to make pillow covers for these pillows for some time. Pat gave me just perfect fabric and I'm happy with the bright, colorful addition to our little window seating area.

My allergies are in overdrive no doubt exacerbated by the smoky air. I'll need to stay in the sewing room with the AC running. Fortunately, I have three big quilts to do, two for Pat and one for Yetta.

A great weekend...

2011-05-31T19:51:00.000-06:00

It was a very productive weekend. Pat arrived late on Thursday night--actually it was already early Friday morning by the time she got here.

We headed out to the Fiber Arts Fiesta, picking up Lindsay, and then going to lunch first. We had a great meal at Cafe Trang. It conveniently shares a parking lot with Talin Market,

an international market, where I got some chocolate treats for later during our class.

The landscape class with Michelle Jackson was great. Of course I liked everyone else's work better than my own--no surprise. Lindsay came over Saturday to finish hers. I put the binding on for her after she finished the beading.

Pat's landscape is great and she is using a tree that she made some time ago in a thread painting class.

Mine still needs more...I think I'll fuse leaves for my tree. It's on hold now while I do some quilting. Pat finished two queen quilts, working on them simultaneously.

There was a lot of eye candy at the show, and many tempting vendors.

Quilting...not so much

2011-05-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

For a while I was on a roll, and getting a lot of the tops I received quilted and bound. Then my dad was here visiting for five weeks, and the time just got away from me. I did get a lot of knitting done.

I did finally quilt the top that had been loaded on the machine since before my dad came, and it is now finished. I hope to get going again on getting another batch of tops done for Dr. Kaufman.

This one I put together with strips of novelty squares from Denise. I'm trying to balance putting together a top from the pieces parts with just quilting one of the pieced tops. It's wonderful to have generous quilting friends. I backed it with pinwale corduroy, another donation from a friend, Marje, which makes for a sturdy backing. And surprise, I didn't do a pantograph!

In the meantime I signed up for a swap on About.com. It's for Amish style doll quilts. So many of the quilts on this site inspired me, it was hard to decide on one. I hope I can do it justice with the quilting, now that I'm almost done putting it together.

Can't wait for the weekend. Pat is coming to visit, and Friday we're going to Fiber Arts Fiesta and also taking a class. I'm hoping her visit will motivate me again.

Socks and treasures

2011-05-15T09:19:00.000-06:00

I'm generally looking at the ground for treasures when I walk. And "treasures" is a loose term with me...bits of metal stuffs, buttons, marbles, or curious larger, glass "marbles" that Dale is convinced have something to do with the railroad since he's found a number of them when riding along the track. A google search revealed this article of interest.

Friday Dale went hiking and I walked to the post office by myself. I was rewarded with this Chauffeur badge. Didn't know they even existed. The internet was once again a wealth of information, with this site.

I finished my latest pair of socks. I wanted different colored heels and toes, and had a bit of time working out the color changes in the heel. I wanted the red heel much bigger but it was going to be a mess of splices for color changes or carrying the thread along the instep, and I didn't want particularly thick socks. Once again the internet came through...I emailed Kathie after her blog post about not liking the two socks on circulars method and I am now the owner of a perfect pair of Addi needles. They are a little different than the Addi lace needles I'd been using and I finished the toes on these with them.

Now back to outside work, moving plants, and rocks in anticipation of building a sun room addition to the front of our house.

Birds away

2011-05-09T09:50:00.000-06:00

I finished my last bird for the swap early this morning, and they are going to be winging their way to California.

These got easier to do after I got into the rhythm of it, but were rather time consuming. My last bird I experimented with a multi-colored tail, and I like the look of that. I ended up making 14 so that I could keep one of my own. Dale thought I should keep them all, but who knows what kind of wonderful bird creatures I'll get in exchange!

Now onto to quilting some more of the tops I was given back in February. I imagine there hasn't been any slow down of newly diagnosed diabetic children.

Blogging the process

2011-05-04T13:25:00.000-06:00

Hard to believe it's been so long since I posted. I'm trying to get bird blocks made now for a swap with the Mary Lou Weidman yahoo group. I don't think I ever posted my sock blocks.

Sock blocks were easier to make than properly fitting knit socks. These came out a little bigger. Washing in hot water and putting them in the dryer did nothing to change the size. Why is it when they are a perfect size, an accidental trip in the washer and dryer makes them the size fit for a toddler. And who knew that one was supposed to make a 6X6" swatch to check gauge?! At least that's the recommendation in my book. The more socks I make the more I realize that I was rather lucky my first couple of pairs fit so well. None have fit as well since!

I thought I'd try a "hoochy" toucan bird, but since the toucan body is black and the background for our bird blocks is supposed to be black, that's not going to work.
Waiting for spring to really "set." Unlikely as it seems, it snowed sporadically on Sunday, and Monday and Tuesday mornings were quite chilly at 18 degrees.

Tired of wind

2011-04-10T08:36:00.038-06:00

The wind from hell has been blowing for what seems like weeks now! We've managed walks to the post office, but not the last couple of days, when the wind kicked in very early, and has barely paused during the night. This was the scene from our living room window for most of the day yesterday.

Blowing sand, dirt, and dust made ground clouds which obscured even our close neighbors. This morning it is only breezy, and you can see the mesas to the south--along with a fine coating of dirt on the windowsill which penetrates our double paned windows!

We did go out for a bit yesterday, just to alleviate cabin fever, pick up our mail, and some caulking for Dale to finish the camper project--replacing the tub that cracked all over from our extreme cold this past winter. In the mail was a great thank you note from Dr. Kaufman which I'll share with all my friends that contribute to the cause.

The queen quilt that was to be raffled for the little boy who needed an insulin pump and service dog, is no longer needed. A fundraiser in Santa Fe was successful enough for him to get both. Instead it is now going to be raffled to purchase two continuous glucose monitors to use in Dr. Kaufman's office and also for supporting camperships for indigent patients for ADA Diabetes summer camp. I know from Lindsay's experience that diabetes summer camp is an invaluable experience for diabetic children.

Quilt for Japan

2011-04-08T20:33:00.000-06:00

I finished this quilt, a remake of a wall hanging from a friend who lost her battle with cancer. Her stash was sold at the AZ retreat for donations to a local hospice, and I have more ingredients for making kid quilts.

This one seemed more fitting for sending to Japan. I backed it with pinwale corduroy, which I really like.

There is still time until April 30th if you have a quilt to send. Here's a link to the information.

Two more!

2011-03-31T09:10:00.000-06:00

I finished another two quilts to take to Dr. Kaufman. These were done with 30s prints, the first one from Yetta.

These quilts were finished with scraps of this and that. I had some sheeting, that was just not enough for both quilts, so I pieced some leftovers from previous quilts. I also pieced some leftovers of battings together.

This second 30s quilt was from Kathi.

I liked the effect of this pantograph, Ribbon Wrap. It's more visible on the back.

I now have eight quilts to deliver plus the raffle quilt.

Have you heard about Fiber Arts Fiesta, this May in Albuquerque? I'm hoping to take a class being offered if there are enough people signed up. They're doing a fundraiser with JDRF and I'm also hoping to get some postcards and other gift items to donate for that.

Couple more finished

2011-03-26T11:01:00.000-06:00

My friend Rosie called me a while back from her weekly trek to the swap meet. There was some Raggedy Ann print fabric she thought I'd be interested in. Indeed I was, and it was perfect backing for two string quilts, from the bounty I got at the AZ retreat.

I loaded the entire piece and fortunately the quilts weren't bigger than the width of the fabric. I was able to just quilt them consecutively, and that's always a plus. This one is from Yetta.

Dee put this one together at the retreat. My retreat time isn't about productivity...it's all about the socializing and eating! ;-) Now it's time for dieting and finishing the bounty of quilts I got. Thanks again everyone!

Finally finished

2011-03-23T19:43:00.000-06:00

I got this wonderful quilt from Colene at the retreat in AZ, and after adding an (ar)resting strip and borders, I loaded it on the longarm. I found the perfect backing, a king size sheet in a light gold color. It was just a bit short, so then I started combing my stash for a strip to piece in. With Dale's input I picked a print that I thought worked.

It turned out to be a generous queen size. Pat has trained me to prefer quilts with ample drape on the sides. I decided to do a pantograph, Quills, in the center, a Native American feather design in the borders, and a freehand design in the resting strip. I had to reload the quilt to do the feathers on the side border.

All this to say it's been on my machine a lot longer than most of the kid sized quilts I usually do. I hope it's wildly successful when it's raffled!

It's been fun to recognize some of the blocks I made from the swap I participated in. I also have a stash of these black and batik blocks to put together into a quilt sometime!

Little bat

2011-03-23T07:05:00.001-06:00

I noticed this little guy, yesterday just under the eaves on the garage wall.

I think it's Mexican free-tailed bat. It hasn't appeared to move from that spot, and I hope he or she is okay. I don't know that we can do anything for it. With all the wind we've had and cooler temperatures over the last couple of days, I know it can't be a good thing for it.

Super Moon!

2011-03-21T07:34:00.000-06:00

Did you catch the super full moon on Saturday night? It was pretty spectacular, but my attempts to photograph it were less than stellar.

This morning it looked pretty good as it was setting, and still "full" according to my atomic clock which shows the moon phases. I have better luck with pictures of the moon setting.

Spring has also arrived with much warmer, though still rather windy days. My daffodils blossomed! Last year they tried to flower, but we had such dry, windy weather that the blooms withered without opening. They are one of my favorite flowers. Happy Spring Dance!!

San Lorenzo Canyon, NM

2011-03-19T08:37:00.000-06:00

Dale loves to go hiking, and I don't usually accompany him, though I'm never sorry when I do. Given bad knees, it's been a while since I've hiked anywhere. The last time I recall was after a double dose injection of steroids before my right total knee, and we went camping in Wyoming.

Recently he has checked out San Lorenzo Canyon, just north of Socorro, NM. The first time he was there, he followed a trail which unfortunately got him to the rim of the canyon with no way to get into the canyon itself.
The second time he scrambled up the rocky dead end of where you can drive to, and was rewarded with the canyon floor. He really wanted to take me there, though he wasn't sure I could make it up. In any case, the drive there is pretty, with lots of interesting vistas.

Once you get up this steep rocky area, you are walking on nice sandy gravel of the canyon floor. It does rise a bit, a little over a mile to the "end," at the largest of little springs along the way where we ate our lunch.
We waited until we had the best possible forecast weather, and we weren't disappointed. It was sunny, with nice breezes to keep us from overheating, though we each got a little overexposed with sun!

I was really happy I made it up the steep, rocky access to the canyon floor. Going back down was trickier, and I ended up just sliding down on my butt and inching my way back down. Fortunately my left knee isn't killing me this morning! I'm having to relearn coping with a bad knee...up with the good, down with the bad, but now my total knee is the "good," stronger knee.

I won again!

2011-03-17T19:31:00.004-06:00

I love blog giveaways and since I have a number of blogs I routinely follow, I frequently leave comments in order to win something! One of these blogs is While She Naps, which I've followed for a long while. Abby has been posting wonderful tutorials on making softies. I haven't been brave enough to design my own yet.

With this eBook I won, Anatomy of a Doll, I'm hoping to be brave enough to try. I have a number of "Greeter" heads that I hope to create a soft body for.

I'm nearing my 200th post here, and I'm thinking I should have a giveaway myself. Pretty paltry number since I've had this blog since fall of 2005! I'll try to come up with something good for the giveaway! Stay tuned!

Thanks Dee!

2011-03-13T20:38:00.001-06:00

It's great to have friends, even better when they like to quilt and contribute to your cause. I got so many tops at the retreat this year, and I'm working on getting them quilted up to give to Dr. Kaufman.

Dee made these three tops, and I had a nice, wide, decorator type fabric that worked great for backing. I was able to load one piece and put all three quilts on it. This largest of the three got a truck pantograph since I thought the colors made it boy friendly.

These next two, were more suitable for girls and I did an easier heart vine pantograph, which went a lot quicker than the trucks.

Dee also made coordinating binding to go with the quilts, making the whole process even easier. I must admit though that quilting and binding are my favorite parts of the process. Piecing becomes tedious to me rather quickly, especially when a quilt requires making the same block over and over.

Postal bounty

2011-03-10T11:29:00.028-07:00

We generally walk to the post office (less than two mile round trip) every day when the weather cooperates. When it doesn't, I drive, or don't bother to go at all if I'm not expecting anything. Lately the winds have been blowing rather fiercely, and on the few days we were able to walk, we made it back home before they kicked into high gear.

Dale went hiking and I walked to the post office alone. I was richly rewarded with the bounty below. All unexpected except for the 2.5" fabric noodles which were from a swap on about.com. The book was from Pat and the pincushion from Rosie. Now I just need a good pattern to start using the "noodles."

Spring is just around the corner, though sometimes it feels far away still. Hoping we have a peach crop this year.

My favorite part

2011-03-09T07:05:00.000-07:00

I brought back a lot of quilt tops from the retreat in Phoenix. The first one I finished was a mystery quilt for one of the attendees. My own mystery quilt from the about.com forum is languishing in a project box--I abandoned it when one of the fabrics I picked wasn't quite enough to eke out the necessary number of blocks. I haven't found an adequate replacement. I used a pantograph which featured Saturn and stars on it, and her son is happy with his quilt.

The next finish was for one of three of Pat's nieces that's getting married this year. Two of them opted for homespuns, primitive, and Pat will also likely make the same quilt for their mother! I was happy not to be doing the piecing, and Pat churned out this quilt, just starting it at retreat and finishing it up on the Monday after it so that I could bring it back to NM with me. I used a Hibiscus pantograph on it which is dense to hold all those homespun seams together.

I had a deadline, since another retreat attendee was coming to Albuquerque for work, and I could send the quilt back to Phoenix with her. I also got lots of blocks at the retreat and I put this little quilt together as a diversion, or you could say (if you know me well) procrastinating on finishing the big quilt! I had the five pastel blocks and just added to it to make it a baby size quilt. Dr. Kaufman occasionally gets babies, and I figured she'd find a home for it. I used the Mandarin Garden pantograph again. I do really like this panto, and it's much more manageable on this little quilt. Wouldn't want to do a bed sized quilt with it. I used a satiny polyester fabric I found in my stash for a backing. It's really soft and light.

Thanks to the maker of the blocks--I don't know where exactly they came from, but have they found a home. As they say in Brazil, "Deus te pague," which translates loosely to God will repay you. My dad always jokingly adds to the sayer--don't be putting your debts off on God. ;-)

Back from retreat

2011-02-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

Had a great time in AZ at the annual quilting retreat. I won! I won! My postcard won first place in the postcard challenge--the theme was Home, Sweet, Home, and could mean whatever home meant to you. For me it was "enchanting" New Mexico skies with quilts and clothes on the line and cranes (which I drew in with marker) flying by.

I was inspired by the sky fabric sent to me by Pat since I was at Jackie's and woefully lacking any scraps or anything I could create a postcard with. I already spent my winning gift certificate on (of course) fabric from Keepsake Quilting!

I had to cancel my flight home and have Dale pick me up. I had way too much stuff even with Southwest's generous two 50 lb. suitcase limit. Talk about generosity...my friends at retreat sent me home with twelve quilt tops, a finished quilt, and lots of blocks and miscellaneous parts that will become quilts.

I found some binding in the stuff I brought home which worked perfectly for a quilt I had quilted before I left for donation. I will be dropping off three quilts to Dr. Kaufman today, and then will be busy with my favorite part of the process, quilting and binding all those tops.

Of course, because I was less than productive during the retreat, I had to work all day yesterday to get my sock swap blocks done. They are going out in today's mail, and I hope they meet the criteria for the Mary Lou Weidman's swap, since this is the first liberated kind of block swap I've been in. And as you can see, mine are very liberated! Looking forward to having a variety of these blocks!

Time keeps on slippin, slippin

2011-02-09T08:46:00.000-07:00

Into the future...
And mostly all I've been doing is trying to keep warm. How quickly the days go by, but the cold ones seem to drag a bit.

Friday it will be two weeks already since I've been home. Nice to get reacquainted with all my old stuff and try to find room for my new acquisitions. Then there were birthdays...mine and Dale's. Found out through one of the Yahoo groups I belong to that I'm actually born in the year of the dragon instead of the snake, as I previously thought. Who knew the Chinese new years didn't start on Jan. 1st like ours! It varies from year to year, and would naturally affect those birthdays in January and February. My good friend Rosie although sharing my same birth year was born in the year of the snake, just nine days after me. I also discovered a birthday twin on the same forum.

I've managed to quilt and finish two tree skirts, getting gifts finished for next Christmas. I also put together a quick donation quilt from a panel that Carolyn gave to our cause. The backing was pinwale corduroy which was also donated and makes a wonderful warm and sturdy backing. I used a tiger pantograph--yes, I know tigers are in Asia, but I didn't have any African animals panto. It's hard to pick out the tigers anyway.

We recorded our lowest temperature since we've lived here...-26 last week! Fortunately our little house weathered the severe cold well, and we had gas, electricity, and DSL without interruption. No burst pipes. There were plenty of failures throughout the state. That's ice on the inside of our window. We block the windows with rigid foam insulation covered with batting and fabric. It helps keep the heat in and cold out overnight. During the day we take out the blockers for solar gain.

More bargains

2011-01-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

What can I say...I love thrift store shopping. I got out again yesterday and found New Horizons Thrift store in Pueblo. It's a huge building and I spent quite a bit of time before uncovering the following bargains.

The green cotton fabric was a remnant that I found at an older Wal-Mart, which still carries fabric. It looked like hand dyed. The plaid is wool, and hopefully when I get back home I can make a couple more advent calendars before I lose my momentum, since I failed to get them done for this past Christmas.

I was intrigued by Julie's post and have joined this swap for sock blocks. My knitting of socks, however, has fallen by the wayside. I have found the Kindle is the perfect thing to read while rocking babies. I doesn't lose my place, isn't too heavy or hard to hold one handed! What a great way to read with a baby keeping me warm. Babies are napping now, and I better take advantage and get things done.

Garage sale finds

2011-01-10T11:05:00.001-07:00

Saturday my son-in-law and I got out for a bit of retail therapy. I filled a box with fabric, some doilies, and the best treasure, a pair of tiny sock monkeys. The fabrics above were all my finds. I must admit there are a few which will be finding their way back to a thrift store as they were really thin, but most of the stack is usable cottons. I'm planning a project with doilies. I saw a wall hanging in Paducah several years ago with dyed doilies and I've wanted to do something along those lines ever since.

Here are the cute little monkeys for my twin grandsons. The monkeys are a lot less trouble, but I already knew that babies were a lot of work. And two, well the work increases exponentially.

Time flies

2011-01-07T16:01:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the twins will be two weeks old on Monday. It's been a blur of changing diapers, cooking, cleaning, and trying to give the parents a break for some much needed sleep, which is always in short supply.

Today I baked bread using this recipe with Wheat Montana Bronze Chief 100% whole wheat flour, that I found at Wal-Mart. I made three loaves and some cinnamon rolls. What great flour, and I'll definitely be making this recipe again. It made wonderful light loaves.

Being a grandma is great...all the fun without any of the responsibility!

I won! I won!

2010-12-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

I confess, I frequently leave comments on blog giveaways in the hopes of winning! Then I finally did win Cindy Shake's patterns from Judy's Painted Threads blog. Besides the patterns, there was a wonderful postcard of a portion of Judy's work.

Maybe one day I'll take the plunge and do a painted fabric quilt.

Today I need to get busy on the Kyoto quilt, and get ready to head to CO. I know, the Kyoto quilt doesn't need to be done, but it's what I'd rather do instead of getting ready!

Happy Holidays!

What I've been working on...

2010-12-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

What? No sunrise or sunset pictures? I was beginning to feel like The Little Prince who could just adjust his chair to see sunsets. I'm afraid I'd get nothing else done.

But I have been in the sewing room during the daylight hours. Got two more of the tops donated by someone who works with Dr. Kaufman finished up.

In the interest of blogging about the process, here's what I'm working on now. It's Pat's "Kyoto" quilt for a friend's daughter who has been working/living in Japan.

I'm using Mandarin Garden, another new panto from my shopping spree at the NM longarm meeting. It's quite dense, but easier than the Silly Snowmen. I've learned that crossovers are where I tend to get lost following the design, and get turned around.

So far, so good, though I've only done one pass on it. I still want to master the Snowmen, but I'll do it as a whole cloth.

I need to get all my longarming done this week. It'll be a long while before I get back after Christmas, but I'm sure twins will be keep amply occupied. Today's agenda includes holiday treat making with Lindsay.

I can't stop

2010-12-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

I keep thinking I've taken enough pictures of the sunrise, but then I get another morning like this:

To the west there were lines of dark clouds. I think the mountains aren't done with snow yet. I just hope the weather cooperates for going to Colorado. Dale hasn't driven much since his shoulder surgery, and that's fine as long as there's no snow on the roads.

No colorful skies

2010-12-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

We went from our colorful morning and evening skies to this:

That's a lot of grayness, but we desperately need the moisture. We bundled up and walked to the post office, and it wasn't too bad without any appreciable wind.

I'm sure we'll be back to spectacular winter sunrises and sunsets in a few days. The advantages of not living in the northern states where once it starts, it lasts until the spring thaw.

Now back to the sewing room. I'm waiting for my baseboard heater to get it a little warmer out there.

New panto

2010-12-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

I scored a lot of new pantos at the longarm meeting weekend before last. I really wanted to try Silly Snowmen. It looked challenging, and indeed it was.

I think if I had kept at it (like anything else) I would have gotten more comfortable. I used a pinwale corduroy that was donated to Pat and I from an about.com forum member, Marje. It's great for backings, and no trouble at all to quilt through.

I may try again, using all of the different snowmen designs. I wanted to get this last quilt done so that I could get it delivered today, so I just did the snowmen on the top and bottom, and filled in the middle with a much easier snowflake panto. I still really like it, and like all things, it will probably just take practice to do the design justice.

Productive weekend

2010-12-13T17:59:00.001-07:00

It's always great to having sewing company, and Pat is definitely good at getting stuff done. When she was quilting, I was binding. When she was piecing, I was quilting, and we were just rolling them off the production line! We did take plenty of eating breaks, though I must confess to fixing store bought pasta on Sunday since we were too busy for me to stop and make raviolis. We all survived. Pat brought the most wonderful chocolates, that one of the AZ retreat hostess' husband makes. I'm not easily impressed, but these were divine!

Pat took home three quilts which will go to her niece who volunteers with Susan G. Kommen for the Cure. Two were very similar, and the third had a wonderful border with AZ cacti. I "custom" quilted that one, and Pat did a panto on the other two. "Custom" is a relative term when applied to my quilting though. It's best viewed with a little perspective, and not scrutinized too closely.

This is the other fishy quilt from donated blocks. I did Dave Hudson's Sea Turtles pantograph. It's a great panto, and I've used it a number of times. I was lucky to score a bunch of pantos from Dave at our last longarm meeting. I'm looking forward to trying them all.

Few more ready

2010-12-11T06:02:00.034-07:00

I had finished this one before Pat arrived. It's nice to have her to hold quilts up, since it's still a bit of work for Dale's recovering shoulder. He's six weeks out from his rotator cuff repair and so sure, he must be cured! Pat put together this quilt from a kit, and used the backing fabric to extend it. It was supposed to be a wall hanging, but I'm sure some teenager would love it.

Carolyn donated this finished black and white beauty from a previous year's AZ retreat lotto blocks. It's great to have generous friends!

This is one of two "fishy" quilts I had finished quilting. I put the donated blocks together at the last Bear Cabin retreat, and got the binding done while Pat was quilting. The other is in the washer.

Winter skies

2010-12-09T06:57:00.000-07:00

Sunrise!

Sunset!
I just don't tire of looking at winter skies. The little dot in the top picture is Venus. We got a telescope, and with it some software that makes identifying things in the sky much easier.

Pat is coming for a long weekend of quilting. As usual I've procrastinated cleaning and cooking, and generally getting ready for company until the last minute. Pat's not really company, she's more like family, and so is already familiar with my faults.

I finished Lindsay's advent calendar and delivered it to her Saturday after the longarm meeting. We'll see how many more I get done for this holiday season!

Wall hangings finished

2010-11-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

I got some wall hangings prepped to finish in Colorado. Thought Jackie would enjoy working on them since it was something she could do "bed resting." The snowman was a pattern, and there is also a stuffed snowman that's supposed to go with it which I didn't get done. Of course I used the pattern for a guideline, and didn't exactly follow all the instructions to the letter. I appropriated a strip of flying geese for it that had been given to Pat for our kid quilts, and I hope whoever made them won't mind! ;-)

I also used this idea to create an advent calendar. I thought making all the ornaments of felted wool would take more time than I had, so I used some of my milagros collection that Pat gave me.

I thought Jackie could count down more days toward her goal of 36 weeks for the twins. It would be good to keep them in at least that long--which is around December 20th.

Now I have to get busy and make another calendar for Lindsay, and I want one too! We don't put up a tree as often anymore, and this would be a good alternative.

Cooler temps

2010-11-10T16:07:00.000-07:00

The temperatures have really dropped. A few flakes fell on my way to shopping in Albuquerque yesterday, but today it is clear and sunny, albeit cold. Good temperatures for spending most of the day cooking and dealing with all the groceries. I baked muffins early, made a big pot of butternut squash soup, and another of red sauce. I'm anticipating having company to help me eat the stuff that Dale can't.

I finished the baby quilt for my daughter's friend. It's for a girl, though she chose the colors. I loaded it the standard way...and then realized that it made more sense to load it sideways in order to do the design I had decided on. I decided it was worth it to take it off, and load it so I could do the design lengthwise on the quilt, horizontally on the table. Thanks to Shelley for featuring a similar quilt on her blog. It's one of the hardest things for me to do--come up with a viable all over quilting design.

I tried a new pantograph on this donation quilt, which is also from Shelley. It's a dense design, but flows nicely. I must admit I had my doubts about Shelley's claim that the foundation tissue paper that she had used would disappear in the wash, but I quilted without removing it. Like magic it did disappear in the wash!

Okay, back to the kitchen. I still need to cook dinner and Dale is out of his cookies. Baking those will warm up the house.

Fall colors hanging on

2010-11-06T08:12:00.001-06:00

I started this post after we got back from a quick trip to Colorado and only got as far as the title. Dale is on the mend after a surgery for his torn rotator cuff. Much better than enduring the pain with no end in sight.

We enjoyed some beautiful fall colors at the River Walk in Cañon City which was conveniently close to the surgery center.

Fall colors seemed to be hanging on throughout the drive, though the aspens were all done. We've had a few frosts at home, but the leaves haven't all dropped off yet. Still enjoying warm days and cool nights, with too much consumption of baked goods on my part. It's such a good way to warm up the house...

Plugging away slowly

2010-10-26T09:51:00.000-06:00

I finished another one in the pile of donation quilts. Pat put this top together. I backed it with a soft pinwale corduroy that I had. It is a nice bigger quilt which will be great for a teenager.

My quilt holder is temporarily out of commission with a torn rotator cuff so I draped it over the couch. Hopefully he'll be able to have surgery soon, and on the road to recovery.

The corduroy posed no problems with the quilting, and I have more to use for backings that was donated to us. I used a pantograph, Quills, which is a design with good flow.

I started on a top for my daughter's friend who is expecting a baby in December, using this great pattern.

Early rising

2010-10-25T07:19:00.000-06:00

I wake up too early. Most mornings I'm up around 4:30 because I just can't sleep. It's always more difficult for me to adjust to the time change in the fall because then I have to convince myself that I can't get up when I'm wide awake at 3!

But getting up early has its rewards. Especially at this time of the year, when the skies are rich with clouds and colors. True, the sun is just barely rising at 6:30, but I'm ready to get out to the sewing room and finish the quilt on my longarm, after pausing to enjoy the sunrise.

Winter feels just around the corner...

2010-10-24T17:52:00.000-06:00

The temperatures have really cooled here, enough so that Dale cleaned our heat stove and lit the pilot. In fact we already used it yesterday afternoon.

The full moon was visible through some virga. We weren't too disappointed since we recently had over an inch of rain.

Today I'm warming up the house with baking. I finally tried the pecan cranberry whole wheat bread recipe Dr. Kaufman gave me. It's a wonderful bread that saved me when I was in the hospital for my total knee.

We can still see the fall colors in the mountains. I doubt they'll last much longer. It's already been over a week since we drove up to see.

I'm not in a hurry for winter. Fall could last longer than three months if it were up to me.

Quilt finishes

2010-10-21T14:52:00.000-06:00

I finally got some quilts done. Thanks to all the friends that have donated blocks, tops, and or fabric, I've had quite the queue of quilts to be quilted. I had to finish the twins' quilts and bears, and have made a second chenille bear, as Jackie chose that one versus the wool bear, though she wants to keep the wool bear as well. She first tried to get another of each bear! I forgot to photograph the finished wool bear.

This quilt that Cathy made just needed the borders quilted. I did a freehand feather design. Still trying to stretch outside the pantograph box.

I first tried using the Gammill workstation on Sharon's stack and whack blocks, but it proved to be too much work. I think it would be easier to do with two people, and maybe when Pat's here, we can use it together on an appropriate quilt. After the first block, I just did a freehand design.

I opted for a pantograph on this fall quilt also from Cathy, as I really couldn't think of a freehand design for it. I still have a half dozen quilts left to quilt. Back to the sewing room!

Twin quilts done

2010-10-06T13:38:00.000-06:00

I finished the twins' quilts, and the matching bear quilts with the leftover blocks. I did a dinosaur pantograph on all of them. The flannel backing features dinosaurs.

I made the first bear out of chenille from an old bedspread. I wasn't really in love with it, but went ahead and finished it, but not before cutting out another from felted wool. I think that one is going to have more body, but I will finish both of them and let Jackie decide which fabric she'd like for a second bear.

I didn't really read the pattern directions closely--just followed the pictures and sewed the back halves together the first time...not the way to do it. You sew a back and front together, at the side seams then sew on the arms and legs on each half before closing it all the way around except for a small opening to turn it right side out, then stuff, and close all the openings that you stuff through. I've made a number of these before--used to dress them with Route 66 tapestry fabric vests and sell them at the motel.

Twin tops finished

2010-09-25T11:40:00.000-06:00

It's a wonderful weekend in Show Low again, and I've finished twin quilt tops. They are going to be backed with green flannel with dinosaurs. Jackie wanted "primitive" in the same colors and fabrics as her bed quilt. The twins' first quilts will be what she wants...future quilts will be what grandma wants to make or of the boys' choosing. (well maybe!) I've already made the faux piping binding for these quilts.

The weather has been perfect here. Cool nights, warm days. I didn't even have to drive through rain, as Tropical Depression Geraldine had already passed east when I left.

Today we're going to the quilt show here, and doing some retail therapy.

Sailors take warning?

2010-09-22T07:12:00.000-06:00

We're supposed to have a 70% chance of rain today. That would be most welcome since it's been a long time since we've had any. This gorgeous sky photo is not photshopped. Sometimes I enhance photos because what comes out of the camera just doesn't accurately reflect what I see, but this pretty much captured real life this morning.

I have so many pictures of sunrises and sunsets here. Anymore I usually just enjoy them without photographing. I love the way the light affects ordinary things in the yard.

Our stucco wall is actually white instead of the pink hue it's wearing. Looks like my geranium needs a little work before I bring it in for the winter. Fall is quickly approaching.

When I'm not quilting...

2010-09-19T11:21:00.000-06:00

Fall is in the air, and I'm ready for winter with all my canning done...unless of course I come across any great deals on more produce. We brought back apples, pears, and plums from our trip to Colorado. Our old neighbors have an orchard and it was a good year. Then last Thursday we picked peaches in Embudo. I love them fresh, but canned, not so much. Dale eats all this fruit in the course of a year with his hot cereal--which I'm also not fond of.

Yesterday was our longarm meeting. I took an "emapdão," the large counterpart of "empadinha," small, muffin sized savory pies stuffed with chicken or shrimp found in just about every corner bar in Brazil. I got this recipe from a friend's daughter and it's become a family favorite, especially with my son-in-law, who doesn't mind that I hide vegetables in the filling.

Empada Pie Crust

3 cups flour

7 oz. butter cut into pats (about 2 sticks)

8 teaspoons olive oil

1 egg

salt to taste

Cut butter into flour until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in beaten egg with olive oil with fork until mixture holds together, then mix with hands, until you can form a ball. Use more flour if too moist, or more olive oil if too dry to hold together. Let dough rest in refrigerator.

Divide in half. Press half evenly into pie plate. Fill with desired filling. This is great for leftover chicken, vegetables, or a traditional Brazilian cream of shrimp and hearts of palm. Olives are also included.

Roll out remaining dough between two sheets of waxed paper or plastic wrap. If you roll it out on a counter, it's impossible to lift off and place on the pie without it falling apart. Bake in 350-375 degree oven until golden brown, about an hour. (In Brazil they brush a beaten egg yolk over the top, but I figure the recipe is rich enough without it.)

This is the bakery within walking distance of our friend Cybelle's house. You can get "empadinhas" and all manner of treats, sweet and savory. Food is cheap, delicious, and plentiful and cooking isn't a necessity.

Another kitty quilt

2010-09-15T20:18:00.000-06:00

I've been working on taming the wild kitties outside, and quilting Pat's kitty quilt indoors. Unlike our previous kitty quilts, these blocks are a bit more work.

They need more quilting, and stitching in the ditch on the longarm is more work than a domestic machine. I decided on rather dense quilting in the frames, and the black backgrounds. But the kitties look a little puffy, since they're only outlined with a tail and whiskers added. I'm going to take the quilt to the longarm meeting and see if the more experienced quilters among them have an idea for some kind of fill for the kitties.

I also decided to try the faux piping binding featured on this tutorial. I liked the method, and will probably tweak the instructions a little because I like small binding. I also worked the recipient's name in one of the kitty borders.

Repairs

2010-09-11T16:11:00.000-06:00

I made this bear for Jackie twenty some years ago. I was rather proud of it. For some reason she decided to pull apart the soles of his feet, and partially unstuff his legs. She also ripped the tabs that kept his coat closed, and I don't know what happened to his original hat. I used regular (read "cheap") felt for the coat and soles, and she had no trouble inflicting the damage. I was not in the mood to repair him at the time.

She kept him all these years. When we were visiting I asked if I could bring him back to NM and repair him. Reluctantly she let me take him. Fortunately I still had the pattern. I used felted wool to make him a new coat, hat, and repair his soles. She intends to put Paddington on a shelf in the boys' room. Apparently she's the only one who will be allowed to love it quite that hard!

Finished before leaving

2010-09-02T10:37:00.002-06:00

As usual I was working down to the wire to finish quilts before heading up to Colorado. I finished the lap quilt for Jackie with leftovers from her king quilt, but then wanted to make a quilt for one of her friends that recently had a baby girl. I haven't participated in many block swaps, but it is sure nice to have a pile of blocks and be able to quickly put together a quilt.

Jackie's ultrasound revealed two boys! Jackie would like quilts with the same colors/fabrics as I used for their quilt. I'm going to incorporate some other fabrics and come up with something.

Our drive up was great, a beautiful day, and we went through Santa Fe, Taos, Fort Garland, and Walsenburg. Hadn't been that way in a long time. Of course there are a lot more houses and cities have expanded.

Kittens!

2010-08-27T17:59:00.000-06:00

Princess Sophia was indeed nursing kitties, and though there may have been more initially, two little intrepid survivors showed up visiting. Baby animals are just the best, and though I've barely been able to touch one I'm hoping they get a little more tame and holdable!

This tiger striped one is my favorite. It also has four "socks." Oh it's so tempting to keep one, but then I'm already trying to figure out what's going to happen to them next week when we're gone. Who will feed them, and keep working to tame them?

Bear Paw done

2010-08-22T10:27:00.000-06:00

I quilted Pat's spa quad, and then the companion doll quilt. The bear paw was next on the queue. I used a feather design on the borders and then Shades of Anasazi pantographs by Dave Hudson. I can't compliment his pantos enough. They have such a nice easy flow.

I got a little creative with the backing. I didn't have enough of the plain red flannel for the whole back. The flannel print with the bear paws seemed appropriate because it was also from Rosie. She'll have first right of refusal and then it will become a donation quilt.

It's been a busy week. We helped Lindsay have a garage sale, and in that process I was able to score a Craftsman workbench with drawers and storage which will replace the drop leaf table as my cutting table in the sewing room. Dale has a new small roll top desk. Lindsay didn't sell much, but has less "stuff."

Neither silk purse nor sow's ear

2010-08-12T07:36:00.001-06:00

My friend Rosie, who never fails to remind me that many years ago when she went to take a quilting class that I said I wasn't interested...and that I'd not likely ever get into quilting, gave me the bear paw blocks to do something with. She had meticulously hand stitched them many moons ago. They were of varying sizes and were already sewn together into two strips. I decided to separate the strips so that the varying sizes wouldn't be obvious, and I think this has turned out nice.

Part of the reason I wasn't interested in learning quilting was that the class she took was all done by hand. I didn't hand sew then and don't do much more than affix labels or embellish a little with hand stitching now.

Princess Sophia

2010-08-11T06:53:00.005-06:00

This sweet kitty showed up at our place drinking water out of the bird bath. She is so thin, and we think she might be related to Frangelica, because of her small size and sweet disposition. We suspect she has kittens somewhere as she she seems to be nursing, which would easily account for her lack of reserves. We're feeding her and maybe she'll be a "studio" cat, since we really no longer want any more house pets.

Tuesday I had a big box waiting at the post office filled with quite a lot of pinwale corduroy which I'm going to try out for quilt backings. It all washed up soft, and I think will make some cozy quilts. Thanks so much, Marje from east TX for sending it.

Progress

2010-08-08T12:22:00.021-06:00

I finished the pinks spa quad. I used a couple of the leftover pink prints to make multi-colored binding strips.

The wall hanging is done, but I'm working right down to the wire to finish pillow shams to go with Lindsay's quilt. I ended up using my domestic sewing machine to quilt part of the wall hanging and then loading it on the longarm to do the stippling around the kimono. Stitch in the ditch is so much harder on the longarm.

Summer bounty

2010-08-06T07:22:00.000-06:00

The rains have really helped our flowers, and the Russian sage finally took off. We feed the hummingbirds, but I really enjoy when they visit our flowers the best.

The swallows have successfully incubated another set of eggs, and they're just beginning to hatch. Lots of viewing entertainment for a second time this summer.

I've been working on the wallhanging that will accompany the oriental lanterns quilt, though yesterday was mostly taking out some quilting. I had decided to cross-hatch the background of the kimono, but didn't like the look. I'll probably load it on the longarm and do some kind of fill on it. Thankfully the quilt is finished since Lindsay's birthday is Tuesday.