So much for NaBloPoMo

It's hard to blog everyday when you don't have access! I made it to my homeland. Got my passport early morning Friday, and then packed my bags. I know, I should have been already packed...but that's not how I work. And so I'm going to journal this trip on the blog so that I'll have a record of how it went.

I think so far I forgot to tell anyone. I had a reservation on a flight that left ABQ for DFW at 3:55. I was thinking that only an hour in Dallas wasn't going to be enough especially if my plane was a little late, and I had to rush to another terminal to catch my international flight. I called and changed it to an earlier flight that left ABQ at 2:10. Good thing. When I got to the gate, quite early, they were announcing that the 3:55 flight had cancelled!! If I had been on the way to the airport, I would have been too late to catch the earlier flight and would have most likely missed the flight to Brazil.

I sat next to a woman, a jewelry designer from Sao Paulo going home, Leticia Linton. She's on the left in the link. We conversed, and had some things in common...she's also married to an American, but he lives in Sao Paulo. Other than that, I am so NOT Brazilian, it isn't funny!

The flight was fine, long, and I got up a few times to walk and stretch. Leticia helped me fill out my customs form, and she didn't think I needed to declare peanut butter or Reese's peanut butter cups. I got through customs without a second glance. I found out later that apparently TSA opened my suitcase, and opened two of the three packages of test strips for my dad's glucometer, and then they must have decided that the third one was the same thing!

I met my friend Cybelle at the airport, and then we went by bus, comfortably to Sao Jose dos Campos. It is on the way to the coast, and a pleasant city. It is home of Embraer which manufactures small jets that used all over the world--including the US. I had a different idea of where her sister lived.

Sunday evening we came back to Sao Paulo. It is an amazingly crowded city. Everyone is in a hurry.


This is the view from Cybelle's brother's apartment, there are buildings as far as the eye can see and then some. Traffic is absolutely crazy, and even the locals agree. I expressed an interest while walking in a city park by designer Burle Marx, to see a cashew fruit, since I was only familiar with it from pictures...Before I left Cybelle's brother went to a little shop and here they were on a plate. The fruit has a kind of sticky sensation on your teeth like overly green bananas, but if I squeezed the juice out, it was tasty. Not to die for, but good. The fruit hangs with the nut at the bottom. I kept the nuts, which according to informed sources will sprout if planted. Maybe I can get one to grow, if it isn't confiscated as contraband.

Getting down to the wire

I still don't have my passport in hand, but it is on its way here from Albuquerque and according to my postmistress will be here in the morning. Overnight or Express is not a guaranteed thing when you live in the hinterlands.

I'm not as bewildered by running Windows Vista as I thought I would be. Things have gone rather well, and I found I could use the Qwest DSL modem/router to create a network and access all the files on the laptop. It's nice to have my bookmarks and a lot of other "essentials" that you forget you use everyday, until they are no longer there.

This has turned out to be my favorite quilt. It was a vintage top that Pat gave me from her cousin's family. We use it every day while sitting watching TV. It's just perfect for two people, and extra warm and nice folded in half for one.

Guess, I've procrastinated long enough, and better get to packing. I still haven't talked to anyone that can pick me up at the airport in Brazil on Saturday, but so far everything is working out, albeit a little too close for comfort.

Good changes

I didn't manage to blog yesterday, but it was a good day. Got a lot of things handled including buying and setting up a new computer, from which I'm posting this.

My dad's blood sugars are coming down nicely now that he is on insulin, and so it may not be quite the challenge I imagine to get him under control.

The country has a new leader and that change was wonderful to watch last night. I don't think I've ever been so involved in the American political process, since I am not citizen, and don't participate in the election process.

Still trying to work with transferring files between the laptop and desktop, and so this post will be brief.

Ahhh, the time change...

I had already been waking up much too early, and now with setting the clock back, it's a truly ungodly hour, but I thought, what the heck? I'm getting adjusted to Brazil time until I checked, and they are now five hours ahead of MST, for where I'll be spending most of my time.

Right in the midst of working on the Frida quilt, I had a change of direction and started on a baby quilt. I really liked the batik elephants and decided to try a hex block quilt for a future grandchild. No urgency other than I might be too old and no longer quilting by the time I'm a grandmother. Well, there are many good reasons why I prefer liberated quilting and simpler blocks. My friends have already been warned they will be keepers of my memory and remind to stick to what I know! I ended up having to applique the hex top to fabric because of failed attempts to make blocks fit in to "square" it up. It's less than the heirloom I had envisioned in my mind's eye, but I'm sure will find a good home for a newly diagnosed diabetic child.

Fall is finally upon us...

Our trees have been slow to lose their leaves this year. Our peach tree, which sadly due to a late hard frost was devoid of peaches, is putting on quite a show of losing its yellow leaves. Some of our other trees, apricots from which we have yet to enjoy fruit, have brown, frostbitten leaves which refuse to let go. After a few freezes, we've been enjoying Indian summer with daytime temperatures in the 70s.




I didn't blog about it because of the rawness of the pain, but we had to put our longtime cat friend, Frances, to sleep not too long ago. At over 21 years of age she had had a long life, so it wasn't unexpected, but still didn't lessen the pain at all. Shortly before that a new kitty came into our realm. We had decided that we weren't going to have anymore indoor pets, but I couldn't resist feeding this poor little waif that showed up. I dubbed her Grayfeather because of her color and the fact that she was light as a feather. Although she isn't allowed in the house, she knows I'm a soft touch and spends time with me in the sewing room (attached to the garage). Like all cats her favorite spot is among all the fabrics that happen to be cluttering everywhere. When Jackie visited, she renamed her Frangelica...to which I added Houston, nice ring, Frangelica Houston Grayfeather. Surely she is destined for greatness.

The best laid plans...

Or life is what happens while you're making other plans. I wasn't prepared for the changes this past week. My 82-year-old father who returned to Brazil to live after my mom passed away, got sick. After a week of dry mouth and dry eyes, he was finally diagnosed with diabetes, not surprising since his mother and two brothers were diabetic. My Brazilian passport expired two years ago...I know!...and so now I'm renewing it, trying to get things in order so that I can go there and help care for him, stabilize him, and bring him back to the states.

I was thinking of trying to participate in NaBloPoMo, and so I'm going to make an attempt. The daily writing and unloading of thoughts can't do any harm. Don't know that I'll be able to do it daily, but making the effort.

While I wait for my passport to be express mailed back to me I have time to sew, quilt, make gifts for the abundance of relatives I have and will be expected to visit. My last trip to Brazil was 1996, and this one is not going to be a vacation, though I'll do my best to get some enjoyment out of it. I expect to be gone a month--the expense of the trip hardly warrants any less time, and I don't know what kind of challenge getting my dad stable enough to travel will be.

On a lighter and definitely happier note, Lindsay passed her state boards on the first try, and is now an RN. And so, since I don't have to write it all with this one post, I'll end with a work in progress, my Frida quilt. I've had the fabric for a quite a while, and finally decided to get on with using it.

Days still getting away...

I always vow to be a more frequent blogger, one of those people who write frequently and whose blog I enjoy reading, and then I finally decide to post and it's been a month or two. How does that happen? I do have some work to show for my not blogging time though.

First, a long time WIP (although truthfully there was not a lot of progress being made). I started this shortly after I got my longarm which is now a year and a half old already! It is going to be a cover for a piece of foam insulation we use in our bedroom window at night in the winter and to block the solar gain in the summer. It began as necessity when we bought our little old house with single pane glass, but adds insulation to our better quality windows now. We use very little heating or cooling as our adobe house tends to hold the temperature pretty well. I had intended to do a lot of handstitching on the wool, being inspired by Spiritcloth whose work and blog I really enjoy. My hands don't cooperate, and now I'm just trying to finish the hand quilting on the one mountain on the right, having put it back on the longarm and doing a lot of texturing on the other mountains.

This next project turned out better than expected. It's to be a donation quilt. It was hand pieced and had been languishing in my friend Pat's stash. It wasn't her work, nobody would even think it was if they had seen it! I had this idea to quilt it heavily to hold it together. Four to five (big, longarm) bobbins worth of thread later, I had invested too much into it to quit, and had to persevere, and finish. I've since told Pat to remind me that a pantograph would have been adequate for it. If nothing else, all that thread should keep someone warm, and it looks okay from a distance.

And another project which had a deadline, a wall hanging for Pat's birthday. I used one of the "santos" in a panel of three that she gave me, and then a lot of found treasures from the house she bought in Willard. I'm always looking for and finding buttons, coins, and bits of glass around our house. I continued that when we went to do some yard cleanup at her place. I imagine (and because I'm already of an age where I can make up stories--or should that be, again of an age) that a child must have dumped out his mother's button jar, because most of the buttons were found right outside the entrance to the outbuilding which I have dubbed her studio. There was also a little toy truck tire and some less than stellar treasures that I didn't use. Oh, and the bamboo cane it's hanging from was found in the attic by the guy that did the roofing. Time for lunch!
I'll try better to be one of those people.

Infrequent blogger

I do love to read blogs and follow along several, but never seem to be able to consistently keep mine updated. Oh well, such is life. We had a quick getaway to Colorado to visit Jackie. Had wonderful weather, lots of thrift shopping, and just long enough of a visit.

She has a great view of Pike's Peak from her apartment. And yes, that was snow on the top. It was mostly melted by the time we left last Monday. We took the scenic route going east from Colorado Springs and then heading south through the San Luis Valley. It had been a long time since we'd driven through that area.

So much catching up to do. I'm getting ready for fall--aired out the down comforter and washed the duvet cover. Our days are still warm, but there is a crispness in the air. I'm going to try to keep up with this better, but no guarantees.

charity quilts

charity quilts
Originally uploaded by neonquilter

It's been over a month since I posted, where does the time go? As if anyone keeps better track of their days. Though there are so many people who manage to chronicle their days by blogging. I delivered these quilts yesterday, and Lindsay had her likely last appointment with Dr. Kaufman, her pediatric endocrinologist. I'll still continue making quilts for newly diagnosed kids. It gives me an outlet for trying all manner of techniques.

Testing using flickr for posting this. I couldn't seem to get this photo on via the ordinary entry.

June already?

The skies have been beautiful when the wind isn't blowing nonstop. This was part of twin thunderheads a few nights ago.
I don't know where the month of May went, but it was productive. We got the living room flooring done, and slowly I'm returning all the "stuff" that we took out in order to lay the floor. I was really productive with quilts, and together with Pat over Memorial weekend, we were able to get quite a stack of quilts to donate.


I also tried a small whole cloth quilt to practice the techniques I learned at the class in Paducah. It's a lot of work, and not something I'll likely do with a bed size quilt.

I finished blocks for a swap on About.com, but still have a row robin row to create. I'm also going to try to get a bed quilt made while Dale is taking a much needed camping/hiking vacation. I would have gone with except my knee is making even walking a pain, so I'm better off at home.