A great weekend...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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!