Procrastination is my middle name

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

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

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...

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.