ABQ Quilt, Craft, & Sewing Festival

As I mentioned in a previous post, from May 22-24, Albuquerque was blessed by a Quilt, Craft, & Sewing Festival. Even the  times I've gone to really big, national shows, I've come away with negligible purchases, so I'd like to encourage people to attend this show if it's within driving difference.  Their next show will be in Castle Rock, CO July 10-11, 2014, and the vendors do vary with the event. (One of my friends lives near their Puyallup show, and I've wanted to attend for a long time.)

Here are some photos of what followed me home:

Sweet Teen was shocked because she knows I love choosing fabrics for quilts, but I loved these and thought they would make a very cheery prayer quilt without my having to dig around in my stash.  (Karen does not have an online store; she just enjoys gathering fabrics and marketing at shows--and getting to travel to them.)

These batiks are from Rabbit Hole Quilt Shop from Chico, CA.  I dyed one almost like the pink a few years ago when I was still dyeing fabrics every few months.  I do not know if I'll manage to find any time to dye this summer.

These are from Desert Stitchin; Chris and John are from Goodyear, AZ and vend at shows in the Southwest. I purchased these for a "watery" baby quilt for one of my colleagues. The Bali charm pack at the bottom is the door prize I won from their shop at the show.  That has never happened to me before!  Well, at least not since I won my Charlotte doll at Mrs. Beatty's gift shop on December 18--somewhere around 60 years ago.  I guess this could mean that if I live another 60 years, I might win again? I was pretty amazed when my name was called.

I was near the Busy Bee booth when my name was called.  One of the owners exclaimed, "Dora Scheer?  And I don't hear any clapping or cheering?  We'll cheer for you!"

These are for a three year old girl who loves pink and purple and needs a quilt because she's soon going to be a big sister, so I've been pulling pink and purple batiks from my stash. Actually, I picked these up at the shop, not at the show.  The show gave the owners a chance to discover that a lot of people in our area didn't yet realize their shop was nearby.  It's a great little shop with the best service I've experienced in my 40+ years of quilt shops.  They have many ongoing block of the month quilts from some of the best designers.  I most often pop into their shop for a few fat quarters or for yardage to make a special prayer quilt.  The owners and their employees are unfailingly helpful and friendly.

As much as I love the fabrics, these are my favorite purchases from the show.  The stylus is also a set of screw drivers perfect for my sewing machines, and the other is a seam ripper (a belated Mother's Day gift from Sweet Teen).  Sweet Teen had a lovely conversation about engineering with the engineer who was acting as cashier.  Lumenaris also sells 100% wool felt.

Hopefully, this show will return to Albuquerque next year.  It would be lovely if they could piggyback onto the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta.

Happy quiltmaking...and knitting....

Robin's Song

 This began as two of these. The fabrics are Papillon by 3 Sisters for Moda Fabrics.

 The pattern is "A Ritzy Cracker Quilt" by Mary Lane Brown of The Tulip Patch. 

Yes, I know it's unusual for me to use another designer's pattern.  However, I love asymmetrical blocks sometimes--and I'm always looking for patterns that work well with free motion quilting. Mary's pattern will let both the fabric and the quilting shine!

Where Mary used white, I used a robin's egg blue that has much less gray than the blue in this fabric line, so it turned out perfect!

 I love the three butterfly specimen fabrics in this line--one beige on beige, one blue on blue, and one gray on beige.

 However, for the border I'm adding to this quilt, I chose this blue.  Its design is scattered enough to share some of the limelight with the quilting. I ordered the border fabric  and some of one of the gray prints for binding from Somewhere Sewing.

 Since two days ago my yard looked like this, I'm ready for spring.  I sewed this on my treadle, watching this tree, that was not filled with birds today since the snow is gone and they were busy looking for food.

My friend sent me this partial quilt top that she created from a charm pack. She decided she didn't like it--but I'll add a border and will have a great time quilting it.

The Robin's Song quilt is for a tiny little girl, but I'm not sure about the destination of the charm square quilt--although I do know that it will be full of prayers for whoever receives it.

We did have another prayer quilt dedication at church Sunday, but I didn't take a single picture--although my camera was lollygagging in my purse!

Said Goodbye--to My 1919 Singer 66

 I said goodbye to one of my sewing machines last week.  (Amazing, I know.)

 It is a Singer 66 Redhead (sometimes called "Redeye") from 1919.  Singer made literally millions of these machines each year for many, many years.

 It was an absolute mess when I bought it (for too much money). I always had the feeling that someone had intentionally messed up this machine--perhaps because the owner wanted to replace it with a newer electric model?

 I purchased it near the end of 2009 after months and months of searching for a treadle in working order or one I could get in working order.

 Once I got it cleaned up, it was very pretty.  However, it always had tension issues. Clearly someone had partially disassembled the tension and had not gotten it back together properly.

For several months it's been sitting beneath one of my other sewing machines because I removed it from it's treadle and put in a lovely old black Necchi BU.

Last weekend I stopped by Rocky Campos' shop at the Moriarty Flea Market because I was looking for another high shank darning foot for a Necchi BU.  We started talking, and I ended up coming home, getting the 66 as well as several other motors, foot controls, and lights that I had removed from various machines.  I was a bit sad to see it separated from the irons and cabinet which have been its home for nearly 100 years, but I'm not someone who collects old sewing machines just for the amusement of looking at them.  Rocky replaced the broken bottom plate on the foot control of my 1952 Singer Featherweight.  Before I left he said he was going to take the 66 home and put a motor on it.  So, this machine is off to new adventures so that it can be well and truly loved and used by some other sewist.  Still, it was with a touch of sadness that I said goodbye.  It felt a little like when I watch my daughter off to new adventures--excited for her to be trying new things and growing, but still knowing that some good things are behind us.

I'm sure there are many, many landfills across the nation that have consumed too many vintage machines--and I've seen way too many horrifying conversions of these machines into other novelties.  Whatever Rocky does with this machine, it will see more activity fulfilling the purpose for which it was created.  As long as it gets oil, use, and a little TLC, it will continue to sew for another hundred years, probably more!  I do so love vintage sewing machines!

Cowgirl Antiques, Western Apparel, Feed & Supply

Lucky me!  I got to stop here today.  How fun is this! Makes my heart sing!

They sell clothes, lovely clothes at affordable prices. Jeans are on sale this week—real ones and pretty ones.

 They have antiques.  That’s what drew me in.  Then I loved everything else too. 

They have tables and chairs so people can meet and chat and enjoy a beverage and a treat.  (I enjoyed a great mocha iced coffee.) The Stanley, NM homemakers were just finishing up a meeting when I was there.

Free wi-fi is available.  If I'd guessed this was a place I'd be excited to blog about, I could have taken my laptop and done it while there.

 Of course I gravitated toward the lace (wonderful prices, too)!

 They carry boots and other essentials for cowboys and cowgirls.

The building has some interesting history too.  Decades ago it was the warehouse where Torrance County potato farmers brought their potatoes.  I doubt that anyone in the county is farming potatoes these days.  As long as I’ve known the building, it’s been a feed and supply store, but earlier this year that business headed west to Edgewood, NM.  This building’s wooden floors are a treasure.  The potatoes were warehoused in the part of the building that’s below ground—farmers and buyers could drive their vehicles down a ramp and unload or load.

When Broome’s Feed and Supply left town, Moriarty was left with no place to pick up hay, straw, or other feed, so this business is going to carry some of those basics.  They’re also carrying Ness Farms pinto beans.

I hope people travelling I-40 will decide to take a little break at Moriarty, take the Howard Cavasos Blvd. exit south, and visit this fun new business with a little of something for everyone—just the kind of business that warms my heart.

Cowgirl Antiques is in Moriarty, NM on Hwy 41 south, only a few yards from Old Route 66, and only about ½ mile from I-40 at the 2^nd Moriarty exit (whether driving west or east on I-40). They are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily except Monday, with shorter hours on Saturdays (sorry, I don't remember what those shorter hours are).

Update: Unfortunately, this store has closed.  The owner can be found vending western style clothing at many rodeos throughout the region.  (No antiques, however.)

 Once I arrived home and washed my hands, I realized we had no electric power, precisely the reason I spent months looking for my first working treadle sewing machine.  Today I kind of panicked because I thought I didn’t have anything ready to piece.  Fortunately, I was able to begin setting together some blocks for a prayer quilt. I didn’t accomplish as much as I thought I would because our only corded phone is at the other end of the house, I'd think I heard it, and then dash toward it, and then chat with the callers. 

Ultimately we had about five minutes of rain and two or three hours with no electrical power.  My sweet neighbor called me to see if she was the only one without power.  That was one of those trips to the other end of the house to reach the corded phone.  Because I'd already spent my block of time on hold for Central New Mexico Electric Co-op, I was able to tell her that the outage covered several communities and parts of three counties.  Any time power is lost during a 90-degree or higher heat wave, I worry about people who have difficulty surviving without it.  Today I realized that all of us in the outage area should have spent the time praying for the states parched by this drought.  I'm hopeful we'll get at least a bit more rain tonight. We still have quite a few clouds and the temperature is 15 degrees earlier than a few hours ago.

Okay, I need to do some more sewing (I'll just continue using the 1919 Red Head to set these blocks together) and delight in memories of my visit to a wonderful new business venture.  I hope a few of my readers get a chance to visit it too! Feel free to share the word too--the drive across New Mexico is beautiful but long!