Current Project and Concert

 This is a group project among several of us in the quilt ministry.  It will be an altar cloth that we use on the Sundays that the church dedicates the prayer quilts.  So far all I've managed to do is outline the figures in gold.....Never enough time for all I need to do!

This past weekend Sweet Teen and I got to spend some fun time together, but of course, I forgot to take pictures.
I did take pictures of her concert in the gazebo at the Plaza in Old Town Albuquerque, but they're not very good pictures.  And of course, we forgot to take other pictures.

We had beautiful autumn weather this weekend, and it was a great time for a concert.  However, we're expecting a 25 degree drop in temperature later this week--so I'll soon be regretting that I didn't manage the time to get clothes out of storage last Saturday or Sunday.  This is also the week for Parent Teacher Conferences.
Sweet Teen is doing a report on family history in one of her classes, so we also got to look through a box of old family pictures this past weekend.  We got in touch with a couple of my Kansas aunts to fill in some blank spots in our family tree and family history, and then learned there's a lady in Albuquerque researching our family tree because she's interested in some early New Mexico history that includes links to two of my uncles (brothers who married two of my aunts).  She's even spent a day with one of my Kansas cousins and his wife gathering family history.  (I had no idea.)
My maternal grandpa had 8 siblings, and my mom had 9 sisters and 5 brothers, so I have cousins I've never met.  In fact, in their entire lives, the 14 kids in my mom's family were together in the same place at the same time only three times that I know of.  There were 22 years between the birth of the youngest and oldest; all survived to adulthood; ten are still alive.
So nice to reconnect.  Sweet Teen and I are hoping to attend the next family reunion in Kansas in early June.
I feel remiss in not doing a better job of blogging.  I do love to blog--even enjoy taking pictures when I remember to do so--but life has been so intense since August that I've not been doing a very good job of it. It's so much fun, usually, to look back through my blog and remember what we were doing. However, while not blogging, fortunately, I've been doing a good job of driving and so have most of the drivers I encounter each day--but not such a good job of blogging.  Alas.......

Goodies - Yarn, Etc. & A Question

We awoke this morning to snow on the mountains around us.  Most of it was gone by early afternoon.  However, coupled with the low temperatures and cloudy skies the last couple of days, it's a reminder that winter is on its way--as was the fact that it was just so cold in the house that I had to turn on the furnace.  I'm dreading the winter utility bills!
So......
here are the goodies to which I succumbed!

 Plymouth Happy Feet sock yarn in watery colors.
Below, a magazine splurge.  Two romantic decor magazines and two quilting magazines.

Who knows if I'll ever make any of the quilts in the magazines, but they'll inspire my quilts anyway.

And the beautiful photos in Romantic Country and Romantic Homes will warm my senses and my heart as we head into winter.  Yes, it's obvious I'm not a winter person--although I might be if I could play in it and not have to drive so many miles in it each day.

Are you aware Wal-mart no longer discounts magazines (and the prices have gone up on almost everything else they carry)?  Okay, now I won't have to feel guilty when I splurge on a magazine at Smith's/Kroger's because at least I'll be earning points toward lower prices on gas.

The double nine-patch quilt in the above photos is one I made in the late 80's and early 90's before I started machine quilting.  Although I pieced it in Tennessee, the quilt brings back a lot of happy memories of an old house on Hill Street in Gallup with wonderful big windows.  I quilted in the dining room, where we still had room for a dining table.  The house had beautiful light maple floors;  I'd love to have light maple floors again!

I'm curious......Do you choose the quilts you're using according to the season?  Do you change to darker colors in the fall and/or winter?  Do  you stick with light colors in the winter to ward off the darkness of shorter daylight?  Do you stick to your favorite colors year round regardless of the season?

I quilted for a few minutes on a prayer quilt this morning--just a few minutes.

Happy quilting to all who manage time to quilt!.....

Sweet Teen & Homecoming

Homecoming was this past weekend.
This evening she was reminding me that in the "old days", i.e., grade school, when she earned C's and D's, I didn't get angry with her, but I'd say things like, "Your value as a human being has nothing to do with your grades.  Are those the grades you want?"
Now as a junior in high school, she has mostly A+'s, an A or two, and is very upset by her B in math.  She's not sure I'm happy enough with all her A's.  I figure they're her grades.  I'm happy for her, but they're her grades, not mine.  And apparently I'm not happy enough. She also remarked that in her psych class they've been discussing that most of the parents of the other kids put a lot more pressure on them to get high grades and get a lot more upset if they get bad grades.
I can't help thinking back to those couple of years I worked on her adoption.  What I was thinking then was that I wanted to raise a child who would be happy, a good human being, and capable of maintaining long-term intimate relationships.  That's pretty much what I still want for her--and that's pretty much who she is.  In seven days, she'll have been legally and officially my daughter for 14 years.  We've faced a lot of challenges.  I'm very happy that she is who she is.  I love that she's smart, introspective, reflective, and seldom acts without thinking.  In view of the fact that we are so alike in so many ways and so different in so many other ways, she wonders what is genetic and what is the result of nurturing.  It might be interesting to know, but I'm just glad she's who she is.

Fireworks

Because our little town has multiple fireworks factories, the homecoming game includes some pretty spectacular fireworks displays.

My little camera managed some interesting photographs--and a couple captured some things that my eyes missed.

I do love fireworks, despite the fact that our residents buy so many that the 4th of July fireworks last for hours and hours.

As I was leaving the house to get Sweet Teen after the game, across the sky, above the fireworks, streaked a meteor.  The meteor took my breath away.

The fireworks are like all the prayers we lift up for friends and the friends of our friends.  We're blessed by them. What really takes our breath away is the recognition that we have a Lord whose love streaks across the cosmos blessing us, confirming his love and presence.

Parade Blues

I escaped from my workplace early so I could see Sweet Teen in the homecoming parade.

I was misinformed about the parade route--so was part of the police force, for that matter.
Missed the parade.  Missed my daughter on her float.  (Of course, the high school can post all kinds of [un]important messages to our phones and their website.  But they are incapable of posting the parade route. And a call to the city offices yielded more misinformation.)  Wonder how many other parents missed it.  I do know of at least one auntie who missed it. We had a lovely chat about the community while we were waiting for the parade.
However, here are some pictures from one of our city parks.  I love these sculptures that reflect our community's history.

 And I love this gazebo in the same park.

Makes me remember all the summer band concerts in all the town parks in the part of the country where I grew up.  Sadly, I don't think they ever have band concerts in this park.  I love the gazebo and all the reminiscences it inspires, just the same.

And I have to admit that the very best parade I ever saw anywhere took place in the Midwest decades ago when I saw a 10 or 12 year old boy marching down a street with his snare drum and most of the neighborhood kids marching along behind!

Quilting--At Last! An Update!

 Struggling morning glories--actually, struggling as of two weeks ago.  The ones in the pot now have yellow foliage, despite several rain showers and good drainage.

 The ones along the fence are fading too.  Hopefully, I'll be able to capture some seeds for next year.

 These quilt tops and pieces have neither changed nor moved in probably three or four weeks.  John Deere theme is for my nephew's son. I thought the blue and yellow would be for his daughter, but I'm changing my mind.

 This is the machine that has been doing the majority of my piecing and quilting for the last couple of months.  Since it's in my living room in front of the north-facing windows, it's in a good spot for sewing--except when the afternoon sun has made the room too warm; then I've reverted to the 1936 treadle in the real sewing room. Of course, I've been doing very little quiltmaking--that's what happens when the daily commute consists of three hours of rush hour traffic!

 Non sequitur: Antique orphaned pillowcase picked up at Angela's Attic.  It's from around 1910, although who can say when it was appliqued and embroidered?  I always wonder if something unfortunate happened to the other one or if the needle worker just never managed to finish it.

 One of my sweet little students is struggling with seizures; we've had to call the ambulance three times in the last couple of weeks, most recently yesterday.  The drugs she's being prescribed just aren't controlling them, and she's had several hospital stays, so I picked up this prayer quilt this morning.

 I couldn't find any that I had made in the cabinet of blessed quilts at church, so I brought this one home and added some quilting so it would be a bit more interesting and because I needed some prayer time for her.

 

I used Glide thread in the edges of the center blocks, a multicolored Superior Threads Rainbows Thread in the white border, and a variegated gold Rainbows Thread in the next border.

It's hard to see anyone sick, but it's even harder when it's a sweet child.

I did quilt a lovely, cheerful log cabin prayer quilt--because my lovely friend who pieced it was intimidated by all the white.  I had a grand time quilting it--lots of variegated threads, lots of feather quilting--but I forgot to take a picture of it.

I hope my lovely friends are getting more quilting done than I am! I do love both quilting and blogging (along with dozens of other things) and really hope I can manage to post more regularly.  (Oh, the other thing that's taking so much of my time is creating learning materials for students for whom my school district provides none.  There are times I wish creating learning materials were my job!)

Happy quiltmaking......

An Older Quilt Story - Harriet's Stars

This is a quilt I made several years ago for my dear friend Harriet. I worked too slowly; her birthday was fast approaching; I finished it, packaged it up, mailed it to her. Then I realized I'd never taken any pictures of it!

We were able to have a truly wonderful, albeit short, visit with her while we were back east. Sweet Teen held the quilt and I took pictures. Harriet would not let us take her picture--she thinks she's aged--I thinks she's aged maybe five or ten years in the last 20+! So, no pictures of Miss Harriet, but here are some details of her quilt.

Although I still like many of the threads I used, I hope I've learned to choose threads that show up a little better, since I love the quilting and think it's sad when the only way to see the quilting is to check the back of the quiltQ

If you'd like to see greater detail, right click on the photos and open them in a new tab or a new window.
Alex exclaimed, "Oh, you quilted cute hearts on this quilt!" I'd forgotten. Wonder when I'll learn to always, always, always take many more pictures than I think I'll ever want?

Hmmmmm.

Dora, the quilter

Pillowcases--Bad ideas, good ideas

I lucked onto some orphan pillowcases this weekend.  I have no idea why these gems call my name so clearly unless it has something to do with the fact that I've loved textiles since I was a toddler--maybe even earlier and I just don't remember!
So, I'd like to share a couple with you.  The first made me sad.  The lace I absolutely love.  I think if I go dig out one of my grandma's bed sheets, it will have this same filigree lace pattern from the early 20th century.

 Of course, I have no way of knowing when someone decided to apply a couple of floss embroidered hearts--I'm kind of hoping it was an eight-year-old.

 Fortunately, the cotton floss was color-fast--maybe some of the J. P. Coats Boilfast floss from the 1940's-60's?  It was stitched with 3 ply of floss except for the thick part on the right side of the left heart, which was stitched with four-ply.

 And there's the back--great big knots.  The other negative is that instead of opening the hem, it was stitched through both layers of the hem.

 This is what it looks like now.  I'm hoping that after another laundering there will be no evidence of the embroidered misadventure--although I may go ahead and use it first. The saving grace is that the hearts were stitched with a small enough needle that the stitches will close up in the laundry.
In contrast, one of the "orphans" has some of the most exquisite embroidery I've seen.

 Here's a close up of one of the little hearts outlined in beautiful buttonhole stitch.

 The embroidery on this case was done with two-ply of floss except for the stem stitch and satin stitch, which were done with one.

 The only knots in this piece are the French knots and the bullion knots in the roses.

In the above photo you can see that the back is almost as neat as the front.

 The lovely little crocheted edging was applied in the edge of the hand-sewn hem stitching. Unadorned pillowcases could be purchased with gently scalloped edges.

This maker used delicate one-ply pearl cotton (I'm guessing size 8 or 12) to create the outline of the hearts in buttonhole stitch and then trimmed the fabric away next to the stitching at the bottom of the hearts.

I adopted a few other orphaned pillowcases too, but they're going to have to spend a good part of the week with "Aunt Oxy."

And here's the other much longed for treasure:

I don't even know how many cordless drills I've had over the last couple of decades.  The most outstanding trait of all of them was that when I needed them, the batteries were run down and most often I had trouble getting them to take a charge.  My dear friend who works at Lowe's assured me there's a clip at the bottom of the handle so that I can remove the batteries when not in use.  I bought mine as a Father's Day gift to myself a few years ago, and the only way the batteries are coming out of it is if you remove every screw--and then the batteries aren't replaceable.
Consequently, I've been longing for my Grandpa's hand drill--which is somewhere in one of my many boxes in an outbuilding.  Hmmmmm.  How much time do you think would be wisely spent searching through boxes in an out building in 95+degree heat?  I just couldn't face it.  I decided I'd be better off just buying a new drill and then decided what I really wanted was an old drill. After all, I use People-Powered-Machines for sewing, so why not for drilling? The local hardware store owner told me he could order me a hand drill.  I decided to look for an old one--partly because most of them were made with beautiful hardwood handles. I looked at every antique store I could think of and found this one at an antique store about two or three miles from home.  I suspect it was overpriced, but it was still about 20% of the cost of a decent new plastic wonder.

 

Okay, now I can install that sliding metal drawer in one of my cabinets so that my lovely DeMarle cookware won't fly out at me every time I need a piece!

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!