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....

Treasured Old Thing

Any knowledge of this treasure?

 This was gifted to me in a collection of someone's old sewing stuff.  I immediately recognized it.  A half-century and more in the past, women created these lovelies to fasten in the eyelets of their window shades to help raise and lower them.  The center is probably a bone ring, but it's so tightly packed with thread that I can't pull it apart to check.

I decided to untie it, rip back the chain, refasten it and use it as a spool pin doily on my treadle sewing machine.  I do love these treasures.

I don't like the next messes:

These were little gifties found in my Hobbs batting...Grease and dirt probably, but right in the middle!!!  I hope all you quilters escape any encounters with them!!


Happy quiltmaking...and knitting....

Quilt Craft Festival Treasure

Last Thursday when I finished work and picked my daughter up from her chemistry classes on Albuquerque's west side, we had time to drive to the the NM State Fairgrounds on Albuquerque's east side and attend the Quilt Craft Festival.

I promise to post more photos of purchases, but I've had the chance to use these already, and I love them!

I boldly suggested Sweet Teen might want to gift me with the seam ripper, since we moved her out of her dorm room and back home so she didn't have a chance to get me a Mother's Day gift.  She agreed.  And in my gratitude, I gifted myself with the stylus, which also can utilize all those screw driver tips.  Love, love, love using these--and I hope I'm able to keep track of them forever!!!!

We may or may not have stopped for some chocolate and from The Chocolate Cartel and some of the Van Rixel Brothers' gelato.

Be sure to check out the American Made Blog Tour here: http://americanmadebrand.com/blogtour/

Happy quiltmaking...and knitting.....

Quilting Love and Prayer

Last winter one of my favorite church friends became ill and spent weeks in the hospital.  (Actually, several church friends spent weeks in hospitals and rehab; it was a bleak winter in more ways than one.)

One of the sad things was that for at least a couple of years, I have been planning to make quilts for several of my favorite church friends who are aging beautifully but becoming frail.  When Ms. Ruth became ill, I'd already begun planning a quilt for her to be made from fabrics chosen by Ms. Mary. Our Victory Quilt ministry gave her a quilt, but I began searching for time to make this one:

 I finished the quilting a couple of weeks ago.  The above photo is of the completed quilt before Ms. Mary took it to sew down the binding.  We were able to give it to Ms. Ruth a little over a week ago.

Here are some close-ups of the details:

 This is my very favorite part of this quilt.  I packed lots of extra details into this section of the quilting--and it just makes me happy!

It took a bit of inspiration to figure out how to quilt those tiny triangle blocks, but this worked.

If you are a quilter, I hope you've had a chance to make a quilt filled with love and prayers for one of your special friends too.

I'm linking to Connie's Tuesday Party at Freemotion by the River.

Happy quiltmaking...and knitting....

What is this?....

Here are some hints:

A few months ago, I made this.

 Today I made this:

Here's the exterior:

 As usual, quilting was a lot more fun than choosing fabrics and piecing.  It's pieced from more leftovers, mostly from Sweet Teen's college quilt.

Here it is with a couple of the Velcro dots in use:

Here's a side view:

Now you know, don't you?  It's a keyboard cover and stand so Sweet Teen can use her Kindle and Keyboard instead of hauling her laptop to class.  (She's also in the market for a new, smaller laptop. She says she has never once used her laptop for spread sheets--and that's why the "experts" she consulted suggested she buy the larger laptop in the first place.)

She did figure out that if she could take Chem II this summer, she could save a semester of college.
Unfortunately, the only class she could get into is 50 miles from home; so two days a week we are arising at 5:00 a.m., and I'm constantly reminding myself that saving the expense of a semester of college is definitely worth it.  (Secretly, I'm also praying she stays in materials engineering so that we don't end up with that extra semester anyway.--She's still hoping to do research in the field of nano-medicine.)

Second question:  What are these?

These are several pieces I'm likely to use in the American Made Brand 50 States American Blog Tour that began May 19 with a visit to two states each day.  My entry will appear here June 19 since New Mexico was one of the last four states to become part of the United States.  You'll find links to all the blogs here: http://americanmadebrand.com/blogtour/

Please let me share why I am so happy to be part of this tour.  These fabrics are made from cotton grown in the United States, processed in the United States, and milled and woven in the United States.  (We do grow cotton here in my state, but I don't think that's where AMB cotton is grown.)

I love the hand of this cotton, and I think all users will feel that way.  My secret hope is that one of these days they will weave some "shot-cottons" too.

I'm shocked that it's been so long since I've posted.  Life has been busy (but good), and today, Memorial Day, is my first official non-work day.  Since my next school year starts August 6, I'm going to try to be very productive this summer.  I love having time to sew, quilt, and have choices about my time, but of course, I love being a special ed teacher too, so I do have to make trade offs.  One of the trade-offs for the last two or three months is that there has been no time to read blogs.  So I'm sneaking some peaks at some today--how I've missed my blogging friends!!--and am hoping my own readers haven't forgotten that I exist! (There will be some prizes when my day on the American Made Brand blog tour happens!)

Oh, we've had 1.17 inches of rain!  That makes me very happy too!

I'm linking to Judy Laquidara's Design Wall so you can easily access her blog and that of other wonderful quilters.

Happy quiltmaking and knitting,...