Two Birthdays!!

My birthday was this past week. 

Unfortunately, I didn't want one!

I don't want anymore birthdays. I am getting too old! How old? Well, I don't want to publish my exact age on the internet, but I can truthfully say I am beyond 40. . . way beyond! LOL!!!

I had a great day for my day before my birthday!

My youngest son came to visit us in the mountains. He hadn't come for quite a few months. He decided we would celebrate my birthday the day before my birth date because he had to leave for home early the next day.

He made dinner . . . steaks and roasted cubed herb potatoes, also some roasted cubed herb turnips. I had never had turnips before so that was a small adventure. He has become an excellent cook. He also surprised me with baking a cake for me. What was really surprising is that he was able to work with a not too good oven. The cake came out great! No burnt edges like when I try to bake in my oven. After we ate dinner, he cleared the table and surprised me even further by bringing the cake with candles lit. He and my husband sang "Happy Birthday"!

It made me feel very special and loved! Thank you so very much for that special unexpected birthday treat!

Speaking of unexpected birthday treats .. .

A few weeks ago we were in Albuquerque for my granddaughter's birthday party. On the day of the party my youngest daughter mentioned that she had gotten a text from my oldest daughter, in California, saying the cookies for the birthday party would arrive in the morning of the party.

As we were discussing the text, my husband walked in the front door holding a little girl. I couldn't make out her face so I didn't react.  But then, my oldest daughter pokes her head to the side of my husband and I started yelling to my youngest daughter. "OMG!!!" "OMG!!" "OMG!"

She had driven overnight from California with my other granddaughter to attend the birthday party!!

We were surprised, astounded, shocked, excited!! Lots of hugs and kisses and lots of pictures taken.

But she said she had to leave the next day in order to be home by Monday.  WOW!! Short as it was it was great to have my girls together. I love when we get together, planned or unplanned! 

No quilting on this post, just a lot of love!

Until next time . . . keep on quilting!

Aveli

Time To Sew!!

Now that my daughter has gone home, its time for me to get back to work on my basket weave string quilt!

Here is my container full of strips ready to be sewn.

 

This a.m. I had my tea ready and started bright and early!

  My cabin feels so lonely and too quiet without my granddaughter running around!  I texted my daughter this a.m. when I awoke to see how far they had gotten during the night. They should have reached Los Angeles Union station around 7 a.m. 

I received the most awful news about their trip. They were not even to Kingman, Arizona yet at 7 a.m.!  Apparently the train experienced some kind of mechanical difficulties during the night and they were stopped for 2 hours in the desert. She said the worst part was that the air conditioning was not working in their coach so it was very warm and stuffy! She carried my granddaughter to the lounge/observation car where the air was working and it was cool.  Thankfully my granddaughter slept through the night, even though she was sweating most of the time.

Amtrak was not forthcoming with any information and did not offer any comfort about the inconvenience.  She said the passengers were kept in the dark, literally, no lights! Conductors and porters were nowhere to be found to be questioned about the status of the train.

When my daughter caught the train in Las Vegas, NM they must have been experiencing problems already because they were over an hour late getting to Las Vegas.  They will be over 6 hours late getting to L.A. Union Station.  

I guess you get what you pay for!  Even though the train is cheaper than airlines, they are also starting to charge extra for everything!  My son-in-law said they no longer hand out free pillows!!  They offer an $8.00 package of a tiny pillow and a small blanket. . . . WOW!

Well, back to quilting . . . 

Aveli

She's Gone!

My daugthter left for California today!  I am so sad! I miss them already and I miss the squeeky laughter of my little granddaughter!

I guess all I can do is get back to quilting . . . but not tonight.  We went to Las Vegas and dropped off my daughter and her family at the train station, left and went to a baby shower in Mora.  Then we came home. I am exhausted! I don't know if its from emotional goodbyes or just from a long day.

Tomorrow I will get back to my basket weave string quilt and probably sew all day, but not tonight!

Aveli

The Count Down has started!

D-Day is 4 1/2 days away!

Daughter Day that is!  She, hubby and my precious granddaughter will be here on Friday, the 9th at 3:30p.m. in Las Vegas, New Mexico on the train!

I am so excited! I still have a million things to do to baby proof this cabin. I have just finished taking out all my sewing fabrics, tools and knick knacks. Next comes installing the new rugs. Then changing the beds and washing all the linens!  Whew! I am tired just writing about it.

I have also decided to quilt on the pink baby quilt. I will put a cable pattern on the white border around the quilt.  Hopefully that will disguise the wrinkles that showed up after I put the binding in.


I am also going to make a little mattress and pillow for the baby doll cradle for my granddaughter.  Hope I get everything done in time because I would like to make a cake to surprise them with when they get here. I guess I can make that on Friday morning!

O.K. gotta go!

Keep on Quilting. . .

Aveli

Quilting Away on a Baby Quilt Gift

This is the baby quilt I am working on. My dear neighbor's granddaughter-in-law is expecting a girl in September.  She has been so kind and helpful to us since we moved here that I felt compelled to make this baby quilt for the new baby.

 

Here you can see a close up of the hand quilting that I am doing. I am almost done with it.  I will post a picture of it when it is finished.

I have to work on this to get it done before my daughter comes on the 9th so I can fold it up and put it away.  Don't want my little granddaughter getting into it.  But, I also still have to make that little mattress and pillow for the Baby Doll Cradle for my granddaughter.  Hope it all gets done in time.

Meanwhile any other projects or UFO's that I have, including the string basket weave quilt, is on the sideline until after my daughter leaves.

I just heard from my youngest son and he said he will be here when the oldest daughter comes from California!  YAY! Now, if we could only get the youngest daughter to bring her little family also, then we could almost have a complete family reunion.  What fun! 

My youngest son wants to rework the roof on the new storage shed we are building.  We had a severe hailstorm and it ripped up the roofing paper that had just been laid the week before.  That has to be replaced before we can put the propanel aluminum shingles.  Maybe my son-in-law will help a little while they are here.  My husband is not physically able to help anymore since his stroke.

Meanwhile, Keep on Quilting!

Aveli

They're Coming! They're Coming!

I feel like Paul Revere with that title. LOL! But, I am excited about my daughter's family visit. She called last night to say they would be here in 2 weeks!

Just barely have enough time to finish my granddaughter's baby doll quilt. I will have to stop working on my string quilt and my cross stitch project and finish that little quilt.

Maybe I should just machine stitch it together with the backing??  What do you think?

If I go ahead with the tying, I can tie it every 2 or 3 inches. The quilt top measures approximately 24"x 26".  If I tie every 2 inches, that means I will have 12 across by 13 down which equals 156 ties. Am I capable of finishing that many ties in 2 weeks? and then do the binding?

The binding is another question. I always do bindings by hand! Should I hand bind or machine bind? Help me out folks what would you do? It's really not a big quilt, but I also have to organize, stash, clean, dust, vacuum and child proof the cabin for their visit.  My granddaughter is only 2 years old, so I have to go over the cabin with a fine tooth comb to child proof.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.  I will start finishing it tomorrow.  Today my "dance card" is already full of preparations for the visit.

I will post the final decision as to the finishing of the baby quilt.  Let me know what you think!

Keep on quilting!
Aveli

Flea Market ! Again?

Today, we left early for the flea market. I was determined to find the "pie lady" and "biscochitos" from last week and buy some more.  They were sooooo scrumptious!

Well, once again, my husband couldn't wait till we got to Las Vegas to eat.  This time though, I was also hungry. So, we decided to go to "Kristie's Korner Kafe" down the road from Mora. Mora is 14 miles from our cabin and is our "local" shopping area.  It has a grocery store, several restaurants, churches, schools, library, etc. Kristie's Korner Kafe is one of the better restaurants.  It is very small, only has 6 tables, but is very popular with the locals. Why? because it has great food!  We had breakfast there.  Of course my husband had red chili, let me correct that, red New Mexico chili with his breakfast. Restaurants in New Mexico always have New Mexico chili and the waitress will always ask "Red, Green or Christmas?" "Christmas?" That is a concoction made of both red and green chili . . ."Christmas"! I have never tried "Christmas" chili because I don't care for green chili, but my husband says it's great! He loves either color!!!

So we finish breakfast and off we go to LV.  When we get to the "Flea Market" I noticed that there weren't very many people shopping. My husband says it's probably too early for shoppers. Everyone is probably still in church!  Then I noticed that there were only 5 or 6 vendors!  I know this flea market is small, but this is ridiculous! I was so disappointed :( !  I was really looking forward to an apple pie and biscochitos for the week.

So I kept walking down the aisle and I spied an ironing board attached to some weird contraption. I stopped to look and found an ironing board that converts to a step ladder that converts to a chair.  Here is a picture of it as an ironing board

 This is the way to use it as a stepstool.

And last but not least . . .as a chair!

Isn't it amazing? Have you ever seen anything like it? Please comment if you have. I would love to hear if someone knows what it is called and from what time period it comes.

I loved it! My husband loved it! (which is very unusual) Needless to say, we bought it!!!

After our excursion into the "miniature" sized flea market, we went to Walmart to buy a few groceries and then came home.  Just in time I might say because as we drove into our driveway, a downpour started that has lasted for twenty minutes.  It tapering down some but it is still thunder and lightening and intermittent showers.

My quilting project for today is to finish sewing the "Baby Doll" quilt for my granddaughter. I will post a picture of it when I finish sewing it together tomorrow!

"Talk" to you tomorrow! Keep quilting!
Aveli

A visit from our Youngest

This past week our youngest son has been visiting us while he was on vacation from work.  What a treat!
It is always great to have him come to visit us.  Even though he only lives 3 hours away, it is difficult to get our schedules on the same track.

So the first thing he says when he gets here is that he is going to barbecue.  Even though it wasn't until yesterday that he got an opportunity to do so, it was nice to hear.  He always makes a great meal!

This time he barbecued 2 whole chickens.  They were scrumptious! And today we get to enjoy more of the leftover chicken.  Makes for great sandwiches. . .especially when combined with the indian pueblo bread made by the Santo Domingo indians.  Yum Yum!

Sadly, he had to leave today. He goes back to work tonight. :(

While he was here, I was working on my string quilt. Making the blocks that is.  I started thinking about making a little doll sized quilt for my granddaughter. They are scheduled to visit some time in August, so I bought my granddaughter a small baby doll.  That way she could have a "baby" to play with while she was here.  Now I am thinking she would have more fun if she could wrap the doll in a blanket.  And of course, a simple receiving blanket type would not do. . .it has to be a quilt!!!

So I started sewing the feeder blocks that I make while working on a project.  You know, a little piece of paper with leftover pieces of fabric on it.  I am using strips of 8 1/2" x 2 or 2 1/2".  I mainly want to conserve the amount of trash I throw out so I recycle my printer paper and print on both sides of the paper.  Especially when I am trying out new layouts for my quilts. After printing on both sides, I cut some into fourths for note paper, i.e., grocery lists, notes to self or husband and so forth. Some of the printer paper goes into providing foundation paper for the feeder blocks.  I cut the printer paper in half to make two 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 pieces and then take those pieces and cut them in half again and end up with the 8 1/2 x 2 1/2 strips.

I layed out the feeder strips into a size that would enable my granddaughter to wrap the doll. I didn't like the layout.  So now, I have added white strips between each feeder strip.  It made the blanket larger and looks nicer I think.

I will finish sewing it up and take pictures tomorrow and post them here.

Taking a Break

My youngest son came to visit for three days! YAY!

He got here yesterday. Even though we live in the same state, we don't get to see each other very often. So, a visit from him is so very special; as is all visits from my children and grandchildren.

Since he is here and won't leave until Tuesday afternoon, I will be taking a break from quilting. I will add another post on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning when I will get back to quilting.  At that time, I hope to take a break from my string basket weave quilt and finish the baby quilt that I am making for the neighbor's granddaughter.