Too Distracted to Do Anything??

Yesterday we went to Las Vegas, picked up my brother and went to church. We had never gone to the church in Vegas only our local church in Guadalupita. But, since my brother is now living in Las Vegas, we decided to attend the church in Las Vegas.  It was a very beautiful midsized church.

After church we went to a local restaurant for breakfast. I was really looking forward to having the typical scrambled eggs, hash browns and link sausage.  Alas!  They were out of link sausage so I had to skip that part.  The breakfast was good though!

After breakfast, we decided to go to the local VFW hall. We had heard that they held a dance there every Sunday afternoon starting at 1 p.m. We were curious to see how the music was.  I was thinking there would be a disk jockey.  But to our surprise they had a live band!

We stayed for awhile and danced a few times then left to go shopping at Wal-mart.  My brother wanted to purchase a few items. We spent a couple of hours looking and shopping.

Later we stopped at the Dairy Queen for some ice cream cones which really hit the spot as the temperature was 94! Very refreshing!

Now it was time to take my brother home and head home ourselves.  On the way home my husband remembered that the Mora street festival was happening and they were having a dance starting just about the time we would be passing by on the way home.

He asked me if I wanted to go and I thought about it and then said no.  I am so glad that I did say no because today my legs are so sore from the little dancing we did at the VFW that I can barely do anything! It's been months since we have been dancing!  We made a promise to ourselves to go more often so we can get some fun exercise. . . we'll see what happens. LOL!

Today, I am looking out the window at the rain splattering the cabin window and listening to the thunder.  I love thunder as long as I am inside.

Also trying to get things organized and clean because my oldest and youngest daughters and granddaughters are coming for a visit this coming weekend!!! YAY!

Our grass is so green from all the rain that we have been having lately.  The rose bushes that I transplanted finally caught and are growing!  I don't think they will bloom before our first frost, but at least they are growing.

Well, there is my hodge podge of things that are distracting from my sewing. Maybe later this week I can get some sewing done . . . maybe not! LOL!

In the meantime, keep on quilting!

Aveli

Fathers Day Barbecue

Tomorrow is father's day and my son in law's birthday. Since two of  my sons are traveling tomorrow  we are getting together today.

Even though it's a father's day barbecue, the men decided they were going to do the barbecue!

My sons's specialty is beer can chicken so that's what they are making.  Three guys working on getting it ready. Did I mention that the first batch burned?  Luckily there was enough time to do a second batch.

My daughter is making a "carne asada" a big favorite!  We are also having rice and beans and salad with "tres leches" cake for desert.

I think it's going to be a great day! Hope every dad has a wonderful day with their families.

Until next time . . .
Keep on quilting!

Aveli

Back Home Again!

For a short time!

We are "home again, home again, jiggity jig!"

I hadn't realized how much I missed my home until we came home yesterday.  Driving on the highway for three hours from Albuquerque is always a tiring chore.  But yesterday I drove with enthusiasm because I was going home from a two week absence.  And you know that old saying, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"!  LOL!

But yes, as I was driving up our little road to the cabin, I breathed a sigh of relief ... Yes! Yes! Yes! I am home!

So today, we are doing what needs to be done after a two week absence, cleaning, washing, mowing the lawn. Unfortunately, I will not have time to do any machine sewing, but certainly tonight after chores are done, some hand sewing on my hexies!

Tomorrow would be a good day to get back to machine sewing but alas we have to "go to town" for some grocery shopping and some other errands while we are in "town".  But, again, hand sewing the hexies . . . thank God for the Hexies!!!  Since "town" is 40 miles away, we always try to do all our errands in one trip, it saves a lot on gas!  So usually a trip to "town" is always more or less a whole day affair.

So hopefully Tuesday will be my day to sew on the machine and post more pictures.

Meantime, keep on quilting!

Aveli

On Family Emergency

So we plan and plan our three year or five year plan. We go along just fine and suddenly we are slammed with a family emergency that just throws a huge monkey wrench right smack into the middle of everything we planned.

I am in the middle of just such a family emergency. It has taken longer than expected . . .doesnt it always.

There is a lot of driving back and forth and a lot of sitting and waiting in hospital rooms involved.  So I have my hexies in my bag to work on.

No pictures for now just a request for prayers and good vibes and patience from my readers. I will get back to my quilting topics as soon as I get back home.

Aveli

Simple Needle case

After years and years of putting my needles on my spool of thread while working on my projects (see photo) I decided to make a simple needle case (book style).

I didn't want it to be too large so I cut the "cover" fabric about 4"x 6". Of course you can make it whatever size you want. Just remember to allow at least half an inch on all four sides to turn under for the finished hem.

The "pages" where needles and pins will be placed are sized 2 3/4" x 2 1/2". One side is bigger to allow for the "binding" edge where it will be sewn all together. I used three "pages" of leftover batting in black and white. I used black in the middle so it would be easier for my aging eyes to separate the individual pages.

Position the batting inside of the cover fabric to make sure there is enough room for the hems. Also make the back cover extend beyond the pages leaving enough to hem and to bring forward to close the book. 

Fold the hem of the front cover to where it will cover the pages. 

Bring the back cover forward to make sure it overlaps the front

Sew the front hem and sew all the hems around all sides. I used straight stitch but a decorative stitch will dress this up quite a bit.

Position your pages in the middle and sew through all the layers on the left side. Notice that the back cover extends beyond the front cover and the pages.

This is almost finished! I just need to decide what fastener I want to put on the cover to keep it closed.

This is the open view with the pages sewn in.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. I plan on making one of these to keep with each individual project. They are super easy to make because they are not fancy.  Although if you want to decorate it with embroidery or quilting you can. If you make one of these, send me a photo and I will post it on my website and here in the blog. 

Looking forward to hearing from you. . . keep on quilting!

Hexagon quilt update

Here is the latest on my 1" Hexie "Insanity" quilt.

It has grown a little since this last picture. I will post it as soon as I can.

Today I am taking it easy for Mother's Day!

Till next time . . . keep quilting!

Flea Market at VFW Hall

This Saturday there will be a flea market at the VFW hall in the town of Mora, New Mexico, USA, starting at 8 am.

I am selling my quilting goods, freezer paper hexagons, pre cut fabric hexagons, 2 1/2 inch fabric strips, fat quarters, fat eights, fabric scraps, fabric yardage, thread, batting and various other crafting stuff.

I am also selling a crib and an Eddie Bauer high chair - all wood, that we bought to use when our granddaughters came to visit. They are now out of that stage so we don't need them anymore.  They are practically brand new. They have been in storage longer than they were used.

And of course since it is a flea market, we will be selling any other "stuff" that we can dig out of storage.

So if you have nothing to do and are in the area, drop by and say hello! It's free to get in!

What To Do With Small Scraps?

What do you do with small scraps, or "crumbs" as some people call them?

I am a hoarder, as my husband calls me, of fabric. I love and breathe fabric! I can not look at a piece without touching it or wanting to buy it, if available and affordable. Way back when I started sewing my own clothes, I started thinking what should I do with the left over fabric?

Here comes my two aunts to the rescue. They made a lot of their own clothes if not all of them. One aunt suggested I save my pieces and coordinate them in color so I could piece a blouse, jacket or pants. After she said this, she showed me a top that had 20 pieces! She made it from scraps of her previous projects. It was really nice. I was very impressed that she had the mind set and patience to piece together a pattern that would look nice. The color scheme was great and she used a lot of top stitching so that the pieces looked like part of the design. I loved it! But, I did not want to put that much thought and effort into the design and all that top stitching!!!  After all, I was just a teenager and patience was not one of my virtues.

Then I went over to the other aunt's house and she was working on a "crazy" quilt. I inquired as to what pattern she was using and why she had so many colors and sizes of fabrics.  She told me when she makes an outfit, the left over scraps go into her quilt scrap bin saving them for a "crazy" quilt. I was fascinated by the twists, turns, colors and designs of the various fabrics and the fact there was very little planning other than which fabric you liked next to which fabric. I WAS HOOKED!!!

My fabric saving obsession started then. It was my aunt's fault for introducing me to saving the smallest scraps. Larger scraps for sewing together into a pieced or "crazy" quilt and smaller scraps for applique. I knew about quilting squares but had never heard of  "crazy" quilting . . .this was before the internet and the abundance of quilting magazines that we have now.

Today I would like to show you a sample of the pieces that I acquire while cutting fabric for customers.
These are some pieces that I have left over . . .

How I trim these down is what I will be showing you today. In the picture above right I had just finished cutting hexagons. You can clearly see some triangles, diamonds and some strips that can be cut from these pieces.  But what about pieces that are not so clearly defined? Here is an example . . .

I found this piece and was thinking to cut a long strip across the top. Then I noticed that if I used my
quarter square ruler I could cut a fairly large triangle.  I use two rulers when cutting difficult triangles. The quarter square triangle and half square triangle ruler.  After I cut this piece into a quarter square triangle I used the half square ruler because presently I am trying to cut a lot of half square triangles.

This picture shows a piece that has a tear in it . . .

Too bad it would have made a very nice large triangle. No matter, just move the half square ruler over a bit and cut away.

Here is a circle that didn't quite meet standards and I don't need a circle but need a triangle in this fabric. . .

Line it up with the edge of the circle and cut both sides to give you an angle. It will look like this . . .

Once you have this angle flip it so that it will look like this . . . 

Now you have an edge where you can line up your half square triangle ruler and finish cutting a triangle.

I hope this little tutorial will help you figure out what to do with your scraps. If you have any questions, please email me through the contact form on this blog. I will be happy to help.

A Fun Swap!

I have always wanted to do a swap. So the past couple of years I have done fabric swaps.

Then I got brave and wanted to do a quilting swap.  I have just finished my first quilting project swap.

Once I signed up for the "Mug Rug" swap I received the pattern and all the information I needed to do the swap. Later the moderator sent an email with the swap partners email address. I was paired up with a person in the midwest.

For my first quilting swap I wanted something small and the mug rug swap was perfect!

Here are pictures of the two different patterns for the swap that we were to use. The one with the dime in it is for size reference. The mug rugs finished at 9" x 5 1/2".

I love this little pattern and working on this project. It went along very quickly. I am excited to see what my partner is sending me.

In Love With My Hand Crank

Today it was very cold! I had the wood stove burning all day.

Of course I hibernated today because of the snow and cold. And what is the best way to do that??

With quilting of course!!! So, I decided to sew a cover for my new hand crank sewing machine! It came with the wooden coffin cover but I would have to take the handle off to use that cover. I want the machine set up so I can jump in and sew whenever I feel the urge.

It's the perfect project to test a machine. I am using string paper piecing with scraps. It is not precise so I can practice feeding the fabric with my left hand while cranking with my right hand. They are small pieces so if I make a horrible mistake, I don't have a large piece to rip out and its using up my scraps!

Here is my progress on the cover so far. . .

More Snow Again?

It seems that winter is not done with us yet!

I thought it was because after the last snow in March everything was starting to turn green. I was so happy to see the grass in my yard turning green.  Not in just spots, but all over!

Well, yesterday . . . SURPRISE!  More snow!

Here is my yard coming alive. YAY!

Same yard yesterday! Booo!

I made this extra large because I think it is neat the way you can see the snowflakes!
They look like little tiny dots against the brown of the neighbors house.

I am ready to be outside. I love being inside and working on my quilting but my body is craving sunshine!

Sorting, logging. . . Tiring!

Today I am not doing any quilting, cross stitch or crafting of any kind.

My husband just is finishing building a large storage shed on our property. So we went Thursday and brought some boxes from our storage in Vegas.

So, yesterday and today I have spent emptying and sorting and dumping all sorts of things.

The part I am enjoying is finding little stashes of fabric that I used as padding for the breakables when we moved from California to New Mexico. Fabric I hadn't seen in years!

It's like going shopping but for familiar fabric!  It's fun to see old friends and it makes a tedious and tiring job more fun!!!

National Quilting Month -- ooops! "National Sewing Month" and Rain!

Looks like there are more clouds and rain in our future!

 

Today starts "National Quilting (Sewing) Month"!  YAY!  Of course, being a quilter, we are always sewing . . . right?

I have been doing my part since last week when my daughter left.  I got back to sewing on my basket weave scrappy string quilt. It was originally going to be a lap quilt, but I really liked it and decided to enlarge it.  It is now up to a queen size quilt and has the overlap on the length to cover the pillows. Today I have been finishing up adding the blocks to make it queen size.  So I greeted "National Quilting (Sewing) Month" at 5 a.m. this morning with my project on the machine . . . see picture below.

Sorry about the quality, this was taken with my phone! 

That's the phone book pages you see on the back of the quilt. I used my old phone book pages for foundation piecing. Our local phone book is the size of half of an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.  I cut the blocks to 4 1/2 inches square.  That way I can get 2 blocks out of each half sheet.  One of our phone books is enough, with some left over for the next project, to make this queen size quilt.

What are you working on during this "National Quilting (Sewing) Month"?  Is it something you have been working on for awhile or did you just start it within the past few weeks?  I would love to hear about it or see pictures of your projects!

Meanwhile . . .everyone keep on quilting!

Aveli

Lots of Unexpected Rain!

We didn't get a forecast for rain, but here it is! Although it wasn't expected, it was very much welcome. Since we have been in a severe drought in New Mexico, this little bit yesterday was welcomed with open arms.

 This is a view toward our hills from my sewing room.

 

 

And here is another view from the other window.  As you can see whichever window I chose to look out of, I have great scenery to look at while I sip my coffee, tea, soda or water while I sew!

  

In the meantime, everyone keep on quilting!

Aveli

Busy Weekend and Labor Day

The family barbecue was a huge success!  I am so glad that everyone showed up, enjoyed the food and stayed late!  My sister in law and hubby and his sister were the last to leave. They seemed like they really didnt want to leave.  I told them to spend the night. . .we have the extra room! I think they would have stayed but they already had another barbecue to go to the next day and they were leaving today for Albuquerque and then for California.  They did promise to come and spend a couple of nights with us next time.  They totally fell in love with the beauty of the area . . .everyone does.

Friday we are going to "Bean Day" at Wagon Mound.  Wagon Mound is a small town just Northeast of Las Vegas, New Mexico.  They have a big celebration for Labor Day and call it Bean Day.

Saturday, we are off to the flea market again in the morning.  Then, we are going to a local fund raiser dance in the evening.  I expect to dance a lot with my husband. We love to dance! This fund raiser is for the local school.

Sunday, the is the annual Cleveland Mill Fest.  This is a big local event every Labor Day weekend. It is another small town but this time just past the town of Mora.  It has tours of the water wheel powered flour mill that used to operate in the area. It has been restored and is operational, but is not used for grinding flour any more. There are lots of vendors of all types -- food, candy, crafts of all sorts, music and performers of various talents.  Lots of fun for three days! No entrance fee!

Monday, back to Wagon Mound for the barbecue and Rodeo!

So you see, We are going to be pretty busy this weekend!  Very little time for sewing or quilting, darn!  But!!! I will be working on my string basket weave quilt in the early morning hours before we leave for all this activity, LOL!

Hope you all have a safe Labor Day Holiday and maybe get in some 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

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

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.