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!

New Work Area/Studio?

Well after laying low to heal my injured hip, I am raring to go! Feeling much better today so we have started tackling the job of cleaning my work area. But it's more like moving my work area from a 3 x 3 square foot area to a larger and more private area that is all mine!  I have really enjoyed being able to just sit and sew on my "insanity" hexie quilt for three days, but I am really, truly excited about having all my quilty "stuff" together in one place!

The only problem with rearranging things is that you have to figure out where you are going to put the things you are moving.  It's kind of a domino effect, move one thing, the next thing needs to be moved, then the next and the next, etc.  Previously, the area I am repurposing looked like the picture below.

The bed in the picture is going out and that is where I am putting a desk, an ironing station and a cutting table. The area is pretty small but much larger than my 3 x 3 previous area.

Now I can take all my fabrics, quilts, patterns, threads, etc and put them into this space instead of being spread around in small areas throughout my property. 

All the plastic boxes with fabric will be put into the area above the air conditioner and in the cabinets behind the mirror on the right and left side of the picture.  Any leftovers will put into our new storage shed that my husband just finished building.  At least that is the plan . . . I'll update you as the work progresses.

It shouldn't take too long because I have been planning, folding, cutting, taking pics of fabrics and cataloguing for the last 6 months.  So, I think it will go very smoothly . . . I hope!

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!

Quilter's Beware!

This was recently posted on Facebook and I thought I should share it with you!

Quilting the Basket Weave Quilt

Today it will be slightly warmer than yesterday. Yesterday it only got to the low thirties. Today it will be in the forties. Nice day to spend doing nothing but hand quilting,

Yesterday I almost got the one section, you know the part between the poles, done. Just about five inches not done. I intend to finish that part and then get half of another section done today.

Can't quilt tomorrow, going to Vegas to pick up stuff.  So either I will not have time or I will be too tired from shopping all day! LOL!

Have to keep working feverishly, my deadline is fast approaching! Can you believe we are at the end of January already??? On my!!!!

OH NO! NO! NO!

I was ready to put the scrappy basket weave quilt on the quilt frame so I could start hand quilting.  YAY!

I got it onto one of the cross bars and started rolling the sandwich.  When I finished with the top bar, I inserted the bottom bar into the leader cloth and started rolling it back so it would be even.

Just as I was about to lodge it into the holding brackets, I heard a crack!!!  OH NO! What was that sound?  I looked at the top bar and it had rolled off the frame. When it fell, the middle bar cracked in half!

Oh my goodness what a setback!  I was so disheartened.  I almost screamed, cried and jumped up and down!

Now I had to undo all the rolling from the top bar. I rolled the quilt onto the bottom bar, took it off the top bar and left it on the table.  I immediately went to my cabin and called the company that makes my quilting frame.  I had bought this quilting frame used from a private party and had only used it once for the pink baby quilt that I wrote about on this blog.

Well as I scrolled through the company's website I found a manual for my frame model and found out that it didn't have the middle extension steel brackets to give the bars more stability when a large quilt is on the frame. That's why the bar had cracked. Not enough support!

Well needless to say, I ordered the extension kit (new bars) and the installation kit for the extension kit.  It includes the steel brackets.

So now I am waiting for this order to arrive sometime next week.  Can't start hand quilting the basket weave quilt until that order gets here.  I hope that I will still make my deadline for my daughter's birthday . . . 3 months!

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

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

Baby Doll Quilt Finished!

So Yesterday I finished the baby doll quilt! YAY!

I sewed the backing, which is purple and pink hearts, to the quilt top on the machine. You can see the backing in the picture below. I decided on sewing on the machine because I didn't think I had enough time to hand quilt. After I finished sewing the two layers together I needed to bind it and decided to use the border for binding.

First I trimmed the backing close to the quilt top edge as seen below in the picture.

 Next, I rolled the border back onto the backing and tucked it under itself and pinned. See picture below.
 

 

Here you can see the rolled border from the front -- before and after rolling and pinning.  

 

I hand stitched the binding in the back and that was it! I loved making this little quilt from all my scrap crumbs.(tiny pieces) It really did save a lot of fabric and makes a very nice little quilt for a baby doll for granddaughter! Now that I saw how cute this came out, I think I will use my other scrap strips to make a table topper for the cabin. Although, I wont use white for the sashing, maybe a wine.

Now to get back to the baby quilt that I am hand quilting for my neighbor's granddaughter who is expecting in September. I will post pictures of that quilt some time later this week when I am finished.

Keep on Quilting!

Aveli

Hailstones!

Yesterday we went to visit my husband's cousin. He lives just 7 miles down the road and up the mountain. We wanted him to meet our youngest son, who was visiting for a few days.

Just as we drove into his yard, it started hailing, hailing and increasing in amount and size. By the time we dashed up the stairs to the porch, they were a mixture of  sizes of nickels and quarters. Ouch! I was lucky enough to not get hit by the "quarters" but my husband, his cousin were not as lucky. Our car was pelted for over 20 minutes by this surprise storm.  We were expecting rain, but not hail!

It was over as quickly as it had started. . . no rain, the clouds parted, and the sun shone so brightly on the melting hail in the trees. So much so that it looked like they were decked out in diamonds all over.  So beautiful!

My son met a cousin he did not know about or had met before. We chatted and were served home made flour tortillas wrapped around some home made refried beans with cheese.  Great burritos! Sun tea,  iced and sweetened made lunch perfect!

After lunch we took a walk further up the mountain to check out the progress on his guest cabin that he is building.  Beautiful work! It has a loft! I would love to be a kid and sleep up there!! LOL!!

After the cabin tour, we left for the town of Mora, another 7 miles down the mountain. That is our local town to get basic supplies like gas and Ice Cream! Yummy!

All in all it was a very nice day. This morning, I got an early start and was missing my son because his visit was so short. He left yesterday after the ice cream.  So this a.m. I immersed myself in my sewing and cutting some scraps into triangles, squares, and strings for the basket weave quilts. Yes, I said quilts! I have decided that I will make only basket weave quilts for my children. That way there is no complaining about colors or styles! LOL!  So, I will be cutting my scraps and sewing basket weave string blocks for a while!!

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.

More Blocks! More Blocks!

 

As you can see above, I am still making blocks for my "Basket Weave" quilt. I have been working diligently for the past 4 days on finishing it.  I found out that it wasn't quite big enough to drape over my double bed. So back to making blocks again!

In the picture above you can see that I have been busy sewing and now comes the trimming down to the size of my foundation paper.  My foundation papers (local telephone book) measure 4 1/2" square. Of course you can make your foundation paper any size you want. But, my leftover scraps seem to best work at 4 1/2".

So once I finish trimming these blocks, I will start adding on to the quilt to make it larger, then I will add the border and finish it.  I am undecided whether to add a wine colored border and keep the quilt for my bedroom.  Or add a lavender border and give it to my daughter since she has been asking for a quilt for a long long time!  I will probably give it to her, LOL!

 

Back to Quilting!

Yesterday we drove to Albuquerque to take our grandson so he could go back to California. After several hours of waiting, he was off into the wild blue yonder!
His flight was delayed in taking off because of some mechanical difficulties.
After his plane took off, we drove back to Guadalupita.  On the way, just north of Las Vegas (New Mexico) we saw a lot of smoke.
The fire that is raging in Northern NM is pretty far from where we were but the smoke was everywhere because the winds were blowing out way.
Now that we have no guests, its time to get back to quilting.  So today, have been working on adding 7 more rows to the basket weave quilt that I have been sewing.
As you can see in the pic below, it barely goes over the side of my double bed.

Almost Home!

We had a stopover in Albuquerque to visit my youngest daughter and today we are leaving for Guadalupita on the train!

When Using Hexagon Freezer Paper

This picture shows how I place the hexagon freezer paper shapes and iron them onto the back of the fabric before cutting them apart.

There is about half an inch between each freezer paper piece.  If you place them in this honeycomb configuration, when you cut them apart, you will get a one fourth inch seam allowance all around the hexagon and not waste any fabric.

Trip to Vegas!

Yes, we went to Vegas today! And home in time for Supper!

Las Vegas, New Mexico, USA that is!

95 % of the population of the U.S., maybe the world, do not know that there is a Las Vegas, New Mexico, USA. It has been here way before the usurper in Nevada.

It is on the road known as the Santa Fe Trail and used to house some very famous people in the 1800's and 1900's. If you are ever in the vicinity, just off highway 25, north of Santa Fe, take a tour of old town Las Vegas and some neighboring streets. You will see the Plaza Hotel that used to host all the cattle barons when they were selling their cattle or at the end of a cattle drive. Side streets have beautiful Victorian houses that many barons, cattle and railroad owners used to own in times gone by.

On Grand you can visit the "Rough Riders" museum which is dedicated to the memory and memorabilia of Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Take a road out of town and take a nice hot mineral springs bath. Then, go visit the "Castle". The railroad made this spectacular hotel to house all the employees while they worked the railroad, later it became a college. Why Castle? Because it looks exactly like a fairy tale castle.

Did you know that the famed boxing champion Jack Johnson trained and fought here? Neither did I until I saw an article in the local paper. The Amtrak Railroad Station has some very interesting historical pictures of the late 1800's, or early 1900's.

True, you will not find a single slot machine or roulette wheels here.  But if you take the highway a few miles away from Las Vegas there are the Indian owned and run Casinos.

Well, I guess I am done being the tour guide! LOL!

As I said, we went to Vegas today! We went shopping for those last minute things that are necessary when you go on a trip. We will be leaving Saturday early in the morning.

Any orders placed at my website www.avelisquilts.com will be filled after we get back from California on June 22.

Thanks for your patience!

Keep on quilting!
Aveli