Claret Cup Cactus

Claret Cup cactus close-up. These bloom in April and they are such beautiful flowers amongst the prickly cactus thorns. I saw Cat Patches had a red-themed photo finish linky, so this is my favorite red photo.

Pin It Now!

I'm So Excited, I Won!

I was checking my email and I found out I won a yard of green backing fabric from Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting. Marica first asked for ideas for naming for the green quilt she made. I came up with the name, Emerald City, as it looked like cities seen from the air and because the centers reminded me of emeralds. Then once she received quite a few name ideas she asked for us to vote on the name we liked the best. I still liked Emerald City the best and voted for it. Apparently Emerald City and Evergreen Swirls also got a lot of votes, so Marcia will combine those 2 names. She said she would randomly choose a winner and I was the lucky one who won the fabric backing.
My 4-year old grandson got a new bed and needed a quilt for it. I had emailed my daughter a few photos of quilts for my grandson to choose from and one of them was a Chinese Lantern quilt. He asked my daughter what a lantern was and when she said it was a light, that was the one he chose for me to make. He has been attracted to lights of all kinds, like a moth-to-a-flame, since he was about a year old. So winning this fabric was also perfect timing as I recently finished this quilt top for my grandson who had requested a green quilt, his favorite color.
*Update: I didn't make this as a quilt-as-you-go after all. I also used the green fabric I won on another quilt back instead.

Chinese Lantern quilt top laid out on my "design floor" in 3 vertical sections. I was thinking about quilting this in 3 sections in a quilt-as-you-go quilt.

Pin It Now!

Quilt Show Photos

Today was the annual local outdoor quilt show. There's always a breeze blowing and the sky is blue. I took photos of quilts at the show that I hadn't seen before.

This is my friend Tara's quilt. To see the whole show of quilt photos go to my Webshots album.

Pin It Now!

Cherry & Lime Bags

I made 2 drawstring bags out of the leftover fabric that I had from making this blouse. Each bag has a different lining.

Pin It Now!

Our Yucca Has Flowered

One of our yuccas started getting a flower, so I took a photo of it. These grow fast too. The Yucca flower is the state flower here in New Mexico. The flower kind of looks like a huge asparagus growing in this stage.

A few days later the flower started opening.

The flower is fully opened now. The flower will stay like this for a short while and then it's downhill from there as it will dry up and die. There are several yucca's flowering this spring around here. This is the first flower we've had on our yucca in the 10 years we've been in this house.

Pin It Now!

Another Collapsible Thread Catcher

Last month I showed my applique group the collapsible thread catcher I made. They wanted to make one too, so I taught the group how to make one. This is the one I made while I demonstrated the steps involved. For this one I sewed strips onto a muslin foundation and used it as my fabric.

Since the fabric strips I used were sewn on a diagonal, you can see the fabrics on this side of the thread catcher. (That black fabric was a scrap of some paint stick rubbings I had leftover from another project). I also used a metal ring on this one instead of a wooden embroidery hoop. It is the kind of metal ring typically used for macrame (I used to macrame back in the 70's...am I dating myself?)

This is the same thread catcher that I turned so you can see the other side.

Looking down into the thread catcher you can see the other fabrics that didn't end up on the outside of the thread catcher.

In it's collapsible position.

Pin It Now!

New Mexico Quilt

I finished this New Mexico quilt, which I started several months ago. I did a lot of quilting on it and each section is quilted differently. I like how black makes the bright colors pop. The orange, green and purple fabrics are actually Southwest fabrics, but read as solid from a distance. This is an adaptation of a Michelle Watts pattern, which she calls Midnight in Santa Fe.

Pin It Now!