May Schnibble for the Parade

Just under the wire, here is my Schnibble for the May Parade.  This month's choice was a quilt called "X-rated" from the book Schnibbles Times Two.  

I used an older French General line called Petite Ecole and Moda Bella solid in Stone.  I left off the border and am going to back and bind the quilt in a deep indigo French General blue.

Can't wait to see the rest of the parade and get caught up on all the Schnibbles from this year during the summer.

Remy's Got a Brand New Box

Busy busy week here so I thought I'd pop in with a Remy photo.


It was way past time for some new work shoes and a pair of summer running-around shoes.

Remy was overjoyed to have a new box.  The Zappos box is the perfect Remy-size.  He says it tastes good too.

Wish you could hear him purring away contently in his new box.

The More You Know: Weather Edition

Spring in the high desert is interesting to say the least.  It may change quicker than Michigan weather.

On Tuesday (May 13th) we had snow flurries all day.  Yep. After weather in the 60s and 70s then it snowed all day.  The snow didn't stick to the ground and it really wasn't that cold, but is sure was entertaining.  The snow then changed to this weird bean-bag-fill shaped frozen precipitation.  It has done this before while I've lived here but I didn't know what it was.  Like a small hail but not icy.  After some research on the Internets, I found out it is called graupel.  From Wikipedia:  Graupel (also called soft hail) is formed in high altitude climates and forms when supercooled water droplets collect and freeze on snowflakes.   The more you know.

Graupel on my Adirondack chair

After working all morning, I watched the grauple from  my sewing room and happily sewed away.

In case you are wondering the current temperature is 68F and is headed up to the 80sF this weekend.  YAY! Crazy weather.

My sewing mojo is running at a high level this week.  I have a million projects I want to work on.   Right now.

I started out with this month's Another Year of Schnibbles project.  The quilt is from Carrie's book Schnibbles Times Two and the quilt is called X Rated.  I picked out some French General charm packs that I had and Moda Bella Solid in Stone.

(I write my own selvedges on solids so I don't forget what color I bought...)












As you can see, Stella decided to "help" with the layout of the rows.  Such a big help.  Remy ran away with a couple of the little pieces and Edgar Poe came in and rolled all over the squares getting cat hair on the light pieces.   We had BIG FUN sewing this quilt together.

 I had the day off yesterday and whipped up this oh-so-cutemous bag.  I was (unsuccessfully) looking for some  French General fabric to use as borders for the Schibbles project and found a small fat quarter pack of the Outfoxed line by Lizzie House.  I have no idea what I had planned for this fabric.  It may have been a have-to-have-because-purple-hedgehogs-y'all purchase.

I found purples for the straps and the lining in my stash.  The pattern is Winslow Market Tote by Pink Chalk Studio (I've had it printed out for ages so I don't know where I originally got it.) and was fun and easy to make. It's the perfect size for a farmer's market bag.  I will definitely make more.

Lastly--a Remy photo for all his fans.  Remy was doing some major lounging on the bed yesterday.

Tourist Season Begins

May is the start of tourism season in Santa Fe. From now through the Fall, artists markets, the Santa Fe Opera season, numerous festivals, and cultural events bring tens of thousands of tourists to town.  The biggest event is the third week in August when 150,000 people come to the Santa Fe Indian Art Market, the largest Native arts market in the world.  Wow! That's a lot of people for a town of approx. 68,000 residents.  I am looking at that with some trepidation let me tell you.  Being new residents to Santa Fe, we are having fun exploring all there is to see and do in town.

Our own little tourist season at Casa Stella Bella Quilts has started this month too.  This past week, E. (Mr. SBQ's son) arrived from Georgia and spent a week site-seeing around town and sampling a lot of wonderful New Mexican food.  I joked that I was going to have E. eat his weight in green chile before he left LOL!  We had breakfast burritos at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market, huevos rancheros at the Burrito Company, fajitas on the Plaza, and green chile cheeseburgers just to name a few examples.  (Good thing we did a lot of walking to and from downtown to wear off all that food LOL!)

My favorite dish is Salvadoran-- steak pupusa and chicken tamale in a banana leaf

We also went to Tune Up Cafe, one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants a short walk from our house. YUM!

Tres leches cake which we started devouring before I remembered to take a photo

Santa Fe is home to about 10 wonderful museums right in town.   We are slowing making our way through them.  On a gorgeous Friday afternoon, we took E. to visit the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture. A short distance from downtown is Museum Hill, where several museums and the botanical garden are grouped together.  This makes a great way to see lots in a day or a few exhibits here and there. The Indian arts museum has an amazing permanent collection of Pueblo Indian pottery and we saw two special exhibits--Native American Portraits (historic photographs including some by Edward Curtis) and Turquoise, Water, Sky (an amazing exhibit of turquoise jewelry). No photographs allowed inside but here's some photos of the sculptures and gardens outside.

Museum of Indian Arts & Culture

I just love these yellow flowering shrubs. They smell wonderful.  It's called Spanish broom and is grown a lot around town.

View from Museum Hill.
















We were sad to see E. go back to Georgia after a fun-filled week.  Hope he can visit again soon.

Time to prepare for our next guests.  This Friday, my parents are coming from Michigan for a two week visit with their travel trailer and their dog Shiloh.  I can't wait!  During their visit, we'll be celebrating my mom's retirement and her birthday weekend too.  I'll post photos of our adventures and hopefully some quilt shop visits (wink!)

Happy Mother's Day

 Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!!

I am celebrating cat-mom day :)