Summertime and Blogging has Fallen by the Wayside

I was doing so well with blogging for a short time and then it turned summer and who know what happened.

The cats have been doing a lot of this with the warming temperatures.

Still Life:  Melted Remy

Looking like "melted" cats on the cool wood and tile floors.

And yes, Remy is a very loooooooong cat.

Here is the short version of what we've been up to this month:

We have been watching the World Cup.

Work at Starbucks has been busy with the tourists and seasonal residents flowing into town.

Saturday farmer's market visits, walks downtown, hiking and being outside as much as possible.

I've been sewing as much as possible on my days off.



Here's my most recent finish.  A just-for-fun quilt.  I bought the fabric for this a year or so ago at Intown Quilters in Atlanta.  I fell in love with Birch Fabrics Scamper line with the raccoons and foxes at the shop and found the gray, blue and white square confetti dot fabric by Michael Miller that matched perfectly.  The pattern is Radio Flyer by Jaybird Quilts and I added some fat quarters from my stash. Photos don't so the fabric justice.  It is much cuter in real life.

This is the second quilt I've made recently that is out-of-my-usual-box.  I hope to get backings for this and the Daydreams quilt on my next visit to ThreadBear fabrics in Las Vegas.

Hope everyone is enjoying these last few days of June.  Didn't this month fly by?!?!

Quilty Daydreams

I will post more about my parents' visit and sightseeing around New Mexico tomorrow.  I just *had* to post this quilt top I finished today because the fabric just makes me happy happy happy.  I think it's all the purple.

As you know, I am a BIG fan of Kate Spain's fabric lines (if you click on the little label link at the end of this blog post, you can see all my posts about her fabrics).  I whipped up this version of Fat Quarter Shop's free pattern Charm Pack Cherry. I just love this pattern--it is fun and quick and makes great use of fabrics.  You can see my first one here.

For this version, I used 2 charm packs of Kate Spain's Daydreams line and Moda Bella Solid in Periwinkle.  This is going to be a bright and cheery summer quilt for my living room chair.  I need to get some binding & backing fabric and Aurifil thread to match the purple soon to get it finished.

Here's a couple of thrown-over-the-coyote-fence shots.


Yes, that is the real blue of the sky today. No need for Instagram filters in New Mexico :)

The invisible plants are growing nicely in my clay pots aren't they?

And here's some shots with Mr. SBQ

as quilt holder.

I finished up a couple of other projects that I'll show in another post.  My quilting assistants were a big help as always.  Do you think Edgar Poe, my quilting assistant, is dreaming of new quilts to sleep on? 

Viva Las Vegas, New Mexico

Between my parents visiting for 11 days and working a lot, I haven't had time to catch up on blog posts.  We all had a wonderful time with my parents and their dog Shiloh visiting.  They enjoyed their time in Santa Fe and we miss them already.

During their visit, my parents got to experience all of Santa Fe's Spring weather:  warm sunny, cool sunny, windy, breezy, really windy, light rain, hard rain, graupel, thunderstorms, and some dramatic cloudy skies.











We took them all over downtown Santa Fe and to our favorite local restaurants, including Whoo's Donuts, which is definitely in my top 15 favorite things about Santa Fe. Maybe in the top 10 because their Boston Cream donuts (top row) are to die for as is their Dulce de Leche (third row).

Now that we are all hungry, let's move on to some sightseeing reports------














One of the nearby towns I have wanted to visit is Las Vegas, NM, located about an hour from Santa Fe on the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  So my parents and I took a day trip to do some sightseeing.  Las Vegas is a great historic downtown with shops, restaurants, museums, and a town plaza.

Las Vegas, NM train depot 

Historic fire station

Historic Kiva Theater

Las Vegas has an amazingly intact historic Fred Harvey hotel right next to the train depot.  It's called the Hotel Casteñada and is being rehabilitated for use as a hotel again.  I can't wait to see the completed project in a year or two.  This photo only shows half of the building, the building is U-shaped with another wing.

Many films and movies were filmed in Las Vegas
including one of my favorites--the Coen brothers movie "No Country for Old Men" at the Plaza Hotel.  











Currently, the TV series "Longmire" is being filmed again in Las Vegas and Santa Fe.  You may recognize this building as the county courthouse in the show, which takes place in Durant, WY (left half of building).  On the right half of the building is ThreadBear Quilt Shop.

Such a bonus to have a wonderful quilt shop in a wonderful historic downtown.  I love the large quilt block in the display windows and their beautiful intact storefront.  

I just loved this shop and hope to return again soon.  They have a good varied selection of fabrics, patterns, & notions; friendly staff; good prices; and a good selection of knitting supplies and yarn too.

Mom and I were lucky to find some older French General lines for projects we are working on.  Mom picked out some French General fabrics for a new project she is working on (a Bunny Hill snowman quilt). And I snagged some sought-after Rouenneries to make a new purse.

More sightseeing on the next post but I'll end this one with a photo of Shiloh.