Saturday Stuff

It was one of those gray, cold, windy mornings that make you want to stay under the covers a while longer ... which I did.  But eventually I did get up and about and out of the house, headed to the Farmer's Market at the Railyard.

It was still dry outside when I arrived, but the sky looked ominous.

I was surprised to see that there were still vendors outside.

Most of these booths were filled with natural holiday decorations–wreaths and swags made from evergreens and/or dried chiles, dried sage fashioned into animals, wreaths, smudge sticks ... and a ranch selling meat (with a barbecue going).   It was a bit more lively inside and soon after I arrived became as crowded as the Farmer's market outside is during harvest season.




My little sleep-in made me late enough to miss the shiitake mushrooms I planned to pick up from one of the mushroom vendors–I settled for some oyster mushrooms and now just need a plan for them–but it was otherwise a successful trip.

I walked back to my car in the rain.  As I drove across town, the rain turned to (tiny) hail and then to sleet.  Just as I was pulling into the driveway, there was snow coming down.


And then it was coming down harder. And it started sticking. Soon, the view from my desk looked like this.

I feel like I went through almost all the phases of Winter weather in about an hour ... except for the one where the sky is blue, the sun is shining and the air is crisp and calm.  If the forecasters are correct, the sun will be back in full force on Wednesday.

In the meantime, it might be a good time to try snow-dying ...

Reminder:

If you are catching up on blogs this weekend and missed my post about my entry into the Everything Old is New Again block design challenge ... I would appreciate your vote (you must have a Facebook account to participate).  Here's the block and the link to take you to the challenge/voting page.



Vote here for your favorite

Good morning SNOW!

The weather forcast said colder temps (warming up tomorrow), with the possibility of snow on the high mountains.  Santa Fe isn't that high ... but I woke up to this.

View of the Arroyo from the studio

I guess it was a little premature when I turned off the radiant heat system earlier this week ... this morning all the tile and concrete (in the studio) floors in the house feel like ice.  Good thing I haven't yet packed away all my winter clothes–it's a day for a sweaters, corduroys and Uggs. 

Spring Arrives in an Instant

It seems no matter where I have lived, when Spring arrives, it does so in an instant, like someone has flipped a switch somewhere and suddenly everything starts turning green and growing.  Despite my allergies to just about everything around here, I had to be outside in it–it was worth it ... though I am paying for it today (sniffle, sniffle, sneeze).

Yesterday, I enjoyed an afternoon coffee break on the roof deck ... and was surprised and a little startled when I noticed the snow-capped mountains in the distance ... apparently all that snow doesn't melt in an instant :-)

Adventures of Outdoor Quilt Photography

There's a new playground in my neighborhood and lately, as I drive by, I keep thinking of taking my finished charity kid's quilt there for it's closeup. See that rope/climbing structure? I thought I'd find a way to place/hang the quilt on that.

I brought clips and pins, but nothing worked.

The wind picked up so throwing it over the top of the monkey bars turned out to be similarly unsuccessful. 

The quilt seemed happiest (and least likely to blow away) on a picnic table or bench. 

I'm really happy with my choice of the skinny red binding.   For those who like to see quilts flat and square, here it is, pinned to the design wall.

Can I get a Whoop whoop, for at least trying to take photos on a windy morning at the playground?

I'm also joining the lists for:

Richard and Tanya's Link a Finish Friday
Fort Worth Fabric's Fabric Frenzy Friday
QuiltShopGal's Creative Goodness Linky Party
Simply Pieced's TGIFF

And how about a couple more photos of my playground photography adventure and some signs of spring around the neighborhood?

Local Politics

I blogged about this sculpture not long after moving to Santa Fe.  Now it is the subject of some local politics.

The New Mexico State Land Office has a new Land Commissioner and he plans to remove the Brickhead: Hope, a sculpture created by James Tyler, and replace it with an oil pump jack to acknowledge the revenues generated by oil and gas royalties on leases of state land.

The Land Office building is located near the center of Santa Fe, a short walk from the Plaza. In this historic area, an oil pump would seem to be so incongruous with the art and architecture here.  Why not commission some public art that pays homage to Big Oil instead?

It is apparently not the first time an oil pump jack will appear on the site ... and it was quite controversial the first time around, too.

You can read more about it here: Sculpture Debate Echos 1979 Pump Jack Controversy

I wonder if the Land Commissioner is doing away with the art inside the walls as well?  A couple years ago, the halls inside were covered with wonderful photographs of state lands (most do NOT include oil well imagery, but rely on pastoral images of lands leased for grazing and other purposes). There is also a gallery with rotating art by New Mexican artists in the lobby of the building.  It will be interesting to see if that program continues during Commissioner Dunn's reign.

Merry Christmas

It's Beginning to Look Like ...

Today was a cold and rainy day, but earlier this week, on a more pleasant day, I snapped some photos of the preparations for the holidays around the Santa Fe Plaza.

The dog sculptures outside the Pop Gallery were wearing new festive ribbons.

The decorations here are a mix of traditional, commercial and uniquely New Mexico style.

The rain falling here translates to snow in the mountains ... and a hint that we may have a frosting of the white stuff at lower elevations soon.

Life Happens

Put a cup of coffee in that guy's hand and bundle him up in a winter coat and you have a visual of me, early Tuesday morning.

I got to work early, parked in the garage and decided to go pick up a breakfast burrito and a latté.  The coffee shop is across the street and around the corner from the office.  On my way back, even though there wasn't much traffic, I waited for the pedestrian signal to turn to WALK.  It didn't matter ... a young woman came zipping around the corner so fast that I didn't see her until just before her fender crashed into me. 

A man driving on the other side of the street stopped and helped me get up off the pavement–I was hurting so much, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to move.  I watched the driver who hit me start to leave the scene, then after the witness stopped to help me, decided to stop ... and plead with me not to call the police.  She said she was illegally in the country ... though later, I realized that probably isn't true, since she works for a large Santa Fe business. There's no doubt that she turned her big puppy dog eyes on the Santa Fe policeman who made the report and gave her a ticket for nothing more than something like, "distracted driving." 

As fate would happen, she works in the same office building as I do–for the company that manages the building.  I was too dazed and in pain to recognize her at first, but I see her every day. At work she is ALWAYS talking on her cell-phone. I really do mean ALWAYS.  When she is working (she cleans the public areas), she is ALWAYS loudly talking and laughing on her phone.  When she is supposed to be working, she is often sitting on the bench in the elevator lobby, still ALWAYS talking and laughing to someone on her cell phone–loud enough that you can hear her on the other side of the wall, behind closed doors. 

As the story of my accident spread through the office, I found she has had several near misses with others (in their cars) ... and she was ALWAYS ON HER CELLPHONE.  Even if I didn't see her face before she sent me flying, I have no doubt that it wasn't the sun in her eyes as she claimed, but that SHE WAS ON HER CELLPHONE when she didn't stop and turned on red and hit me.

I was not-exactly treated by EMTs on the scene--they said something submissive, like "if you have broken ribs, there's nothing that you can do about them, " stuck a piece of gauze on my now skinless knee (without even cleaning it!) and sent me on my way.  I wanted to believe they were right and I was only feeling muscle soreness, but my ribs are so tender now that I can feel every breath and I live in fear of a cough or a sneeze.  

Getting into and out of bed, a chair or the car is an excruciating experience ... I walk at a snail's pace, because it is as fast as I can go now. Everything from the neck down hurts ... and the cell-phone twit continues to happily laugh and talk on her cell phone, completely unaffected by the havoc she's caused in my life. 

Today I looked at the blocks on my design wall and realized that I cannot raise my arm high enough to take down the blocks in the top two rows, even if I thought I could sit down and sew them together.  On Monday, I brought home a quilt that has been long-arm quilted, but I haven't done anything with it, because I can't even pick it up and carry it into the studio.   I made some sample blocks for the December Block Lotto last weekend–the sneak peek should go out on Sunday–but I don't know if I can sit at the desk long enough to put together the block directions.   I had plans to go big with holiday decorations this year, but it seems unlikely that I will be able to make that happen. 

I am glad to be alive, but so frustrated by all the pain and all the limitations ... and the knowledge that the older I am the longer it takes to recover from any injury.

Good Morning

My cat Johnny insists it's not yet too cold to go out on the roof deck and surveil the neighborhood while the sun rises.   After he woke me up to remind me it was time to go out this morning, I joined him.

If weather forecasts are right, tomorrow morning, the mountains in the distance will be covered with snow and we may have a few inches here, too ... maybe enough for Johnny to decide he doesn't need to go outside in the morning? 

Santa Fe Plaza - Then and Now

I happened to have my camera with me when I saw this photo, captioned, "People Sitting on the Plaza, Santa Fe - 1912." It was decorating the hallway of an office building.



I love the hats that some of the ladies (and men) were wearing.

These days, it looks much the same, though it's clear that Fall is here and most of the tourists have gone home.



Along with the leaves, most of the tourists, musicians, artists and food vendors have gone ... though not all. Even on a cool day (Monday, before it was really cold), the sun was shining and some people (including me) were out and about and enjoying it.

     

     

Quilters, the Musical

Have you seen the play, Quilters?  It's a musical in which each scene is named for a quilt block.  It is based on a book, first published in 1977, The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art, an Oral History

I saw the play performed, probably a decade ago in Michigan, and so when a message went out to the guild asking for volunteers to make blocks, I said yes ... and then I realized just how long it's been since I made something as fussy as a lone star block.

The larger 18 inch block is used on it's own in a scene; the smaller 12 inch version becomes part of the quilt that is revealed at the end. In the performance I attended in Michigan, the finale quilt was made from huge blocks and the giant quilt on the stage made such a big impact ... but I'm guessing that, in this effort, someone wants a functional quilt for their bed when the play is done ... which makes me feel a little sad about the mis-matched seams in my little lone star. It has been too long since I made any of these and I guess I'm rusty.

Quilters opens at the end of the month at the Santa Fe Playhouse.

Update

I just learned that the reason for making smaller blocks for a bed-size quilt for the final scene is that it will then be used as a raffle quilt for the Santa Fe Playhouse. 

Moonlight

I need to learn more about night photography ... but I couldn't resist TRYING to capture last night's super moon and my view of it, looking huge and bright, above the clouds over the distant mountains.

In Other News ... Snow? Really?

I woke up to ice on the deck and this forecast:

I expected snow on the mountains, but theres a 50-50 chance it will snow here today.   

I no longer feel bad about putting off gardening tasks.  Today I am putting off anything that requires going outside and trying to convince Johnny Be Good that he really doesn't want to go out either. 

Who Needs an Alarm Clock?

A beautiful sunrise will motivate me to get out of bed and enjoy it more than an alarm clock ever does. Today's was especially brilliant. I was up earlier than ever, and ran downstairs to grab my camera to take some photos before the colors dissolved into daylight.

While standing on the frosty deck, barefoot in my pajamas, trying to capture those brilliant colors and layers, a flock of birds circling to the north caught my eye. Every time I tried to capture them in a photo, they changed direction.

I couldn't figure out what was going on until they dropped from the sky and I zoomed in to find them taking a break on a wire.

It's Still Snowing ... I'm Still Quilting

A new storm blew in last night and the big fat snowflakes are going to continue to fall for a while.

And I'm still quilting the Holiday Flannel Stripes with some loopy texture. Linking this simple example to Leah's FMQ Friday.

The cats have been hanging out with me, each in their own way.

Johnny wants a quilt that stops moving around as I quilt it, so he can settle in for a nap. 

Grace Hopper thinks I ought to stop and go upstairs with her and provide her with a warm lap–the studio is cold today as the temps outside drop again. 

Somehow, I have managed to finish the center of the quilt ... and now, onto the borders. 

I know both cats will be happy when I'm sitting in a comfortable chair with the quilt on my lap, stitching down the binding.  Me, too.

Updating this post with a link back to the Year of Lovely Finishes mid-month check-in. 

Two Days Later

That first frosting of snow has turned into a real winter storm.   Under it's influence, I pulled out some flannels and started making a quick, snugly quilt ... which I cannot share with you for at least a week because I'm using the December Block Lotto pattern in it's design.  (Any sneak peekers may get a sneak peek email with my progress soon ;-)


The dramatic drop in temps also inspired me to knit a warm wool hat. I've been knitting much longer than I've been a quilter, but this one is knit using a new-to-me technique and I'm a little intimidated. Sometimes I can be a bit of a scaredy cat.

It will be my slow stitch Sunday project today.