Sunrise at SAF

How early is it? That's the reflection of the sunrise on the windows of the Santa Fe airport.
The plane is here and looks ready to go ... and so am I.




I hear that it's been raining in Texas--it's a good thing, but I selfishly hope it stops before I pack up some furniture and sone more household items, load them into a truck and make the drive across Texas ... again.



Update ... Apparently the plane is not "ready to go" ... and we're all being reassured that they will be able to reschedule our connections ... anyone want to hang out with me in Dallas if I get stuck there?

- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Santa Fe

Public Art and My Adventures in Santa Fe

Today is the first day that I wasn't running some kind of errand at lunch since I arrived in Santa Fe and started the new job.

I took my camera and played tourist, walking to the Plaza, enjoying the music, chatting with the artists whose carts were set up along the edges. And I took photos of it all, too, with the idea of coming home and blogging about my blissful midday moments.

Instead, I came home and finally dug out the cable to upload all the photos I've taken so far. Most look like white squares. I hope it's a low battery issue or I accidentally changed the settings and that there isn't something wrong with my camera. And so, here is plan B–a photo taken with my iPhone. This sculpture sits in front of one of the State of NM government buildings.

I don't know who the artist is or what meaning is attributed to this piece of public art, but I love him (or maybe, her?)

Sadly my first Santa Fe adventure happened here. On Monday, after feeling lousy all weekend and waking up dizzy and wheezing, I went to urgent care with what I thought was the usual challenge of adjusting to the high altitude here. I thought the doctor would give me an Rx for O2, but instead he told me that my oxygen levels were fine and referred me to the nearest ER for tests to make sure I didn't have a pulmonary embolism. 6 hours later, I was told, no embolism, no infection, no heart problem ... probably just the altitude.

A few days later, I am feeling better and better and thinking that it really was just a matter of altitude adjustment ;-)

It's probably a good thing that my camera isn't working–I might be tempted to share a photo of my bruised wrist, forearms and elbows. Between the nurse on duty and the doctor using ultrasound, they probably made a dozen attempts to get a large needle in one of my veins. They never succeeded, but I am walking around with gruesome proof of their efforts.
 

UPDATE: Yesterday I found the plaque identifying the sculpture.  I couldn't resist taking a photo of the inside/other side of the head.




You can see more of James Tyler's  Brickheads here:

Tyler Sculpture

Will I become another Victim of Santa Fe Style?

This guy caught my eye and completely charmed me as I passed a gallery with him and a few of his friends in the window a couple days ago. But I wondered if bringing him home to the casita was the first step on the path to becoming another victim of Santa Fe style. Today at lunch, I went for a closer look anyway. He's about 18 inches tall, carved from cottonwood by Matthew Yellowman.

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Settling into Santa Fe

It may be a sign that you're a foodie, if a place doesn't feel like home until you've cooked a meal there. These beautiful eggs came from yesterday's trip to the Santa Fe farmer's market. I scrambled one and enjoyed it with some locally made sausage containing green chiles and a latte made from my favorite beans, brought from Texas.

In case you're wondering, after 13 sometimes traumatic hours in the car, the cats and I are all taking it easy this weekend.



(Grace is one on the lumps UNDER the covers.)

- trying to get the hang of BlogPress from my iPhone ... until I have Internet in the casita at Sophie Junction.

Location:Canyon Rd,Santa Fe,United States

I'm preparing to be Enchanted

I'm not sure why  I decided to return a call from a recruiter in New Mexico a couple weeks ago.  But I did.  And after a delightful phone interview with her client, an offer was made and accepted.  And so  ... I will be commuting to Santa Fe, New Mexico this summer.  If you're unfamiliar with the geography, it looks something like this:

 

I keep thinking it's just under 800 miles and was surprised when I uploaded this screen shot that it's actually ONLY 700 miles ;-) 

I'll be driving with the cats and some essentials and then bouncing back and forth between here and there to bring some of the rest of my stuff (or contract with movers) and take care of my apartment here.   

I don't know what this road trip will bring, but, at least, in terms of the weather, it's blue skies ahead.

 

I was a little worried about the weather factor when all those horrible storms were passing through Texas and the rest of the country–somehow the thought of jumping out of the car with with two complaining cats in tow and ducking into a ditch is just a bit too adventurous for me.

  

If all goes well, I will arrive at my new home-away-from-home (casita-away-from-home?) and settle in this weekend.

Send me some good vibes and cross your fingers for me, OK?

Put it on Point

When I was making the Hot-Crossed 9-Patches (HC9P) lotto blocks, I kept thinking about putting them on point ... so I made enough to play with--here's my Baker's dozen.

I really do like this one, both ways.

Check out more design walls links on Judy's Design Wall Monday blog post.

Hot-Crossed 9-Patch Block Tutorial

This is the block I dreamed up for the April Block Lotto.

I couldn't find a reference for this 9-patch variation, so I am calling it, Hot-Crossed 9 Patch. It looks great in a straight set, set on point and set with sashing strips or not. Susan made this great example.

FABRICS 

For each block, you'll need three fabrics:

Background: White solid or white-on-white (WOW) print.

Plaid: Woven or printed plaid. In recognition of Earth day (April 22), I used re-claimed 100% plaid cottons from garments. All the plaid garments I bought were labeled 100% cotton  and are tightly woven and of an appropriate weight for quilting. I found suitable plaids in men’s shirts, swim trunks and some (new from the GAP) PJ pants. I passed on some cute but too-heavy cotton plaids in shorts and too-light ones in lady’s blouses and men’s boxers.

Contrast: a solid of tone-on-tone (TOT) print fabric that compliments and contrasts with your plaid.

MAKING THE BLOCK 

CUT FABRIC:

3-inch squares: 4 from background, 5 from plaid

1 1/2 by 8-inch rectangle: 1 from background

1 1/2 inch by 10-inch rectangle: 2 from background

1-inch by 10 inch rectangles: 2 from contrast

SEW THE BLOCK:

1. Create a 9-patch from the 9 squares.
   
   Measurement check: you should have an 8-inch square.
2. Add the shorter background strip to opposites sides of the 9-patch
3. Add longer background strips to the other 2 sides
   
   Measurement check: you should have a 10-inch square.
   

 

SLICE THE BLOCK

Slice the block, vertically through the center. If your block perfectly measures 10 inches, you can measure 5  from one side.  If not, be sure to halve the center of the squares in the center column of your 9-patch–they should measure 2.5 inches, so you can measure 1.25 inches from the edges of the center squares.

SEW

 Insert one of the contrast strips into the block.

 

REPEAT

Turn the block 90 degrees and repeat, slicing through the center of the block and inserting the other contrast strip.

 

SQUARE UP

Trim the block to 9.5 inches, making sure that the 9 patch is centered in the block.  

Measurement check: If all your cutting and seams are perfect, after trimming, the 9-patch will measure 7.5 inches and the white border around them will measure 1 inch from the seam to the edge.

SOME INSPIRATION

Here are 35 of the blocks made by Béa, Christa, Cyndi, Ginny, Kathy, Kristin, Michelle, Rho, Shelley, Susan, Vivi and me for the block lotto.