Trails - Albuquerque

Ready to hit the road, almost.  I just have to fill the cooler in the morning and we're gone.  I know a lot of weavers across the country and it's really fun to get phone calls and emails as everyone is "converging" on Albuquerque.  And, I get to see the painted desert again! Maybe in the rain.

Last night while packing the truck, we had a visitor. She was so beautiful and hung around long enough to let me take her picture.

Trails - Albuquerque

It's really hard to work when the humidity is 85 per cent. I thought I lived in the desert.

Trails - Albuquerque

Down to the last week before leaving for Convergence Albuquerque, things are getting manic around here.

thoughts

I live in the high desert of Southern California. It's probably the only place in Los Angeles County where it snows on a regular basis.  I've lived here about 25 years and for some reason I keep track of the weather; the temperature when I get up, if it's cloudy, raining, foggy, etc.  It's almost the middle of July, Summer in the desert, this afternoon it was 70 and it sprinkled. The weather people say it's our normal monsoon season. We don't have a monsoon season, normal or otherwise, we have a fire season.  Our last rain is in February or so and it doesn't rain again until October or so, that's normal. I've checked my journals and it has rained (sprinkled) the last couple years in the summer but in my opinion, that doesn't make in normal, it makes it weird.  This is a picture off the front of my property, clouds - in July.

My little Palo Verde tree I received for my birthday is blooming. It must be happy.
















I must get back to labeling silk.

Sewing

I have been hornswagled by a project that the instructions claim a 9 year old boy made in 6 hours.  I will carry my old backpack and carry less stuff.  On to the next project, not enough time to worry about it.

Sewing

I plan on backpacking to see the Twin Lion Rocks at Bandelier National Park after Convergence. It's an 8 mile hike in and I seriously doubt I can walk 16 miles and see everything in one day, so I plan on staying a couple days. I'm making a light weight backpack so I can carry more "stuff".

The Start of the Day

The directions state it's an easy project, completed by a 9 year old in 6 hours. HA! I almost got the straps finished in 8 hours yesterday.

Days End

The directions call for the ends of the padded portion of the straps to be glued closed. Glue and fabric in the same sentence puts shivers up my spine, so I will sew them shut today. Then I will start day 2 of the 6 hour project.  I don't think I will be trying out for Project Runway.

Gardening

My first squash blossom, I think I will stuff it for breakfast in the morning.

Russian River Coyote Mint

Things are starting to come up in the garden along with the weeds.

July 4

Today is Gary Gunther's birthday. I made him chocolate cake with ice cream.

Embroidery

I have always embroidered. It is very relaxing to hear the sound of the thread pulling through the cloth and watch the little lines getting longer. Embroidery is my spare time hobby. Last year at Fiber Fiesta, I finished a project and didn't bring another so I looked around the booths and found "Bird Brain Designs" www.BirdBrainDesigns.net. What a hoot. I have been working on this for almost a year, the embroidery is finished and I decided to make a pillow out of it.

The frame and back of the pillow is a batik of cats.

I was working on this project at the Reno Show last week and was told by some of the quilters there that I couldn't quilt without a frame and basting. I have always done this type of embroidery and quilting without a frame and since they were standing there watching me, I really had to keep my mouth shut.
I do really like the 1/4" masking tape.