Change of Plans

Home remodeling gone wrong! Notice the cereal boxes in photo number one.
Then look carefully behind the table toward the pantry and notice the two guys standing there. One is my plumber; the other his assistant. This sad little tale of woe began some 23 years ago when I purchased a home from AMREP, a local developer. Well, seems that this company was known for affordable pricing, which they achieved through the use of substandard materials! In this case, plumbing constructed from polybutylene pipes. As the house aged, first one leak and then another appeared, first in the walls, then beneath the floors, and finally in an area that wasn't accessible. My plumber, Earl (who is fabulous beyond belief!), had already installed a flow restricter to ease the pressure on my woefully inadequate pipes, but the leaks continued unabated. After the last adventure, Earl replaced the faulty pipes with copper, from beneath the slab to up through the ceiling to service the kitchen and laundry, hence photo number one.

Moving on to photo number two, however, what didn't get done last time was to change the pipes in the bathrooms at the other end of the house. Well, this week, while I was conducting raptor surveys at the Armendaris Ranch, my new housesitter and his father called to leave a message! Hmmm! I knew that didn't mean good news. Yep! It happened again, this time the cold water pipe into the bathroom, behind the wall, behind the vanity, and behind the sink. It was a fast leak this time, and by the time it was discovered some 50-100 gallons of water oozed from between the walls into my hallway, seeping into my bedroom, the guest bedroom, and soaking my sewing room. The best news about all of this is that Earl, being the most wonderful plumber in the world, answered when I called from T or C, New Mexico, trucked on over to my house, removed the hidden key because he already knew where it lived, and he fixed the leak before I ever got home! He left his bill on the counter. Now, how many plumbers to you know that would do that for you?

So, leak fixed and all is well. Except, what I didn't notice when I arrived home about 10 p.m. was that the sewing room was thoroughly drenched. In fact, the carpet was still squishy this afternoon. So, my partner in quilting, and instigator of good ideas, Donna, suggested that she and I just remove all that carpeting -- today! And sew we did, most of it by noon. Being of the creative sort, our minds were as busy as our hands as we worked hard removing carpet, carpet tacking strips, and ruining our cuticles. Check out the fabric stash carefully tossed anon into the guest bedroom. It didn't look so big when it was all stacked, color coordinated, on the shelves.

Have you heard of creative concrete floor painting? Well, we looked it up on Google today, and decided that it will be just the thing for our remodel job. Donna's daughter, Katy, also of an artistic bent, is going to make the sewing room her final art project for her senior class. I aspire to lower heights, and plan to paint the hallway floor.

What began as an aquatic atrocity will, we hope, become a delightful decor! Katy is even going to teach me to splatter paint. Stay tuned for the final photos!

The Hawks Aloft 2008 Raffle Quilt

'Twas a dedicated crew of eleven that met at Ed and Mary's for our 15th annual Hawks Aloft quilt retreat. This is probably the most traditional of all the quilts we have made to date. The quilt design was inspired by the center motif. I made it during the Japanese Katazome stencil dyeing class that I took from Karen Miller in October. It is a traditional Japanese crest with three cranes. The center was pre-stitched before the big day, so we would have a better chance of finishing, and finish we did - - in record time. Anita stitched the last border on just before dinner.

Thanks to Ed and Mary Chappelle for letting us use their lovely home with the wonderful view of Sandia Peak. Thanks too, to all the quilters who stitched throughout the day (from L to R):
Allison Schacht, Joan Hellquist, Sam Sanborn, Patty Phillips, Ed Chappelle, Steve Elkins, Mary Chappelle, Ruth Burstrom, Yours Truly, and Anita McSorley. Not shown is Pat Folsom, who had to leave early.

I am always amazed at how well these quilts come together. All are stitched on paper foundations that are prepared ahead of time. Now, the interesting part comes. This coming weekend, Patty and I will layer the quilt and she will take it home to do the anchor quilting, the outer border, and the binding. After that, Anita, Mary and I will take turns with the free-motion quilting. My good friend, and partner in quilting, Donna, has some strong views on how the quilting should be done, so I hope that she will volunteer to stitch her idea into place.

Raffle tickets should be available in March 2008. The quilt will debut at Festival of the Cranes in Monte Vista, Colorado, March 7-9, 2008. Join us there for a wonderful weekend. Hawks Aloft will have a large booth with many of our non-releasable educational raptors, and I, along with our biologists, will be leading raptor tours! Besides, there is the fabulous restaurant that simply is too good to pass up, Hunan Chinese Restaurant.

Ice Flow

Photograph by Steve Elkins

This year, my friend, Steve, resolved to take one photograph each day of the year. He has been publishing them on his website
each day, even on days when he has been sick in bed. Check them out. I think you will find inspiration, and a very talented photographer.

San Lorenzo Keyhole in Rock

The dog and I had climbed high onto the canyon side. When we stopped to rest and admire the view, we discovered the hole in the rock with the sun's rays highlighting the grasses.

San Lorenzo Canyon

Photograph by Steve Elkins

It was a cool Sunday afternoon in more ways than one. On this day, I joined my friend, Steve Elkins, and others to explore this little known canyon located in the hills north of Socorro, New Mexico, and adjacent to the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. Starkly beautiful rock formations towered overhead as we drove into the box canyon. Along the north side of the canyon we located a small cave, which bore evidence of former human occupation in chert flakes and chalcedony. Within the canyon, a veritable maze of small passageways existed, one of which lead to a shaded alcove with a small waterfall in which the surface was frozen on the north facing wall. However, beneath the waterfall, one could see the still liquid water dripping and flowing beneath the surface of the ice. Steve took a video of this as well as another of water running beneath the frozen surface of a tiny streamlet. Check his videos out on his website.

Ultimate Recycling

This raincoat was made by my partner in quilting, Donna Barnitz, for the 2007 Santa Fe Recycle Fashion Show. It is a modified Simplicity pattern, stitched from 8 - 50 lb Purina Dog Food bags and one yellow Ol' Roy bag. The tarp-like "fabric" is perfect for inclement weather. A matching umbrella completes the ensemble. Modeled by Donna's beautiful daughter, Katy, it was the First Place winner! Way to go, Donna! The photos were taken by Paula Scott.

Merry Christmas Cabin!

Photographs by Steve Elkins

Each year, we gift our magical cabin in the woods during the holiday season. This season, my gift to the cabin was an amazing set of prayer flags that I found at the little shop in Jemez Springs, "Weekends". Unlike the traditional prayer flags, these over-sized, batik rayon flags offer special southwestern prayers, as befits our region. We hung them up along the front entry porch, where their special magic will be released into the majestic Jemez Mountains with each passing breeze.

Road Block

No, these are not raptors! Along with my survey partner, Chuck, I was back on the Armendaris Ranch to begin the winter season of roadside raptor surveys. One of the largest ranches in New Mexico, this is one of three New Mexico ranches owned by Ted Turner. It is also the release site for fledgling Aplomado Falcons, an endangered species, and subject of intense scrutiny. Will the tiny falcon survive in the harsh climate of the Journada del Muerto? Our job, at Hawks Aloft, is to conduct surveys to assess raptor populations in this desert grassland and, over time, determine change in numbers or in species composition. This is the first winter of surveys, and it is too early yet to report any hard numbers.

On this ranch, the primary grazer besides pronghorn antelope and the exotic oryx, are bison. They run about 1100 head on the vast expanses of grassland mixed with yucca and other shrubs. The ranch is so large that we often see no evidence of the large herbivore. However, this was not the case for the December survey. Fortunately, the herd was quite cooperative and briefly posed for photos. The first image gives one an indication of the immense size of the ranch.

The Armendaris is managed for wildlife as well as bison, and supports impressive numbers of birds, mammals, and reptiles. In fact, during the December survey, we observed no less than 17 Loggerhead Shrikes, a species of high conservation concern due to precipitous declines in its total population size. We also observed 4 Prairie Falcons, another bird that is seldom seen. Both are indicators of the quality of the habitat present and the food resources available for wildlife.

I feel fortunate to be able to spend time in such a beautiful location, far from the frantic pace of life in the city.

Bohin Quilt Marking Tool

Simply the coolest, greatest, most awesome new item found at International Quilt Festival in Houston. This mechanical quilt marking pencil by Bohin, a French Company, will revolutionize marking tools. My friend, Mary C., and I came upon their small booth because she was looking for hand applique needles for a class. Bohin is a noted needle maker. While we were there, we watched a demonstration of the new marking pencil. The 'leads', which are actually colored chalk, come in yellow, gray, and white. They are interchangeable, just like a mechanical pencil. I used them to mark this block on the Hawks Aloft raffle quilt, which will be awarded on Dec. 8, tomorrow evening. The lines are clear, easy to see when stitching, and not messy. Like other mechanical pencils there is uniformity in width. In the above photo, I did not remove the marking so that you could see just how wonderfully well it works. Check it out yourself. The pencil comes with white chalk, but you can buy refills. I have not tried the other colors yet, but the white showed well on this busy red print. As I understand it from the company you can remove one chalk and replace it with another, while still saving the first chalk for another use. It retails for about $13.00.