Who am I?

On Sunday, I am off to New Zealand for a week of teaching and three weeks of leading a quilting and textile tour of New Zealand. My bags are packed and I'm ready to go! There will be 16 people joining me. With that many folks, I knew we would need name tags. And no ordinary stick-on tags would do! So, I drew a pattern for my signature tiny tree, paper-pieced mini-quilt with a neck strap that we could use for a name tag. My super creative assistant, Donna, had the great idea to add two pockets, so the name tags would be functional as well as decorative. She also machine embroidered everyone's name on the tags. Aren't they cute! I will put a few goodies in the pockets before I give them to the folks on my trip. Wouldn't these make great name tags for going to a quilt show? Look for my newsletter coming soon for instructions on how to make one for yourself.

The Raffle Quilt is Finished!

The 2011 Hawks Aloft raffle quilt is completely finished. Michele Hymel did the spectacular quilting and Donna Barnitz applied the binding. It looks just beautiful! I hope you can see some of the intricate quilting in this photo. Because of the southwestern design of the quilt we decided not to do our usual feathery quilting and instead did geometric and southwestern style quilting. We debuted the quilt at the Monte Vista Colorado Festival of the Cranes and sold a bunch of raffle tickets. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. If you wish to purchase tickets, please send me a check made out to Hawks Aloft and mail it to me at PO Box 10028, Albuquerque NM 87184. Please be sure to include your name, address and phone number. I will mail you back your filled out ticket stubs. The winning ticket will be drawn at our annual Christmas party in December.

Many times I am inspired to create a quilt by a piece of beautiful fabric. That was the case with this little sailboat quilt, “Sailing Away”. I had a beautiful piece of hand-painted fabric by Mickey Lawler of Skydyes that reminded me of a gorgeous New Mexico sunset, where there is definitely a lack of water. Still, I was inspired to use it as a backdrop for a sailboat. This quilt is featured as a pattern on page 38 of the March/April 2011 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine. So, you can make it too!

Kerrville and Fredericksburg, February 2011

One of my favorite things about quilting is the sisterhood of like-minded women who make up this amazingly supportive community. Some of my best friends in the whole world are those that I met in quilt class. At the Kerrville Quilt Guild, Holly Nelson showed her quilt, Galactic Migration that she started in one of my classes in 2003. Beautiful! Thank, Holly, for sharing.
At the Verein's Country Quilt Guild in Fredericksburg, I was particularly touched by the story behind this quilt, made by Laura Killenwald. Laura was born in Mexico,but moved to Texas when she married. She became a citizen in 2000 and made this quilt to celebrate her new country.
The Verein's Country Quilters make a mean raffle quilt. They don't have tickets yet, but I left my $5 with the program chair, Kate Hunter, who promised to get them for me as soon as they are available. Simply a stunning quilt!
One of the wonderful things about Texas Quilt Guilds is that they welcome other guilds to their meetings to sell raffle tickets for their groups. I left some $$ with this group too.
And, the final stop in Kerrville was to the quilt shop, Creations, owned by Julie Milam and Kathy Thompson. Creations is located in an old Victorian building and each room has a different them. They have GREAT STUFF! Check them out next time you are in the area.

Along the River

Female Merlin. Photo by David Powell.

My favorite time of day to be out along the river is the few hours after dawn, before the human masses take over the day and the wildlife goes into hiding. Last week, when it warmed up (finally!), was particularly eventful. As I walked south along one transect, I saw what appeared to be a Cooper's Hawk eating something. Upon closer approach, I looked up to watch in wonder as a female Merlin dined on a small bird, right over my head. Sadly for me, I was sans camera that day.

Common Merganser image by David Powell.

At dawn, I watched two male Common Mergansers idling along the North Diversion Channel in Albuquerque - spectacular!

Bald Eagle image by Doug Brown.

Along the more remote stretches of the river, I frequently observe Bald Eagles and Red-tailed Hawks that roost overnight in the large trees. At one location, I've observed a black morph red-tail on each and every survey. Amazing!

American Coots in battle. Image by Doug Brown.

Although it might not feel like spring to we humans, for birds it is courting time. Males battle for females. Two male mallards in the main drain were showing off for a female, dipping and diving. She returned the display. Sadly, I didn't get to stay long enough to see which was the victor.

And, lastly, coyotes, beaver and porcupines are among the many mammals that call the bosque home. I am privileged to be able to watch them. It sure makes getting up so early worth it!

Hawks Aloft Raffle Quilt Retreat 2011

It took a team of 13 makers and three dogs 1 and 1/2 days to make the top for this year's raffle quilt. The design is by yours truly and inspired by my new fascination with Navajo rugs. The 13 humans are Donna Barnitz, Ruth Burstrom, Debbie Caffrey, Ed & Mary Chappelle, Steve Elkins, Mike & Michele Hymel, Anita McSorley, Chellye Porter, Lizzie Roberts, and Sam Sanborn and me.
Each year we retreat to the cabin in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico for a weekend of, not relaxation, but . . .

Sweat Shop Central!

In short order, we got down to business working on the center design.

Mike and Ed are the official cutters.

Ed does double duty as a paper remover. The entire quilt is paper foundation pieced (except for the bird's heads that were appliqued by Anita).

Steve and Lizzie make great sewing partners!

All that paper has to go somewhere!

Laney helps hold down the paper while she guards her favorite toy, a pumpkin, that she never leaves out of sight.

Debbie displays the center diamond.

We started on Friday afternoon and by late Saturday the top was stitched. So, we switched from serious sewing mode to New Mexico relaxation mode with a traditional dinner with the traditional pre-dinner drink -margaritas! It was quite the festive evening.

Sunday morning is a time for sharing stories as we sit in front of the windows, drinking coffee and watching the birds outside.
Pogo, who was attending his first quilt retreat, wasn't so sure about all the people and all the activity, so he took to hiding in the closet.

Shoes and jackets in the mud room, outdoor wear abandoned for inside activity.

Sunday morning after coffee was set aside for a hike to the overlook where the snow was only ankle deep.
Here, Chellye and I pose with the two unwilling dogs, Gabby and Laney. There was so much to do and so little time. Why waste it holding still for a photo!
The view from the overlook of Jemez Springs. We look forward to returning for our 2012 retreat. The quilt has now gone home with Michele Hymel, who has a longarm quilting machine and a very talented quilter! We hope to finish all of it in time for the Monte Vista, CO Festival of the Cranes in mid-March. We'll have raffle tickets very soon.

To Market, To Market to buy a . . . lot of great stuff.

One of the great things about going to Quilt Market and Festival is seeing all my quilting buddies. I found Paula Nadelstern showing off some of her newest work.
And, I met Ginny Eckley, who is a master stencil maker and makes the exact right sort of stencils for the resist-type dyeing that I prefer. Check out her website!

One of the really great things about attending Market (the wholesale part of the show) is that you can really spend time looking at all the amazing quilts without having to jostle with all the Festival attendees. They are superb and the competition is stiff. The prize winners won't be announced until Wednesday. I wonder if some of my favorites will be among the winners.

Quadrille - 2010

Here's the newest quilt with flying geese galore, intertwined with a colorful star. The geese were made from a rainbow pack of hand-dyed gradations by Starr Design Fabrics, and the backgrounds were hand-painted by Mickey Lawler of Skydyes. This was a fun quilt to make. Donna B and I worked on it together.

Top Row Retreat

I'll be teaching on a quilting cruise hosted by Stitchin Heaven, with fellow teachers Carol Doak and Eileen Sullivan, in March 2012, with stops in the Carribean. It's a paper foundation piecing cruise! So, instead oh having everyone make three different projects, each of us made a row for "our" cruise project. Mine is the top row! I finished it at our quilt retreat at the cabin.
Our quilting group, Designing Women, had a blast, sewing, eating, and . . . . .
hiking! Three of us brought our fur-kids. This is Mary C and Pogo.
And, Mr. Gab, the most excellent hiker. Hard to photograph though, since he's a dark charcoal gray, hence his full name, Gabbro. It means igneous rock.
This is Donna, who owns Cathy C. She was the newest dog to the group, only having been rescued within the last twelve months.
Miss Elaenia, formerly a puppy mill breeder, came to live with me about 18 months ago. She hikes well, but would prefer to be a couch potato.
At the overlook, looking down into the Jemez Valley, lies this intricately woven piece of wood that suspends a rock above the earth.
Debbie Caffrey is the newest member of our group. She joined in January 2010. She is an outstanding chef! We ate way too much! Good thing we went hiking.
In our group, we do have a few rules. Here, Michele was awared the No Whining button. Guess what she did to earn it! She has to keep it until someone else in the group whines in her presence, AND she has the button in her possession at the time. She might have it a long time. Harriet owned the button for two years before passing it on. I love our retreats!