Land of Enchantment

As much as I will always be a Texas girl, I have to admit that New Mexico has a special place in my heart. It's where DH and I began our journey as a married couple. It's where our son was born. It's where the good Lord has set us for the second time. It's home.

The sunsets and sunrises are spectacular on a regular basis. 

The food is addictive and don't even get me started on how much I love fresh green chile! 

New Mexico has its own unique southwestern culture. There is a rich history here and it is reflected in the jewelry, fashion, architecture, fabrics, people, and landscape.

I'd been on the lookout for a quilt pattern that represented the Land of Enchantment and in 2014 I stumbled upon exactly what I was looking for while browsing through Flickr:

I contacted the lady who posted it and she was kind enough to  direct me to the designer who is from Switzerland, of all places!

Desert Winds

I planned to use a lot of Michele Watts' prints. She's is a local designer who had a few lines with Moda and I just happened to have some yardage in my stash.

I finally started this one in May of last year. Yes, I'd had this project planned for 12 years. It took a while since it's made of 2 1/2" squares and 80 x 98.

Once I started,  I was determined to stay the course. I didn't have quite enough of all the original prints so I scattered some Grunge fabrics throughout which appeals to my scrappy heart.

I ended up extending the patchwork border one more row

Once I had it pieced, I went in search of a backing. I didn't have anything in my stash that I thought would work. The minute I saw this print, I couldn't hit buy fast enough - it's perfect!

Then Sandy worked her magic

And I spent 4 weeks binding it. 

But it's now complete!

And apparently I need to pay more attention when I'm piecing! Good gravy!! I didn't even notice I had turned a block! I think I need to take a photo of every quilt top before it's quilted and double check for errors. I think those oopsies are charming in vintage quilts, but it's very obvious in this design. I keep wondering if I could take the quilting out of that one block and fix it. Have any of ya'll done that before? 

The wind DOES blow a lot here in the spring and those blocks could be construed as tumbleweeds and it just blew over.

Sigh. Maybe I can just leave it displayed like this and call it art. 🙃

Phase 1 of the Big Fence Project

 DH requested my assistance last Friday.

We've been planning to re-fence our property since we first moved here 18 months ago and we're finally getting started. The existing fence is a little shoddy and not on the property line and DH needs gates that can be opened when he's horseback.

Fencing 164 acres in the mountains is not a project for the weak of heart...or for old folks, and we figured we weren't getting any younger so we had better get crackin.

We haven't done much thumb twiddling since we moved here and I keep having to remind DH of all the projects we've already tackled because he thinks we haven't done much. 😂

Phase one was for DH to cut and set H braces and hang a gate and that's what we worked on Friday.

I mostly handed DH tools and supported and moved pipe and manned and filled the watering can to extinguish sparks while DH worked.

It was such a pretty day, but we were plumb tuckered out by the time we finished and came in for dinner at 3. I just threw burgers and corn on the cob on the grill and it was all I could do to feed myself. I was so tired that it was an effort to lift my corn. 😂 But H braces and gate #1 are complete

DH tweaked his back earlier in the week shoeing a horse, but it hasn't slowed him down much although he has trouble unlacing his shoes in the evening...good thing he's got an in-house shoe taker off-er. 😉

Pink is Perfect Quilt

 This is a pretty special quilt because little miss E was a very important part of making it.

I don't know if she'll grow up to be a quilter, but she'll be able to say that she made her 1st quilt at 4 years old. 

She had requested a pink quilt. I asked her if she was sure she wanted a pink one, she replied, "Yes, please, because pink is perfect!" - thus the quilt name. 😉  I let her go through my bin of pink fabrics and select which ones she wanted to include and we ended up with "all the pinks!" 

We looked at a few patterns and she chose this one...Plan C

 from this book

I made all the flying geese ahead of time in order to simplify our day when she came back

We also chose to make it a little bigger since the original was just 32 x 32. I showed her how to lay everything out and let the designer choose where each fabric went. During our time together she piped up, " It's like a puzzle, Gram!" 

It is indeed, sweet girl.

I let her sit on my lap and showed her how to feed the fabric through the machine while I worked the foot pedal. 

Her first 4-patches

Piano key border for the win!

She chose a pink Minky (the only choice according to her. 😆) for the backing

Jackie and Sandy used this fun design called Timeless Hearts for the quilting

And this pink print was selected for the binding

Once I got it bound, and created a label that has both of our names on it, it was wrapped and will soon be gifted to the newest little quilter in the family. It finishes at 45"x45". Not a great shot of the quilt, but I couldn't bring myself to delete the mountains. 😉

This is a more accurate dipiction of the colors

She's already asking about making the next one so there's hope...

At least until Pap came in and asked if she wanted to help him feed horses. 😂

Orange Pineapple Fluff

 I've been making Cherry Salad for close to 40 years and seeing as it is always requested, I have made it A LOT.

Then, not too long ago, I ran across a similar recipe for this Orange Pineapple Fluff and I thought it looked promising.

I will link to it HERE, but there were so many ads that I had a hard time reading through the post and it was awfully frustrating.

I made this as a side dish for Easter and we really liked it although I should have made it the night before because it set up much better the next day.

Orange Pineapple Fluff

3 oz instant vanilla pudding

1 C milk

15 oz can mandarin oranges, drained

20 oz can crushed pineapple, drained

* 1 can fruit cocktail, drained (my addition)

3 oz box of orange jello

1 8 oz Cool Whip

*Drain oranges, pineapple & fruit cocktail. Set aside several orange slices for garnish. In a large mixing bowl, mix milk and pudding mix. Fold in Cool Whip and jello powder. Fold in well- drained fruit. Place reserved orange slices on top. Cover. Chill overnight.

DH left the day after Easter and I finished up the leftovers. I thought it was better the next day and I stirred in some well-drained fruit cocktail which made it even yummier and more like Cherry Salad.

Cherry salad will never be replaced, but Orange Pineapple Fluff is a welcome new addition to my side-dish collection.