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 that one just tumbled in a different direction.

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

New Project: Land of Enchantment

 Last week I was searcbing through project totes when I came across the contents in this one and it said it was ready to become a quilt. And yes, if you're not a quilter, I know that you are making a call to have me evaluated. 😉 I printed the pattern out probably 10+ years ago and I paired it with this fabric from Michelle Watts, a local quilt designer. Someone will ask but, it was a free pattern and I don't remember where it came from. The bottom of the page says Quiltfox Design. I'm sorry I don't have more information.

I added the smokey black fabric and a Toasted Marshmellow Grunge for the background.

And then I stuck it in a bin. The pattern is made up of hsts...lots of them and it does give the option of cutting them from strips, but it doesn't give you the number of strips and the combination of hsts are incorrect and incomplete so I had to refigure what was needed.

Still, I was in the mood to just run a lot of fabric under my needle and this fit the bill...once I made the corrections and filled in the blanks.

I used the essential triangle ruler to cut the hsts, but I was able to decreased my strip width from what the pattern called for to end up with the required size.

I am still digging through my stash in search of a few coordinating fabrics because although I think I have enough fabric, I also think I'd like to make it a little scrappier, but hsts are piling up.

I'm calling this one Land of Enchantment since we live in NM and  we recently caught 2" of rain so it's green and pretty darn enchanting here today.

Green Chile Season

This arid desert is not a friendly environment for growing flower gardens or bringing home lush bedding plants from the nursery and expecting them to flourish. But pecans and green chile are abundantly grown and prolific producers here and September is 'fill your deep freeze with chile' season. New Mexico is synonymous with green chile and everywhere you look, there are stands set up for roasting this New Mexico staple.

                         

The canned variety pales in comparison. While our girl was home, she sent out a post letting co-workers know that she was in the green chile capitol if someone wanted her to bring some back. And to say they took her up on her offer was an understatement.

 Yep. That's 7 bushels of roasted green chile in my kitchen. 7 bushels equals 140#. Some folks wanted 1/3. Some wanted 1/2. And some wanted a whole bushel. So we commenced to divvying up the orders and setting the bags of hot green chile on the kitchen counter:

                           

filling the other side:

                            

Continuing onto the island:

                            

And the stove:

                            

And spilling into the laundry room.

                             

The house smelled heavenly. There is a very distinct aroma to good green chile. We let the bags cool before sealing them and loading them into the deep freeze. The next morning we packed them into a humongous cooler and sent our girl on her way to bring green chile happiness to her coworkers.

Now I need to go back for my bushel!

                                   

Hound Dog Invasion

Last week our girl blew through here on Wednesday. She dropped off her 2 hound puppies, spent the night and headed to the mountains for a 2 day national symposium on Applied Reproduction Strategies in Beef Cattle. She spent Thursday night with her grandparents, drove south 2 hours to tend to the final details in getting her Masters Thesis published, spent 2 nights there, and then headed back to the ranch for a few days before heading 7 hours back East, dropping off her pups, attending a meeting, and driving another 4 hours west for an overnight farm visit. Good thing she's young! And loves her job! She posted this the other day:

I get a lot of folks asking me some variant of the same question: "So what exactly do you do at *****?" Which is fair, because my job isn't run-of-the-mill. I actually can't do what I get to do, anywhere else in the country. And the answer can be long-winded because I do, and get to do, a very wide array of things. But the primary focus of my job, and the BEST part of my job is consulting with producers face to face. I get to go out and meet landowners, ranch managers, and aspiring cattlemen and women, learn about their families, their goals, their struggles, and their livelihoods. I get to drive around and admire gullies and creeks, cattle and quail, native grass and cottonwoods. I get to help people become better stewards of their land and their animals, and perhaps most importantly, I get to learn from them...their mistakes, their experiences, their successes. I get to hear their STORY, and perhaps become a part of it. Sometimes I have a big impact, often I can have a small impact, and occasionally I'm really not needed at all. But I'm thankful for a company that allows me to spend some of my days like I did today, with coworkers I respect and enjoy, doing something as rewarding as this.

And while she was traipsing around the country, Skeet and I hosted Harvey and Huckleberry:

                          

Skeet's been walking me about 5 miles every morning - that means he runs at least 10 miles:

                           

We had good company last week:

                           

It's hard to fuss about walking out the door at 6 a.m. when you are soon thereafter greeted by views like this:

                            

The pups begin chomping at the bit the moment they sense a walk is imminent. Skeet pretty much has the run of the place - he runs wild and free although he sticks close to wherever we are, but he still goes ballistic when he knows a walk is forthcoming.

                                                     

And 'walk' isn't really in his vocabulary. I walk. He BOUNDS.

                         

and flies everywhere when we're on our walk-a-bouts. He's a very chill and laid-back dog until he sees my hiking boots come out. So, Skeet's the rocket:

                         

Huck's the otter of the bunch:

                         

And Harvey's the lovable comedian:

                          

On Monday evening, storms danced all around us and our girl captured this glorious shot as we soaked in the cool air and refreshing scent of rain in the desert:

                        

It's a pretty good way to close out a day. Just ask a hound dog:

                       

Land of Enchantment Quilt...the Beginning

The other day I mentioned this quilt:

 It's in the latest issue of Quiltmaker.
I have these pillows:

And a cream comforter that needs some color added to it.
Enter this quilt. Southwest inspired. I love the modern fabrics used, but I am going for the more traditional Southwestern colors. I am keeping the turquoise, but losing the green. After Easy Street, I need a break from green.

In the magazine, it's called Dream On, but I'm going with Land of Enchantment.

I am going to add more rows, turn the pattern horizontally, and yes, make it bigger. :)

And I think it will be perfect folded at the foot of the bed. I am off to do some math!

A few days ago, sweet Pat from, Life in the Scrapatch, nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award.

I am humbled that any of y'all take time out from your busy day to peek into life here at the end of the dirt road, and I can not tell you how thrilled I am that you do. I love your comments and appreciate that you take the time to leave them. Thank you so much Pat!

I'm supposed to nominate some other blogs, but I hope y'all don't mind if I don't do that. I love reading y'all's  blogs and I think all of y'all are such fun, but  I know most of y'all have already been nominated. I will play by half of the rules and list 7 things about myself:

1. I am a social hermit.
2. I love music and have a very eclectic taste.
3. I am a voracious reader. I am fascinated by biographies - people lead such interesting lives!
4. I once played pool with George Strait and his wife.
5. My Mom was approached by a sheik who wanted me to be a part of his harem when I was 12. LOL.
6. DH and I once won a hunting trip in Africa at the Safari Club Banquet.
7. I have made dinner for Tommy Lee Jones in my home.

That was hard!