This ‘n that

It’s been a week of travel and tying up loose ends. I had a wonderful family trip to El Paso, finished a charity quilt, labeled and sleeved my 2 quilts that will hang in my guild’s upcoming show and got my silk quilt to hang kinda sort straight.

And then there’s house stuff that takes me away from the quilting I love to do: new gutters and a sump pump out. I think I will write a book “How to Spend a Zillion Dollars on Your House in 2 Years”.

Interesting: 3 of the 4 legs of my travel were completely full and the airports were oddly packed. It’s mid-January and not a holiday weekend. Go figure. Most were not families. My last leg from Phoenix to Sacramento was just out of control. There were toooooooons of kids on that one; the waiting area was filled with unhappy children.

When I boarded I saw that there was one aisle seat left in the front of the plane; otherwise I would have had to go waaaaay back. I prefer the front. I started to sit and realized why that seat was empty. There was a small child in the middle seat, flying with Gramma. I quickly surveyed the situation and saw that Kid was not bouncing, crying or annoying anyone and Gramma was attentive. I took my chances and he was the most well behaved child! It was a delight. He fell asleep and had his feet in my lap which I found adorable. Lucky me!

This is a typical scene in the Chihuahuan Desert. Yes, it is barren but I do find beauty there in the wide open vistas. In the photo above, I’m in the Franklin Mountains looking south. You see that darker straight line with the red dots that I added? That is the border wall, which I didn’t realize we could see until my son pointed it out. (No political comments please, I will delete.)

Both sons plus a girlfriend were there to visit Hubby’s sister (not in the photo). My DIL is working hard caring for my 3 yr old Grandson and cooking my future Granddaughter, so she did not come.

We meet in January each year, around the time of my Mother-in-Law’s birthday. She since has passed, but we meet and honor her. This is the 10th year a part of the family has come to El Paso to visit. BTW, Hubby grew up there.

The photo doesn’t do it justice, but there is some micro beauty in the plants. January is fairly bleak of course, but at least it wasn’t hot!

It was a requirement to go to Julio’s for some darn good Tex-Mex. Youngest son ordered this. I was perplexed on how/why this was even a thing. I am old😊 But the red enchiladas were to die for!

I had a bit of a finish too, a charity quilt. Those are all P Carter Carpin fabrics; love her work!

I have a rubric for my charity quilts that I think I will stick with: nice, current fabric torn into unevenly wide strips, sewn together and quilted with a “charity curve”. I would love to get this quilt if I were in need. I don’t have a lot of time to piece a lovely quilt and this goes lickety split. The “charity curve” is my take on peacock. It quilts up sooooo fast, it’s easy to enlarge to cover ground quickly, and I think it’s an elegant design. And, it’s d-u-n, done!

I had to sleeve and label my two quilts for show. I am not big on large, fancy labels, just me:

I put the basic information that is needed, hand printed on a skinny label. Most of my quilts have a lovely back and I don’t want to mar the look with a big ole honkin’ label. If it were a bed quilt that was going to be used, washed frequently and possibly passed on, I would include more information.

Aaaaaand just because it’s been a month or two since we spent a bunch of money on the house, we are getting new gutters. The 30 yr old ones were shot.

Apparently, it’s shedding season. This is one day’s harvest from my double-coated puppy dog (Australian Shepherd). Oy!

I’ll be linking up with:

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
Finished or Not Friday