Ladies' Tea

I joined Val and Zamora at the church's Ladies' Tea - it was nice.  Good company, vintage table linens and tea cups, and good food.

I chose the Franciscan ware Desert Rose cup - my mother used to have these; I still have one of the plates - I don't know what happened to the rest of them.

The nice thing about the clear plastic plates was you could still see the vintage table lines - every table was different

Happy Birthday to me!

We celebrated my birthday last week by going out to lunch at P.F. Chang's and then to Lowe's to see if they had my birthday present in stock (they did not, so more on that later).

Had cucumber limeade (not as good as cucumber lemonade; and it could have used some vodka), California rolls, and honey chicken. Yes, I took pictures of the food...

Home again..

It was wonderful getting back home - we really missed our bed!

But cleaning Dot's house must have inspired us - in the first week back we cleaned out our bedroom closet (again) - removing two bags of stuff; cleaned out/rearranged the items in the dresser drawers; and emptied the upstairs hall closet before replacing very few things.  The Christmas decorations now fit on one shelf and in one leaf bag - kept one wreath for outside and one for inside - I mean, who HAS 7 wreaths??? Then we put the removed items all in the van, emptied the garage bookcase (which was holding all the stuff we had already marked for charity), and I took it to the Salvation Army on the way to Quilt Guild.

Now we are working on the guest room.  It should be done by the time this posts. Next I go back to my studio and start getting some finishes done!

I did manage to do some hand-stitching and some knitting while I was in Nevada.  Finished up some paper-pieced 4" log cabin squares (an on-going handwork thing) -

and did a navy blue knitted strap for one of the small bags I've already made.

straps are 42" + the sides and bottom of the bag, fitting all the way around the bag for better support

this is a better version of the color - it was a specialty spun yarn that had slubs (lumps) in it - a really nice texture, and matches the blue in the bag really well - the bags are going in my Etsy shop

I unpacked the quilts found at Dot's house and took them to the Quilt Guild for "bring and brag/show" - everyone loved them and having them held up on stage allowed my friend Judy to take pictures of them for me - and allowed me to see that each needed some kind of repair work, especially the yellow one.

next to last row from bottom, next to last square on right, just above it you can see the rip that will require major repair work.  Guild members felt this one was from the 1930s. 

pieced in panels - there is some repair work needed in the darker pieces where the silk has simply shredded with time (black dyes are very acidic) - the only embroidery is on the seam lines

pieced in squares - again, some repair needed in the darker pieces and there is not only embroidery along the seam lines, but some free-hand embroidery inside the pieces

Guild members had a lot of opinions about the crazy quilts and it will take a real expert to date them.

Too bad these aren't quilts from the family. Dot remembers buying them, but can't remember when or where.  She and George were great travelers to auctions, flea markets, and yard sales - so, who knows?  It will be up to her granddaughters to decide who gets which. And they all go with my recommendation to have them properly appraised (if I can't find someone here to do it) and have them professionally repaired (I've found someone in Colorado for that - it's not beyond my skill set, but I have too many other things to finish first.

Return - Day 2

Not as many pictures on Day 2 - I will admit to napping quite a bit, but I still managed to find things to look at when I was awake.

I love the wind turbines, but it wasn't until I took the second shot that I realized there was no sense of scale in the first one...the barn gives you a better sense of the size of the turbines...

Found a Fixer-Upper that even Chip & Joanna Gaines wouldn't tackle...

Something caught my eye and I was able to track a crop-duster hard at work - 

and a few other things caught my eye -

a dry river

men at work - or not, since they are just standing there discussing things...

a feed lot

a surprising splash of color

the Flag, a cowboy and an American Eagle....

God bless the USA!

Return - Day 1 New Mexico

By the time we got to New Mexico, it was feeling like a really long day.

 The delay in Flagstaff meant we didn't get to Albuquerque until late...but what a welcome site!

Return - Day 1 cont.

Of course, my favorite Arizona landscapes have dinosaurs...

Hmmm...those mountains look like they have gotten more snow than when we came by before...

and there's so much moisture in the air, there was an upside-down rainbow...

and you can actually see the weather effects...

the wind is blowing that dust line, and just to the right of it, you can see a small downspout, a baby tornado....

Sure enough, just outside of Flagstaff, there had been a wreck involving an 18-wheeler, so we all got to sit for over an hour in the backup, while it snowed, before we could crawl past it.

Snow!

this was in the side mirror - there were just as many trucks ahead of us

and the other side of Flagstaff, all was back to normal...

Return - Day 1

Of course, the trip back looked really similar to the trip out there...didn't stop me from taking pictures, since the view was on the other side of the road!

Nevada -

I couldn't see the water at all when we crossed the area at the dam on the way out here...

When you are on a major highway going 75mph, it is extremely difficult to get a landscape shot without power lines. At the dam, it's impossible!

...................................
Of course, you don't get to spend a lot of time in Nevada on the way back...you're in Arizona before you know it...what beautiful landscapes!