Hoppy Valentine's Day!

Hoppy Valentine's Day

from my five adorable grand bunnies! 

My daughter scattered rose petals around them for their photo shoot. Rabbits eat roses, so this was a special treat for them.

The three on the left are the babies that she raised after the mother who she rescued turned out to be pregnant. Charlie, on the far right with his head down, is an old man bunny and sweet as can be.

For my Valentine's Day, I took myself hiking at Catalina State Park and then got in the drive-through lane at In-N-Out Burger for an iced tea. The line behind me in my side mirror stretched farther than I could see. They send an employee outside to go down the line and take orders. 

And I didn't get a picture, but there were three horses tied up just across the parking lot while their riders ate. This place is just outside of the park, where a lot of people go horseback riding.

Sunrise a few days ago from my back yard.

Have a colorful day

Painting and hiking

I've been painting fabric and hiking this week, and I'll tie them together by pointing out that the fuchsia in the painted fabric matches the color in my hiking shirt.

And the deep purple in this fabric ...

... matches the intensity of the blue in yesterday's desert sky!

From there I'll segue into saguaros from the hike in Sabino Canyon on the far east side of Tucson.

We spotted another rare crested saguaro! They look so top heavy that I'm amazed they don't fall over.

We hiked for hours through thousands of saguaros in sunny 70-something temperatures and were rewarded by a rest stop at a waterfall and clear, cool pools.

Barb stretched out on the rocks for more sun, but I relaxed in the shade.

We've officially launched the Feet and Forks Southwest! Here's the feet shot.

We forgot to put our forks in the food picture, but here are the three kinds of fries we shared afterward at Zinburger: sweet potato, truffle, and zucchini. It was a most excellent day!

Have a colorful day

Feb./March Challenge Week 2

I added hand-painted borders this past week to my piece for the February-March Challenge. I decided to do minimal quilting because I don't want to distract from the painted blue background. I started quilting very close to the beads with a zipper foot and it worked great until I came to an inner corner, then the foot got hung up on the beads. So I picked the stitches out and just quilted along the border seams.

I'd like to do some embroidery and beading along the border, but I don't think my thumb could take it. The arthritis is getting really bad and nothing has helped. I think I need surgery, but I don't want to do that right now.

I did this embellishing many years ago when my thumb didn't hurt nearly as much.

In other news, we had glorious weather last week and I took some pictures in my back yard while I was weeding.

I love the natural look of the landscaping. And those grapefruits on my neighbor's tree are still a novelty for me. This is the first time I've lived where people have citrus trees in their yards! When I go for walks I pass so many orange, lemon, lime, and grapefruit trees. I even saw  kumquats.

Today's sunset photo comes from inside my sewing room while I'm sitting at my machine. I love it!

I'm linking to Lynda Heines' blog for the Feb./March Challenge: feb-march-challenge-week-2

Have a colorful day

A quickie quilt and Etsy sale

I needed an easy project to work on this week while I contemplated my next art quilt, so I made this crib quilt for a nephew's baby boy who is due in March.

I used Grunge fabric left over from another project and found a little boy print for the back that picked up on all of the colors. Minimal quilting completed it in a jiffy.

I also decided I need to clear out the tarot/gift bags and masks from my Etsy shop that are made with wintry fabric. So they're all 40 percent off. (The price includes shipping, which is about $4 just for one bag or mask.) Masks are $7.20 and bags are $13.20, including shipping.

You can find them at www.sherrielovescolor.etsy.com.

The pleated masks have nose wires, a filter pocket, and soft knit ear loops. The bags are lined with a silky fabric. The music note masks could be worn all year, but I made them thinking of Christmas concerts and carols.

I also made enchiladas today, but I cheated and used store bought green enchilada sauce. It's not as good as freshly made, but it's not bad.

And last but not least, we had a spectacular sunset a few nights ago. Here it is from my front courtyard.

Have a colorful day

Eight-week challenge project

Lynda Heines has started a February-March challenge where participants will share their progress every week on a project of their own choice. I decided to pull out these three pieces that I started many years ago and to finish them.

I'm pretty happy with how they look now, but I have to decide whether to quilt them, stretch them over frames, mount them on larger pieces of fabric, or ???? Right now they're just embroidered and beaded appliqués on a single layer of cloth. They've been rolled up in storage for ages because I couldn't decide how to finish them.

Here are some closeups:

Here's the link to Lynda's invitation:  

join-us-for-feb-march-challenge

And here's the link to her post showing what she'll be working on:

feb-march-challenge-week-1

I'm also linking to Nina-Marie's Off-the-Wall Friday at how-to-title-quilt-on-off-wall-friday.html. She has a good post today about titling our work.

Have a colorful day

Next project and more hiking

 

I found this amazing fabric in all of my favorite colors yesterday at Quilters Market in Tucson. It was my first quilt store visit of the year and the occasion was a sale on everything you could fit in one of their tote bags. Now I have to decide what to do with it.

I pulled out all of my Grunge fabrics that coordinate with it, but that's as far as I've gotten. I poured through my quilt books last night looking for inspiration but only got overwhelmed, so I'll just let things percolate awhile in my head.

In the meantime, there's hiking! We still have some snow on the mountains from last week, but the sunshine has returned and today's high will be 70. I'll be hiking this afternoon.

A few days ago I hiked at the Sweetwater Preserve west of the city in the Tucson Mountains, where I was surrounded by saguaros.

I love how they each have their own personality. The one above seems to be signaling "come on over," while the one below has a boo-boo.

This next one looks like a very tired old person -- how I feel sometimes.

The ones that soar way up into the sky are my favorites. They're tall and strong.

I'm also still looking into senior homes for my parents in case they decide to move to Tucson. This inviting sitting area is in the place I toured last week. The woman who took me around said that in the afternoon, residents congregate there with a bottle of wine and solve the world's problems in 30 minutes. Sounds good to me!

Have a colorful day

First quilt of the year finished

"Joyful Desert" is done and on the wall!

It's my first quilt of the new year.

Even though it's 44 inches wide, it looks small by the large fireplace and tv. But I liked doing it so much that I just might make another, bigger, one to hang in that spot.

My first quilt teacher some 30 years ago emphasized making nice labels for our quilts, so I've always given mine a name and a label. Thanks to her, I don't consider a quilt done until it has a label, a hanging sleeve, and a photo for my records.

The quilt encompasses the colors of the Tucson Sonoran Desert that I've seen since I moved here, but yesterday the desert got a new color: white snow!

The mountains surrounding the city were all dusted by snow, although most of the city just got badly needed rain. Today we're back to sunshine.

Have a colorful day