Tie Dye Judy gets a new studio

I got to visit my blogger friend Judy Sall's new studio in Flagstaff this month, which of course is worth a blog post. Anytime a fiber artist gets a new studio it's worth a post! She's also known as Tie Dye Judy, and her blog is at  http://tiedyejudy.blogspot.com/. The blog links you to her Artfire store where she sells her fun items.

She knocked out a wall to combine two rooms into one, which gives her a beautiful light-filled spacious studio to do her dying, stitching and playing. One window looks out on the snow-dusted San Francisco Mountains and the other window is filled with a lush evergreen tree.

The day I visited she had colorful strips of fabric waiting to be made into coiled fabric bowls and vessels.

 This gathered garment awaited the dye bath.

I was blown away by the beading on her prickly pear art quilt. This is a detail.

 Here we are in front of another one of her art quilts. Cheers to friends met through blogging!

Have a colorful day

Strip quilt keeps going

I'm still making wonky strip-pieced blocks down here in Sedona. I've been playing with arrangements and came up with these three today.

In case you didn't read my first post about this, I start by cutting old telephone book pages into squares and then I stitch-and-flip strips at wonky angles until the page is covered.

Next, I cut it down to the size I want and then peel off the paper.

The bright, saturated colors here in the high desert remind me of the colors in the quilt. This is definitely more of a sunny, hot weather quilt than one from the Northwest.

Have a colorful day

Mystery city: Jerome, AZ

The mystery city from yesterday's post is:

Jerome, Arizona!

Jerome, population 444 as of the 2010 census, is an old mining town in the Black Hills high above the Verde Valley. It's about 100 miles north of Phoenix. Supported in its heyday by rich copper mines, it was home to more than 10,000 people in the 1920s. Its main industry these days appears to be tourism, with people with cameras cramming the steep streets to visit galleries, gift shops and eateries.

Have a colorful day

Mystery town

We took a break from hiking the other day to explore a VERY colorful town in the state where we've been vacationing. Does anyone know what it is?

I'll do the big reveal tomorrow!

Have a colorful day

Starting a string quilt

A few days ago, I pulled out my second Sedona quilt project -- fabric for a string quilt. It's coming together quicker than it would at home, where I always find something else to do.

Before we came down here, I cut old telephone pages into 7-inch foundation squares and selected an assortment of bright colors to cut into strings. Once down here, I started cutting and sewing them to the paper in a sew-and-flip manner.

The color I originally had picked for the center diagonal in each square was too muddy, so I bought the red batik at the Sedona quilt store. I also decided to add sporadic strips of the black and white print from my Jelly Roll quilt to give the eye a place to rest amid all the bright color.

It's a good, meditative project for when we're not hiking, and I can remove the paper backing in the evenings or with morning coffee.

Have a colorful day

Quilting and hiking

I finished the first quilt top from this year's trip to Sedona -- a Jelly Roll 1600 with a black and white print added here and there.

I tried to find something during our local hikes that reminded me of the quilt, but the best I could do was deciding that the blues, hot oranges and greens in the quilt were close to those in Sedona. Here's a sampling of photos from a few hikes.

The landscape here may be known for its giant red (actually orange but they're called red) rocks, but it still has plenty of other scenery. Oak Creek (above) flows through the canyon, nourishing a wide variety of plants.

Above is a typical desert plant, and below is a shot from Long Canyon with the typical Sedona red rock.

On our second hike we climbed to the top of Doe Mountain, where I'm posing with Dave on the mesa. We had spectacular views from that vantage point!

Here's a desert pool on the mesa, which I'm sure is a watering spot for desert critters like the big javelina that we saw up there.

 This parting shot is from Fay Canyon, a peaceful little walk.

Have a colorful day

Cottonwood (AZ) color with Judy and Joyce

Every year when I come to Arizona, I meet up with blogging friend Tie Dye Judy (above left) for a field trip. This year her friend Joyce (above right) joined us, wearing this marvelous pair of Judy's hand-dyed leggings.

We rode in Joyce's cute lime green Kia, named Marvin, to find color in Cottonwood, AZ, and we weren't disappointed!

These button bags were at Quilter's Quarters, which has a nice selection of sewing supplies in addition to quilting fabric. I bought some buttons to use in my beaded wrap bracelets.

Then we wandered through Old Town, which is alive with colorful murals, sculptures, signs and of course the gorgeous blue desert sky.

Lunch was excellent at the Red Rooster Café. Another highlight was a visit to Art Glitter, which carries glitter of all sizes in 800 colors. Everything in the store was glittered and the clerk was super enthusiastic about glitter. I bought some turquoise and gold glitter and fabric adhesive to play with.

 

On the way home we stopped at the Quilter's Store in Sedona for a final fling with fabric. It was a great day!

Have a colorful day