Fresh from Apple Annie's

Over the weekend my friends and I made the two-hour drive east to buy fruit and veggies at the Apple Annie's farm in Willcox, AZ. It was 107 at home but "only" got up to 99 degrees in Willcox, which is higher in elevation. 

As soon as we parked in front of the tractors, I knew I had to have Debbie and Jan pose in front of them for the blog and they cheerfully obliged.

Jan even scrambled up into the giant wooden chair for a photo. And she didn't even roll her eyes like a lot of my friends do when I ask them to pose at a corny spot!

My haul was corn, apples, tomatoes, cantaloupe, peppers and an Asian pear.

Their sweet corn is famous, and so are the peaches and apples. Unfortunately we were a little late to buy fresh peaches, but we did each get a piece of warm peach pie. And I bought four varieties of apples.

There was a line at the roasted corn station, where you slathered your ear with melted butter and then chose from dozens of shaker jars of seasonings. I wasn't going to get any because it was so hot outside, but I'm glad I did. And I sat at a picnic table under the misters so it didn't feel too bad.

The pepper choice was amazing! I got a big poblano and a sweet red bell pepper. I'm going to roast them in the oven and then stretch them out over a few meals.

There were bright, beautiful flowers, and the fields stretched forever toward the mountains.

On our drive home we headed toward monsoon clouds that would soon cover Tucson, but we only got a few sprinkles on the drive. It was a fun day, but I was sapped by the heat and collapsed on the couch as soon as I got home. A few hours later I was microwaving the corn in the husks and sampling one of the crisp apples. Excellent!

Have a colorful day

And one more thing -- bowls!

I have a friend whose beloved purple fabric bowl that she bought at a store years ago is falling apart, so I made her another one last night. It took a couple of hours.

Purple is her favorite color, and I just happen to have a large stash of purple fabric.

That got me thinking about all the bowls I've made, gifted and sold over the years. They're mostly fun to make, and definitely mindless so there's no stress except when you start to raise the sides. That's not so fun.

I joked that this giant yellow bowl was so bright that I had to put my sunglasses on to take its picture!

I've done a lot of different endings, but buttons are a favorite.

And given that I'm going to be sheltering inside in the AC for at least another week, I just might make a few more in between working on my wool Christmas tree quilt.

Here's one of my old blog posts about the bowls: bowls-of-bunners.html

Have a colorful day

A colorful productive summer

I took stock today of this summer's sewing projects before I cleared off my work table to start  another one. I'm still working on my hand-stitched quote collages, which I started last summer. I don't know what I'm going to do with them, but there are lots of possibilities.

Here's one that's completed and one that I haven't started stitching yet. I always take them when I travel for something to do in down time.

I also went on a zippered pouch bender. They have clear vinyl fronts so you can see what's in them. I plan to use these for gifts, but I made one for myself that I use for my charging cords when I travel.

I have a basket of colorful zippers and an endless fabric supply, so I might make more!

Then there are the snow people Christmas ornaments, which I did in a quick burst over a few days. Each one was made for a particular family member.

And here's the next project -- another Christmas tree wool appliqué wall hanging! This is another project that I can take when traveling because it's all hand stitching.

The first step is to trace the pattern pieces onto the dull side of freezer paper. Then you cut them out and iron the shiny side to wool. Then you cut out the wool along the pattern pieces, peel the freezer paper off and appliqué the wool to the white background rectangles and embellish to the max.

This is the one I made a couple of years ago. I love adding the little fun details. The new one will have brighter colors like apple green, pink and lilac.

Here are some details from the first one.

It looks like I'll be inside sewing for awhile. Here's tonight's weather report. It'll be a long time before I can get back to hiking. I noted this evening that all of the local weather reporters wore hot colors!

Parting shot: My daughter inherited my love of color. She just posted this. We both notice when colors match. (Like me noticing the weather reporters' red hot dresses that matched the forecast.) This is part of my daughter's collection of thrifted vintage towels and sheets in my favorite colors!

Have a colorful day

Summertime in Tucson

Summer in the Sonoran Desert means dramatic monsoon skies. This is the view from my front courtyard of rain falling at sunset over the Tucson Mountains. Below is the morning view of the Catalina Mountains turning out of my neighborhood after a night of storms. Our monsoon season is June through September.

Summer here also means it's pretty standard to have highs in the triple digits. No one even blinks at 102 degrees. I don't have my own pool to cool off in, but luckily my friends in Sun City often invite me to join them at their beautiful community pool.

They also invite me to play Mahjong at one of their community rooms, which is a good way to pass a few hours inside in the heat of the afternoon. Half of us here don't even live in Sun City.

New version of mom, dad and Juniper

I'm also continuing to churn out snow people ornaments. I decided to make a more put-together version of my daughter without the wild hair! While I was at it, I gave her husband a hat and shortened Juniper so she looks like the little kid that she is. And I put stars in her hands, because what toddler doesn't want to hold stars?

Before version with a frazzled Julia

I took some of these to my favorite quilt shop here, which carries a lot of the wool that's used in them, and asked if they'd be interested in me teaching a two-hour class in making them. The owner said she didn't want to add any more wool classes to their schedule, which really surprised me since it would only be two hours and only for the Christmas season. I've taught many different sewing classes in Kansas, Texas, Illinois and Washington over the past 35 years and this is the first time I've had a class proposal turned down! There are some other quilt shops here I could try, but I've sort of lost my momentum.

Have a colorful day

The Snow People Family

I'm working on this year's Christmas ornaments for the family -- The Snow People! (I will not call them "snowmen" because that eliminates half of the snow people population.)

I started with little Juniper. Her favorite color is blue, and she has blue eyes and curly blonde hair that I made with French knots. For the bodies and scarves and hats I used scraps of felted wool.

Then I made her mom and dad. Jade's favorite color is blue and Julia's is yellow. I didn't intend for her hair to stick out in all directions, but I decided it's rather appropriate because she's usually frazzled. Every time I see Jade his hair is either a different style or shaved off, so I left him bald. Maybe I'll give him a hat.

Picking out the colors of scarves from my felted wool and buttons from my button collection feeds my need to play with color!

This is my son and daughter in law, who don't have human kids but do have dogs. They've been together a long time and get along so well that I had to give them matching hats and scarves.

I forgot I had the dog buttons but I found them when I was rummaging around in a bin of buttons.

Here are the grandmas! That's my mother on the left in dusty pink and blue and me on the right in purple and screaming green. My hair is made from the perfect ball of salt and pepper pearl cotton.

And I didn't have to buy a thing, thanks to my stash! A stash is always a good thing for crafters.

 Have a colorful day