Some sewing finishes

I've been stitching a lot this past week and finally finished the desert quilt that my friend requested for her new winter home in Arizona. I had fun adding little extra touches, like the beading on Kokopelli.

I also finished the spirit dolls commissioned by another friend for her to give as presents. She sent me descriptions of each friend's personality and I used that as inspiration for the dolls. Here are just a few:

This one is for a counselor who

 reaches out a helping hand.

This one, no surprise, is for a golf fanatic.

A veterinarian's assistant calls for animal charms.

The green is for a woman from Ireland who loves to hike (note the yarn trails).

A seed necklace and flowered dress

 are for a gardener's doll.

And I'm lusting after this cactus phone cover that a friend has. I saw it when we had lunch today. Also love her colorful nail polish.

Have a colorful day

Tucson Summer Night Market

It's finally cooling off enough that I can do more outside activities, so last night the Shady Ladies (my hiking group) set off for Tucson's Summer Night Market. It was the last one of the season, and the weather was perfectly balmy under the stars with a DJ playing tunes and people strolling among the shops and food vendors.

We ate outdoors at a Mexican restaurant called Seis, which specializes in street tacos. We split a big order of chips and guacamole, green salsa and a really hot red sauce, and I had two different types of tacos. Delicious! Afterward, Tere bought Mexican cookies for all of us from a street vendor.

There was a shop called Why I Love Where I Live, with all things Tucson inside. I do love where I live, and there's so much more to discover here. I'm glad I found friends to help me explore my new town.

I spent a lot of time looking at the fun Southwest prints at the hobo bag tent. They were a good price, but I already have so many tote bags that I resisted. Tere, however, who loves all things Mexican, bought a Day of the Dead bag.

This weekend I'm working my way through a big batch of spirit dolls that a friend ordered for Christmas gifts. She sent me a description of each of the 10 ladies for inspiration. It's been fun!

Have a colorful day

Happy Fall: Southwest and Northwest!

Happy Fall from Tucson, where it's supposed to reach 99 degrees this first day of autumn. It hardly seems like fall, but I guess I'll discover the desert's own autumn treats. I'm looking forward to cooler days which will feel like summer in most parts of the country but will be winter here!

The photo above is the view from my courtyard chair this first day of fall in the desert -- blue skies, 75 degrees, mosquitoes already eating me and chasing me inside.

The view below is from the first day of fall 10 years ago, when my (ex)husband and I were on vacation in the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest. We had hiked to the top of a mountain and were looking out over the islands toward Canada.

Here are a few more "fall" photos from the desert near my house this week:

I watched Monday's Harvest Moon rise over Pusch Ridge from my back patio. It wasn't orange, probably because it was higher in the sky than when it first rose over the lower horizon. It's called the Harvest Moon because in the days before electric lights, the full September moon lighted the fields enough for crops to be harvested well after sunset.

From the desert, we go back to the San Juans on a beautiful crisp first day of fall:

We kayaked on a lake on Orcas Island. The water was so, so blue.

We took a ferry over to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island to do tourist activities like the Whale Museum and coffee shops. (Always coffee shops in the Northwest, everywhere you look.)

The day we left was foggy. Can you see the mast of a boat on the left poking up out of the mist?

And a fall poem by Mary Oliver:

To make this sewing related, I just made a coffee cozy with bunny fabric for a French press. It's a present for someone, but I don't think he reads my blog so I'm posting it. It will keep his coffee hot on cold fall days up north where he lives.

Here is an old photo of some of my daughter's bunnies, who have since passed away but will live on forever in our memories and photos. Don't they look so soft and cozy? They loved to cuddle.

Happy Fall

Another desert quilt

 

A friend from Washington who bought a winter home in Phoenix has commissioned a desert quilt like the one I made for myself, but she's not a pink and purple gal so hers will have more blues and desert tans and golds. (It's from a pattern by my local quilt shop, Cactus Quilts.)

My quilt is the top three rows. The bottom two rows are the beginning of hers, but I still have to add a pop of flowers and some Kokopelli jewelry. I'm really having fun working on it!

Here is her roadrunner, who is going to be trailed by blue quail. Kandi loves blue.

I'm using a machine blanket stitch to appliqué the prickly pear cacti. The second photo is the back, which shows the stitching better. In fact, I really like the back! I could see making a whole quilt with just a blanket stitch outlining designs on one piece of fabric.

I'm also working on more spirit dolls. Here are some of them hanging in Absolutely Art Gallery & Gifts. The owner still has to print up a proper sign. I don't think any have sold yet, but another friend just commissioned a bunch for Christmas presents! Woo hoo!!! Thank you, Dawn!

Last night we had clouds and a little rain. I watched the clouds drift across the almost full moon from my back patio. It's still in the 90s during the day, but it was pleasant last evening in the 70s.

Have  colorful day

Dressing for the desert heat

 

Before I moved to Tucson from the Northwest, my wardrobe consisted of long black yoga pants and fleece hoodies most of the year. Not anymore!!!

I've found some new uniforms to keep me comfortable in the desert heat: 

1. Adjustable colorful wrap skirts by Rip Skirt Hawaii. 

2. Short and long loose sleeveless dresses by Lands End.

3. Wide-brimmed hats to shade my face from the sun, which is out 284 days a year on average.

I love, love, love the fun colorful prints on Rip Skirt's wrap skirts. Velcro closures make them adjustable, so after a big meal I can loosen them. They come in four lengths, from mini to ankle length. The one at the top of the blog is a mini, and the next two come just above the knee. And they have two kicky gussets in the back for some flare.

This blue print is calming, while the first two are more exciting.

My other go-to styles, which I live in when I'm at home, are the loose sleeveless dresses from Lands End. (I bought them all on sale, of course.) This splashy red and purple print is my favorite, and I've worn it all day at home, shopping, traveling and to restaurants. These dresses are sold as swim suit coverups, but I use them for everything but that. The side slits were too short for my comfort level, so I sewed them shut a few more inches.

This navy one may seem sedate for Sherrie Loves Color, but I can wear it with some fun long necklaces, which I do when I go out.

And just for a change, I bought one devoid of color except for black and white (because it was on sale).

These next two come above the knee and are especially cool for running errands when it's 105 degrees or just walking at 6:30 in the morning when it's already pushing 80. All the Lands End dresses have side pockets, which are really useful.

A major thing I like about these dresses is that there's nothing constricting around my waist. Since I'm an apple shape, waistbands are always too tight. (Except when they're adjustable like the Rip Skirts.)

And any Tucson girl worth her salt has a few wide-brimmed hats to protect against our wonderful sun. I can't imagine ever wearing these back in the rainy Northwest, but here they fit right in.

Last but not least, I've discovered Soma's sleep dresses, which are cool, comfy, and pretty enough to wear all day, which I have done many a day.

Well, this isn't a quilting post but it is all about fabric and color!!!

Have a comfortable day

A gallery for the spirit dolls

My spirit dolls were accepted into a local gallery over the weekend! Absolutely Art Gallery & Gifts agreed to carry them in their very colorful gallery in Catalina, a few miles north of Tucson. The gallery just won the Tucson newspaper's Readers Choice for the Best Art Gallery in Tucson for the fourth year in a row!

Here are most of the dolls that I dropped off. I can't wait to see how the owner, Pam, decides to display them.

Here is some of the other art in the gallery. There are two other fabric artists, so I'm excited to meet them and become part of the gallery community.

Here's another spirit doll that I just made for a friend as a house warming gift:

(I'm linking to are-quilts-art-on-off-wall-friday.html in case you want to see what other fiber artists have been up to this week.)

And this next lovely lady is my daughter,

who turned 33 today!

Here she is at her 6th birthday party when we lived in El Paso. That's a butterfly cake that I made at her request, and the girls are wearing the necklaces that they made.

On the weather front, this is the sunset from a few nights ago. We're still having quite active weather due to the monsoon season. Last evening,Tucson was under simultaneous tornado, flash flood, and blowing dust advisories. My neighborhood got off easy, with just a little wind and rain.

p.s. I also take custom orders for the spirit dolls if you have a specific color or theme in mind. I charge $38, same as the gallery, plus $5 shipping. Email me at sherriequilt@yahoo.com.

Have a colorful day