A fun, busy week with Carol

My quilt friend Carol from Gig Harbor visited this past week and we packed in activities! She brought two gorgeous pieces that she's stitching -- the Hawaiian quilt block above and the Australian print that she's embellishing with red French knots. But we were so busy that we didn't get any sewing done.

You may remember reading about Carol over the years because she runs the Comfort Quilt Project, which has made and donated thousands of quilts to breast cancer treatment patients. She started the group 20 years ago.

On her first full day here, we drove more than 6,000 feet in elevation up Mt. Lemmon and saw fall color. It was in the 80s in Tucson but 60s on the mountain. We had a delicious lunch at the Iron Door and brought a small cherry pie home to share for dinner and breakfast. 

That's me in the leaf hat.

The next day we met up with two other quilt friends to do a shop hop. That's Pam with the crutch, who was also visiting from Gig Harbor, me, Carol, and Nancy, who used to live in Gig Harbor but moved here after I did. We visited three quilt shops and a needlecraft/gift shop, and it HAILED and stormed while we were having lunch!

The blustery weather made it a good day for shopping. Here's what Carol and I came home with.

The rest of the week had beautiful weather, so the next day we went to Tohono Chul Park, where there was a pumpkin thing going on. Good thing Carol wore her pumpkin party pants! 

We had a prickly pear lemonade and prickly pear Margarita at the park's courtyard bistro.

We also hit a few other stops that day and topped it off at book club that night, where the potluck food and conversation were great as always.

Onward the next morning to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where we spent a good four hours wandering inside and out, mostly out. You can see Mexico on the horizon.

The javelinas were snuggled up napping and the plants were bursting with color.

The rare crested, or cristate, saguaro is at the museum's entrance. No one is sure why some normally straight saguaros develop these convoluted crests. The hours in the sun wiped us both out, so we layed low that evening and watched "Murder She Wrote" before early to bed.

But we were up bright and early to start the next full day with a hike at Catalina State Park, above.

Then it was off to spend a couple of hours wandering through the lush and colorful Tucson Botanical Gardens. We had lunch at the shady outdoor bistro but I forgot to get photos.

Carol was especially interested in the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) sculptures, which I blogged about here: dia-de-los-muertos-at-tucson-gardens.html

On the way home, we stopped at Ted DeGrazia's amazing Gallery In the Sun, an adobe complex he built around the 1950s for his home, chapel and gallery spaces. He used materials from the surrounding desert, including ocotillo, saguaro and yucca ribs and branches for the doors, fences and other structures. Here is a view from inside the chapel showing the soft adobe wall coloring and artistic door.

That night was our last Mexican meal, at La Hacienda where we both had enchiladas. Then we watched the news, another episode of "Murder She Wrote," and headed off to bed.

And, of course, we caught some sunsets. This was my favorite from the week. Carol left this morning and I'm full of good memories from our adventures.

Have a colorful day

Earth, Wind and Fire spirit dolls

I made three more spirit dolls this week to take up to the gallery. I picked out fabric that I liked and then realized that they could represent earth, wind and fire, like the music group!

I made the blue wind fabric many years ago by painting white fabric with pearlescent blue fabric paint and then stenciling the swirls with darker blue paint. The fire fabric was dyed by a friend, also many years ago. And the green earth fabric is just a commercial print, but I added some gold mesh scraps.

The twigs also came from friends. There's a dearth of good strong, straight twigs in my yard and in the desert, so three different friends -- from Flagstaff, Indiana and Washington, have given me bundles of sticks that are better than what I can find here.

Here are the buttons I chose for the faces, with beads for eyes.

The silky, curly hair on the fire doll is dyed Angora goat hair that I've had in my stash for ages. I think I got it at the Taos Wool Festival more than 15 years ago.

I also saw an excellent Japanese film called "Perfect Days" this week at the Loft Film Festival in Tucson. According to the sign, it's been named "one of Moviemaker Magazine's 25 coolest film festivals in the world"! I had never been there before, but the venue was very nice and the balmy fall weather allowed for people to be eating, drinking and socializing outside before the movie. Here's a review: Perfect_Days

Have a colorful day

Eclipse and hiking

I forgot to buy eclipse glasses for yesterday morning's eclipse, but I got to watch it through the crescent shaped shadows that it cast on my patio. As the moon moved in front of the sun, the crescent of light from the sun cast these shadows through the leaves.

I played with the shadow of my dancing yard art lady and the crescent shadows. It looks like she's celebrating the celestial event. It also got noticeably cooler, breezier and darker at the peak, and the crows started calling.

Toward the end of the eclipse I went to a plant sale at Tohono Chul Park (where I bought the Blue Atoll above) and they were passing out free eclipse viewers, so I DID get to look directly at it. It showed a fiery orange crescent of sun to the side of the black circle of moon.

But today there was no moon in front of the sun as I went on my first hike since spring. (It was too hot all summer to hike.) Catalina State Park was glorious as always, with its green mountain slopes and tall saguaros. It felt great to be back hiking.

The sky was impossibly blue and the saguaros were green and healthy.

Have a colorful day

Dia de los Muertos at Tucson gardens

Don visited from Flagstaff last week and we enjoyed two of Tucson's beautiful gardens, starting with a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) display at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. Dia de los Muertos is a joyful, colorful Mexican celebration Nov. 1-2 welcoming spirits back to the realm of the living.

Frida Kahlo sculpture

Larger than life sculptures of La Catrina -- Mexico's Grand Dame of Death -- are an important part of the celebration. The ones at the garden are by Ricardo Soltero, who uses diverse media including papier-mache, recycled materials, wood, fiberglass and fabric.

Monarch butterflies play a big part in the celebration because they represent change and transformation. The Monarch migration occurs in the fall around the Dia de los Muertos celebration and symbolizes the return of the souls of the dead for the holiday.

Marigolds are also important because it's believed that their strong aroma can guide the souls of the dead back to the living.

Across town, the Tohono Chul Park gave a nod to Dia de los Muertos in its art gallery, including this quilt called "Sonoran Happy Hour." It's a collaborative piece between Kathleen Genz, who made the quilted fabric background, and Genevieve Guadalupe, who printed it with her Day of the Dead woodblocks.

The artists said, "These two Catrinas are sharing our respective favorite happy hour beverages, Mescal and Margaritas, in an iconic Tucson setting complete with a red tile topped stucco wall and saguaros."

 

Tohono Chul was also flush with pumpkins for its Glowing Pumpkin night walk. It was a little too much for me, but I'm sure the kids like it when the pumpkins are glowing in the dark.

While at Tohono Chul we ate at its inviting bistro, where we waited for our table in this sunny courtyard. It was too hot to eat outside, so we opted for the air-conditioned inside dining.

Our desert gardens are alive with color and sunshine in the fall. Here are some more photographs from both of them.

Last but not least, a sunset from my front yard:

Check out my blog posts three years ago about the same exhibit, where I gave much more info about the Catrinas:

more-on-day-of-dead-exhibit.html

la-calavera-catrina-at-tucson-botanical.html

Have a colorful day