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