We just returned from a few days in Arizona. In case you didn’t know, Phoenix is home to 15 Major League Baseball teams and ball parks during the six weeks of Spring Training. These teams belong to the Cactus League–the other 15 teams are part of the Grapefruit League in Florida. The proximity of professional ball teams is nearly heaven for fans like my husband. In three days, he saw three games and since it was the last week of Spring Training, the starting lineups usually played the first half of each game. We have been to Phoenix many times but this year we had an added bonus. Our oldest grandson is a freshman at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, two hours north of Phoenix. So as proud grandparents, we visited his new school.
When we were first planing the trip, my husband discovered the Arizona Quilt Show was being held in Mesa during our visit to the metropolitan area. So one morning before a game we saw hundreds of beautiful quilts and visited 40 venders. A good trade off for attending a baseball game.
“The Beauty of Saguaros” by a German quilting group.
These are some of my favorites–the first photo is a tribute to the creator’s Mennonite mother. Each block has 77 different fabrics and each block is different! The middle quilt is red and white with cherries-perhaps. My favorite motifs! The last photo is the Best of Show. It is all hand turned appliqué. It sparkled. My shopping observations were— 1. Most of fabric was precuts. 2. Most of the fabric was saturated–dark colors or very bright colors. I had given myself permission to look for a yard of pastel dots/stripes/flowers for a border but found nothing. Also, given I am still on my “fabric diet”, I did not want to buy a bundle of precuts. But it was fun to look.
The second morning before a game, we visited the Heard Museum–“dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art.”
This oasis in downtown Phoenix was an unexpected treat. The grounds are lovely, the docents are friendly and the exhibits are fascinating. The gift shop is an art gallery of jewelry, textiles and folk art, all guaranteed authentic.
I was most impressed with the soft sculpture and bead work.
Many of the sculptures were modeled from people in old photos. As a quilter, I was in awe of the hours and hours spent creating perfect details.
The Galleries were spacious with a great variety of art mediums, but we spent most of our short time in an educational exhibit about the Indian Boarding Schools. Well done, it gave a balanced history of the inexcusable motives for the school and the tragedies as well as personal success stories.
The only quilt in the museum was here–a story quilt.
I have more photos of ball parks on my photo than you might suspect, but no photos this year that didn’t feature my husband. I prefer minor league or spring training games to the professional games in the summer..but I have no photos to share.
I have travelled south out of Phoenix many times but this was my first time to go north. My husband keep reporting “the temperature just dropped another degree” the entire two hour trip to Prescott.
Spring had not arrived and the campus is compatible to its surroundings–so very different to the college campuses with which I was familiar. The emphasis is aviation with reminders everywhere. I was most impressed with the library–libraries certainly have evolved in fifty years!!
He is training to be a pilot, so of course we saw those “tiny” (grandmother’s viewpoint) planes he is flying. We stood on a mesa and watched the planes lined up waiting to take off —where he did his first solo landing.
My little boy is almost a grown up! But I am happy to report he still consumes food like the teen ager he is!
Flights to and from AZ were fine and our luggage came home with us! So I will count this mini vacation a success. Count on us being back next year!
🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵
Even though quilters take vacations, we still have new items for sale.
This contemporary quilt could be falling leaves or confetti thrown in a parade. The 41″ x 76″ quilt is machine quilted in a side to side pattern. The dark green finding frames this wall hanging or twin bed coverlet. Machine appliqué secures the bright splashes of color. $200
The fabric line is called Zinnias and the block is the “disappearing four patch. Celebrating spring and summer, the 47″ x 48” quilt is $150. The machine quilting and the backing are also floral.
The blocks may be “wild and crazy” but they work together. Paulette set these donated blocks with a navy blue sashing in a four by four pattern. It is machine quilted with curves and sharp corners continuing the “wild and crazy” look. It is 60″ x 60″ and would make a great gift for only $150.
Three coordinating fabrics were used in this baby/child quilt. The backing is a cozy aqua flannel. It is machine quilted and hand bound. 47″ x 48″. $75
Do you use hot pads or trivets to protect you table top from a hot bowl or pan? The 8.5″ square trivets have Insul Bright as one of its layers, making it heat resistant. This is an example of “crumb” quilting. The very last scrap, no matter how small was used. Machine quilted and bound –$5 each
We have so much fun creating and sewing — and it is even more fun showing off our work . Thank you for being a reader.
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Quilts, Etc. 