Vacation textiles

Still no stitching to report, but I did design (in my head) a temari for an all-day workshop for my HEG guild. It will be interesting, good for very good stitchers who are beginning temari makers, and doable in a 1-day workshop. The main thing I'm wondering about is if I should provide the pearl cotton colors (all will be similar colors) or if I should let people pick their own colors. I also expressed an interest in a couple of Stitch-alongs on the Temari Kai board, so those will be coming up as well.

In Arizona, my mom likes to go to estate sales. While we were packing up the house (everything that could melt goes in the fridge (think candles); extra water for drain traps that might evaporate; batteries out of everything they can think of; furniture covered with dust covers) she asked me to wrap up the temari and gave me this dish towel to wrap them in. I love embroidered dish towels, and when I admired it she gave it to me to take home, and provided a plain one to wrap the temari.

This cheerful rooster is cleaning on Thursday. There are straight stitches, outline stitches, cross stitch and blanket stitch. I also really like the little crocheted edging! Thank you mom!



At one of the tourist stores I picked up this "zerape" (serape). It's not authentic, but I love the bright colors.



Hopefully I will have some stitching to show next week. I can feel the need to pick up a needle growing... I was worrying about my lack of interest but it's still there.

Vacation temari

I took along some temari-making supplies, but I was having more fun reading. I stitched this in a couple of evenings. This side is sort of a spiro-graph design. There are two 5-point stars (4/10 period?) and another band (3/10) that hits all the points. Then I worked the color changes for the stars in toward the center, and the color changes for the bands out toward the equator. It's quite impressive looking for not too much work.



This is the other side of the same temari. I attempted to copy Joan's double-5 point star. I think I know where I went wrong. My points are equidistant from each other, but I think the points should be 1/30th and 2/30ths apart from each other. I will have to try this one again.



However, instead of going home and stitching tonight, I'm on my way to the bookstore after work. You can look at what I'm reading on Shelfari, if you are interested.

Home again, Home again!

On Tuesday, April 27 we left Phoenix to drive back to Illinois. There are a lot of pictures in this post, but I wanted to include our whole trip.

Almost all the pictures in this post were taken through our car windows. (There are a couple of exceptions.) We started driving north from Phoenix, through Flagstaff, to "Monument Valley." The views out of the window were amazing; every new mile brought new wonders.

This is still northern Arizona. DH and I wonder if people every forget to look at the beauty around them they see every day?




This is Monument Valley itself. It made us feel like we were in a western movie, except for whipping down the road at 70 miles per hour in air-conditioned comfort.

We really enjoyed the travel. On the way south DH and I listened to 2 audio books, Edge of Evil and Web of Evil by J. A. Jance, about a former newscaster turned blogger Ali Reynolds. Listening to audio books, stitching, and having my husband drive is multi-tasking to a marvelous degree! On our way back home, with my parents, we listened to the 3rd book in the series, Hand of Evil, and then I read the 4th book, Cruel Intent, on DH's new "Nook."



Once we were through Monument Valley, we got on to I-70 in Utah. I think this area was the most deserted. Mountains, covered in snow, kept peeking over the horizon, west, south, north, and east. Something to look at all the time.



We spent the first evening in Moab, Utah. (This isn't where we slept, but where we ate.)



The next morning, bright and early, we took off to follow the Colorado River on Rt. 128. This is north of the Grand Canyon, so I suppose you would have to call it the "small" canyon? The road winds right beside the river, and the rock walls are amazing. The river is quite large here.







Every corner you go around was another beautiful scene. If you want to look at more pictures, please click on one of the pictures and go to my Flickr page. There are plenty.


I-70 in Colorado is gorgeous. Here's a typical scene of the road, the river, and the railroad tracks.




Continuing a little further, this (I think) was the last portion of I-70 to be completed. A lot of people were up in arms about building a freeway along this portion, because of the beauty of it, so a lot of thought, a lot of planning, and a lot of work went into fitting it into the terrain and the landscape. This is a picture taken from one of the rest areas. The windshield on the right is our vehicle, and the barely visible concrete line (above the truck) is the east-bound lane of the expressway. I think they did a really good job.


At this point, we were still by the Colorado River, and it kept getting smaller while we were climbing. All of a sudden, I noticed we were next to a different river, that was flowing in the opposite direction. We had passed the Continental Divide, even though we still had quite a bit of climbing to do.




I can see why Aspen, Telluride, and Breckenridge are so popular... the area is beautiful. The roads were dry and clear, but the mountainsides were still covered with snow. I saw a few ski-tracks, but it had been in the 60s for quite a while already, so the snow wasn't good for skiing.




There was a lot of evidence along the way of mines; mostly the tailing falling down the side of the mountain. They told us there is still a lot of silver in this area, but it's too expensive to get it out. Tourism is much more lucrative.





After the mountains we came to Denver, and this view (from west of Denver, yet) into the foothills and plains.




After everything we had seen for the past couple of days, the plains (Kansas) felt very flat and boring. We saw wind farms, oil wells, and many beautiful birds along-side the road. We stayed in Colby, Kansas; had a nice meal and a good night's sleep, and took off again the next morning. We drove through Kansas and Missouri without stopping except for rest areas and gas, and slept in Litchfield, IL that night, reaching home about noon the following day.


Besides the audio books I read several books by Lois McMaster Bujold. My audio book provider (link to come) has been encouraging me to read them for quite a while. I finally gave in, and now I want all of them! My mom calls these type of books "Harry Potter for adults." I wouldn't argue with her. I've read 4 so far, and I don't even think I've met her main character. I also read "Oath of Fealty" by Elizabeth Moon. I think this will be a second trilogy following "The Deeds of Paksenarrion" and again, I can hardly wait for the next book in the series. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that will be years away yet, I bought and read the hard cover because I couldn't wait.

I will post tomorrow about the little bit of stitching I did that I can share. I don't know when I will be able to get back to stitching... I have all these books to read!

Friday: Carefree, Arizona

On Friday we drove to Carefree, Arizona. On our way there we stopped at an outlet mall and did some shopping. I got a cute blouse, and some clothing for people who keep growing out of their things. Then we had lunch at the Horny Toad. They had some of the best apple crisp I have ever had!



After lunch we pressed onward to the main shopping area: at the corner of Easy Street and Ho Hum Road.







They think they are pretty cute! The shops were touristy, art gallerys, real estate offices, and several hair salons. This is quite an upscale area. Some of the shops are suffering from the economic down-turn. Some of the houses (that we could see from the road) were amazing.



Since this is such a layed back area, though, they keep time with a sun dial. We were there shortly after 3.





(I did have to go back to get the picture after the sun came out from behind the clouds.) This is the gnomon:





In the little plaza there is another cowboy statue. I must say, there was artwork almost everywhere you turned.





Saturday DH and my dad got in a round of golf, and I worked at catching up with all my blog reading (and writing). On Tuesday we start our trip back. Right now the plan is to go through Monument Valley! The time until then will be taken up with packing and closing the house for 6 months.

Thursday: Wickenburg

On Thursday we went to Wickenburg. The town's goal is to be as "Cowboy" as possible. I think they are doing a pretty good job at it.



The best part of our visit was the Desert Caballeros Western Museum. I was not too hopeful when we walked it; it looked like a very small space. But there was a history room with dioramas (including the dam break with a 40 foot wall of water), and an Indian artifact room, and a gems room; but the highlight of the main floor was the cowboy room. It was a collection of everything a cowboy needs for work: whips/lariats, spurs, guns, holsters, saddles, belts, bridles, etc, etc. and it was interesting!

There was an art gallery with a "Cowgirl Up!" show, all art by women. There were some lovely pieces, and all types of fine art: oils, pastels, bronzes, pencil, etc.

Then there was a whole downstairs! There was a Western town street, with a general store, a saloon, a church, a hotel, and a jeweler/photographer. There was a whole "town" house, completely furnished in the Victorian style, with a parlor, a dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and laundry room. (I hope to add pictures to this post later, DH took lots of pictures.) Then there was a "country" house that was much more rustic, with only two rooms, the kitchen/living area and the bedroom.

In the front of the museum there is a lovely statue.



This is called "Thank you for the Rain" and was quite moving. It is very large. Here's my dad comparing hand sizes:



And here's my mom admiring the statue in the little plaza around it.



As you can see it hasn't been hot here, but it has been very comfortable.



After the museum we shopped. DH was looking for a cowboy hat, but didn't find one that would fit. I can't afford any art this year, and every time a piece of jewelry appeals to me it is over my budget. On our way here the bracelets I was looking at were $550 to $1,000, and the bead work pouch I saw was over $600. We did pick up a few souvenirs, but I would love to have a real Navajo rug, or some real turquoise jewelry, or a real weaving, or a real Kachina doll. But I think it will all still be available next time we will be out here... and there's not a lot of sense in spending money on the fake stuff.

Wednesday afternoon: Art Museum

On Wednesday afternoon we went to the Phoenix Art Museum. They had an exhibit of Ansel Adams photographs. He donated all his notes, negatives, and photos to one of the universities in Phoenix, so there were some very interesting pictures. There was a series of pictures he took at Yosemite the first time he went there when he was 14 years old. They had the negative and several prints of "Moonrise over Hernandez," a very famous picture. It was interesting to see it in several versions. I think my favorite picture was of the Grand Canyon; only carved cliffs, no horizon, no foreground, and of course only black and white. Amazing!



There were more exhibits that were interesting also. This was an exhibit of 1940s fashion, with an emphasis on changes because of the war and women joining the work force. There was a whole set of uniforms, and a pattern and examples of clothing made out of parachute silk.







Then, next to that, there was a series of textiles from Indonesia, Sumatra. The gold work and the weaving were beautiful.





We also enjoyed a photography exhibit, an exhibit of Japanese teapots, and a glass of sangria.



We are enjoying our vacation.

Wednesday morning: Petroglyphs

On Wednesday morning we took a short drive to the Deer Valley Rock Art Center that has a lot of petroglyphs. These are not drawings or carvings. The dark layer on volcanic rocks has been chipped off, leaving a design in a lighter color. The older ones have been darkening over the ages with the regrowth of the dark layer. (The dark layer consists of dust, clay and lichen/bacteria "varnish" that accumulates over the years.)



In this picture you have to hunt to see the petroglyphs. I left it large so you could find additional examples. People are not allowed to climb on the rocks, but there are quail, squirrels, crows, hawks, another type of rodent, etc. It was very relaxing to walk the 1/4 mile trail.



They also had all the plants identified, so that was very helpful. This is a brittle bush, and this is what makes the desert golden when it rains. It is a very beautiful bush.



This is a Palo Verde (green stick) tree. The leaves are like needles (to keep from loosing too much water. This tree is lovely and lacy; we stopped at a mall that had these all throughout the parking area. It made the shopping even more pleasant.



This tree is mesquite. It has a compound leaf.



We also saw creosote and desert mallow, and a lovely little flower that looked like little beads on a stalk. The desert has been golden, but mom and dad say the color is already fading.

The weather has been cool for this time of year, and it even rained a little on Wednesday. Today is lovely though, and DH got in a game of golf.