I Wasn’t Expecting A Ribbon

We met our friends Caryl and Jerry while cowboy shooting in Montana—at that time they had a home in Montana and a lot here in North Ranch.  They have since moved to Arizona full time purchasing a beautiful spot of desert just outside Congress.  Caryl has always been an inspiration to me as a quilter and I’ve longarm quilted a couple pieces for her.  She is a perfectionist and it shows especially in her “winner” quilt she entered in the quilt show--

Caryl pieced this beautiful quilt and then quilted it on her domestic sewing machine—she was almost finished I think last year when her quilting lines started to wander.  Rather than just let it go, Caryl ripped out the quilting on the whole quilt and started over.  She received first place in her category and the Hall of Fame Award—a definte feather in her cap—congratulations Caryl!!

Caryl’s “Where’s The Grass” quilt depicting their donkey Burrito won a second place ribbon.

At Ellie’s birthday party last night hosted by Gina I was surprised when Pat showed me photos of my little “Winter Solstice” quilt wearing a ribbon!!!  I received a second place ribbon in my category—surprise!!

Well, the weather has been nice lately but it is about to change and not for the better—much cooler temps, rain and possibly even a little snow—YIKES!!  Michael has finished the routine maintenance on our CanAm saving us a bundle of money—once again, I sure am glad I have a handy cowboy!  I started painting again today doing some of the trim painting in the master bathroom. 

Vulture Peak Patchers Quilt Show

Early Friday morning I was heading to Wickenburg again to work my shift as a “white glove” lady when the quilt show opened at 9am.  At any quilt show I’ve ever attended, visitors are not allowed to touch the quilts—a guild member wearing a “white glove” roams throughout the displayed quilts helping visitors view the quilt back or detail—that was my job.

Attendance at the quilt show was brisk and steady—a good thing as the $5 entry fee funds guild activities during the year.  It was fun to hear the comments about the quilts and each time I wandered down a row of quilts I saw something new—here are some photos I took today with the camera.

This is Burrito, a donkey belonging to our friends Jerry and Caryl—if you look closely, there is a photo of the “real” Burrito in the lower left side of the quilt.  Caryl created this beautiful art quilt using Burrito as inspiration.

This was one of my favorites in the show I think because of the beautiful quilting—the quilt is a non-traditional log cabin pattern.

Another stunning Bargello quilt with beautiful quilting.

The pattern is Grandmother’s Flower Garden and it was quilted using a spider web type design with a spider brooch pinned in the middle of the spider web. 

Geri and Nancy came to the quilt show and when my shift was over we headed over to the Local Press Sandwich Shop recommended by Al and Kelly—our sandwiches were delicious! 

Back home Michael was out and about doing maintenance on the CanAm when I was bitten by the furniture rearranging bug.  Last night during the birthday party the ladies of the group ended up seated in the living room and we were discussing my off center furniture arrangement—time for a change.  I didn’t even involve the husband—didn’t want to hear, “I’m only moving it once!!”  I pushed and pulled moving sofa and loveseat but still didn’t like the way it looked—sent Donna a text and she came to rescue me—now it looks great!! 

The cowboy is taking a painting class tonight up at the clubhouse leaving Emmi and me to fend for ourselves. 

Quilts And A Birthday Party

Tomorrow our dear friend Ellie celebrates a birthday and tonight we hosted a party for Ellie—Michael and I met Ellie and her husband Jim in Tucson in 2008—we’ve been close friends since that time.  They have been to our home in Montana and boondocked with us in the Arizona desert one winter for two months—a major miracle as before that time Ellie was a died in the wool pavement princess!  Ellie and Jim purchased a home in North Ranch last year and while they still travel  in their motorhome, the majority of their time is spent here.  Ellie is very involved in line dancing activities at North Ranch.

We enjoyed a fabulous meal if I do say so myself—Donna and Barry brought the delicious appetizer—homemade spinach dip.  Geri brought a broccoli casserole that would make anyone a broccoli eater!  I supplied the brisket, Brenda’s cheesy potatoes (they were great Brenda!!), and a lettuce salad with apples, pecans and Jeane’s poppy seed dressing—YUM!!!  Ellie’s birthday cake was a fresh apple cake from my Little Rock, Arkansas Junior League cookbook.  I love to cook and I love to have friends enjoy what I cook—a wonderful evening! 

Friday and Saturday our local quilt guild, the Vulture Peak Patchers is having a quilt show in Wickenburg, an every other year event.  I worked this morning helping to hang the quilts and there are some breathtaking ones!!  All I had with me today was the iPhone--

Stunning!

The guild arranges to exhibit Hoffman Challenge quilts for each of their quilt shows.  Hoffman is a fabric manufacturer and each year chooses a fabric and coordinates for the challenge—“The Hoffman Challenge Fabrics must be used in the body of the quilt, or for appliqué quilts, the Challenge Fabric must be used in more than one spot.”  Quilting artist create quilts using their interpretation of the chosen fabric.  Winners of the Hoffman Challenge receive various cash/product prizes.  Their quilts are then placed in one of many traveling exhibits like the one we are enjoying in Wickenburg—this quilt is from the Hoffman Challenge 2015-my favorite.

Life is good, really good—tomorrow it is back to the quilt show for me and I will take the camera!

Home To North Ranch

We rolled into our driveway at about 9:30am this morning having left the Brenda desert behind.  I wanted to be back in time to lead the yoga class—thus the early desert departure!  I was so glad to wake up this morning—I don’t dream and if I do dream I rarely remember what those dreams were about.  But last night I dreamed we moved to New York City, lived in a huge, gorgeous apartment and when I had a flat tire a nice policeman changed it for me—now interpert that one!!  Weird!

Monday we met Geri and Larry’s friends—Claudia and John—they have a park model in Brenda for the winter months, living in Prescott the rest of the year.  They ride the desert almost every day and know all the trails well.  One of our stops was an old cabin which has become a spot to “leave your mark.”  Trinkets, bottles, very interesting laundry, a visitor log book--

Onward to Dripping Springs where we found pools of water and petroglyphs.  It’s always such a pleasure to find water in the desert—I like to imagine all the critters coming in to drink at night.

Dripping Springs was our lunch stop then we pointed the machines toward home stopping to ride up one of the tallest peaks in the area where cell towers are located—3300 feet elevation.

Quite the view!

The guys cooked last night, taking us to a Mexican food restaurant nearby—we had a wonderful time in the Brenda area—a great outing and it is now so good to be home in North Ranch.  Gina and Rollie are here visiting—it’s been too long since we’ve seen them!

Parker, climbing the rocks with ease on his four feet!

The motorhome is unloaded and the last load of laundry is in the dryer—life is good!

Art In The Desert

We have had such a good time boondocking in the desert—ATVing, visiting, eating and today we took a road trip.  Barry and Donna knew of a spot within driving distance of our camp with spectacular rock art—and not the rock art of Native American fame.  Someone led Barry and Donna to this special area in the desert last year, explaining that an elderly Canadian couple began decorating the desert using only rocks when her health began to fail.  Previously these people had been hikers, hiking as much as 20 miles in a day.  When hiking became too much for her, she designed the rock art, he gathered the stones.  The results are incredible, life like and real.  The most amazing thing is how perfect the area is—each piece is surrounded by a stone “fence.”  The paths are lined with stones and nothing is disturbed, nothing—for this reason we are thinking it is a spot few people know about—it isn’t easy to reach, takes a bit of hiking but it was still amazing to us how perfect the area is. 

I took 50 photos—I won’t bore you with all of them, just some of my favorites. 

Look at the detail in the eagle, and remember, this is all done with small stones.

Taking a nap/recovering from hangover—whiskey bottle in hand.

We enjoyed some delicious burgers while out and about plus ice cream later on in the afternoon.  Geri has another ride planned for Monday—who knows what else we will find.  Geri took the next photo—a great group shot of all the gang—I love it!

We’ve Been Busy

Happy Birthday to my dear sister Ann—they had snow in Arkansas today on her birthday so she had a work snow day—sort of a birthday present! 

Thursday was ride day and at 9am we were all saddled up and ready to head out with Geri leading the way.  Ten rigs and sixteen people—a beautiful day, gorgeous country and challenging riding—what more could we ask??

First stop was to see petroglyphs and a canyon where early Native American people may have resided. 

Geocache success for Sandy and Lyn.

Lunch with a view—see the eagles’ eye? 

Can you see the squirrel shape in the rocks??

A huge pile of these “striped” rocks—banded rhyolite—we think—it looked like ribbon candy!

Today Michael and Emmi went out with the riding group.  Donna, Cathy and I went to Quartzsite for the day.  When the riders returned we all gathered at Donna and Barry’s for a great happy hour.  Here are some photos Michael took today:

Poor Barry—On the Thursday ride he was in trouble for not bringing Donna any of the “ribbon candy” rock.  In one spot today they found some gorgeous rock samples so I think everyone shamed Barry into using Fred’s rock pick and he brought Donna a great rock—maybe not the kind of “rock” she had in mind, but a beautiful rock none the less!

And there was this beautiful sunrise this morning--

Boondocking In Brenda, Arizona

And not without incident!  Tuesday morning I stayed behind to lead the yoga group while the cowboy led the ATV gang to our boondocking spot near the small community of Brenda, AZ.  It took two Chevrolet pickups to get our motorhome to its parking spot—seems the cowboy hesitated when he should have given it the throttle!  The gang was able to stop Barry and Donna before they made the same mistake leading them to more graveled, solid ground.  Some of the ground here is fine, soft sand/dirt, not like over at Bouse and Quartzsite where everything is hard packed.  At least this time we didn’t have to call the Good Sam Roadside crew!

I made it to Brenda just in time to join the ATV ride into the surrounding desert—warm day, partly sunny skies—perfect!

Mike and Cathy arrived while we were all out riding—can you guess where this is leading—yep, another case of stopping instead of giving it the gas!  Their motorhome is much shorter and is a gas rig so they were able to use boards and a shovel then pull the coach out with their own pickup.  Mike and Cathy were un-stuck and all set up when we came back from the ride. 

Here’s Mike moving the trailer closer to their rig, he unhooked the trailer while they were trying to extract the motorhome from the sand. 

Donna was kind enough to make taco soup for everyone to enjoy for supper—she still isn’t ATV riding, letting her ribs heal a little longer.  The soup was delicious and we enjoyed sitting by the campfire for a while before the dropping night temps drove us in. 

Wednesday was Quartzsite day—the RV show is going on this week and we all decided to head on over to see if we could find a bargain—the cowboy came home with a new hat and new sunglasses, I found some of those cool chip bag clip things—that’s all the bargains we found!  While the big tent was crowded, it didn’t seem as crowded as when we first came to Quartzsite several years ago. 

It’s kind of fun to be back in the desert boondocking—utilizing our solar and water conservation skills.  More adventures to come!

Just three of the rigs here, there are six rigs total, Larry and Geri, Tom and Sandy, Roger and Lyn (Canadians visiting Larry and Geri), Mike and Cathy plus Barry and Donna.  Oh, and us.