Bus Trip to Phoenix

Thursday morning I left the house at 5:15am to meet the ladies so we could car-pool to the bus pick-up site.  There was 51 ladies piled on the big tour bus and we hit the road at 6am.  Our destination was Phoenix for the Quilting, Crafting and Sewing Festival. 

After about 90 minutes of driving, we pulled into a MacDonald's for breakfast and while eating were informed that the bus had some problems and there would be a delay.  Finally - after about 2 hours we were back on the road with hopes that the bus could be fixed in Phoenix once we got there. 

We spent about 6 hours shopping at the Festival and even took in a seminar on projects in the hoop.  The bus wasn't able to be fixed but they told us it was OK to use for our return trip to Yuma but we wouldn't have any Air-Conditioning.  We left Phoenix at 5pm and it was very HOT in the bus.  The windows don't open so we all had our overhead air vents open which didn't help too much.  We luckily had a huge cooler of bottled water in ice that we drank and ...  Oh poor Evelyn! 

Because of our delay getting to Phoenix - we stayed an extra hour and left right smack in the middle of rush hour.  Don't you just hate traffic? 

After a stop on the way for dinner - we managed to get back home to Yuma by 9pm.  It was a long day for sure.

Two very lazy days.

Because my back, hips, shoulders etc. have been really bad the last few days, I didn't go to quilting group on Monday or do much of anything else yesterday.  We did go for a drive in the afternoon and picked up an ice cream cone.  I managed to take a couple of pictures to share. 

 These are our new 'wall hugger' recliners for the RV.  I Love them!

 The two blocks for my Mystery Quilt.

 Big Cactus!

 A funky golf cart.

Big Boys and their Toys.

So - Lou and quite a few of the other old guys in this park really like to 'play' with their Remote Control cars/trucks etc.  At the south end of the resort they have 2 tracks.  One is a dirt track with lots of curves, jumps etc. and the other is a paved oval track.  Lou has been going down to the track every couple of days and is really enjoying meeting others who love their toys.  He has been to the local RC store called "Fast Eddies" a few times which is only a short drive away and has now ordered another vehicle which is a Rock Crawler.  I think it is a great thing to get him outside rather than just sitting around. I will have to go down to the track with him one day and get picks of him with his car. Here are a few pictures that he took of some of the vehicles. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a different kind of car that I found interesting. 

Friday - stitching day at the Clubhouse.

Fridays are machine embroidery in the morning and quilting in the afternoon.  Donna had asked me to show some of the ladies how I made my fabric postcards so I gave a little demo.  I made an Easter card for Jade but I won't post a picture because I like them to be a surprise.  Here is a photo of the one Donna made. 

Here are a few more pics from the sewing ladies and a few Show 'N Tell too!  After Show 'N Tell the ladies worked on the next step of the Mystery Quilt but I decided to work on mine at home. 

 

 

 

Wednesday & Thursday

Wednesday morning was spent doing laundry and some sewing.  I managed to trim all my flying geese for the Mystery Quilt and trimmed up my other SBS blocks so they're ready to put together into a table topper.  I just need to figure out what fabric to put with them - maybe some hearts.  In the afternoon, we headed over to Donna's to learn how to play Pinochle.  It is a great game but very involved and a lot to learn.  I think we will need a few more lessons before I feel totally comfortable playing it.

 

This morning we headed over to the outdoor market to hopefully get a couple of new recliners for the RV.  We found 2 we liked at a good price and also picked up 2 outdoor recliners as well.  I also picked up a deck of Pinochle cards and a few other items that we needed.  I love this market.  It's huge and has everything you could possibly need and the prices are great.

 

 

 

 Here's our 2 new outdoor recliners.

This & that...

Once again, today started out quite cloudy.  We headed out early to run some errands and do a little shopping.  I stopped into Joann's for some more stabilizer and a smaller rotary cutter ruler to keep in the RV.  I also dropped into Michael's for some more cotton yarn for knitted dishcloths.  We got back home early afternoon and then I sat down to do a little sewing.  I managed to finish sewing all the 'flying geese' together and started trimming them to size.  The smaller ruler makes it much easier to trim them.  After I was tired of cutting I decided to kick back outside and do some knitting and take some pics for the blog.  The first 2 are of my stitch-outs for the Emb. Group January class.  Yvonne sent them to me to try and I think they turned out really nice. 

 

The next 4 pictures are of some SBS Valentine designs I

decided to make into a table topper for the kitchen table.

 

 

 

This last picture is of the Graperfruit on the tree beside our RV.

 

Quilting Day at the Clubhouse

This morning I packed up my machine and fabrics and headed to the Clubhouse for 9:30.  Today was the start of the Mystery Quilt and I already had most of my fabrics pre-cut.  There were about 20 ladies working on the Mystery Quilt and another 20+ working on their own projects.  It's really nice to see the variety of colors the ladies have chosen for this project.  This is Betty demonstrating how to make 'flying geese' for the mystery. 

These are the 2 fabrics I am using for my dark and light in the Mystery Quilt.  I am also using a yellow for my medium.

This is a small portion of the raffle quilt the group made for charity. 

Here are a few quilts from Show 'N Tell.

 

 

 

 

 

A trip to the Market Place.

First thing this morning, Lou and I headed out the door to the local outdoor market.  Everyone in Yuma talks about this market so we decided that since it was a cooler, cloudy morning - it was a good day to check it out.  It is open Thursday through Sunday from 9am to 4pm.  We walked up and down 3 aisles and bought quite a few things before I had enough.  We will return again to walk the rest of the aisles.  

Desert Lily Quilters Show

This morning, Donna, Marie, Evelyn and I headed out before 9am to go to the Desert Lily Quilters Show which was held at the Yuma Civic Centre.  It was a really nice show with approximately 15 vendors and a Hoffman Challenge.  Donna and Marie did a little shopping but I didn't find anything that I just couldn't live without.  Here are a few pictures of some of the quilts on display. 

 

 

 

 

It's been quite a busy week.

The week started with Monday being "Quilting Day" in the park so my friend Donna picked me and all my sewing stuff up at 9:20 and we headed up to the clubhouse.  The Quilting Group in this park is huge.  There must have been more than 40 ladies working on various personal projects and a few of the ladies were working on a raffle quilt for charity.  I chose to work on some machine embroidery.  Here are a few pics I managed to take when I wasn't sewing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday morning I went up to the clubhouse to sit in on an Embird embroidery digitizing class and download my emails etc.  Every Tuesday morning a group of 6-8 ladies get together to learn the program and see what creative designs they can come up with. 

Tuesday afternoon, 5 of us ladies hopped into Marie's minivan and headed out to a couple of quilt shops.  The first one was just a few blocks from the RV park and was called Gramma Jo's.  It is a really nice store with lots of beautiful fabrics.  Have a look for yourself. 

 

 

 

 

After leaving Gramma Jo's we went to a place called the The Quilting Bee.  I didn't find this place too interesting as I think her main focus was the long-arm quilting in the back section of this warehouse store.  From there we went to Joann's but much of the selection was depleted with most things 50% off and it was day 3.  I did manage to buy 3 fabrics for a Mystery Quilt starting next Monday.

 

Wednesday, after spending an hour at the clubhouse to download and answer emails etc. Lou and I headed out to find a veterinary clinic where we could buy some cat food for Puddy.  We managed to find one not too far away and then stopped at an RV supply store for a replacement light bulb.  We came back home, I hand washed my new fabrics and hung them out to dry and then we just kicked back outside for a relaxing afternoon. The high temperature each day is usually 78F-80F with a slight breeze and it's really nice to sit out in the shade. 

 

Thursday morning I spent an hour at the clubhouse downloading emails etc. and then we went searching for a store called Fry's.  They are the same company as Fred Meyer so thought it was worth checking out.  We found the store and did a little grocery shopping before heading back home.  In the afternoon, I headed over to Donna's to finish pressing and cutting up my fabric for the mystery quilt.

 

This morning I had Lou load up all my sewing stuff in the back of the truck and he dropped me off at the Clubhouse.  Friday is another sewing day so while I was up there - Lou was busy contacting Centurylink to finally get us connected to the internet.  Apparently UPS had tried to deliver the modem earlier in the week but had the wrong site number.  He had to go to the UPS depot to pick it up and was back home and hooked up within no time at all.  Thank goodness - high speed wifi at the RV.  Here are a few pictures from today's sewing group.