On the road again

Some of you – maybe most of you-- know that we have been “on the road” since September 8.  We needed to go to a mission’s conference as well as visit a couple other churches to give a report of our activities in Poland.

I scheduled blog posts up until I had planned to arrive down here at Quilted Twins’ headquarters in FL. While I read of one blogger who blogs from her phone, I simply can’t imagine. My phone and I are gaining an understanding, but I’ve not spent enough time using my phone to get that comfortable with it.

A road sign between Longmont, CO and Denver on Highway 287.

I’m here now!

So…have I had time to do any quilting since we flew out of Poland on Sept. 8?

No.

But I did mention quilting in a Q & A at the mission’s conference and I had a lady come up and mention that she was a quilter.  (We find each other, don’t we?)

Route 66 and Diner fabrics I found in Arizona

She volunteered to take me to some area quilt shops. Apparently, there are about 8 really nice quilt shops ones in the Phoenix valley area.  I only went to two of them with her plus I visited a third by myself. I also had to go to Walmart a few times, so I looked at the fabric there – but except for the area fabrics such as football and baseball teams they tend to have the same fabrics all over.  Plus, I wasn’t at Walmart for the fabrics – it was usually something that we needed for existence—

I had gone in one quilt shop in Colorado and found out I was too late to pick up a Row By Row pattern – so I didn’t go to the second quilt shop I had hoped to go to in order to get up the pattern. (GRR).

Arizona and native American fabrics I bought.  

So, knowing what my sis has down here in FL, why would I even go into a quilt shop? Well, they are pretty neat, for one thing. I picked up 2 patterns also – one in a shop in Gilbert, AZ and one in a shop in Tempe, AZ – one for a quilt and one for a bag.

I decided to make it easier on myself and ONLY consider buying specialty fabric – so I looked for “Arizona” (and “Colorado”) themed fabric. The one shop I went to in CO didn’t have a special spot for their fabric and didn’t have any mountain themed fabric! (Can you imagine – I was on the front range of the Rocky Mountains) but I found some National Parks fabric there.

But in Arizona…I found some Route 66 fabric and diner fabric, some beautiful Arizona fabric and some Native Indian motif fabric.

Truly beautiful Arizona fabric.  Before we chose a mission board that was based in Arizona, i didn't really know that the desert was a beautiful place. Taking the time to visit and be there in Arizona and other desert places has shown me that it really is!

Oh yes…while in Colorado, we drove past Arapahoe Road several times in the 4 days we were there. I had to drive since my husband’s leg was in a brace and he couldn’t drive yet – so I asked him to get a picture of the sign. He graciously did that for me once while we were stopped at the light at Arapahoe Road.  When I named my pattern, I had searched and thought I found that there was no “e” on the word.  I guess I was wrong!

Anyway..  I’ve made my way back to FL while my husband went to see his family in AK. We don’t have enough time in the states this time to do both – and we both took these trips with “miles” meaning they cost us about $11 round trip, for the Delta fee plus miles. So, I’ll be writing the next few days from Florida – the QT headquarters.

So, I’m just checking in. I’ve gotten over jet lag, managed to recover from the stress of watching my family go through Hurricane Irma and now – a week long in Arizona of being “on” – am ready for a few days of buckling down and helping my mom and sister however I can be used.

Have a great day!

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Oh, and it isn't really written by Rachael- I'm just using her computer set up so it thinks Rachael is writing. I'll have to figure out how to change that!