TANQUE VERDE RANCH

 Tanque Verde Ranch, outside of Tucson, is a beautiful, wonderful place.  I was sharing a room that had two double beds and a nice shared bathroom.  My roommate Michelle and I got a long remarkably well (I was worried about that).  She was in a different workshop than me, about watercolor.  The weather was perfect during my stay, in the low 70's as a high.  A few mornings were a bit chilly, but it warmed up fast.

There are over a 100 horses here.  You can go on guided trail rides, take basic riding lessons and even groom a horse, all for extra charges.  There are also lots of other paid activities: yoga, meditation, axe throwing, fishing, pickleball, hiking and swimming, or relaxing in the jacuzzi.

The central area, between some of the rooms has a lot of trees that provide cooling shade.

This was our room, number 12

GOING TO TUCSON

 I'm enrolled in a workshop with Lisa Binkley, "Beads on Cloth", through Madeline Island School of Arts in Tucson, Arizona at the famous Tanque Verde Ranch.  It starts tonight with a welcome dinner at 6pm.  I took a flight from Seattle to Tucson, and was greeted with a shuttle to the ranch along with 6 other participants that had arrived that day.

Once our flight rose above the clouds and rain it was a beautifully sunny ride the entire flight.  We flew over the Grand Canyon, too.

After we arrived at the Ranch and checked into our rooms, everyone met in the dining room for a Welcome Dinner.  There are 4 other MISA workshops here, including one with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably.

IMPROV THE FAN BLOCK

 Brave Patch and Sherri Lynn Wood have started another Improv That Block Squad session.  Today was the first workshop.   Our first block is the Fan block.  Sherri showed us the basics about making the block and we broke out into little groups and talked about the block.  We did some drawings and made some blocks.

I put mine up on the wall with Tumblers and the Nine-patches I made at the beginning of the year.

  

GARDEN CLUB QUILTED

 I got back to work on finishing the quilting on the Garden Club quilt today.  Right away I see there's another problem on that left side, too much fabric in the border.  (This happens when you don't measure the quilt top across the middle and cut the border strip to fit,  and instead just sew it on and cut it off at the end once it's sewn on - don't do that). 

So, I took another dart in it, and continued on.  I will applique that down and remove the basting stitches once it's done.

I was able to get all of the quilting done today, and it's off the machine.

LOADED BIG QUILT

 I loaded the big quilt I'm calling Garden Club onto the longarm today.  This is one of the quilts my friend, Mary sent for me to quilt and finish.  This quilt top was donated to her small quilt group to help raise funds for their group.  I volunteered to help by quilting some.

This quilt top is about 88" by 88".  It's not square.  I noticed when finding the middle of each side that one of the sides is 4" longer than it's opposite.  And it has other problems.  I think someone may have washed the top, which isn't a good idea with an unfinished quilt top.

Here's some photos of some of the things going on on the back of this quilt top:

STITCH GODDESS ALL DONE

 I needed to watch a how-to video to learn the Organic Blanket Stitch that I wanted to put on my Stitch Goddess in progress.  It took me a few practice tries before I understood the stitch and felt confident enough to try it on the Goddess.   It was tricky because the area I was doing was a weird shape, but I got it done.  She's complete and beautiful.

IT'S A STITCH GODDESS

 I got enough embroidery done on the Stitch Goddess to be able to sew the two sides together.  Then I stuffed her and sewed on the bottom.

I used wool and and some walnut shells in the bottom to give her some weight.

I plan to stitch some more in the blank areas.