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QuiltCon in the Desert

 While in Cincinnati, I left for a few days to attend QuiltCon, the Modern Quilt Guild convention, in Phoenix, Arizona, with my friend Diane. We stayed in Scottsdale, Arizona, with my friend Sheila. It was a fun time, we saw a lot of quilts, met up with some other people in our quilt guild, and saw the sights in the desert with Sheila and her husband David. Just a few highlights of that trip . . .

Mountain ridges in the distance with chollo cacti in the foreground

They have a grapefruit tree in their backyard, and a clever device for picking grapefruit—a long pole with a basket with some hooks on one side, so you can grab a fruit, it falls in the small basket, and then you can bring it down and have a tasty pink grapefruit for breakfast. We were hunter-gatherers for a few days as we went out to trap our breakfast in the picker every morning!


A grapefruit tree laden with fruit provided
our breakfast in Scottsdale

At QuiltCon in downtown Phoenix, we viewed what the vendors had for sale, tried to win prizes, and saw a LOT of quilts. The Best of Show was Sacajawea, based on a statue that stands up on a hill overlooking the Missouri River in Chamberlain, South Dakota. The quilt shows the front view of the statue on the front, and the back view of the statue on the back.


Front and back views of the "Best of Show" quilt

A shout-out to our fellow Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild member, Fran, and her husband Tony--they were also staying in Scottsdale and gave us a ride into Phoenix to the quilt show, and back again that evening. It was a long day, about nine hours to see everything. There were hundreds of quilts, one more amazing than the next. It’s kind of colorful quilt overload to move through all the ones on display, but this one definitely caught my eye:


Having a "blast" at the trailer park

We also had a blast on an easy hike up to see saguaro cacti (and prickly pear, teddy bear, chollo, and other cactus types) north of Scottsdale at Cave Creek. With a view of the McDowell Mountains in the distance, and folks on horseback wandering by, we really had a western adventure, including a stop in the “old frontier town” part of Cave Creek.


Three Sisters saguaro cacti and playing with snakes at the park headquarters

We also stopped by the Maricopa Regional Park headquarters and saw some snakes and owls, and got some stickers and whistles because they were having an open house. In Cave Creek, we ate brunch for lunch at a restaurant that looked out over the mountains and saguaros. On our hike, we also saw a famous saguaro known as “the Michelin Man.”

Sheila, Julie, and Diane pose with the "Michelin Man"

Every day is sunny in Scottsdale, and the evenings have lovely sunsets, too. We went to Scottsdale's city center on Saturday night, and walked along the canal that runs through town before having dinner at Farm & Craft, which was delicious and probably at least kind of good for us. 

On the canal that runs through Scottsdale

On the last day we were there, we got morning tour tickets for Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and workshop/school for his take on modern architecture. The location is amazing, the rambling building is quite a marvel, and the surroundings are beautiful. Sheila had been there before so she sat and sketched the entrance fountain while Diane and I took the tour through the buildings. And, perhaps the highlight of the tour, I sat at Frank Lloyd Wright’s drawing board.


Taliesin West, the Prow Pool echoing the shape of
the mountains beyond the compound


Frank Lloyd Wright’s drawing board

We also saw a roadrunner out near Taliesin, but those things are fast—I didn’t get a photo of it. Fortunately the cacti don’t move as fast; I have a LOT of pictures of them.

Other sights on the trip included Camelback Mountain, which you can see from Sheila and David’s house, and a walk around the neighborhood, where we saw coots, ducks, a bald eagle, and a lot of citrus trees. The neighborhood is called McCormick Ranch, and it was once the cattle ranch of the McCormick family of Chicago, the ones that invented the thresher and owned the Chicago Tribune. Apparently, like the Taft Ranch in Texas, those northerners liked to come down to the southwest and lead the cowboy life occasionally.

A partial view of Camelback Mountain

On Sunday evening, we headed home and saw a lot less snow on the ground as we flew overhead (when we went out, almost the whole country we crossed was snow covered.) Diane left the next day for a trip to Florida; we will be heading that way in a few days ourselves. But Phoenix/Scottsdale was warm and sunny, and a very interesting place to visit with genial hosts and much to see!






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