Happy February!

 I'm sorry for those of you who are back East or in Canada because it's frippin' cold! Today it's 83+ degrees which is about 10 degrees above normal. I know, in these times there is a lot to consider that does not seem to be normal. I'm just talking about temperature at the moment. 

January 23, Bus Trip to Ontario (California) Convention Center for the Road2CA quilt show. It's several days, but we went on Friday. The place is huge with many vendors and quilts on exhibit. I did not buy a $6,000.00 sewing machine. I did not buy three spools of cotton thread for $60. 

As you enter the building, there are many quilts hung above on the ceiling. One was mostly browns and some oranges and it was obviously a Thanksgiving quilt with a prominent turkey in the middle. It was hung sideways. I don't know if it was a goof, but the turkey didn't seem to mind.

I don't know if this red and white quilt was a challenge (where they give you a theme and/or color scheme using one company's fabric) or not. If so, there would have been a long row in all red. I went up and down the aisles so many times that I can't remember.

This was definitely a challenge celebrating Route 66 which begins in Chicago and goes West to California. Every once in a while I go o Route 66 during my cross country trip. I don't take it too much because it's a lot slower than the newer routes. But it does have my favorite Route 66 Casino (in New Mexico, I think.)

Celebrating the USA's 250th birthday

I did not see the title of this challenge but there was a LOT of yellow. I love yellow!

And how gorgeous is this? I love it and am amazed by the creator's skill and talent.

I especially liked seeing the desert flora. What a good job of capturing the different plants!

Another spectacular 'I thought it was a photo' quilt!

This was 3D and so impressive. Someone actually took out a roll of fabric from the basket. It was a white glove lady, the only ones authorized to touch the quilts.

I love me a still life. Does it qualify as a still life with the man there? He's sitting still.

These were illustrating "Wind." The one on the right has a big blob of white that really looks like it's blowing in the wind.

I loved this one because it reminded me of Cape Cod. Although they do NOT have barbed wire on the beaches there!

I don't know why, but I have a big soft spot for elephants, especially baby elephants. I've been following elephant rescue ranches on Face Book and it's so funny to see baby elephants playing with their trunks or rolling in the grass. They really have fun playing like other babies.

These are from the theme "Abyss." I had no idea that meant underwater, but I learn something new everyday.  The jellies below (also a favorite) have sparkles imbedded.

January 25. These are the flowers at church. We don't really have an altar. There's a podium and the flowers are under the movie screen that has the words to some of the hymns.

February 3. This is the quilt that I donated today to "Philanthropy." It named itself "Stripes" in my head. Treese machine quilted it for me at a cut rate.

I am working on the Elvis quilt. It will be my first (larger that a table topper) machine quilted. The backing has many pictures of Elvis Presley on it. That fabric and the batting were donated.

After the meeting today, The Lunch Bunch (5 of us) had a yummy lunch at the Olive Garden in Palm Desert. We also had nice conversations. One woman is trying to arrange her birthday party next Christmas. She lives in Canada and they want to go somewhere warm. She's deciding if she will bring them to her house in Palm Desert. There will be a total of 14 people! She has put her foot down and said wherever they go (Cancoun, Palm Desert, Belize?), it has to be a direct flight from Calgary. And it sounded like she's footing the whole bill! She mentioned that at least one of the grandkids has a significant other. I would make him pay!

So I will leave you with this little video I saw on FB today. There was a golden retriever looking directly at the camera listening to Mom who is saying, "I opened the door for a delivery driver and you raced outside, jumped into the car through the open door into the backseat where there was a baby in a car seat. And you stole one of his McNuggets!" I'm glad I didn't have to apologize to the driver, lol!

Scary Times

 1/19/2026

I'm watching the evening news and there was a 100 car pile up in a blizzard in Michigan. 12 people injured, all expected to recover.

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BUT tonight, just before 6 p.m., we experienced an earthquake. Originally they said it was 5.1 on the Richter Scale, but it has been down graded to 4.6. There were 3 aftershocks which I didn't feel at all. The epicenter was 12 miles northeast of Indio. It was scary to feel my chair rocking. It was preceded by "thunder."    

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I haven't been able to find out if the rumor is true that Denmark is trying to buy California. 

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Yesterday Mom and I went to the Frances Stevens Park in Palm Springs to see an art show. This is the same park with the kinetic water sculpture where they set up the Christmas tree. Here are a couple of pictures from there.

Sorry, I forgot to get the artist's name.

The Rancho Super Car Wash pink elephant sign in Rancho Mirage, California is a beloved mid-century icon, originally from Seattle's Elephant Super Car Washes, brought to the desert in 1966 by the Fromme family, becoming a nostalgic landmark cherished by locals, and recently received historic designation and restoration thanks to Preservation Mirage and community efforts. 

It's still a working carwash, by the way. The caption above is from a google search. 

This alabaster stone was mined at the Anza Borrego desert and then smoothed and sculpted with tools.

The large colorful piece is public art. There was a sign to please not climb on it.

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Did I show you this sunset before? I really

 like it.

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I only have a short way to go in reading Cave of Bones by Anne Hillerman. I mentioned to one of the women at the Quilt Club that I liked the original books by Tony Hillerman (her father) and this woman brought me the book. I thought that was super nice!

A book I should get, but I don't know if I will: Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds. It's what Bloom in the Desert is using for their book club. Unfortunately, I have become lazy and watching too much TV to read much.

I really am enjoying Will Trent, High Intelligence, and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Holly Hunter (the Starfleet Academy Chancellor) is one of my favorite actresses. The show also has Paul Giacometti and Tig Notaro in it. Of course, you have to like SciFi, which Mom does not. I like Tig's sense of humor when she does her standup routines.

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That's about it. Although I found out I can make a passable shepherd's pie. Actually, it was yummy. I may try to remember how to make a meatloaf -- the idea of a meatloaf sandwich sounds good to me. I get tired of cooking the same things all of the time. Tomorrow I'm going to pick some lemons and make lemon chicken.

I hope you all are having a great time. Please try to stay well -- so many people I know have gotten that awful cold. Cheers, Tina

Early Morning Musings

 Good morning! What do you do at 4:30 a.m. when your body thinks it's done sleeping? You write a blog post!

It has been a whirlwind of a week with Emily, Deb and Paul here for a week. They left yesterday morning and all made it safely back to Boston. Whew! Travel has been a bit chaotic lately, as you may know, but they didn't have any problems. Emily bunked in with me and it's kind of fun having a roommate.

Yesterday, after they left, I continued on to the Sew What sale (for the Coachella Valley Quilt Guild, hosted by The Lunch Bunch). Wow, there were a lot of donations of fabric and notions! The lobby area, separate from the big sale room was a zillion balls of yarn for sale. The colors were enticing but, luckily, I am such a lousy knitter that I was not tempted.

Speaking of quilts ... This is my latest Philanthropy donation.

You may have seen this quilt before while in progress. It is my first bigger quilt that I machine quilted. I have been sending them out to be long armed quilted, but that is too expensive for me to give away. I bought another machine last year ($35) and the ladies here helped me put on a walking foot and I was finally able to quilt it in Amherst! I hand sewed the binding here. Orange still is not my favorite, but it was donated fabric as was the mostly black backing. I had the greys and peach fabric. The Lunch Bunch donated the batting. They buy a huge roll of batting and as long as you're donating the quilt to Philanthropy, it's free. 

{The yellow quilt in the background is my mother's quilt that I made for her in 2002, when she was still snowbirding it. When she was back in Quincy, she had the citrus colors of Palm Springs with her. There are all kinds of citrus trees planted by original condo owners here. The back is covered with family pictures over the years, so she had us with her when she was in Palm Springs. That quilt was longarmed by Timna Tarr who is quite a quilting celebrity. She has designed fabric, written a book, and won many quilting awards, including being the main star at the Houston Quilt Show.}

Thanksgiving was a lovely, mostly quiet, affair with our friend Elaine. I say mostly quiet because as we were still sitting at the dinner table chatting, we suddenly heard, "BOOM!" My first thought was that a car had hit the building. It soon dawned on me that it had been an earthquake. As Mom was saying, "It's all right, it's over now ..." the silent aftershock appeared as if we were sitting on rolling waves. It was over quickly, but I was definitely scared. Apparently there were 3 earthquakes, the largest being 3.8 on the Richter scale. The locals barely notice such activity. I had no idea that there are many different sounds associated with earthquakes because I had only experienced silent tremors. Some people told me they have heard a moving train sound.

Sunsets can be spectacular in the desert. This photo was taken as we entered Trilusa in Cathedral City for an amazingly delicious dinner of Italian cuisine.

Friday night we went to the Palm Springs tree lighting ceremony. The hot chocolate was better than ever with whipped cream, marshmallows (which I declined), and shaved chocolate (which I will always gladly accept!). The cookies were festive and divine as always. I limited myself to one madeleine with sprinkles. Sorry, no cookie pictures. 

I asked Mom to show off her red blouse. The 63 degree temperature was chilly for her so we were glad she wore her parkah!

Emily and Deb had a good time with us at the Frances Stevens Park in PS for the tree lighting. Paul was camera shy,  but he was there with us. Afterward we had a delicious dinner at the Gastropub.

Speaking of sweet things, I couldn't resist taking a picture of this dessert at Willy's restaurant. At this point, we had eaten so many wonderful meals that we shared two desserts for the five of us. After the tree lighting, Mom and I shared a sandwich -- restaurants give you too much food! At every meal, we ended up bringing half home as left overs. It did make it easy for lunch, but I felt as if all I did was eat! 

Consequently, last night we had mini won tons in chicken broth. No frills, no leftovers! (Insert laughing emoji here.)

The girls completed a thousand piece puzzle! It's by Sandra Boynton.

Did I mention that we went to the Cabazon Indian Powwow last Sunday? It was at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California. I got a couple of short videos of the Grand Entrance but I'll be darned if I can figure out how to download them here. Sorry. Below is some of the beading I saw.

And some regalia. I was too timid (believe it or not) to ask if I could take pictures of individuals wearing their amazing dresses and regalia. They were splendid!

Since it was my first time, we had to go to the Fantasy Springs Casino. I won $87.61! And, yes, I did bring the money home.

This afternoon we will be going to the 7th Day Adventist Church to hear Handel's Messiah. It has become a tradition for us to enjoy with Lorne and Elaine. It's an amazing performance with musicians and singers and they invite the audience to sing along. 

Now it's only a half hour until CBS Sunday Morning -- one of my all time favorite shows. It is aired at 7 a.m. here. Maybe I'll make coffee.

Now that I'm finally over my 10 day cold, this will be my first time at Bloom in the Desert (UCC church). I'm trying to not be a 'Christmas and Easter only' Christian. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and beyond. Please know that I am sending good thoughts your way. This is just my way of having a conversation with you. Cheers!

PS I Love You

 Much like New England weather, Palm Springs has been all over the place from high 80s to 62 F. today. We have had many days of sunshine and a couple of days of rain -- some of it torrential, which is unusual for the desert.

I was thrilled to have a warm welcome from The Lunch Bunch, aka the quilting bunch yesterday. I was able to bring a donation that I thought I had finished ages ago, but there were a few stitches that I finished here. It's hand quilted, so no problem. Here is the front.

And the back.

Elaine and I went to the LaQuinta Arts Festival on Sunday. We lucked out because it did not rain (it had rained the previous two days). It was nice and sunny and not too hot. I thought these glass sculptures looked like Chihuly's sculptures at the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Arizona (Taliesin West).

Photo below of Chihuly sculpture at Taliesin by Mary D'Ambrosio Boylan

More from LaQuinta Arts Festival. No, I didn't wear camouflage ...

Of course, there were many more artists and types of art but since this is my third year, I didn't take as many photos as usual. (And I think I'm totally out of cloud storage. It wouldn't let me upload some photos to My Google Photos. This should be interesting.)

This is a particularly good year for oleander. This hedge screens the road on the other side.

View from Arizona Rest Stop

View from Another Arizona Rest Stop, Looking at New Mexico

Breakfast Cafe/Diner

New Mexico Rest Stop View

Outside PA Motel. There was a row of a half dozen of these firebushes, but the others were covered by cars.

So that's about it. Mom and I have fun finding new places to have lunch. We did go to iHop for brunch one day since their pancakes are Mom's favorite. 

I hope you are all having fun. Happy Thursday!