Visting Phoenix

 A few weeks ago, I flew from Philly to Phoenix to visit my brother and his clan.He is my only living sibling and our parents are gone.  It had been a little more than 2 years since I had seen them all.  I needed to reconnect and see all of those little ones.  My oldest niece had moved to Phoenix first, from New Hampshire, to go to grad school.  That was about 15 years ago.  Then her sister moved there next from Florida.  After marriages and children, my brother and his wife finally moved there to make the family complete. What a great thing to be able to watch your grandchildren grow up! 

Our farewell lunch at McDonald's.

 There are a bunch of quilt shops in the Phoenix area.  I needed some fabric for a few projects that I was working on and hadn't had time to go shopping at home.  So one morning I thought that my sister-in-law and I could hit a few shops and then meet the kiddies for something fun to do.  I was shocked and stymied when I found out that everyone wanted to go to the quilt shops with Auntie Cheryl!

The first shop we visited was Zoe's  Trunk in Chandler.  I thought the women  were going to pass out when they saw this crew head into their shop.  But they were gracious and had a great play area.  It was my favorite shop with lots of wonderful fabric.  But the visit had to be short.  You can only guess why.  After hitting a couple of more shops, I had exactly what I was looking for.  Then we headed to the play area at the mall, because what else do you do when it's 100 degrees outside.

Other than seeing my family, my favorite part of my trip was my morning walks.  The vegetation in Phoenix is certainly different than in Philadelphia.  I don't know what these plants are called, but they are just beautiful.

 I saw this cactus and it gave me some ideas for a quilt.  I could visualize it with my favorite circles within circles.

 I started working on it while I was in Phoenix with some of the fabric that I had bought.  I got a little stuck, but then got a brainstorm during Sue Spargo's workshop.  I added some of her yummy hand dyed velvet.  I liked the texture that it gave the piece.  Then, instead of keeping my stitches within the applique, I oversized them to mimic the cactus needles.

I played with this block a bit on my computer.  This gives me an idea in which direction to head.  I like the wavy flow, but probably will use a lot of different fabrics. This is going to be fun.  Isn't it amazing where you can find inspiration?

I think I need to go shopping for more fabric!