Woohoo! My Camera's Well!

Hi! GrannyJ here (channeled by OmegaMom). Briefly. Breathlessly. With a few pix of the workout chamber.


Big emphasis: Getting folks walking again. Ms. Lower Body in charge.


Ms. Upper Body offers a collection of grown-up toys that really work you out.


Other miscellaneous equippage:



A place to practice living-at-home skills. All presided over by this beautiful quilt.

(Tag-on by OmegaMom: The nursing home is talking about springing GrannyJ next Wednesday--she's just doing too well, too quickly! So the sudden push is on to find an assisted living place for GrannyJ. Having her ask for her camera, and say she had an idea for a blog post, was music to my ears, believe me.)

What's up overhead at the library

Once again, it's quilts, courtesy of the Thumb Butte Quilters' Guild. The library calls the venue its "Look Up" Gallery. I call it the impossible-to-photograph location. Too bad -- as ever, the quilts represent topnotch craftsmanship and are great to look at.

If you wonder about the weird angle, credit the lights that are quite in the way for straight forward pix of most of the quilts.

In case the dotter doesn't recognize it, this quilt celebrates a trip to Alaska. Now that I look closely, I see many orcas as well as tall trees and a glacier. All that's missing is the volcano.

I think the zinnia quilt was my favorite. That or the chickens.

Serious Links: Normally, my linkage deals with the interesting, the beautiful, the amusing. For a change, some heavy-weight stuff. Let's start with our local foreclosure blog, which reports a fact that hasn't made the front page of our daily paper -- the Prescott metro area (i.e., Yavapai County) ranked #25 on the nationwide list of metro areas hardest hit by foreclosures in the 1st quarter of the year. You may have seen comments by Boonie; he has changed the focus of his blog from travel to brief essays, such as a commentary comparing the green movement to a religion. For a dose of the current economic bad news in interactive graphics, visit Slate's Disappearing Jobs map. Then there's Fred, who bemoans the evolution of the newspaper city room from a smoke-filled home of hard-bitten, hard-news cynics into a sanitized, polite, non-smoking and tedious environment. Amen! I started my own journalism life as a copy boy on the old Chicago Sun. Dropping into Kappy's Bar & Grill to get whisky in a paper cup for one reporter or running the latest handicaps over to the Daily Racing Form for the slotman on the copy desk as well as sharpening handfuls of soft lead pencils and interleaving cheap yellow copy paper with carbon paper to make "books". Back then, type was set by wandering linotype operators who 1) could spell and 2) were sharp in a way that only the self-educated can be . Too bad that world has vanished.

Tis the season for yard sales

Fortunately for me, when I go for walks, I usually take no money with me. Particularly fortunate when I happen across a yard or garage sale. Too much Good Stuff for me to resist!

Especially in a pleasantly shaded yard. Oh, so many good Things that I couldn't do without -- if I had the money burning a hole in my pocket.

Well, no, I didn't need fishing gear or those plaster thingies. On the other hand, I definitely could find a home to mount those brackets ... and that electric radiator at right might come in handy next winter.

No to the horse collar and the end tables. Neither needed or even wanted currently, though they looked to be in very good condition.

Ditto the leaf whacker, tho k has located what looks to be very handy electric leaf and twig chipper for making mulch.

But jumbles are what yard sales should always include...

... and kitchen gizmos and gadgets. In fact, it seems to me that these are chancy items for any smart merchant to stock. They surely are purchased only on the spur of the moment, and far too many reappear too soon in the thrift shops and at yard sales. The rational shopper is well aware of this fact. But then who's a rational shopper? Not I. My rationality extends to walking without change in my pockets.

One of the great things about yard sales is that you never know what you'll find. In this corner of the sale, a pretty candelabra, a decorative bedstead and a bird house.

Unlike many yard sales, there were also antiques. For example, I had to ask about these wooden panels. Turns out they were the real thing -- very old fashioned, possibly home made washboards. I had never seen such even in my youngest days, only the boughten kind with a corrugated metal plate. It had never occurred to me just why they were called washboards!

They were leaning against this old wooden cart. Not a plaything, either; note that the wheels are faced with iron.

Another golden oldie; asking price for the oak chair, $75.

These quilts were not from modern needles. Lovingly made long ago, they also have seen hard use...

...as this pretty pink and white coverlet shows.

The quilt collection was toppped off with a scrap that remained unfinished; consequently, it looks bright and shiny, like new.

Quilted eye candy

When we entered the Prescott Community/Adult Center the other day, I was stuck by the high quality -- and brilliance -- of the quilts on display in the entry hall. If I am not held to my primary colors (black, white, khaki and red), I admit to a preference for a rainbow of bold bright colors. Like most of these quilts.

Of course, they have the advantage of being 1) new and 2) created for display. Today's art quilts aren't part of an old fashioned, thrifty way of life, sewn from yesterday's worn, faded and torn garments. They will never be scrubbed on a washboard or be dried on a clothes line in the harsh sunlight. We have other (and better) ways to keep warm.

From one point of view, there is something quite decadent about cutting up pieces of cloth just to make another, intricate and unnecessary piece of cloth.

On the other hand, a modern quilt can be quite beautiful.

This dark one I especially like.

But those big display pieces weren't the only quilt art on display. In the dining room were four quilted pictures. Here are three of them -- sorry, number 4 was not completely visible to the camera.

Cowbelles: Books & Quilts

This coffee stand over at the annual Yavapai Cattle Growers Bar-B-Que was operated by the Yavapai Cowbelles, an organization of ranch women. They also had another stand for the annual quilt raffle. The quilt, featuring brands from ranches in the county, was also displayed at the recent Cowboy Poets Gathering.

And if you don't win the raffle this year or next, the Cowbelles have a cotton throw, also featuring local brands.

But maybe the most interesting activity of the group is collecting local tales from a past that I'm sure was a lot more colorful than our present! And, good news, a third volume is at the printer right now; it should be available before Christmas.

Variations on a Quilting Theme

A new quilt show by the Material Girls Quilters was another feature at last weekend's pie and ice cream social down in Skull Valley. Believe me, it was hard to decide which quilts to include here. However, I think many agreed that the sun motif was a winner.

Other themes included classic pinwheels (surrounding a not so classic petroglyph square), whirligigs...

...and autumn leaves.

An intricately quilted picture was also on display.

Other subjects included butterflies, cats...

...and very colorful chickens.

For a western flavor, each square in one quilt featured a stylized Indian petroglyph.

More western -- a bandana quilt above and (below) a stitched picture of a desert saguaro.

However, the prize for most up-to-date goes to a commercial coverlet at a sales booth just outside the exhibit hall. Harry himself, suitable for keeping any youngster warm and safe at night.