Andrea Zuill’s Blog

 On my trip to Texas I was able to spend some little time exploring the town of Las Cruce, NM.  I stopped by a cool quilt shop called Organ Mountain Quilt Shop.  I bought a bunch of fabric and a book called,  Tile Quilt Revival: Reinventing a Forgotten Form, by Carol Gilham Jones and Bobbi Finley.  The beautiful quilt on the cover is what caught my eye.  

   Tile Quilt Revival book gives a nice history of this rare type of quilt.  The instructions on how to create your own tile quilt is very clear and quite easy.  And, to my extreme excitement, this quilt is best done by hand!  EEEEEkkkkkk!

So, to sum up this book,  wonderful and easy techique,  interesting history, beautiful patterns included, hand work prefered. 

  I just got back from my art show in Marfa, TX.  When my Husband and I take this trip we try to stop by our friend’s house in Silver City, NM.

   We had car trouble just outside of Tucson, AZ.  Our alternator died.  Praise Jeebus for Pep Boys.  They have rescued us more than  once. 

   We arrived in Silver City the next day.  Silver City is a very historic town. 

   We stayed with Cecilia.  She’s a good friend and artist.

  We met a few of her friends.

  Silver City is a blend of old Mexican families, White ranchers,  Artists and has a large gay and lesbian community.  Silver City has it’s own unique flavor and customs.

*Silver City is known for flooding mainly during monsoon season.  The downtown is especially prone to flash floods.

  Silver City is also know for their mining.

*Actual historic photo of The Ditch after a flood in downtown Silver City, NM.

   I love Santa Cruz, CA.  There is so much about that town that I  like.  I love Logo’s used book store.  I love Harbor Cafe.  I love all the old houses and the extra funky people.  But, what I love most, and what I save up most of my craft money for, is Hart’s Fabrics.

 The first time I went to Hart’s, I told my husband, “Look, this is going to get ugly.  Money, and I mean lots of it, is going to be spent today.  I just wanted to prepare you.” Being that my Husband is very understanding, and he has his own issues with buying computer books, he said he’d just sit in the car, read a computer book and let me have at it. 

  I get totally overwhelmed by  Hart’s  huge selection.  Here are a couple tricks I use to decide which fabric to purchase for my stash.  I visually pass over all of the fabric about 3 times.  I try not to think too hard.  I just let it soak in.  By the 3 pass certain fabrics start calling to me.  That’s when I start pulling the fabic bolts and setting them aside.  

Another trick I do to supply my stash is to pick out a rainbow’s worth of fabric. By this I mean I make sure to pick out fabric in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, etc…  And, don’t forget black, grey, white, salmon, purple,,,,,  You get the idea.  If I didn’t aim for a rainbows worth I’d come home with nothing but pink fabric.

  These two fine ladies helped me out.  I had a big mound of fabric which took them quite a while to get through. They where very cheerful at their task.  And before long I was out the door with my huge bag, wondering if maybe I should have gotten more teal fabric.

Here is Hart’s info:

Hart’s Fabric, 1620 Seabright Ave., Santa Cruz, CA,

831-423-5434

Website: http://www.hartsfabric.com/index.html

Blog: http://blogs.hartsfabric.com/

  I bought one of these egg cups for my friend Jean.  She is famous for her Chicken Chaple , as seen on HGTV.

  I don’t use feathers, but I need to buy these feathers.  I mean, how can anyone resist cups and cups of colorful feathers????

  It’s a love rat, perfect for that special someone. 

  Do you know how many vintage valentines showcase a devil?   Tons!  And it’s always a female demon!  What’s up with that? 

Well, for me, it’s a cool idea for a painting.

Galleri Urbane

  The Craft store my Daughter and I was looking for is Thoughtful Crafts.  Here is what I think went wrong.  We used my Husbands iphone to look up Crafts and that is how we found Thoughtful Craft.  We should have gone the next step of looking at Thoughtful Craft’s website.  Don’t laugh, but they are a graphic design company.  I just found that out by googling their name.

  But,  we did find Cliff’s Variety  store.  Right in the middle of Castro is this wonderful store.  Cliff’s is part hardware store, gift store, toy store and craft store.  It’s the kind of place where you can get salt and pepper shakers but not just any s&p shakers. They have them in bunny form, penguin form, and bear shaped.  They also have wigs.  Wall decals.  Stain remover. And very surprised puffer fish.

  Do you want some unusual ceral bowls?  They have these bunny and monkey bowls at Cliff’s.  Besides being cute these bowls are plastic.  I like this because I tend to break things.

  I went out of town this last weekend.  All of my paintings where shipped off to my Texas gallery so it was time to play.  I met up with my Daughter and we headed to San Francisco or SF as the locals call it. We made it straight to Castro.

It was pouring rain.  But we braved it and actually found a parking spot.  We love window shopping in Castro because there are a lot of great shops there.  You can have great fun just going window to window with only the occasional jolt when your eyes unexpectedly hit the window of a porn shop. 

    This photo is looking down a big hill we had to climb to find a craft store that our GPS system said existed.  It doen’t existed.  It may have once, but not now. 

  Here are some images of the Grand Canyon while hiking down the South Kaibab Trail. 

  I like showing the actual trail.  I think it helps gives a idea of the conditions of heading down the canyon. 

 Please notice the steps.  They look pretty harmless, But let me tell you, they where made by Satan hisself.  Most of the steps are awkwardly higher and wider than normal stairs.  They are knee jarring.  Young or old, when you finish with these steps and stand your knees giggle up and down on their own accord.

Still think that it’s no problem?  Well try 7 some miles of it.  It is not good.

  I really hate these steps.

   Grand Canyon, Hermit’s Rest Trail. Fossils called Brachiopods. Once you know what the rock looks like thans contains these fossils you can see them everywhere, at the right level that is. I also found them on the on the Bright Angel Trail.

Mrs. Zuill, We would like to thank you for you inquiry regarding condos for sale in Arizona.  We have found two such units that might meet your needs.

The first condo is a mutli-level Southwestern style home.  For some reason this home was abandoned a while ago, but the tenants left it in good condition with only the need for some minor roof repair.  The front yard is a nature lovers paradise.  Walnut trees and rattle snakes abound!  If you are interested you’ll have to move fast on this creek veiw home.

Our second property is a neat little pool side number. It may be smaller than the first property but there is tons of storage for your corn, squash and basket weaving supplies.

This unit’s pool  is great for swimming, entertaining, and staving off drought.   Great fun for family and Friends!

This unit also comes with a Granny Flat.  Perfect for visitors or renting out for extra income!