High Summer in Arizona

We have always feared summer in the greater Phoenix area, so it has been surprising that we truly are not miserable here. Yes, we’ve had high temperatures...

...but since July is the hottest month and we are ready to step into August, it looks like we’ll survive it. Bob still spends some time outside with his power tools yet as long as he can duck inside to cool down every so often, he says it’s fine. And I’m happy as long as I have my hobbies! We still swim once or twice a week in the park’s pool. The water is like bath water and at about 5:00 pm we have the place to ourselves. It’s divine!

Bob has been building on his wood turning skills and this month he made me a beautiful rolling pin.

This is bloodwood and maple, with a little purpleheart for the inlay swirls. He made the holder, too, so the pin could be displayed. Isn’t it gorgeous?

He also made this candleholder from a piece of the bloodwood using maple inlay.

I’ve been working on my freehand quilting skills this month and have finished this panel quilt as a practice piece.

It will come with us in the motorhome when we travel. I like having maps around.

I’ve been knitting lots, too. I made this family set of dolls for Jillian...

...and this Cinderella set for Quinn and Eve...

...while Silas got this dinosaur to play with.

I also appliquéd a little onesie for a soon-to-be-born great nephew.

Plus I’m still working on weaving dish towels on my Macomber loom and lots of masks continue to go out!

We have another month until people start to make their way back to the park here. Most seasonal folks return around October but the season officially starts in September so things will start to change. For one thing, we won’t be the only ones on our block anymore! Half of the park is typically made up of Canadians but it does not look like they’ll be back for a while because of Covid-19. The heat will start to dissipate but activities probably won’t resume for a while. No one knows what fall will be like here. We’ll take it as it comes.

And Now its July

It’s July already. I can’t believe I let a whole month pass without a new blog post. Bob and I are fine here in Arizona, despite the alarming reports on the skyrocketing number of Covid-19 cases here. We are staying away from people and wearing masks whenever we go anywhere, which is a rare occasion. We still have some friends in the park, too. Last week we ran into Becky and her dog, Ace.

Since we don’t feel safe getting our hair cut, we’ve had to become creative. I got tired of feeling so shaggy so I asked Bob to trim my hair. He did a really good job, too! I’ve been cutting his hair for years, off and on, but this is the first time he has given me a trim.

Speaking of “trim,” Bob has been painting the trim on the house and the silver looks much better than the dated brown we had. Here’s the before and after. What do you think?

I have finished a few sewing projects, one being a new slipcover for the porch glider using some heavy denim I purchased last year in Tucson.

A while back I bought some cones of cottolin yarn and I decided it was high time I tackled my dish towel project. So I set up my loom and started weaving. Haha, I just made that sound so easy, didn’t I? It actually took me quite a few days to measure out the 6 yard warp, wind the yarn onto the warp beam, thread all 451 threads into their own individual heddles, pull each thread through a particular slot in the reed, tie onto the front of the loom, make the tie ups under the loom, check everything for mistakes, and then finally start to weave. I took my time because it’s been a while since I’ve put a warp on this loom. And I only had a couple of easy-to-fix errors! I must say, the WeaveIt app with threading and treadle tracking is a pretty inexpensive way to prevent errors when you are weaving with more than two harnesses! I love it. And here is the start of my first towel (there will be five towels from this warp and all will be different.)

Bob has been staying busy, too. He has finished the fourth salad bowl and it’s beautiful (#4 is the bottom one.)

Now he is on to rolling pins and is enjoying figuring out the Celtic Knot pattern. I’ll post a step by step of that process next time because it’s pretty interesting.