Winters in Arizona

We spent 9 winters in a wonderful Park in Mesa, Arizona. It was perfect for Pat and I, as he was a hiker, and spent many days hiking through the Superstition Mountains with the Park Hiking group. We went on lots of outing with the group and had a great time.

Meanwhile, I learned so many wonderful things. I learned to hand build clay, make
brass,copper, silver and gold jewelry of my own design, stained glass, (I ended up teaching 'One of a kind pieces" every Thursday (see the candle holder with the little people) evening and teaching stepping stones on Saturday Mornings. I also taught fabric painting, canvas plastic bags, original knitted sweaters, and other things during those years. I was teaching the quilt group how to paint on fabric and casually mentioned to the 25 students there that "I would love to have a quilt of my painted work' They jumped on the idea and offered to help me make one. That is how I started doing fabric wall hangings and painted quilts. It changed my life.
Most of the work I did consisted of Southwest scenes and 'little people, as I was so taken with the area and the wonderful cliff dwellings, jewelery etc.

I did scenes on plastic canvas and have them framed and in my living room.








The mirror is one of my classes - The Nun was done by my friend Nilma who worked with me in t he Stained Glass class and became an expert in 'fusing' glass. She has done a wonderful series on
'Whimsicle Nuns" her page is on my links on the side bar- check out her other Nuns.

It was a very happy time for us and we still miss our friends at Valle del Oro, the park where we lived each winter. I hope you like these samples of my southwestern work. Shirley