Another too-early start to the day yesterday, but at least I had a quilt show to look forward to!  Made good time driving over to Linda's, and then we were on our way.

The theme of the Challenge was "What I Love About Sun City", so of course there were plenty of sunsets, flora and fauna, family & friends, and warm weather thoughts.  And yet with a limited scope of subjects the creativity and different takes on these similar ideas ran the gamut.  I didn't take pix of all the quilts (and haven't even posted all the ones I did shoot.)  But this is still a good representation of the show.

Karen Czaplewski entered her trio of quail, cactus and sun.

The colors this quilter chose certainly say 'desert" to me.  It is a bit difficult to read her embroidered words scattered about, which include 'sunrises' and 'sunsets', 'mountains', 'swimming pools', 'concerts', and 'new friends'.

Mary's "Happy Place" obviously does not include snow...

and I know exactly how she feels!

More takes on having escaped a snowy clime.

We do enjoy spectacular sunsets here in Arizona.

Dad never rode around with flowers on his red trike, but this still reminded me of the fun we had on our rides around the neighborhood each winter.

These cactus were partly pieced, partly embroidered - and lovely.

I love the fabrics she chose, especially on the quail.

Adding 3D embellishments to art quilts, like these cactus blooms, 

is always effective.

A whole alphabet of things to do here -

with photos to prove it.

Prairie Points gave this heart a lot of extra oomph.

This quilter found lots of activities to her liking!

This colorful graph makes it clear 

why Arizona attracts a large winter population

These beautiful sea turtles seemed a tad out of place in the desert, 

until I read that the quilter took SCUBA lessons here.

Simple, yet effective, Sunny Days representation.

This reminds me of our pretty state flag...

Notice the Bluebird of Happiness perched on top of the saguaro.

OOPS - this got posted before I was even close to finishing (and hadn't proofread it) so will continue to add to it.  Please excuse any mistakes if you're reading it before I've finished!

(Did you notice that detail that made me smile?)

More of the quilts that elicited smiles from me:

I always enjoy this pattern when it pops up at a show.  

These ladies have coordinated their beach bags with their bathing suits.

At one of the tables I also got a wonderful pattern for turning sweatshirts into dog beds.  I'd seen the finished products before, and was pretty sure I could (sort-of) figure out how to do it   I have one that I got from mom, but once I took out the unwanted shoulder pads it still looked horrible so I figured it was the perfect candidate though I hadn't actually gotten around to doing it; these clear and precise instructions will be a big help and could <g> move that project up a few notches on The List.

When we finished at the show we made a trip to Bob's Variety for some fabrics I needed (yes, needed.) I found cute flannel prints to back the two baby quilts - and finishing up those is at the top of my list because the twins should arrive any day.

ladybugs for her

sailboats for him

I found four white-on-white quarter yards 

so I can continue with the pink project.  

(Bad lighting this morning; they really are white.)

I also bought a yard of a third hummer batik colorway for the panel challenge 

(even though that deadline is LONG past....right, Mary?)

Had to get some of this dinosaur fabric, 'rescued' from return cart -

and a pretty batik (to my credit I only got one out of the hundreds of stunning bolts from which to chose!) and know I'll have no trouble finding a place for it in a quilt.

We lunched at Linda's favorite Chinese restaurant, catching up on stuff (we really hadn't had that much time to visit at the retreat) before I headed home.  I had 90 minutes to get stuff done before I was off again to my 2:45 appointment with the oncologist. At that time of day I would have expected her to be running late (and had brought along a book and my iPad to keep me occupied) but she wasn't!  So I was out of there by 3:00, a pleasant surprise.  As always my bloodwork shows that all is well, and I'm good-to-go until I see her again in September.