kolamblog: Oh, how I love Sedona!

My last post was titled Montezuma's castle and Red Rock Country. But it was not until after I had put together the photos for M's castle and well did I realize that it deserved a post of its own and Sedona needed to be a separate post. So here it is now, for those of you who wondered what happened to Sedona.

First glimpse of one of many rock formations

I had seen photos of Sedona many many times, including those in National Geographic - which is pretty close to the real thing. But nothing prepared me for the real stuff. We came around a bend in the road and all of a sudden there it was. It took my breath away. I was happily knitting and all I could say was "Oh my; Oh my"; while John kept repeating: "get the camera; get the camera".

You have to see it to experience the beauty of it. The rocks are redder than they are in these photos. And if there are one too many of the same rock, it is because each angle of the same rock had its own characteristics.

We got into Sedona in time for lunch at a cantina that served excellent Mexican food. I was a little dubious at first, as this restaurant was in a strip mall (John thought I was being a snob), besides being named "cantina". However, the Sedona Chamber of commerce had a good review on it and they did not lie. I had my first Margarita (how did I let it go this long?!!!!) and the food was very good.

Our first stop was at the Sedona Arts Center which featured works by local artists and faculty who teach at the Arts Center. I found the work of two fiber artists to be very interesting. It so happened that one of them was in at that time (she is also the director of the gallery) and I had a nice chat with her. She called the second artist and left her a message with my contact number. I told her I would love to come and stay for a week or two and take classes with both of them. She combines Raku and basket weaving in her work while the second artist makes her own paper and handmade books. She also does three dimensional fiber vessels. Before I got back to Phoenix, I got a call from the second person. I will be following up on this.

I also visited the local library to see a quilt show. The library, not very large, had high ceilings and the quilts were hung from the rafters between the book stacks. Even the larger quilts hung about 2 feet above the top of the shelves. The works were very good but it was difficult to appreciate them when they were so high above me. Besides getting a crick in my neck, I was disappointed at not being able to see the fine quilting. There was a Baltimore album that was exquisite. Apparently, the blocks (all hand appliqued) had been gifted by the guild members to this one lady who put it all together, appliqued some more along the borders and then hand quilted the whole piece. Even from that distance, I could see that the applique in every one of the blocks was uniformly good. It amazed me, as it is very unusual to have blocks made by so many different hands to be so uniformly well done.

While on the subject of quilt shows, Phoenix had its annual quilt show this weekend and of course I am in Tucson. And then, Tucson had its quilt show the weekend before I got here. Talk about bad timing!

John was not very keen on visiting any of the other galleries. In retrospect, he did the right thing. So, while he took an old man's snooze in the truck, I wandered around Tiaquepac arts and crafts village. It was very disappointing as they were mainly selling goods from all over the world - there was even a boutique that sold Ganesh of different types and scarves from India!!! The sales person tried to sell me a book on Jesus in India - I smiled politely and gave some non-committal response.
That is not what I had expected. I wanted to see work by local artists. So after wandering around for half an hour, I gave up. We called it a day after a much needed stop for a cup of coffee.

But, I came away with an intense feeling for the place and am hoping I can make it back there sometime in the spring of 2012.,

Enjoy the photos!