Calico (California)

I need to add an addendum to my last post about Calico, California, the ghost town that MisterStitches and I visited on our trip south last week.

The town originally got its name from the hills surrounding it. The settlers saw lots of different colors in the hills, just like a piece of calico cloth. Ergo, the name.

These photos do show some of the colors in the hills around Calico. The colors might have been helped on a bit by the mining going on and the subsequent slag heaps on the hills.

I was looking forward to this trip for a lot of reasons. One thing that I definitely was NOT dreading was the long-distance driving. I knew that there would be a lot of very straight roads, and some very boring scenery, which means a lot of time for handsewing!

Alas, I forgot to bring with me enough of my already-cut-out diamonds for my tumbling blocks quilt. That was very frustrating, as I had so much time to sew them.

BUT, I was able to stop at a nice little store to buy a fat eighth of fabric, a small hoop, and a few colors of embroidery floss. I was able to get lots of practice stitching done, and kept my fingers busy. I kind of like my palm tree!