I've traveled most of the day.  LA, Texas, then drive into New Mexico.

It's so nice to be here and its WARM.  The sky is pure blue, the air is sweet and it's wonderful.

Alamogordo is at about 3700ft elevation brown earth, huge mountains and blue sky.

My day at  LACMA yesterday

Textiles.

Amongst other interesting textiles, I found this quilt yesterday at  LACMA. It is made of over six hundred pieced and embroidered "silkies." The central outsize American Banner, replaced in 1912 when the accession of Arizona and New Mexico prompted an updated version, helps date the bed-cover to the years preceding world war I.

The prevalence of foreign flags signals the patriotic and imperialist currents that were circulating  the globe at the time, while the American Indian Chiefs and feminine personification of US beaches and state flowers speak to more local aspects of nation building.

In the late nineteenth century, tobacco companies developed the cigarette trading card inserted into packs to entice customers to collect a complete series. Employing new color lithography, the vibrant cards featured popular content, such as animals and flags, and American Indian Themes were common. By the early twentieth century, companies seeking to broaden their consumer bases pursued the as-yet untapped female market with "silkies". silk collectibles bearing motifs identical to their paper predecessors.

This quilt is interesting and on closer inspection the silk images are stunning.

There is an interesting article on "silkies" at Fabrics Net