Month: June 2019

More sewing and lots of doctors

Sadly we didn’t get all the business handled in Stillwater before we needed to leave. We still have some mineral rights to transfer into our trust, but the attorney did get the land itself transferred. We did have time to go to Sand Spring, OK to a lovely little heirloom sewing shop, Delicate Stitches. I found some more lace, entredeux, and a gorgeous Swiss embroidery I decided to use for the edge of the baptism gown. We left Stillwater a Friday morning, and we spent the night at Clinton Lake again. Lovely place!

See how big the site is? Long enough to easily park the Jeep behind us too.

Then it was back to wet, wet Iowa. I sewed quite a bit. I decided to sew the skirt next because of that beautiful Swiss embroidery. Heirloom sewing isn’t hard, but it is picky and slow. I did finish the skirt lace work though. I made a slip in bright pink to shadow through the fine batiste and the laces. 

Isn’t that edging gorgeous? It is about 6” wide. The entire skirt panel is about 55” wide by 30” long. I will need to trim the width just a bit to even things up, but it will be a very full gathered skirt for the gown.

I stopped by my daughter’s house to measure the baby against the pattern pieces for the bodice. I think I will make the bodice about 1” wider, and I was also able to figure out what size of placket to use so it can fit over her head easily (3” if you are curious). I will start on the bodice tomorrow. The lacework will be pretty simple, just 3 rows of vertical lace. Then I can start the real construction.

I did my allergy testing today in Cedar Rapids. It turns out I am allergic to corn and dust. Not a good combination in Iowa! I will be starting immunotherapy sublingual drops in a couple of weeks. I will need to do that for a number of years, but it should help. I am also going to be on Flonase, Singulair, and Zyrtec, or at least their generic equivalents. The doctor also gave me a Rx for a steroid step down pack if I do come down with another dreadful sinus infection. Hopefully I can keep it under control. I am so tired of getting these sinus infections two or three times a year.

Oh, and I have become addicted to streaming BritBox and Acorn TV. All my favorite British, Canadian, and Australian shows seem to be available. I will listen to them on the iPad while sewing. And my new little sewing machine, a Viking Opal 650, is sewing all this like a champ!

History in Kansas, making our way to Stillwater, OK, and starting some heirloom sewing

On Saturday we decided to go to the Atchison, KS rail museum. On the way we saw an historical marker for the town of Lecompton. We decided to stop at the museum, and we were so glad we did! This little town was actually the territorial capital of Kansas from 1855-1861, and it was a major player in the Civil War. The first proposed Constitution of Kansas was written in Lecompton, and it was firmly a pro-slavery document. The free-staters believed the Legislature that wrote the Constitution had been elected in 1855 illegally, and there were all kinds of battles, verbal fights, arrests on both sides, and general mayhem. During the election in 1857, the new Leislature was firmly free-stagers by a 5-1 margin, and the Constitution that was finally approved by the US Congress allowed Kansas into the Union as a free state, thereby ending the “great compromise” that Stephen Douglas favored where every free state that entered the US would also have a slave state entering. It was a major contribution to Lincoln winning the 1861 election. Fascinating stuff. We wandered through the museum, staffed by an incredibly knowledgeable and passionate history buff, then went to the old Constitution Hall, a state historic site. We met another ardent historian there who gave a great overview of the history. I highly recommend a trip if you are in the area. We never made it to Atchison.

National Historic Site and State Historic Monument
Constitution Hall is probably the oldest frame building in Kansas.

On Sunday we headed to Stillwater, OK. We are staying at Sunset Ridge RV Park. It is advertised as the nicest RV park in Stillwater, but that isn’t saying much. Flat level pads, some trees, close sites, and almost everyone here is obviously a long-term resident. The place is clean and quiet though. We got in early enough to visit family in the area which was nice.

Monday we went to Arkansas City, KS to handle some property business. I liked the attorney, and with any luck we can get everything signed by Wednesday. Turns out he is leaving Wednesday afternoon, so he is motivated. I also spent time with my new travel sewing machine, a Viking Opal 650. I am using it to sew a baptism gown for my granddaughter, and I got the insertion done on both sleeves. Imperial batiste fabric and imported entredeux with insertion. It looks pretty good if I say so myself! I like the machine.

Front side of the insertion
Back side showing the rolled seam.

I hope to get the bodice lace work done tomorrow. I am still waiting for another set of baby measurements before I do a final cut of the fabric.

Clinton Lake and Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival

We arrived at our wonderful COE campground on Wednesday. Gorgeous place! The sites are big with solid gravel parking for the motorhome and a large spot for parking a car and just hanging out. There is a lot of shade in one corner of our space for sitting, but most of the site is sunny (better place for our satellite antenna). Since we have electricity and water at the campsite we don’t need shade to keep cool, so Kevin decided to leave the shady sites for renters who rally need them. Hardly anybody here when we arrived. but that definitely changed on Friday! There are a few spots left, but  not very many. We are lucky enough to have a resident mockingbird that likes to hang around, plus doves, purple martins, some type of woodpecker (heard but not seen), and an assortment of other common birds. The mockingbird is incredible though! Click the link to listen to just a short sample of the songs.

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Thursday I went to the KCRQF. It was about an hour away, but the drive was easy. I wandered through the vendor mall, looking at the goodies. I ended up with only a few things – a lightweight thread stand for traveling, a stencil for marking 1” squares on my quilt tops, and a lovely piece of pre-fused appliqué of birch trees plus a piece of fabric (dark blue with stars) to use as a background. All I will need to do is heat press the appliqué to the fabric, then do some thread paining on the birches. It will make a lovely wall hanging.

I took an intermediate free motion quilting class Thursday afternoon. There wasn’t a lot of instruction, but she had lovely samples to inspire us plus stencils, books, and rulers to experiment with. I didn’t play with the rulers because I do that at home, but I did try a number of stencils, concentrating on getting an even stitch. It was even harder to do because were using Babylock sewing machines provided by the festival.

Trying to do free motion orange peels on a gridded background. Result was only so-so
Lovely little bird from a stencil. Top is an experiment using Press and Seal. Lesson learned: don’t do that!

I also experimented some with feathers, a very traditional quilting pattern I have never been able to master. I won’t say I have it mastered now, but they are much, much improved! Diane Kimber, a friend and quilter in Salt Lake City,  had given me some pointers. I hadn’t tried her technique, but I had thought about it, and it worked pretty well for me.

Feathers randomly tied to the end of a daisy

Friday I took a class in machine appliqué, but I accidentally left all my samples in class! It was a wonderful class though. She had a kit prepared with samples to use for practicing multiple techniques. We tried using fusible interfacing sewn to the fabric then turned to provide a smooth edge for the appliqué, using water soluble stabilizer with rubber cement to provide a turned edge, and two types of fusible raw edge appliqué. We also experimented with stitch types which was very informative. I am definitely going to try some of the techniques. My favorite stitch combo was a pretty short and narrow blanket stitch. It would be almost invisible in the color of the appliqué, especially with a 50 or 60 weight thread. This class used Viking machines, again provided by the festival.

While the classes were very good, I was not a fan of the show administration. Turns out they would have given my class spot away if I hadn’t checked in at a specific desk, but no one told me that ahead of time. Strike 1. Then when I did check in at 1:15 before going to the vendor mall, they didn’t have the class lists for my 3:00 class! I had to come back at 2:30. Strike 2. Then they changed the time of my Friday class without telling anyone in the class, including the teacher! Strike 3. Some of the desk staff couldn’t believe we were notified, but I showed them on their own website the time and also the confirmation email I was sent. Even though the class was only slipped by 30 minutes, it put the class finishing at the same time as the last shuttle to the parking lot. In addition there was some evening entertainment that conflicted. Probably half the class had to leave at 6:00. I won’t be back. I have a real issue with poor organization, and this was dreadful in a large professional show like this. Yes, they had big names -Ricky Tims, Leah Day, Angela Waters, many others – but the frustrations weren’t worth it. I will go back to the big AQS shows that are run smoothly.

Since it would be so late when I got out, Kevin picked up ribs, beans, and apple crisp at Joe’s Kansas City BBQ. After all, you have to eat BBQ in KC! The ribs were absolutely fantastic.

Note my empty plate!

On the road again

We are on the road again. We left this afternoon a little after noon, and we are spending the night at the Lakeside Casino RV park in Osceola, IA (south of Des Moines a bit). We are heading to the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival, and this is not quite half way. Nice enough, and less noisy than I thought it would be due to a nice berm between the campground and the highway. There is also a nice little pond with a lot of frogs doing their best to mask the highway sounds. I actually remembered to take a picture of our site though it was a little late.

I did finish Callyn’s quilt. It turned out really cute. The flowers are each about 3 1/2” in diameter.

Basically a big piece of lovely fabric with a border
I stitched radiating flower centers with white then outlined each flower with the appropriate color.
A big meander stitch in the border. Binding finished with a feather stitch.

Since we had only been at home a few days, it was easy to pack for this trip except for collecting the supply list for my quilting classes. Why do instructors ask for the impossible? One of my classes wanted 2” painter’s Tape. It turns out that such a thing doesn’t exist, according to the paint store I ended up at after searching all the big box stores. The biggest ones available are just under 2” and almost 3”. I bought the 1.88”. I also had to search for rubber cement. I am taking an intermediate free motion quilting class and a class on appliqué techniques. Ought to be interesting.

Thoughts from central Wisconsin

i have been in far northern Wisconsin, in Door County, and in southern Wisconsin, but I hadn’t ever been in central Wisconsin near where we are now. A few random thoughts.

1. This place is GREEN. Really, really green. Forests all over the place. Christmas tree farms in large numbers. Green.

2. There are lots and lots of vegetable farms here. Huge storage buildings for potatoes. Canning companies. Fields of green beans. Yup, vegetables all over. The soil is very sandy.

3. There are Amish in the area. We saw two men driving two horses each while cutting hay. We saw another man driving three horses while plowing. Another man was driving two horses down the road while pulling a baler. There are Amish quilt shops, produce stands (not open yet), and home bakeries advertising along the road. I took no pictures, respecting the Amish dislike for photographs,

4. There are lakes and wide spots in the rivers with shorelines covers with cabins and houses. Lots of water, lots of boats, lots of fishing paraphernalia. There is also a lot of good fishing for eating. I ate lunch at a diner in Hancock, and the six fillets of blue gills I had were huge and very good.

5. This place is at least as humid as Iowa, and maybe more so. Temperatures in the upper 70s felt much, much worse because of the humidity. I had thought about bringing the grandkids back here for a vacation, but I think I would melt in the middle of summer.

Feeling virtuous

I finally got my daughter’s quilt (almost) finished. The problem is that I ran out of thread while doing the final 8” of the binding! I have nothing in the stash to even kind of match, so I mail ordered. I have also decided on the pattern for the baptism gown. Now to get the fabric, laces, and ribbons.

We are now in central Wisconsin, just south of Steven’s Point. We had some family things to take care of, so we took a short trip here. We are staying at Oasis Waterpark and Campground, right on I-39 at Hancock. So far it is a lovely place with some trees and roomy enough sites. I imagine the quiet will change tomorrow though. It would be a great place for kids with lots of planned activities and a great water play area in a small pond. I can’t yet go swimming because of the wound from my basal cell cancer removal, so a lot of it goes for naught for me.

I have however done a really complete spring cleaning of the motorhome – floors, cabinetry, even the shower and the corners that never get seen behind the slides. I am not quite so virtuous as to clean the inside of the cabinets though.

Today we visited the Experimental Aircraft Association museum in Oshkosh. What fun! I like airplanes, and I love history, so it is a winner for me. Some pictures might help.

An historically accurate reproduction of the Wright brother’s first powered aircraft, complete with mannequin pilot
A partial reproduction of a 1918 Curtis showing the framework

A special D-Day exhibit opened today also. There were historical re-enactors from all services with lots of memorabilia.

One of the last D-Day transports

There was also a collection of vintage aircraft nose paintings, cut from the original aircraft and carefully conserved. There were some suitable for all ages:

And some were for more mature audiences (these are two of the tamer ones).

Sorry for the glare. They didn’t allow flash to even out the lighting.

We are staying here until Saturday sometimes, then heading home. We have to get ready for another family business trip, this time to Kansas and Oklahoma. We are starting with the Kansas City Quilt Expo though, and I have two classes scheduled. More on those later.