Month: July 2019

And we are off!

We baptized lovely little Callyn Rose on Sunday. She was quite well behaved (slept through the entire thing!) and very adorable.

We had a big family dinner at a good restaurant, then went home to finish packing. Monday we went to the Upper Iowa River Resort outside Dorchester, IA. It is a fairly rustic campground in a lovely river valley with the Upper Iowa River forming one of the boundaries of the campground. They have a huge spring fed pond with a sandy beach shore. We reserved two sites, one for the motorhome, and one for our tiny tent trailer where my son in law and grandson slept.

Grandson looked for lots of alternative to going to bed.
Callyn is a happy young lady, and she has learned to stick her tongue out.
Gotta have some play time

 

As you can probably guess, the campground isn’t exactly “big rig friendly”, but we managed to get settled in ok. Of course no cell service, so we had a lot of family time, and I read a lot of books. The first night folks in the cabin you can see kept waking us up until 2:30 am! I complained, and they must have been talked to, because the campground was great the rest of the time. This is the time of year Iowa is at its very greenest, and it was lovely.

The kids went home on Thursday evening, and we left Friday morning. We are spending the night at Countryside Campground outside Askov, MN not far off I-35. I definitely don’t recommend the place. Tons of loud family groups, but that is almost expected in campgrounds with a huge pool and a bar. The problem is the sites are very poorly built with the gravel being not providing even a single layer of solid surface. The first site we tried to get level 3 times, but the place was so soft that we sunk in each time, triggering the “excessive slope” warning. We moved to another site, and even then had to face forward instead of backing in as we should have. It was just too unlevel, even with multiple blocks under the tires and levelers. We have a lot more adjustability in leveling the front of the coach than the back. Oh well, it is just one night, and we are getting the laundry all done!

Tomorrow we head for Ely, MN and our campsite on Fall Lake for a week.

Down to the wire for our upcoming trip

The weather has been so horribly hot and humid, I have been spending a lot of time in my lovely, cool basement. Nothing like finishing things at the last minute! I finally got my granddaughter’s baptism gown completed, and I am quite pleased with it.

The bottom of the gown showing the silk ribbon through the beading
The completed gown and bonnet

The slip is pink broadcloth, the dress is Imperial batiste, and the bonnet is Nelona batiste. The bonnet I finished a few years back in an heirloom sewing class, and this is the first girl born since then. Ribbons are used to tie the sleeves and the back, very traditional. I got it done 8 days before the baptism!

Next big project was finishing the quilt we will be using in the motorhome. I had finished the basic top at 72×72, all batiks in browns, blues, greens, and golds. However the bed is 72×80, plus it needed a drop to come down the side of the mattress. I decided to add an extra row of 6” blocks plus a 3” border to give the correct length while 3 sides got a 3” border in a solid color, a 6” border in a coordinating batik, and then another 3” border in the solid. I also ran to the local quilt shop to look for the solid color border fabric and the quilt backing. Luckily I found fabrics that will work since I am running out of time! I finished adding the borders, and Kevin helped me pin baste the top, wool batting, and backing together. I am now quilting it with a meander in the main quilt. I will decide how to quilt the borders later. I need to get all the quilting done on my quilting machine at home, though I could finish the binding in the motorhome if I need to.

Don’t you just love the colors? This is the biggest quilt I have ever done, but it is going well so far. I am using a greenish brown 50 weight thread for the top and a similar (but not identical) greenish brown for the back. The back is a brown to cream shaded fabric. Since the fabrics are batiks, I am using a size 16 needle, and everything is going much better than I expected. I love the look of batiks, but they can be a bear to quilt because they are so tightly woven.

Oh, and a Kevin was a darling and bought dozens of stackable plastic totes to use instead of the horrid collection of cardboard boxes my stuff had been in. He even packed them up while I was sewing. We also rearranged the entire sewing area to take advantage of the electrical outlets we had installed in April. Lovely! I can reach all the outlets without crawling on the floor or moving furniture now.

I also got to the allergist today for my new immunotherapy drops. I am allergic to corn pollen, and it is July in Iowa, meaning I am on every allergy medicine possible without using an inhaler or steroids! I take the generic equivalent of Flonase, Singulair, and Zyrtec every day right now. I have a step down pack of steroids the doctor gave me for backup if those aren’t enough. The drops take the place of the old allergy shots, so maybe in 2-3 years I will be really better.

Friday we are making a major shopping trip to Stringtown Grocery near Kalona to stock up on seasonings and some dried veggies. We will be packing the motorhome on Saturday, and my granddaughter’s baptism is Sunday. Monday we take off. I better go back to quilting!