Tag: Quilting

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.

Updating the house plus hanging around the new baby and her mom

We ended up staying at Squaw Creek County Park in Marion for a week. On Sunday, 19 May, we moved to Pleasant Creek State Recreation Area. It is a lovely place, and we were lucky to score one of the six non-reservation sites that would fit us. We literally drove into the campground while the previous occupant was pulling out, so we quickly signed up for the site and out the lawn chairs out. Then we headed back to Squaw Creek to pack up the motorhome. I really do like how fast the Sani-Con dumps the black and gray tanks. Kevin likes how clean the process is, and he says it is one of the best plumbing updates he has done.

My daughter, her husband, her son, and the new baby girl came out quite a few times. DD says it is awfully nice to get out of the house but be in a safe environment. Seems like Callyn liked it too. She was up above her birth weight at one week old!

We did end up going back to the house some. We had trees planted (they look lovely), we had the deck stained, and we had some electrical work done. The electrical work included adding a big fan in the living room. Our living room faces pretty much straight west, and it gets hot in the summer afternoons. We did put a good sized tree there, but the room needed a fan.

A 60” blade was definitely not too big for the recessed ceiling

The other electrical work was to add a bunch of 4-plex outlets added at waist level in my craft room. I was tired of having to move shelving to reach the low level outlets that were there. We also added a new 20 amp line for some of the 4-plex outlets. Now I will have more flexibility with the heat press and irons I use! Used to be I had a single 15 amp circuit for the whole room. If I accidentally left the iron on and turned on the heat press, I tripped the breaker. This will be much nicer. Of course, to do the work every cabinet and shelving unit had to be moved to the middle of the room. It will be a pain to get everything back in its place, but worth it in the end. Most of the things I plug in are very low power – sewing machines, Silhouette cutter, PC, radio, etc.

I have two walls with these lovely outlets

Kevin also had the electrician install an outdoor outlet to plug in a camper that shows the front of the garage and the driveway. He added another camera in the utility room that shows the heater, the water heater, the water softener, and the sump pump. With us being gone so much, it is confidence-building to know the state of the systems, particularly the sump pump. We can also check the temperature in the house. I certainly like modern connected houses!

I am still working on my granddaughter’s quilt. I have done so much quilting on it, I am bored. I just have to plow through though since I really, really want to get it done next week. I have to get started on the baby’s baptism which is in late July. Still working on a pattern for that though.

Finally finished a quilt and back on the road

A good friend of one of my sons had a baby in April. Knowing this was coming, I started a quilt for the baby in February. Then we decided to rush moving and buying the motorhome, and the baby quilt didn’t get done on time. 😢 Little Roman (it turned out to be a boy) was born in April, and he just got his quilt yesterday. It did come out cute though.

The pattern is called Irish Chain. The parents chose not to find out the gender, and they didn’t have a theme or color picked out, so I went with the simple two color quilt. The colors aren’t true in the picture; the red is a brick red and the lighter color is a creamy golden.

I quilted it with a variegated King Tut thread with red, brown, green, and cream.

I used a feather stitch on the binding. I really like the look of this.

We also took off today for a trip! We are headed to Ely, Minnesota tomorrow. Tonight we are staying part way there at the Hinckley Grand Casino campground. It is a really nice campground with asphalt pads and patios but with grass and trees or so, but nice. We had dinner at the Casino buffet because it was easy. Food was standard “nice” buffet, but not great.

We will stay in Ely until Friday morning when we gradually work our way to the FMCA rally in Gillette, WY. Then off to Hot Springs, SD for a few days. We haven’t decided what to do after that.

I did drive the motorhome well over half the trip so far. We stopped for a CAT scale weighing to see how heavy we were. The front axle was just barely under the 12,000 pound capacity with full tanks of both diesel and water. The back axle still has 800pounds of capacity, and we are pretty full of “stuff” so I feel very comfortable with the residual capacity. Getting a real axle weight means we could adjust the tires appropriately for the weight they are carrying. The front tires were 118 pounds each, so they got lowered to 110 pounds. The rear tires were about the same, and they got brought down to 100 pounds. Wow but does it handle better! Much less tiring to drive. The motorhome is still more tiring the the truck and trailer, but it was certainly better than the first 1000 miles we drove.

Getting the hang of this

We have now been at Pleasant Creek Recreation Area for 8 nights. It was lovely. Some of my kids came out a few times for dinner and boating, and we were close enough to home to pick up a bunch of things we needed for the motorhome. I made two racks of beef ribs in the Instant Pot one night that my son in law finished on the grill. We also grilled burgers one night. It has been nice!

One of the things I have gotten organized is my sewing area. I tried using the machine on the dining table, but that just didn’t work. It was the wrong height, and the chair just wasn’t right there. I brought my little Gadget table from home, and it is perfect sitting in front of the TV. I will put my supplies on one end of the sofa, and the machine can travel on the sofa using the seat belt there.

Notice the little Ott light on the left and the purple Sip and Snip on the right. I love both of them! The Ott light provides just enough light from the back of the machine to make sewing much easier. It just sits wherever I want it. The Sip and Snip has a big cup holder and a trash bag for thread and other items. It is clamped on the edge of the table. I not only finished a baby quilt top but I also made some bowl cozies for the coach using some Native American pot fabric I bought in Arizona near Ft. Huachuca. I slightly rounded the corners of these, and they were easier to sew that sharp corners.

The site here is really lovely. There was hardly anyone here until the weekend. Three fourths of the sites accept reservations, and they are pretty empty during the week. We took one of the 7 non-reservation sites which were luckily not occupied.

The last picture shows the motorhome in a much truer color than the other one I posted. Most Tiffin paint schemes have black on the top. The lighter red should be somewhat cooler. Besides we like bright colors!

We are headed back home today. We won’t head out again until a couple of days after the 4th when we see friends in Ely, MN for a week then head west to Gillette, WY for a FMCA rally. It will be fun!

Too much going on to post!

Well the house in Utah has sold, and we have bought a house in Iowa. The prices in the Salt Lake City area are quite high compared to Iowa, so we were able to get a really nice new construction place with better features than the one we sold. About the same size, but with granite countertops, a three car garage, quality appliances, and just all-around better construction. Of course this means getting a 5 bedroom, 2 living areas, and a huge sewing room packed and moved. Anyone who has done can agree it is a terrible job, but it is done as of 2 days ago. I have had hardly any time to do anything fun, but I did get some sewing done. Here is the baby quilt for my niece’s upcoming baby.

I like the Irish Chain design. She wanted something understated, and she likes grays and whites. The white is a bright white Moda and the gray is Moda Grunge which is shot with streaks of white. I used a pale icy blue for the quilting. I am particularly proud of my binding on this one.

I also got a bit of embroidery done on some burp cloths.

We are currently living at the KOA in Salt Lake City. Remarkably quiet and pretty nice. We much prefer staying in our travel trailer to staying in a hotel, and we need to stay here until after the Hamilton show we have tickets to on Wednesday. Then it will be off to Iowa.

Oh, and we did take a trip to Kodachrome Basin State Park a couple of weeks ago. I will do a separate post for that.

Military bases plus quilting

Odd title, but we did a couple of quite different things today. First we went to Fort Huachuca and it’s fascinating Buffalo Soldier Museum. Buffalo Soldiers were what African American soldiers were known as before integration of the Armed Forces after World War II. Supposedly the curly hair reminded the Native Americans  of buffalo (bison). It was a good thing the museum was good because it took a very long time to get a pass for the post. It took my driver’s license and a long questionnaire, followed by a criminal background check and military records check before I got the pass, about 30 or 45 minutes total. While most of the post was very modern, I took a few pictures of the older part because I like the history.
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A duplex housing a Major and a Command Sergeant Major.
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Just looking into the distance across the old parade ground.
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An old mission-style building.
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Old barracks now made into offices.

We did exciting things like laundry at the campground, and I got my latest Quilts for Kids project completed. I am pretty pleased with it. I did the quilting on my Bernina sitting at the dinette table, something much harder to do than using the quilting machine at home.

2B069882-93B1-456E-947D-80139E7AE5E4The design is called “I Spy” because of all the different fabrics. I used a dark blue thread for the meander quilting. I probably should have used yellow, but I didn’t have any nor did I want to go to the store, so blue it was. It feels nice to get this one done. Next I need to work on the microwave bowl holders with the cute fabric I bought here, but we are leaving this campground tomorrow. I like the area, but the campsite is not nice at all. There isn’t room for the truck, so we have to park it in the overflow area, and it is quite inconvenient. We will probably head some place north of Phoenix for tomorrow night. Thursday and Friday we will be at Willow Beach below Lake Mead. A full hookup campsite! Of course that assumes the Government doesn’t shit down again.

Oh, and tonight I made baby back ribs in the Instant Pot again. Yum, yum! You notice no pictures; they didn’t last long enough.

Ghost towns and tourist towns

We decided to visit some old mining towns today – Courtland and Gleeson. They aren’t too far from Huachuca City or Tombstone, our ultimate destination. Courtland had obviously been a big mining district. There were tailing piles and mining roads scattered across the hillsides.
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Lots of rock buildings (sorry for the bad lighting)
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Adobe buildings too
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This one looked scary!
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Distant views
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Yet more buildings, or at least their footings
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Mine tailings. This one is still active. See the tiny white spec?

Now for Gleeson. Not as many pictures because a number of people still live in this community. There were even a number of mailboxes.

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This was a big building
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Leftovers of the mill and headframe
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Way at the top of a hill. Maybe a church?

After the ghost towns we headed to Tombstone. We picked a great day without many visitors since most people must have been planning on football. Lots of neat old buildings plus lots of relatively tasteful tourist shops. I was pleasantly surprised. We did take a stagecoach ride though. The driver/narrator was a hoot and deserved his tip at the end.

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This evening I pressed and sandwiched the Quilts for Kids project. I even got it quilted on my Bernina! It was the first time I have done free motion quilting on an entire quilt on the Bernie, and it went pretty well. Of course the quilt wasn’t big, about 40×45”. I will post a completed picture when I get the binding on.

Oh, and the Eagles won the game.

Huntington Beach via Bolsa Chica State Beach

When I was still working, I did a lot of work for Boeing in Huntington Beach. Kevin hasn’t spent much time around Pacific beaches, so we decided to spend a few days at Bolsa Chica State Beach, 3 miles or so north of Huntington Beach. We arrived in early afternoon on Saturday after a long hassle driving in a crowded city. Ugh.

The sites at Bolsa Chica are very narrow and the road between the two rows is also very narrow so it was a challenge getting in. After we got set up I discovered I had not measured the spot for the slide correctly and we were 2 inches short! We just kept the slide almost all the way out since it was way too much work to move it over those two inches. The campground sits between Pacific Coast Highway and the beach. We had a site on the highway side and it was very noisy, but then again, it was at a beach so we just dealt with it. We wore foam ear plugs the first few nights, but it was better by Sunday night. Since we arrived on Martin Luther King holiday, the park was packed. We still managed to do a lot of sitting and looking at the surf, a lovely thing.

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Surfers were always present
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The first few days had low surf
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The last two days had high surf warnings

We had two problems. One, my back is killing me when I walk for more than 40-50 feet. That put a damper on wandering around much. We did get to have lunch at Duke’s on the beach, and I found a wild Hawaiian shirt at a store downtown. We even found a new hat for me at the HB REI store! The second problem is more of an issue with my back; Kevin forgot the chargers for our electric bikes! I can bike quite a way even with a sore back, but the bikes have a range of about 20 miles and we intend on being out of town for 5 weeks. We are looking for a way to get someone at home mail them to us, but we may have to drive back to pick them up. We can’t get any new ones mailed to us in time.

I am also trying a new hobby – English paper piecing. I am hoping it is something I can do in short amounts of time when I don’t want to pull out my sewing machine. 140323DE-9EBB-4E7A-B173-F7055E4336FE140323DE-9EBB-4E7A-B173-F7055E4336FE

We left California today to head to Quartzsite, AZ for a RVForum.com rally. Quite a difference from the ocean. More on that in the next post.

Back home with good stuff and bad stuff

The first day back in the sticks and bricks house I basically just slept! It took us a couple of days to move the things back to the house – clothes, food in the refrigerator, etc.

We are catching up on medical appointments, so I had a small cyst removed from my face. I was lucky enough to,score a quick appointment due to someone else canceling. It left me with a couple of stitches right under my eye, a real bother. It is hard to keep a bandage on it, yet the dermatologist says I have to do so to minimize scarring. Ugh. I get the stitches out in a couple of days thank goodness. Everything should be fine by Christmas pictures at least.

The really bad stuff if that we finally had to have one of our cats, Minou, euthanized. I cried and cried. She was 15 years old, and we knew she was basically on hospice care, but that doesn’t mean I was ready for it. I became aware how few pictures I had of her. She was all black and hard to get a photograph, but that isn’t much of an excuse. She looked like an Egyptian cat goddess.

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She loved sleeping on her back.

i also have been doing some cooking and sewing. The cooking was mostly in the Instant Pot. I made red curry with a bottle of curry sauce, some chicken thighs, rice, and miscellaneous vegetables – peppers, mushrooms, sugar snap peas. I used the pot in pot method, and it worked wonderfully. I also made beef stroganoff again, though I used more seasoning this time plus a bunch more mushrooms. Delicious.

The sewing was slow. I just haven’t been able to get in the mood, but I finally got motivated to complete a Quilts for Kids project. Super simple, and I got to enjoy the quilting process. I ended up using an all over leaf meander since the focus fabric had trees on it.

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BTW, this comes as a precut kit so I take no responsibility for the poor cutting!

i have never had a bad kit from Quilts for Kids before, but I rejected the second kit I was given. The pattern was designed for strip piecing, but they gave me random lengths of fabric of all different lengths plus some smaller pieces that were cut to 7” instead of the needed 6 1/2”. My time is worth too much to mess with randomness, so I am giving it back with a complaint. This is from the relatively new local group,so I think it is probably just growing pains.

 

 

Now to catch up on all the not so fun things

We had a week and a half between coming back from our Midwest trip and heading to Death Valley. Lots of things needed to be done.

Kevin discovered the shackles and bushings on an axle we’re broken, so he did get that fixed the day before we left again. State Trailer Supply in Salt Lake City did a fine job. They replaced all the shackles and bushings on both axles, fixed some marker lights we didn’t know we had broken, and adjusted the brakes. It was something we would have had checked before the big trip to Alaska next year, but I am glad Kevin found the problem before heading up and down the mountains like we have been doing.

We also ordered a cover to put over the bicycles on the trailer back. It also arrived just in time and covers both of them. Sadly it also covers part of the tail light and the license plate! Kevin tried to move the lights, but couldn’t figure out where to run the wires. This task will take a bit more thought. We still used the cover and hope we don’t get caught.

For my stuff, I got all the pieces cut out for the king sized quilt I am making for our bed. I even started the piecing. I brought the fabric and my sewing machine with me, but I haven’t pulled them out yet. There were just too many nice things to do in Death Valley!

One other thing in DV was that Kevin discovered one of the tires was completely bald on the inside edge. These are relatively new tires, and we were worried about brakes or alignment problems. He changed it at the campground just before we left. Just as we pulled out of the campground he realized it was almost certainly caused by the shackles issue putting a twist on the axle. Thank goodness! Oh, and we discovered our 3 year old batteries weren’t charging fully. Further checking identified that one cell was really bad, so we are going to replace them when we get home. Since we are staying in campgrounds with electricity the rest of this trip we don’t need to rush. We are pretty sure the damage was done by the OEM cheap power converter that Kevin replaced last year. They just don’t charge well, and that puts stress on the batter. Batteries plus a new tire plus a new tire and wheel (an extra spare for the Alaska trip) will put some pain in the budget.

Luckily all of these things are not frequent costs. For us the trailer means we travel pretty much any time we want and where we want. Still worth it.