A camping we will go

Last year while camping the light coming in the little door window was waking us up to early!  The next time we went camping I threw up a piece of denim just to block the light, this worked but was so ugly.  Now ugly just won't do for this quilter!   

This month for our Island Batik ambassador challenge we are to make a mini.  It has to be 24" x 24" or less.  So I set about playing in the new box of fabric that Island Batik had given us for the first 6 months of this year.  I chose to work with some blue and green blenders for the sky and grass. Next was to pick out something that would work for the camper, gotta love me some spots for that.  A dark brown blender worked great for the door, and a light tan for the windows. 

I had drawn up a plan in EQ8 for this mini, and then when it was time to make it I didn't have access to a printer for the pattern.  Well how hard can it be to draw it by hand.  Super easy, the camper started out as a rectangle. Some rounding to the corners and a slant cut off for the front. Round wheels were easily obtained by drawing around a spool of thread. The windows are rectangles with rounded corners.  After all the pieces were cut I used my new Janome Skyline 7 to do the applique, piecing and quilting.  That's right I did not quilt it on my longarm.  This is a very rare thing indeed.  But I wanted to try out the walking foot.  

Ahem...a word of warning, read your manual before trying a new machine!!!!!!!!   I was being a bit of a smarty pants I guess, I thought it would be straightforward to use the walking foot.  I mean I have used one a few times on my other Janomes.  So I struggled quilting this little piece without having everything all set on the walking foot.   Then I had a free evening and I read the manual and learned I didn't really have the walking foot engaged even though it was on the machine!!!  Things are just a bit different on this machine.  I tried it on a different piece the next day, what a difference, (hanging my head in shame), LOL

My piece is 17" x 26" to completely cover the window.  The pinwheels on the top and bottom are decorative of course, but were needed to make it the length I needed.  I know, with all the snow and frigid temps that Minnesota has been getting, it seems weird to be making something for the camper.  But this way I'll be all ready for the summer camping season. 

My magificent mini is made using fabrics Island Batik provided, Hobbs cotton/wool blend provided by Hobbs, and pieced with Aurifil thread supplied by Aurifil. 

Here is a list of the 2019 Island Batik Ambassadors:

Carolina Asmussen ~Carolina Asmussen

Gene Black ~ Gene Black

Pamela Boatright ~ Pamela Quilts

Connie K Campbell ~ Freemotion by the River

Anja Clyke ~ Anja Quilts

Tina Dillard ~ Quilting Affection Designs

Becca Fenstermaker ~Pretty Piney

Jennifer Fulton ~ Inquiring Quilter

Barbara Gaddy ~ Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Dione Gardner-Stephen ~ Clever Chameleon

Sarah Goer ~ Sarah Goer Quilts

Vasudha Govindan ~ Storied Quilts

Lori Haase ~ Dakota City Quilter II

Joanne Hart ~

Mania (Magdalini) Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for Quilts

Carla Henton ~ Create in the Sticks

Stephanie Jacobson ~ Steph Jacobson Designs

Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

Joan Kawano ~ Moosestash Quilting

Kim Lapacek ~ Persimon Dreams

Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

Leanne Parsons ~ Devoted Quilter

Bea Lee ~ BeaQuilter

Toby Lischko ~ Gateway Quilts & Stuff

Bill Locke ~ http://studiobilllocke.com/blog/
Denise Looney ~ For the Love of Geese

Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights

Sally Manke ~ Sally Manke

Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack's Blog

Kathleen McCormick ~ Kathleen McMusing

Carol Moellers ~ Carol Moellers Designs

Karen Neary ~ Sew Karen-ly Created

Lisa Nielsen ~ Lisa Lisa and the Quilt Jam

Jackie O’Brien ~ If These Threads Could Talk

Laura Piland ~ Slice of Pi Quilts

Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde

Vicki Schlimmer ~ Vicki's Crafts and Quilting  

Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail

Sherry Shish ~ Powered by Quilting

Anita Skjellanger , Quilt in a not-Shell

Laticia "Tish" Stemple ~ Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Jennifer Strauser ~ Dizzy Quilter

Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations

Terri Vanden Bosch ~ Lizard Creek Quilts

Alison Vermilya ~ Little Bunny Quilts

Sandra Walker ~ mmm! quilts

Suzy Webster ~ Adventerous Applique and Quilting

(Debora) Anne Weins ~ Sweetgrass Creative Designs

Geraldine Wilkins ~ Living Water Quilter

Janet Yamamoto ~

Linking with Free Motion by the River and Main Crush Monday

I have been having a bit of trouble responding to each and every one who leaves a comment. So I apologize for that if you have not heard from me.  I really truly love hearing from you and think things will return to normal in the near future.  So thank you in advance!

Sewing, camping, fireworks!

I know it is long past the 4th of July but we saw fireworks, a whole lot of fireworks, this past week. Every year the Pyrotechnic Guild International(PGI) puts on a week long display of fireworks, seminars etc.  This year it was in Fargo, North Dakota, so off we went with our camper, kayaks, and Terra Trikes.

DH wanted to join the guild this year so he could take some seminars during the week, not to mention if you are a member you can be on the grounds the whole week and watch competitions on nights there were no public displays. The public displays were Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday nights.  Wednesday night it got rained out and they moved  it to Thursday night.  You also get better parking if you are a member, easy in and easy out.

So, while DH went to his desired seminars a few afternoons, I got to have a sewing day in the camper with the doors open(no bugs!) and my view was this...Ahhhh so relaxing!!

 Here is my sewing area... it worked perfectly sewing on the dining table and then my mini iron on a portable table from Walmart(which doubles as a dish drying area!).

And what did I sew you ask... I pieced these 2 table runners.

They really need a good pressing, which I will get to before I quilt them.

And then, I moved onto starting a coral, gray and white quilt, I have been collecting the corals and been just waiting for a chance to get a start on it.  I have all nine big blocks pieced and one row put together.  There was a bit more time to sew, and I would have, I thought I had cut enough pieces before leaving home, but I couldn't find them in the camper.  Well wouldn't cha know, the very next day here they lay over on the couch with our jackets-bummer!  DH didn't take any more classes, so no more sewing time either!  We spent the day doing fun things.

                                        

While sitting there sewing one afternoon, here comes this beautiful horse drawn carriage.  There was some big picnic event and they were giving rides to that group. 

We also had some time to do fun things like biking the wonderful trail along the Red River.

The Lindenwood park was just gorgeous with it's fountain, tons of pretty posies in bloom, and the big trees.

  If you like the smell of petunia's this was heavenly!

As we were biking along the trail there were a few times you actually biked by a neighborhood and we came upon this little library-how cute are these!

We also had a couple of kayak trips up and down the Red River which ran right past our camper!

 There was, however, a very sad event that happened in the river along the park-one young man lost his life.  I saw the rescue trucks, police etc come through the park and put their boats in and went searching. We didn't know for sure until we looked it up online what happened.  He told his buddies he was going swimming while they fished.  Makes you look at the river a bit differently for sure.They say the river looks calm but it has under currents.  It sure did look calm to us.

I never was able to capture a good still shot of the fireworks but I did take some movies. However, we are not sure it is OK for me to post them, so just imagine watching a couple hours(or more) of fireworks each night for 5 nights, WOW, KABOOM and all that jazz, the biggest best ones you have ever seen.  It was just wonderful!!  We have attended several of their shows over the years.  Next year it is in Mason City, Iowa.  There are several different big companies that put on the shows during the week. This time my favorite was Vortex out of Salt Lake City, Utah.

The PGI convention has fallen during our Anniversary many years, this year it was over before our Anniversary.  Thirty five years today!!!  Woohoo, where has all the time gone!

Back to normal life this week and catching up on lots of piecing, binding and quilting!  Soon I will have my Island Batik project done for August so watch for that in a few days.

Linking with MCM and Linky Tuesday.