It has been way to long since I posted anything to my blog! The last date way 5/14, it is now 10/10.. Wow how time flies!
The main goal for me taking this job was to make money for a new long arm machine. Instead, I purchased a 33 foot fifth wheel travel trailer. No one was more surprised at that turn of events than me! Let me tell ya, when the bank said yes, you could have pushed me over with a feather!!! So now I am the proud owner of a travel trailer. I know it is not the best picture in the world, but if you would like to see the video that I put on YouTube, click here.
In my travels in the canyon, there are a few things that one would not thing would still be around like this phone. When was the last time you saw a payphone?
You have to remember, things that we now a days take for granted, like cell phone service and cable television and high speed internet, are not common up here. Cell service is almost non-existent in most of the park, Cable TV is off of a satellite and high speed internet.. what the heck is that?!!
My daughter gave me a Canon DSLR camera for my birthday and I have been using the heck out of it. I found the other day, something that most everyone in this park just walks right over and doesn't give it a second thought or even know what it is.. a USGS Survey marker... look closely at the date... This has been in the ground, in this concrete, since 1972. This was placed the year that I started High School, who knows how many feet have walked over this, but enough to keep the tarnish off the center of the marker. Amazing!The other amazing things that on one gives a second thought to here in this park are the flowers, yes, I said flowers. Take a look at some of my photography, just learning how to use the close up features and lenses.
These 3 flowers are about and inch across at best
This is a weed....
This one is about the size of a dime and the whole plant is less than 6 inches off the ground.
And this one, the whole plant was less than the size of my hand and the flowers were about 1/4 inch big. It were nestled on the side of a hill in loose rock.
I have made some new friends up here, these are some of the little girls that visit me daily.
I have learned a lot about weather up here as well, like this phenomenon called Canyon Fog. After a rain, it is so hot at the bottom of the canyon and so cold up here, that when the two air masses meet, they create fog that stays just in the canyon walls, sometimes spills out onto the edges, but when it does, it dissipates quickly.. This just happened to be at sunset one day.I have also started a new quilting project up here, never fear, I have not forgotten what this blog was about. I am now doing the Farmers Wife 1930"s blocks. Yes, I know, I didn't finish the 1920's, but I got board with them and all of the 1/16th of an inch measurements.. for the birds! I am a good quilter, but I really don't want to piece when I have to worry about my blocks turning out if I have to count the number of threads in the fabric for each seam! Geese.. what was I thinking?
So I jumped on the band wagon for the 1930's Farmers Wife blocks by the same author. I found a group on Facebook headed by a lady in Australia "Angie Wilson" who writes a blog called "Gnome Angel" and joined when it had just a few hundred members, now it is over 4300 members and world wide!
I also decided to try templates. This group uses the templates and instructions by Marti Michell. Skeptical at first, but after I did my first couple of blocks, cut them out and then sewed them together and everything went together as it was supposed to 'THE FIRST TIME" and my blocks turned out to be square and exactly 6 1/2 inches, I was sold.
When I left for the Canyon, I could not pack a lot of things, I just didn't have the room in the truck, and trust me, I couldn't have put another piece of paper in some of these boxes, but what I did put in were jellyrolls and charm packs, a small amount of yardage and a sewing basket full of everything from my favorite scissors to thread to screwdrivers, yes, small hand tools... hey, if there was an open space, I filled it!
So some of the jellyrolls and charm packs I brought were the Zoey and Christine line of fabric from Eleanor Burns. I had purchased them at the last quilt camp that I went to with the express intent to use them on one of her quilts, but this just seamed right. I also never wash my fabrics, but this time, I washed. Ever try to wash two jellyrolls and 6 charm packs? Not recommended without a washer near by that you can keep the lid open and watch. Not having that, I did it by hand, in my kitchen sink with HOT water, let them soak and then took them all and hung them on my lines outside. As they blew in the wind, I heavly starched them and let them dry. Only took about 3 hours from start of the process to taking them off the line, but took me 2 days to iron out all the wrinkles and another day to seprate them back into colors and put in baggies to keep organized. Whew, now that is over, I can work on getting the book organized. Figure that will happen with each block.So at this time, the first 5 blocks have been released and here they are:
 |
| 8 - Aunt |
 |
| 12 - Becky |
 |
| 14 - Betty |
 |
| 16 - Bonnie |
 |
| 20 - Caroline |
