by Karen on September 28, 2008
in quilts
Well instead of a short drive towards home on Saturday we decided to do the all day drive and got home in the early evening hours. Exhausted!! But I slept 10 hours last night and was full of energy today. We have the motorhome basically unpacked – stuff sitting all over the house to be put away but that is how it always happens. I’m in the middle of doing laundry and making a grocery list. Mike has the yard mostly mowed – more left to do but will finish that up later. I need to go through all the quilting goodies that I accumulated on the trip and get those organized and put away. I also need to look over and take photo’s of the quilt top that my aunt gave me and the quilt – both items that my grandmother made in the 1930′s. Mike will continue going through our photo’s that he took of our trip and edit them down to the best and I will try to remember to post a few more here and there.
Here is one photo of a quilt that I am designing and making as I think of ideas for it. The center is miniature double wedding rings that I hand pieced, the next areas of squares are machine pieced and then the flower applique is what I worked on while on the road this trip. I had glue basted all of it in place and appliqued while traveling:
I’m really not sure how big this one will end up getting or what the next borders around it will be, it has already grown larger than I had thought it would 
by Karen on September 26, 2008
in quilts
We started to head south yesterday leaving Wisconsin by 9:30 in the morning. I celebrated my birthday (#56) with our daughter and the grandchildren and shared a birthday cake with my granddaughter who has her birthday exactly one week after mine and she will be 6 years. Yesterday we drove about 5 hours and pulled into Springfield Illinois to camp until tomorrow morning. Today we will be off to see the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and whatever else takes our fancy. We will camp one more night here and then most likely one more on Saturday night, otherwise it is about a 9 or 10 hour drive from here (Illinois interstate has a law that motorhomes, campers, trucks speed limit is 55 so must go slower) and we do not like to be sitting that long and rather have a shorter 5 or 6 hour drive. Depending on where we stop we might be there one or two nights – it all depends on what is to see in the area. We will be home Sunday or Monday.
Mike takes literally hundreds of photo’s and then goes through them on the computer finding the best shots and edits them, so we are far behind on photo’s and I still do not have any from our second stop in the Madison area to show you. I will get to those in a day or two or after we get home.
So I will leave you a few more photo’s from the pennisula area of Wisconsin, near Sturgeon Bay and north of Green Bay:
Sunset at Potawatomi State Park:
Sailboat in the Green Bay (not the city – the water on the inside side of the Pennisula is called that):
by Karen on September 21, 2008
in quilts
Here are some photo’s from where we spent time this past week, this first photo is of the Bay called Green Bay this was a very short walk from our campsite :
On the road to the campsites:
Our campsite:
Fire tower observation point, this tower is from the 1930′s and back around 1960 my family and I had a picnic at this park and climbed the tower – one of my childhood memories:
View of the lake near the campsite:
View from the firetower:
another view of the lake:
by Karen on September 20, 2008
in quilts
After 4 days of camping at a state park in the Green Bay/Sturgeon Bay area of Wisconsin we are back in the Madison area near our daughter and her family until Thursday morning. Today we decided to go back to the famers market on our own and it was even bigger than last week, I imagine it not raining today had something to do with that I brought a tote bag with me and got enough veggies for a salad and a nice loaf of bread plus we ate some bakery while we were walking around. This is a very popular place, you would not believe the crowds. I wish we had a local farmer’s market like this at home and I would be there every week. Mike is editing photo’s and downloading from the camera and I will get some photo’s of our camping trip to Potawatomi State Park on here soon http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/parks/specific/Potawatomi/ yes funny name but wonderful park.
We have been having fun and have gotten used to our new motorhome rather quickly and really enjoy it. Yes it is smaller but that hasn’t made it any rougher. As soon as you get use to a smaller space you get used to it. We always keep in mind that we are not full timers and we do not live in it and that makes it so that it is ok. No way could I live in it – too small for that, but for long vacations it is just right. Better gas mileage and towing the honda has made it worth it also.
by Karen on September 20, 2008
in quilts
Last week here in the Madison area when we were visiting our daughter and family we went to the Madison Farmers Market on Saturday morning. It was raining, but we all had umbrella’s and decided to go anyhow. The crowd is amazing, the veggies are beautiful and so are the flowers. I would go every week if I could. Here are some photo’s of this wonderful market.
by Karen on September 14, 2008
in quilts
I had made the grandchildren new quilts for Christmas presents but seeing as we were coming to see them I wanted to be able to give them the quilts in person so they got them early. These are the kids with their quilts:
Utah:
and another:
Ciera:
acting silly:
by Karen on September 14, 2008
in quilts
Here are some pictures that we took in the Starved Rock park area in Illinois. The trail was wonderful, very pretty, but wow look at all those steps:
and more:
Wildflowers and butterflies at the park:
Pelicans at the park:
I’ll be out of touch for about 5 days unless I find wireless access but will have more photo’s to put on here on Saturday. We are moving from the Madison area to the Green Bay/Sturgeon Bay area and then to the Northwoods area 3 hours north of here. We will be back to the Madison area on Saturday.
by Karen on September 13, 2008
in quilts
I will be slow putting pictures on here but here are a couple from places we have been. Near Paducah is a town called Metropolis, IL and guess what it is the “official” home of Superman and the town has several statues of him and a store, memorabilia– silly yes, but cute :
One of the many parks we have been at, this one is called Dixon Springs and we stopped there for a walk and the bathrooms one day while we were siteseeing. It is in Illinois:
And here is a picture from Fort Massac State Park Illinois where we spent our first 3 nights. This photo is of one of the trails that go from the campground to the old historic fort site. This is a nice easy trail that small kids would enjoy also, there are no challenging trails in this park like the trails in the Starved Rock park. I hope to have some photo’s of that park soon. Mike is editing the photo’s while we are visiting here with our daughter and family in the Madison area of Wisconsin.
by Karen on September 11, 2008
in quilts
I meant to try to keep up the blog while we are traveling but a notebook with instructions for our internet system was left behind and without it we have not been able to establish wireless connection and are having to make due with wireless connections here and there. Our first week: we left Arkansas last week on Thursday and drove to a campground a little north of Paducah Kentucky, the campground was in Illinois. First thing Friday we went to the quilt museum — wonderful quilts and really enjoyed seeing them all. Some traditional and a lot of “art” quilts.
no pictures allowed in the museum so you have to make due with seeing the outside of the building!
From there we went on to Hancocks of Paducah – I had mentioned to some that the outside of the shop is like a warehouse and that it doesn’t look like your traditional quilt store – here is the outside:
It isn’t fancy or cute is it?
Here is a photo of part of the inside of the store:
And to think with looking at all that fabric I didn’t buy even one little fat quarter!! I really resisted. I did buy a pattern and some thread also a ruler and some suction cup handles (small ones) for my dear jane group. Traveling in a small motorhome puts some limitations on how much you spend and I didn’t really want to find a post office to mail a package to my daughter in Arkansas to hold on to until we get back home. Also I like to have a project in mind when I buy fabric or it will sit on a shelf for ages before it is used.
We took a week traveling through Illinois and got to Wisconsin yesterday. We are visiting our other daughter and family here near Madison and seeing some of the sites. Today we went to the Madison quilt Expo quilt show. Lots of great quilts to be seen and tons of vendors. I bought a little bit but again I resisted fabric.
I will try to post more this week while we are at a campground that has wireless connection and also put some more pictures up.
