Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Independence Rock

by Karen on July 13, 2010

in quilts

(July 12th Monday)

We both woke up so early this morning!  We got an early start and headed from the campground to Independence Rock and we were climbing the rock by about 9:30 this morning.  The Rock is about 15 to 20 miles from the campground. The sun has been shinning all day but the wind!  All day it has been blowing – 15 to 30 mile an hour winds.  I had thought I might wade in the water a little bit today but the wind has given the lake waves and the slit has stirred up something awful – the water has such a dirty look to it now and it was clean yesterday.

Here are some photos from Independence Rock (which by the way it is named that because the first known explorers came through here on a July 4th in the mid 1800’s) (that is what we read at one museum we went through last week).

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The rock rises from the ground 136 feet.  It is 1,950 feet long and 850 feet wide.  I took a video of it and will try to load it at the end of this post – it might give you more of a feeling of how big it is.  There is a 1 mile long path that goes around the base of the Rock.  At the back of the rock we decided it looked the easiest to start our climb up it.  You have to kind of go sideways while walking up the rock – kind of like gentle switchbacks if you know what I mean – that way – to us – it seemed easiest and we were still huffing and puffing by time we got to the top.

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One of the many old names still visible at the top of the rock from pioneers that crossed this way back in the mid 1800’s – although some names came from after the pioneers came though – some people are still carving their names it and they are not supposed to anymore.

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And another one.  We saw probably over 20 names and dates.

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This bridge at the Rock crosses over one of the impressions left by the Oregon Trail.

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A sign at the park.

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This is the official park sign although when I took it I wasn’t thinking and I only have a small portion of Independence Rock in the photo.  The rest is mountains in the area.

I just realized I can not post a video right now – I am not connected!  I am writing this in Windows Live Writer which lets me write my blog post and insert photos.  I save it as a draft and then when we have internet connection I can schedule this to post.  I will have to do the videos later. 

This post will be scheduled several days from now as we will still be at this park on the 13th, we will leave here on the 14th and head on down the road on our winding way to the Grand Tetons National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

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Quilting on the Road

by Karen on July 13, 2010

in quilts

First of all thank you to all of my loyal readers who have sent me comments and e mails.  I do not have wireless connection for right now (other than the Starbucks where I am posting this at for the moment – getting groceries next :)   )  I do not have time to answer all individually – yes we are having a great time and have run in to no trouble so far – knock wood – when we get to a place with connection at the campground I will write more  we leave Pathfinder Reservoir Wednesday morning I do not know if the next area we go to will have any better connection service)

I have gotten some quilting done while traveling.  First week we were out I worked on an appliqué block for the Red and Green Traditional quilt.  I tried to appliqué while Mike was driving but after an hour I decided not to.  I was enjoying looking at the scenery too much and I couldn’t quite hold the fabric right in a moving vehicle with bumpy roads.  I did finish the block while I was doing laundry the other day.

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Last night as we were here in this very quite park and it was a bit too windy to have a campfire I was sitting inside with all the windows and door opened instead.  I decided to get started on the Star Crazy BOM July assignment.  I had cut all the fabric out and pattern pieces before we left home and they are in a zip lock bag.  Here is how I go about paper piecing without a sewing machine to do half square triangles ;)

Trace your pattern lines onto your background fabric – wrong side.

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The tools needed.  Pin your two pieces of fabric together in several pieces to keep them in place.

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Sew your lines just as you would if you were using a sewing machine.  Make sure to knot off at the end of each line where you would cut with a rotary cutter.  I forgot my rotary cutter but I do have my good pair of scissors in my box so that is what I used.

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Triangles are now cut apart exactly as you would do if you do the sewing machine method.  Because we did not have the generator running I did not press instead I pinned on my felt to hold them open. (we will run the generator tonight to charge things up and I will press blocks then)

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Everything for this star block is now pinned in place on the felt to press the seams open.  I laid my 12 1/2 inch ruler square on top of it over night with my portable Ipod player on top of it for weight and it should now be pressed this morning and I will continue working on it later this evening when we are back at the campground.

Today we are going to Independence Rock and seeing some other things besides picking up water and groceries later this afternoon.  (I wrote this Sunday July 11th)

p.s. getting ready to schedule to post this for Tuesday while at the Starbucks – we did make it up Independence Rock this morning (the 12th) and I will post that later

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