Here we are at our first stop along our journey. We did not travel far today and are barely out of our home state of Arkansas. Tomorrow’s drive will be about the same distance, slightly longer and we will be further from Arkansas and camping the weekend in southeastern Nebraska. It was very hot when we got here as expected and little shade for the camper. We turned the A/C on after we got set up and then went to find some air conditioning for a walk. We are on the outer edges of Joplin Missouri. It was too hot and sunny to really do anything so we just found a mall and walked two miles inside it. This evening we will probably walk around the campground a little and look it over.
Malls are not something I enjoy all that much anymore. There was a time when I did a lot of mall shopping – now I tend to only shop when I need something. But malls do come in handy on hot days when you have traveled for a good part of the day and just want to walk and stretch after sitting for long spells. Ok — it was only a 5 hour trip today including the stop for lunch 
but that is long for me. I do not like to sit for hours on end in the vehicles. I am constantly up and down all day normally – sitting for hours is not what I like.
When we first moved to Arkansas – in the central part of the state it was a long drive to NW Arkansas to visit my family. The interstate 540 was not there then. We would drive on old highway 71 which is known as scenic – but very twisty and curvy up through the Boston Mountains. (serpentine curves) After the interstate went in it cut the 3 to 4 hour drive down to 2 hours and 20 minutes nice! Seeing as we used to enjoy parts of the highway we decided today as we were on no schedule to cut over to the highway after we were well up into the mountains. There is a rest area that is quite pretty and would be just right for lunch. Then we would drive the 20 miles through the tiny towns back to the interstate 540.
The old rest area was given a face lift and we were pleased with what we found. Now there is a loop trail – only 1/3 mile but nice for a walk after lunch. There is an area where you can cut down to the river and walk along side of it.
I didn't think to take my camera when we started the loop trail so Mike took these with his phone.
some of the water - we got our feet wet when crossing sections. It felt good!!
the trees are so pretty the way they overhang the river. This river is called the West Fork of the White River. The water was very low today but still enjoyable.
These benches are now scattered throughout the park.
It was really nice seeing this old rest area again and it really looked more like a picnic ground than a rest area. It used to be packed with the big semi-trucks – which is the reason it took so long to travel the road (besides the steep curves of course) – there would be so much truck traffic that it made it not enjoyable to drive this route – now that we have driven a few sections of it over the years we might just do the whole highway next time we go to visit the family.
I did get a little applique done today – I will post a photo in a day or two after some progress is made – now I am going to get my shoes on and see about a walk around the campground.
On Friday after leaving our camp we drove straight to Charlottesville to see Thomas Jefferson’s house which we love and have seen several times in the past. This is more of a side view of the house but I think I put a link to a site with 
photo’s of the house so I won’t do that again.
Around the back of the house is actually the side I like best the gardens. I’m talking vegetables, orchard, grapes, you name it if it can grow in the area he tried it and the garden people at the site take care of it all and has it looking like it did then. This photo on the left is part of the vegetable garden! yes just part. I love it – it reminds me so much of the garden we had when I was growing up – it wasn’t this big, but it was long like this and not quite 
to so wide.
Since we had been there last a new visitor center and store, theater and museum were also built. Here is a photo of that area. The house is at the top of a very tall hillside, the visitor center is at the bottom of the hill near the parking lot so it does not detract from the mansion. A shuttle bus has to be taken from the parking lot to the mansion, about a 1/2 mile to mile drive I believe. If you are ever in that area it is very well worth the trip to see it – allow a half day if you want to take any or all of the tours.
Now on to my quilting. I don’t think I have posted any of the photo’s of what little quilting I have done in the 9 days 
since we left the house! Here is a Dear Jane square on the right – G1 I don’t remember the 
name and do not have the book handy. On the left is my work space in the motorhome. I am working on G2 in this photo. We normally leave the bed made up for days on end inside of using it as the dinette area – it is easier to leave it made and not have to put the bed together at night. We have 3 captains chairs on the opposite end so it is not a problem with only the two of us here.
I do not think I will be back on the computer for the next 4 days or so – maybe longer. We will be at the Shenadoah National Park until the 15th – I do not think they have wireless in the park and then on to a state park in Northern Maryland. I might have to resort to a bookstore somewhere that has wireless. I will post more photo’s when I can. If we have a rainy day we just might load the computers in the car and look for internet cafe.
Look at what my internet quilting friend Mary Ann sent me from Denmark. Knitted wrist warmers that she made in a wonderful blue color that goes with my blue fleece jacket. I had complemented her wrist warmers that I had seen a photo of and commented that I wish I could knit like that and she offered to make some for me. My knitting accomplishment isn’t much. Two years ago I thought I would try to remember how to knit because I really wanted to make a shawl to wrap myself in when we are camping and I get a little chilly in the evening – well my shawl turned into an afghan! I know you are probably wondering what does someone in Arkansas need wrist warmers for and I will tell you at times in the winter my hands get downright cold
while sitting here at this computer typing!! Also when we start traveling in the motor home again this spring and 
summer depending on where we are and the time of the year it can be pretty chilly. Those mountains that we love in Colorado to Montana and over to Idaho are pretty high in elevation and it gets down right cold — I am going to get a lot of use out of these!! Mary Ann expect a thank you gift arriving – it will go in the mail tomorrow If you visit Mary Ann’s site (click on her name at the top of this post) you will see her basting her Dear Jane quilt that she recently finished!!) Oh and Mary Ann I will get some use out of these in the upcoming week – here today it got close to 70 degrees and the weekend will be in the 40′s daytime and 20′s at night!
Today promised to be a wonderful sunny warm day so I skipped the fitness center this morning and went out to the 
near by state park for a nice walk instead. I brought the little digital camera along with 
me – here are some photo’s from the lake — This is Lake Dardanelle State Park. Very nice pretty new visitor center on one end, a very nice walking along the lake paved trail, a swimming area next in line, picnic areas, then the campground. All very well maintained and a wonderful place to walk all year round. As I was walking out on the rocky breakwater I could see a flock of crows lined up on the rocks, I started to snap off pictures as I was walking as I wanted to catch at least one as they would fly off and I was lucky and did – look at it take off — (all photo’s can be 
clicked on to enlarge). We have had a lot of crows in our yard lately also but I don’t think I had ever seen them lined out up at the lake like that before. Because this park is so close to us we have never camped there but we drive out to the park on a regular basis and walk looking at the scenery.
No quilting news to report – I have been working steadily on the one block for the Christmas Baltimore Album Quilt that I had showed you all a photo of a week or two ago. It is nearer completion – I have one more flower to applique down then I will add a few French knots in the center. If it turns out I’ll post a photo!
Yesterday’s question was: “When quilt blocks are set on point, with their corners pointing up and down, they leave open spaces around the perimeter of the quilt. If fabric triangles are used to fill in gaps along the top and sides of the quilt, they are cut with their longest edges on the bias”.
The answer is False — sometimes quilters fill in the gaps with partial blocks, but when fabric triangles are used they are cut with their long sides on the straight grain, crosswise or lengthwise, because they provide the least stretchy edge and help stabilize the quilt’s outer perimeter.
Next question: Quilt borders should be cut or pieced to match the measurements along each outer edge of the quilt?
TRUE or FALSE
About 3 weeks ago I told you about our ice storm and of course many of you heard
about the severity of the ice storm damage to parts of Arkansas and Kentucky on the tv news. The other day a quilt guild member at Thursday’s workshop told us how she had been without power for 17 days and of all the tree damage traveling north to her house – she lives about 40 or more miles from where we meet. Today my husband and I decided to go see what kind of damage there was to this heavily forested area to 
the north of us here in Arkansas. We were surprised to see that we missed the bad ice storm (we only had minor amounts) by only 16 miles. Sixteen miles north of us we came upon the first of the damage and traveling a little further on there was one tree down after 
another – tops of trees laying on the ground, branches broken off, I am not exergerating we judged that if you looked at 10 trees at least 7 of those trees had damage. They were piled on the sides of the roads where the road crews had to cut trees to get them off of the roads. We pulled into the entrance of a small campground and had enough room 
to back out and turn around but entry to the park was not available. It was covered with downed trees. We traveled 50 miles from our house and it was like that from 16 miles north of us. We have no idea how far the damage like it goes but one lady that I correspond with lives in the area of Harrison, Arkansas 80 miles to the north of where I live told me that out of 8 
acres of heavily forrested land that they own half of their trees are damaged. We took pictures and I’m posting just some of them, click on them to enlarge. It really and truly in places looked like a tornado had gone through the area. Part of the Ozark Highland Trail goes through this area and I hate to even think what it looks like – I have a feeling hiking this year on the trail might be dangerous because of all the branches hanging in trees waiting to fall.
Most people that I know of from the news reports in Arkansas have their power back on but it will be a long time before this area gets back to normal looking. Luckly Arkansas trees grow fast due to long summers and short winters.
I have the binding on the Scrappy Irish chain quilt and in the process of the hand stitching. I’ll take a photo of it after 
it gets finished and washed – have to get all those chalk marks out you know!
I haven’t put any photos from my mug collection on here in awhile so here is one more, my daughter Melanie gave me this mug about 10 years ago I guess. I have no idea where she got it, my memory is not working it is tall and skinny, holds about 14 oz. I like to use it for fresh cut flowers instead of drinking from it. She gets on here and reads my blog at times so maybe she remembers where she got it and can fill us in.
The last question I posted was a terribly easy question I thought! the answer was all of the above. One can make templates from just about anything!
Another question: What is the needle of choice for hand quilting?
A- milliners
B - sharps
C- betweens
D- crewel
Today has been a busy day with fabric and quilts for me. I started the day off by taking the scrappy Irish chain quilt off of the quilting frame – I still have more quilting to do on it but it is the final border and I can do that with the hoop – this quilt is smaller than a twin size so no problem. I wanted to get it off of the frame so that this week I could start getting the “Insanity” quilt (Dear Jane) on the frame. Also I got the “Insanity” quilt out of the storage bag it was in and have it draped over the big quilting frame so some of the wrinkles will start to fall out. I took the big fabric backing out of the bag also and have that pressed and ready to cut down to size – I always order more than needed. The batting is waiting also. I’ve been prepared for this quilt for awhile now. I’m sure I will get it on the frame this weekend. Tomorrow will be a busy day at the guild workshop that I need to go to or I would get started – as is I might get started on it by evening. Even if I get it on the quilting frame though I am not going to take my first quilting stitch until February 23rd. Silly I know but on that date it will be 4 years since I started the quilt so it has significant meaning to me to start it then – it is also my daughter’s birthday that day and as she will eventually get the quilt it has double significance to start quilting it that day
I got the applique glue basted complete for the Baltimore Album Christmas square – I will applique this one and then move on to another block. I don’t like the glue to set too long and possible stain the fabric. That did happen on one quilt. The glue left a couple tiny dots in the fabric after it was washed twice. Since then I try to soak out the glue as soon as possible and have not had a problem. When I get done with the sewing I soak it in cold water several times until the water comes out clear and lay flat to dry. I like to do this to get the glue out. If you click on the photo it will take you to a larger size. I have had several people mention how my points are so pointed – sorry to disappoint but the applique is not done – this is just glue basted all the sewing needs to be done and it will be needle turn applique. All my points will not be pointed enough I’m sure but I don’t care if the “quilt police” notice or not – I quilt for my enjoyment only and never enter into shows or contests – I did enter into several things a awhile back and decided it was not for me. On the enlarged picture you can see white chalk lines = I trace around my freezer paper templates with a white chalk pencil and that is my sewing line.
I haven’t posted a photo of any of my mugs for a couple days and Nanci over at Quilting at the Cottage wanted to see
more. I thought I only had about 5 or 6 left but I think it might be closer to 10 after taking a quick look around. Here is one that I bought at Glacier National Park. I know I posted a different mug last week or so that I also got from there. We love the national parks and go back if we can. We have been to Glacier twice, once when our girls were with us and once after they were grown. I don’t get a mug every time we go someplace any more but I use to This mug has mountain goats that you can see at times in the mountains of this park. In fact we have been walking on a trail a time or two when we had to share the trail with them — they would just come out of nowhere it would seem and we would move aside and stand still and they would just walk right on by! I decided to pull some photo’s out of an old photo album to share with 
you of us
sharing the trails of Glacier with the mountain goats. These photo’s are from around 1989 in the middle of summer believe it not with all this snow shown. If you click on any of these pictures you will see it larger. Aren’t they magnificent animals!
Yesterday’s question: During free motion quilting, the sewing machine feed dogs are – UP or DOWN the answer is down.
Next question: Which of the following sewing machine needles are the thickest?
A- 14/90
B- 11/75
C- 18/110
Another Dear Jane “Insanity Revisited” block finished. That makes a total of 70 complete! Only 99 left to go I believe. At this point I do not plan on making this quilt again, I am enjoying it but I think two Dear Jane’s in two different color layouts will be enough because I have found other quilts to make with tiny blocks like these. One is called “Nearly Insane” by Liz Lois and she recently came up with a new book called “Just Plain Nuts”. Yes I agree I must be nuts to think of going on to more of these. Now if you look at the cover of these books you might be put off on the color of the quilt pictured on the Nearly Insane book. I was and I know some others were too. But you can see the Nearly Insane quilt finished at Hanne’s Quilt Corner and see what the quilt looks like in the two color selections that she chose; after seeing her quilt I decided I was going to make this one after all.
Another of my mugs – this little one that I keep a bunch of fabric pens in was purchased back in the 1980′s in North Platte, Nebraska - my husbands boyhood town. We go to this town to visit family every couple years on our way to the mountains of Montana, Wyoming & Idaho on vacations. On the edge of town there is a campground and right next to the campground is 
Fort Cody Trading Post. Fort Cody has been there since 1963, it is a free tourist attraction that children love and can wander through with amazement in their eyes and the feel that they have to find something to spend that hard earned dollar or five or ten that is burning a hole in their pocket! My husband spent the first 15 years of his life here in this town. Even after he moved away there has always been some family members that live there or near by. It has always been a stop that we make and even though the kids do not travel with us anymore we still make the stop at Fort Cody. It is a nice short walk from the campground that we stay at and it brings back silly memories of our daughters wandering through the store finding silly things to buy. I always find some candy to buy for myself or a little trinket of some sort. And now with grandchildren I am always looking for souvenirs for them.
Yesterday’s question was: When you sew strips together to make a long, continuous binding, you should assemble them end to end with a 1/4″ seam allowance? The answer is False Here is one of many sites that give a tutorial on how to make and attach binding.
Question: A product that can help keep loose dyes from settling on fabrics in the wash is:
A- Synthrapol
B- Orvus Paste
C- Retayne
I’m not sure what all I did yesterday but the day seemed to fly by and I didn’t really even start to sew until evening. That does seem to be my normal time for sewing. For some reason I am running all over the place during the daytime hours – going grocery shopping, cleaning house, cooking, and in warm weather yard work. I have been working on my one seam flying geese. I put a link the other day to a short video lesson that I had seen on a quilting list some where. I hope you all enjoyed it. I must say I had to watch it about 3 times to get my seams in the correct space! Talk about not watching and listening to the directions right. On the wall hanging that I am doing I did the Dutchman’s Puzzle pattern for the center using Marti’s templates for the smaller geese; and then for the outer border I used Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims one seam geese; they are larger and 3 dimensional. I have two of the border strips to sew onto the wall hanging still they are just pinned in place for the photo, I will get to it sometime soon I’m sure.
Yesterday’s question was Where is “quilt city USA”? the answer is Paducah, Kentucky. What a wonderful small river town. It is right next to the Ohio River and has a wonderful sea wall area. The Quilt Museum is located there and the yearly American Quilters Society quilt show is held at the convention center every April.
I found that series of questions that I have been posting out there on the great internet. That last question finished that series. I have found another one that I will start posting from today.
This set of question is stated that it is for beginners – lets see if they are right about that.
Question #1
Quilting was an important skill learned by nearly all pioneer women in the USA from revolutionary times. Why were quilts so commonly sewn in Early America?
A-Because fabric dyes were unreliable, fading quickly
B-Because young girls were not taught to read
C- It was considered wasteful not to use every scrap of fabric.
D- Sewing quilts was a religious activity.
Last week we went camping for 4 days at a fairly new State Park in Arkansas. Lake Fort Smith was a state park years ago and then it was dismantled due to the building of a new dam. The state said that they would make a new park near the old location and it opened in May of this year. We had a great time camping at the park, it was really pretty and has a nice mile loop road in the campground area that provides you with a great up and down hill work out and is very pretty. One morning I was stretching my legs and walked to the bathhouse and was greeted by 5 deer near the bathhouse. When I came back out the deer were still there and then proceeded to follow me a short way back to the campsite instead of fleeing! That was unusual to say the least. Here are some photo’s from our short trip.
Outside of visitors center:
Part of the inside of the visitor’s center:
Road to the campsites:
This part of the road shows a campsite and a bathhouse across the road:
We took a hike on the Ozark Highlands Trail which taps into the park. This is part of an old homestead – the chimney is all in one piece and is in very good shape for as old as it most likely is, I would judge it being from the 1800′s:
A view of the lake from the trail which follows the lake very closely in places.
Another part of the trail:
Me on the trail looking at something, I don’t remember what:
Here is a link to the park if you are interested in visiting it: http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/lakefortsmith/
Here are several links to information about the Ozark Highlands Trail:
http://www.trailkeeper.com/trails/view.aspx?id=253MDA2NEZ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozark_Highlands_Trail
http://www.hikearkansas.com/ohta.html
There are many access points to the trail from many parks and park areas. If you want to walk part of the trail you can park a vehicle from one of your hiking buddies at one site and then drive to another park and start from there by parking another car there and just go back for it later. We have done that in the past when we went backpacking on part of the trail – in our younger days — that way you don’t have to turn around and back track on the trail that you have already seen.
We took the new motor home out for a short trip this weekend to give it a little shake down and make sure we know how to operate everything before going on a longer trip in September. We drove over to the Petite Jean State Park here in Arkansas the park is about an hour drive from us –it is a very pretty park – we have been there numerous times over the last 28 years but boy it sure was hot this time!! We are in the midst of what hopefully is a short heat. We had intended to stay until close to 3 yesterday afternoon but by 10:30 AM it was already close to 90 and was heading towards 100 according to the weather forecast so we packed it up and left for home. This motorhome is much smaller than the 5th wheel camper we had for the past 2 years but the 5th wheel proofed to be much larger than what we wanted or needed. Here are a couple photo’s of our new Navion IQ by Itasca:
On the quilting side of it I didn’t get done with much but I did bring along my Dutch Treat quilt squares to work on and finished one of them:
First it was a wind storm and tornadoes in our area then 2 unusual heavy snow storms in March and here we go again only this time unusually heavy rain. Over a period of about 30 hours we received 6 1/2 inches of rain. Our ground has been so totally saturated with water between rain and snow falls that we are now experiecing flooding!! At least we are on high ground — here are some photo’s of area’s nearby:
Bona Dea Hiking Trails underwater:
another view of the trails under water:
North of our little town of Dover:
Flood waters by the Arkansas River by the lock and dam park:
