First camping trip of the 2010 Season!

Tom surprised me with a trip to Letchworth State Park (southwest of Rochester NY) this week. Normally we begin the camping season at the park on my birthday. This year Kim Einmo gave a workshop and lecture to our guild on the 18^th.  I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my birthday than quilting. So I decided to forgo our annual trip.

Luckily for me, Tom decided that it would be a good idea to delay the trip by a day and to do all the camping preparations (from planning the meals to packing up the camper) himself. The best part – he decided that he would be chief cook and bottle washer for the entire trip. What a treat – I didn’t even have to plan the meals or go shopping.

He wanted to surprise me and have everything ready to go on Wednesday morning, so we didn’t do our normal maintenance checkup before putting the camper on the road.

First mishap – we couldn’t get the hot water heater to work.  OK- we’re camping and ‘roughing it’ so we heated water on the stove for last night’s dinner dishes and decided to use the park showers this morning. Not my favorite thing to do, but you have to do what you have to do.

What a shock when we discovered that the temperature of the water in the public showers was less than tepid.  Just our luck that that they were having hot water problems in that particular bath house also. Murphy’s law I guess.

I was certainly not a happy camper!

Luckily the problem was easily fixed when Tom called our RV mechanic who,  immediately asked, “Did you remember to disengage the water-bypass after flushing out the water lines? (I guess this must be a common oversight by many campers.)

Hooray we now have hot water!  Life is good.

Secondly we discovered we had lost most out of fresh water. So Tom had to crawl under the camper and tighten some of the line connectors. It looks as though we’re all set for now. Thankfully.

So here we are just relaxing and enjoying our get-away. And what better was to enjoy ourselves than doing what we both like the most – quilting for me and photography for Tom. He decided to make a video to put on his blog and I’m working on my Celtic applique. One of the new techniques I learned with this project was to miter the right angle corners when appliqueing the bias strips.  (The technique is also used when sewing the mitered corners of a quilt’s binding).

There’s nothing like quilting while RVing.

Earlier this week, I had lunch with two good quilting friends (Lisa & Mae) to celebrate Christmas.  We look forward to seeing what each of us has put together for our annual gift exchange.  Of course one of our favorite things to do is shop hop and we’re always on the lookout for things that each of us would like.  Lisa’s favorites themes are penguins and patriotic, Mae’s are gingerbread men, and mine are hummingbirds and cardinals.

I made each of them a candle mat along with a few trinkets including a gingerbread pattern for Mae and a “quilt sayings” panel for Lisa.

Mae's Candle Mat

Lisa's Candle Mat

They both (unknowingly) added to my cardinal collection.   My house is pretty small, but I’ll have to find room for these.

In addition, the fat quarter collection is happy, bright colors.  Quite a change from what I normally choose.  Can’t wait to see them in a quilt.  A group of us in the guild are making fat quarter quilts next year.   This should be a perfect palette for the project.

My Favorite Things

Winter in Upstate New York

Our Camper - All Loaded and Ready for the Trip South

Now that we’ve celebrated Christmas with my daughter and her family and Tom’s family here in upstate New York, we’re headed for North Carolina tomorrow to spend the next week with my son and the granddaughters, Shannon (age 14) and Jordan(age 11).  I told Jordan that I was bringing a casserole of baked lasagna that I had made last Sunday and frozen.  “Yum,” she said. “Are we making pasta salad while your here?”  Grandma can’t say, ‘No”.

Jordan had asked me to show her how to quilt when they visited earlier this year.  I helped her make a’ paper’ crazy quilt.  Now I’ve borrowed a book from our guild library on teaching children how to quilt. Both she and Shannon want to give it a try.  So our camper has the sewing machine along with my supply of scraps, rulers. cutting mat etc.  It should prove interesting.

We’ll visit with them until New Year’s day and then end our short winter get-away with a week in Charleston, SC.

Check out our website Tom and Lucia on the Road for an update on our travels.  Of course I’ll be bringing along a couple of projects.  I have two table runners that I will finish binding and an applique/redwork project that is a great take-along project while traveling.

My computer is sick and has had to go to the hospital. Not sure exactly what I did – but my hard drive has been ‘fried’ and I’ve had to send it to be fixed. Talk about withdrawal! I feel as though I have been out of touch with everyone this past week. No email or IM. Do I really have to use the phone or snail mail to keep in touch? Finally I came upon a solution – I ‘fired up’ an old laptop. It’s a bit slow – but beats the alternative.

So now I can also post on my blog again. We spent the weekend at Thompson Lake State Park (near Albany, NY). After the art fair in Albany on Saturday, we were able to spend some time camping, kayaking and hiking in the area.

Of course I made sure that I spent time quilting. Working on the Redwork Beauty applique by Betty Alderman Designs.

Work in Progress

I like the portability of needle turn and redwork. I guess I was lucky in that my first quilting instructor got me hooked on needle turn with her “easy” method. It is a great way to relax and accomplish something at the same time. And it’s so portable. I can easily work on the piece as we tow our camper or at the campground itself.

This time of the year is especially beautiful in upstate New York. The leaves are just beginning to show their Fall beauty and the weather is still warm enough to be able to sit outside the camper and quilt!

The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it. William James

Adirondack Vacation Day 1

We have limited internet access so I’ll be posting 2 or 3 days at one time on this trip.

We’re traveling again.

It seems like quite a long time since our last trip with the RV. We came back from a two-month stay in Florida at the end of February. In May and June we took two trips to Albany NY to participate in art fairs. (So I won’t count them because they were work related.)

We are now at Forked (pronounced fork ed’) Lake in the Adirondacks in northern New York. – One of our favorite places to camp in the Adirondacks. While this is actually a working vacation – Tom will be taking pictures at the Adirondack Museum on Saturday- we still have 5 days to relax and unwind. I plan to do a bit of quilting also – then some kayaking, quilting, hiking quilting, relaxing and quilting.

I’ve brought along a number of projects but will concentrate on three: my Celtic quilt (I have one side of the binding and the label to attach) , a wool appliqué project that I started last year at our quilters’ retreat at Watson Homestead. The project, Basket of Sunflowers was featured in the Fall/Winter 2007 edition of Quilt Sampler.

And the Third – my scrap stash. I have cut most of my blue stash into squares. It really is therapeutic to finally get some organization done

Right now Tom is down at the lake setting up for some sunset pictures. I’ll join him in a bit – Hope the sunset is good tonight.

Life sure is good!

There’s always time to quilt!

Day 2

Another Day in Paradise

What a way to spend a vacation! Tom decided to be chief and bottle washer today. A nice treat for me. When he prepared and did clean up for breakfast and lunch I was hoping that he would do the same for dinner. Now I’ll never know.

As we were preparing to have a glass of wine with a light snack before dinner, our neighbors in the next campsite invited us to share a drink with them. We ended up in our campsite however since we were all set up for “Happy Hour”. By the time we were finished visiting – it was nearly 7:30 so we decided on a quick dinner.   Tom wanted to go down to the lake again for some sunset pictures. The sunset has been really nice – not outstanding – but I don’t think you can get a bad sunset in the Adirondacks.

Today – the weather was perfect – in the 70′s. We spent most of the afternoon kayaking and exploring one of the streams that feeds Forked Lake.

And yes, I did get some quilting in – I’m still working on the binding for my Celtic quilt. I have about half of the final side to sew – and then the label.

There’s always time to quilt!

Day 3

Applique bedspread made as a retirement gift in 1894

We’re at the Adirondack Museum and I am enjoying the new quilt display, Common Threads Quilt Trail.  The collection consists of quilts from the 1800′s to present.  There are also quilts on display at various exhibits throughout the Museum grounds.

Touring the display is really worth the stop.

There’s always time to quilt!

Here we are traveling again. Though it’s only for a long weekend. This is our second trip to the Albany area in as many months.

We’re trying to promote Tom’s photography (Natural Images) at local art shows. We’re learning fast just what the public looks for when they go to a summer art show. Our first show was at the Albany Tulip Festival on Mother’s Day weekend. The tulips on in full bloom at Washington Street Park. Tulips as far as the eye can see. What a beautiful place for an art fair. The show this weekend was Art on Lark. The city closes down about 5 blocks of Lark Street in downtown Albany and more than 100 vendors line both the street. One of the area residents told me that this festival began when Lark Street residents would gather every weekend during the summer to display and sell their crafts and art. It has evolved into today’s art fair of 120 vendors from many areas of the country. Our booth was featured in the Around the Region section of the Albany Times Union.

As an added bonus, one of my favorite ways to pass the time while traveling is to do some sort of hand work. I was hoping that I would be able to work on my Celtic quilt on the 2-1/2 hour trip here. Unfortunately this quilt is king-size – just too big to manipulate in the truck – so I had to put it off until today when we were in the campground. I spent a very pleasant day outside the trailer – just sewing.

The temperature cooperated as well. It was in the low 70′s all day. I don’t know how I would have been able to work on this quilt if the weather was warmer. As a matter of fact last year it was in the 90′s this weekend. One couple announced at Sunday Mass that they were celebrating their first anniversary and were thankful that the temperature wasn’t in the 90′s as it was last year. Boy am I glad too! – I’m not a fan of the 90′s even when I’m not working on a quilt!

Many quilters put away their quilting in the summer because they want to spend time outside. – My solution: take the quilting along with you. I always carry a small project with me when we go for a hike. Being a nature photographer, Tom is always stopping to take a picture (or maybe 20) and it’s a perfect opportunity for me to stop and quilt. I also really like quilting in the campgrounds. I’m always having people stop by to see what I’m working on. It certainly is a conversation starter!

Quilting on the Road!