Quilt Expo 2012

This is the third year in a row I’ve attended this event at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin. It’s hosted by Wisconsin Public Television and Nancy’s Notions. Nancy has been hosting a sewing/quilting show on public television for thirty years.

Once again, I volunteered to work at the show. This gave me free admission and parking. My volunteer shift was from 2:30 to 6:00 pm. I got there right at 9:00 am and quickly worked my way up and down the rows of vendors. I was done by 10:30. Next, I went back to a few of them that caught my eye and made some purchases. My goal was not to buy anything this year as I have several kits and patterns that I bought at previous shows and haven’t finished.

For the most part, I did pretty good. I bought a few items to use for patterns or projects I already have. I did end up buying one pattern from a vendor in California called A Quilter’s Dream. I bought one of her patterns last year and really like it. She had a new design this year that really caught my eye. I just couldn’t resist. I’m currently working on the pattern I bought from her last year. I’ve almost finished piecing the top. It’s for a gift for my son Eric. He never reads the blog so I’m not giving away any secrets :) I’ll post a picture when it’s done.

At 11:30 I attended a lecture I had signed up for in advance. It was about machine applique. The cost was $10. I don’t think it was worth it. I got a free pattern which I saw later was being sold on clearance at Nancy’s Notions for $1.49. The hour long lecture was mostly pointing out products to buy for applique quilting and showing some examples of quilts the presenter had made. I have a few projects I want to make that involve applique, and I thought this lecture would help me get started. I didn’t really learn anything I didn’t already know. So, the next project I will start will be applique. I’m just going to jump in and do it!

My volunteer assignment was as docent in the quilt display area. There were over 320 quilts on display for judging. I am just blown away by the talent of some of the quilters. Here’s an example of the artwork on display.

This one won the Best in Show award.

The picture just doesn’t do this next one justice. This lady from Germany had two quilts in the show. Each had over 40,000 crystals on it. Her quilting was very tiny and just amazing. Her backing fabric was dark and she used various color bobbin threads for the back to make the design pop. I was just blown away by her work.

I really like the colors on this one.

This Christmas one was beautiful. It also had some crystals to make it sparkle. I saw a lot more crystals this year on the quilts. I don’t know how the judges could choose winners. There were so many fantastic entries.

There were a few areas of quilts on display that were not being judged. One group was of quilts made using the selvedge on the ends of fabric. So many creative ways to use these scraps. This is the same quilt. The close-up shows how the selvedge was used.

One quilter had about 20 or 30 quilts on display. Her work was incredible. All done on a regular sized sewing machine. Unbelievable. She’s the lady in the white top.

Here are a few quilt patterns/kits I wanted to buy, but I restrained myself.

I really like the leaves and colors on this one.

This table topper was made from wool. Wool seems to be more and more popular each year. I knew it was more expensive than cotton fabric. When I saw the price tag of $52 for the kit, I walked away. More than I want to spend!

I did buy one other pattern. My brother and his wife have a cabin Up North and love to ride their ATVs. I just couldn’t resist this pattern. I don’t know when I’ll make it, but someday they may have this quilt in their home.

So, that’s just a small sample of this year’s Quilt Expo. I think I’ll take a break from attending next year. I didn’t see that much new stuff this year, and I really want to finish what I’ve already purchased. Of course, that’s what I said last year :)

On the home front, we’ve made progress on getting our broken parts repaired or replaced. Shurflo is sending us an upper housing repair kit for the pump. I sure hope this will take care of our pump problems for a long time to come. This will be the fourth pump in four years.

Carefree has shipped the replacement parts for our awning to a repair facility in Madison. Once they get the parts, we’ll make an appointment to take it in and get that taken care of.

One month from today we leave Wisconsin. We are both getting anxious to be on the road again. We’ll have about a week or two to make our way to Kansas for our jobs at Amazon. We don’t have an exact start date yet. We’ll know more on that in a week or two.

The weather has cooled off. This weekend the wind is out of the north and highs are only supposed to be around 70 degrees. Brrr. After the brutally hot summer we’ve had, we’re not used to this. I’m not complaining, though. I’m so done with the heat!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Fun With Friends and Repairs

Happy Labor Day to everyone!

We had a good news, bad news kind of weekend.  The good news was that we had five couples that are friends of ours come and camp in our park for the Labor Day weekend. They are all friends from the camping club we belong to.

We’ve only been able to go to one campout on a Saturday this year and visit with everyone for the day. These friends came to us, which we very much appreciate. We had a great time.

The guys golfed a couple of times. The ladies did a little shopping. There was lots of laughter, eating, talking, drinking, game playing, exercise walking and campfire time. I think everyone had a great time. I know we sure did.

Now for the bad news part of the weekend. On Thursday morning Kevin put out our electric awning. It was getting a bit breezy so I pushed the button to bring it back in. It moved a little bit, but wouldn’t retract.

I called Kevin over, and he took a look at it. The motor was definitely working, but for some reason it wouldn’t retract. I got out our owner’s manual stuff and found the Carefree awning booklet. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see that the mechanism had a four year warranty. Our four year owner date will be October 17th.

I called Carefree and finally got a customer service person. She then talked to Kevin, and he explained what was wrong. At first she was telling him to try and roll it up manually and secure it to the 5th wheel with duct tape or rope or zip ties. She said “be creative” when asked how to keep it rolled up. What???? That just sounded like a major accident waiting to happen. There was no way we thought the awning could be secured to the side of the trailer with duct tape!

Kevin kept talking to her and the more he explained it, she said she thought the gears in the end cap might be stripped. She suggested taking off both end caps and switching them around. That should allow the motor to engage with the gears and retract it. This was not a one or even two person job. Luckily, we had five other guys here this weekend.

So, Kevin strapped the awning down to keep it from blowing away until our friends could help him. Of course, it had to be windy on Friday and Saturday so they didn’t feel it was a good idea to try. Finally, on Saturday evening the wind died down enough to give it a go. It took some doing, but they got the end caps switched out. I said a little prayer and pushed the button. Yahoo, it worked. It will not be coming back out until it is properly fixed.

The Carefree customer service lady told Kevin that they would replace the entire motor assembly. They have redesigned it since our awing was installed. It sounded like there were problems with the old design. Here’s a picture of the part that had to be switched out. It’s the round cap with the two screws in it inside of the big plastic end pieces.

Tomorrow I’ll be calling Carefree’s warranty dealers to see when we can get it fixed. The closest ones are in Madison which is 30 miles away. We’ll have to take it in before we leave on October 8th.

On Saturday our friend Joan noticed a puddle under our 5th wheel. Now where could that be coming from? (The hose next to it was not leaking).

Kevin opened the basement door and started investigating. Friend Jim was helping him. It turns out the pump that we had to have replaced in July was leaking. This will be the third water pump in four years. This one has only been in there for two months, and we haven’t even used it.

I fired off an email to Shurflo today so we’ll see what they have to say. I must say we are very frustrated and disappointed with these water pumps. Hopefully, we’ve just had a string of bad luck. I certainly would not find it acceptable to have to be replacing the pump every year or less!

On Sunday the guys went golfing. Kevin came home with his driver looking like this.

He dropped his bag while loading the clubs into the truck, and the shaft snapped in half. At least it was after the round.

That afternoon Anne and Ralph’s truck wouldn’t start. After a jump start from Dave, it started up. Looks like they need new batteries.

I sure hope that’s the end of stuff breaking down. At least our awning is under warranty, and the pump better be. But, its frustrating to say the least. We realize that’s part of this life. We are using our 5th wheel more than is the standard. But, enough for a while.

The weather this weekend was still quite warm, with a few days at or near 90 degrees. That’s par for the course this summer. We started out with 90s on Memorial Day weekend and it hasn’t stopped. Hopefully, some cooler days are ahead.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Photo Book

I had gotten a code from Coke for a free photo book using Shutterfly. I spent about ten hours creating it. I decided to do a book about our trips to National Parks. I didn't realize we've been to 30 National Parks. Only 28 to go. I'm sure we won't make it to all of them as some of them are only accessible by boat or are in the Alaskan Tundra. But, we sure have made a nice dent in them.

The book wasn't really free. I added some embellishments and had to pay for shipping, so it ended up costing me $12.60. The value of the book itself is $23.99, so it's still a nice deal. I think it turned out really nice, and I'm very excited to see what it will look like. It was fun making it and reliving some of the memories we've made.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a variety of layouts and cover options to choose from.

Another Family Visit

Last Sunday Kevin’s sister Mary and her daughter’s family came for a visit. Our niece Terri is married to Rick and between them they have four children. We had a very nice visit. The kids are certainly growing up and were very well behaved.

Terri’s birthday is a week after mine, so Rick bought a cake and he put both of our names on it. Thanks Rick!

 

 

 

We supplied a picnic supper of burgers and hot dogs, and they brought the cake for dessert. It was a very nice afternoon.

Sunday night brought a gorgeous sunset. I sure do love beautiful sunsets.

We’ve had some interesting dogs in the park this week. A few years ago when we were in California we did see some dogs in strollers, but this is the first one we’ve seen in Wisconsin. What’s up with that?

A couple camped two sites from us have a Great Dane. It is one of the best behaved dogs I’ve seen. It doesn’t bark and is very calm. I’m sure it’s a great watch dog, though. If I saw that dog, I wouldn’t be messing with their stuff.

Today I went to a Salmon sale in the parking lot of the local grocery store. There was a truck in the lot selling Great Lakes Salmon for $2.99 a pound. They had a tent set up and were doing a brisk business. They would even filet it for you free of charge. You pay for the whole fish, but it was still a good deal. I got four meals for under $30. I did have to stand in line for 45 minutes. I guess I’m not the only person in Beaver Dam who likes Salmon and a good deal.

The last two weekends have been pretty quiet in the park. We’ve been a little less than half full. That’s fine with me. I’m getting antsy to get on the road again. We have about six weeks left, and I’m ready to be moving again.

Several of our friends are coming camping at our park for Labor Day Weekend, so that should be a good time. We are completely sold out next weekend. Between our friends and the other campers, we’ll be plenty busy.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Cleaning

Last year when we arrived back in Wisconsin, our RV home was covered in sand inside and out. We had spent a month during March and April traveling through New Mexico with lots of wind and blowing sand. I did a thorough spring cleaning including the inside of all cabinets and some very thorough vacuuming.

Although we didn’t have nearly as much blowing sand on our trip back to Wisconsin this year, I decided it was a good idea to do a thorough spring cleaning each year.

When we got back in April, it pretty much rained the first three weeks we were here. (Little did we know that when it stopped raining, it would stop for six weeks and we’d be in a severe drought.) Once the rain stopped, Kevin and I washed the outside of our home.

I went through all the cabinets, drawers and closets and cleaned all surfaces. While I was at it, I also got rid of stuff we no longer needed. It’s amazing how you can still accumulate stuff you don’t need in a smaller living space.

My next project was going to be cleaning all the wood surfaces inside with Orange Glo. This is such a great product. It cleans and polishes in one step. After months in the dry southwest, it keeps the wood from drying out too much, and it looks so fresh and clean when I’m done. By the time I was ready to start on the woodwork, the temps had gotten so hot. I didn’t feel like cleaning in the heat. I also wanted to have the doors and windows open. The product has a nice citrus scent, but I like to have ventilation when using cleaning products. So, I finally was able to get to this project this week. Our weather has been cooler. It’s actually raining again today. The next cleaning project will be a good deep vacuuming and then I’m done cleaning again until next spring. I wish :)

So, now that I’ve bored you to tears, I’ll finish up. There just isn’t too much to blog about when you’re parked in one spot for several months.

The corn behind us is attracting lots of birds. Dozens of sparrows sit atop the plants. I’m not sure why, but I wonder if they eat part of the corn tassels.

In my last blog, I mentioned that the Beaverland Must-Skis Water Ski Team were going to compete at the National Competition. Congratulations to them for finishing 10th in the nation. I also told you that they were only one of four teams in the nation that had been able to complete a five level pyramid. They did it in practice, and have a picture on their website to prove it. Take a look if you’re interested. I waterskied as a kid, so I really appreciate the talent and dedication required to achieve this accomplishment.

Tomorrow is my 55th birthday, and I haven’t been this happy to celebrate a birthday for some time. I become eligible to collect my pension, and will receive my first payment on October 1st. Yippee!!

Kevin and I plan to golf tomorrow morning and go out for a fish fry for dinner. We don’t do presents anymore. At this stage of our life, we have everything we need. And, if we want or need something we buy it. For us, time together is the best gift of all.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Visitors and Waterski Show

Kevin’s cousin Mark was in town two weekends ago for a wedding. I read his post on Facebook saying he and his son RJ were on their way to Wisconsin, so I invited them to come visit us if they had time. They got here on Sunday evening and pitched their tent on our site. We enjoyed a great visit around the campfire. The next morning we prepared breakfast and then they were on their way to the Apostle Islands and Lake Superior. You may remember we visited Mark and his family when we were in Colorado in September of 2010. It was great seeing them!
This past Saturday Kevin’s brother Joe and his wife Julie came from Iowa to visit us. They arrived Saturday afternoon. We sat outside for a while until some thunderstorms sent us inside. After dinner, the rains stopped and we enjoyed a campfire. They spent the night at a motel in Beaver Dam. We joined them for breakfast Sunday morning, and then they headed home. It was another great visit.
The rain brought some much needed cooler weather. All of last week was still hot and humid with highs every day in the 90s. Yesterday was an absolutely fantastic day. The high temperature was 78 degrees and the humidity was low. I sure hope the heat is over for this summer.
Last night we went to see the Beaver Dam Must-Skis waterski team perform on Beaver Dam Lake. Last week they placed 7th at the state competition and are competing at Nationals next weekend. The announcer told us that they were able to build a pyramid last Thursday during practice that was five levels high. There are only four teams in the country that have done that. They’re hoping to accomplish that stunt at the national competition. Apparently, the water was too rough last night to try it so we saw their normal pyramid. Still very impressive!


This doubles pair placed third in the state. Quite a few of the acts fell last night. They say that a poor dress rehearsal brings good luck. So, hopefully they’ll do very well at the national competition :)





They had a group of four guys who did jumps off a ramp. Pretty amazing stuff.

These twenty-two lovely ladies made up the ballet line.

Kevin and I went golfing today. We skipped last week because of the heat. I guess we were a bit rusty because we both had pretty poor scores. Kevin’s drives were awesome, but he struggled with his short game. I started slow, but my last three holes were pretty decent. Oh well, I knew my last round was too good to be true. I guess there’s always next time.
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

What’s That Green Stuff?

We have finally been getting some rain. It’s rained pretty much every day for the last week, mostly at night. We’ve had a few thunderstorms roll through, but nothing drastic in our area. Some areas of southeastern Wisconsin have had some pretty bad storm damage.

With the rain, the grass is actually starting to get green again. So far it hasn’t been growing, but at least it doesn’t crunch when you walk on it. The corn stalks behind us have some ears on them, and they’ve begun plumping up in the last few days.

It’s still been pretty warm and humid. This coming week is predicted to be in the 80s. That’s certainly more tolerable than the very high temps we’ve been having the last month or so.

We had some company this week. George worked with Kevin years ago at Fred Jones Pontiac. They’ve kept in contact over the years. George is now retired. He bought an older truck camper and has fixed it up very nicely. He came to our park with his friend Norma for the truck camper’s maiden voyage.

This was the first time we met Norma. She was very nice, and the four of us had a great time. George has a fishing boat and took us out for a ride on the lake.

This is only the second time we’ve actually been out on the lake. The first time was last year when we took a paddle boat out for an hour. We definitely got to see much more in George’s motor boat :)

Norma was nice enough to take a picture for us. That’s captain George at the helm.

Beaver Dam Lake is the 16th largest lake in Wisconsin. It’s rather narrow but very long. We were out for over an hour and probably only covered half of the length. We didn’t realize just how big this lake is. There were a number of islands. Some even had cabins on them. These guys looked like they were having fun.

Most of the homes on this lake are pretty small. I’m guessing many of them started out as summer cottages. There are some areas where some never homes are taking the place of the small cottages. We saw this one on our lake tour. Not too shabby.

Wednesday night George and Norma cooked dinner for us to celebrate George’s birthday. We had a delicious meal of steak, fried potatoes, asparagus, salad and Oreo birthday cookies for desert. Oh, and the strawberry margaritas were also excellent!

George has a rescue dog named Coco. He is one of the best trained dogs we have ever met. Kevin had fun throwing his ball for him. When you’ve had enough fun throwing the ball, you tell Coco “after this time, you rest”. He gets the ball and comes back and lays down. It works every time. Amazing!

Yesterday I spent the day at Eric’s finishing up painting some of his woodwork. Eric had a double header softball game after work, so I stopped and watched him play for a while. Some of his high school friends also play. It was fun seeing them again. Brought back memories of sitting and watching them play baseball and football as children. Eric had an in the park home run which was exciting. It doesn’t matter how old they get, in some ways they’re still my little boys.

The park is full again this weekend. Some of them have already arrived, and more will be rolling in. I’m sure we’ll be selling plenty of firewood again.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!