Saturday, August 29, 2009

Vacation 2009, Part 5

Thursday, August 6th, 2009 we drove the Grand Loop around Yellowstone. Yellowstone is such a large place and it took us most of the day to drive just the loop. We did stop and watch Old Faithful. I got some really good photos of it! We stopped at a few other spots but it rained most of the day so we just enjoyed the sights from the car. There is so much to see even if you don’t get out of the car!

Friday, August 7th, 2009, I stayed back at our camp site because I wasn’t feeling too well from the elevation changes. Missouri is around 1,000 feet above sea level while Yellowstone is between 7,000 and 8,000 above sea level. So I decided to stay back and relax for a bit. The boys took off again to Yellowstone to go hiking and do other things that I physically couldn’t do being pregnant. They were gone all day long! I believe they went to see Old Faithful again and walk the trails around it to look at all the other geysers. They also stopped at lots of other places and took tons of pictures.

Saturday, August 8th, 2009, we drove around Yellowstone again, this time taking a different route. We drove clear to the northern part to see the Mammoth Springs. Everything was so beautiful! On our drive we also saw 2 bears, 2 elk and lots of buffalo. The buffalo were all over the place and didn’t care anything about traffic. They had no problems just walking right down the middle of the road! It was very neat to see such a large animal so close.

Sunday, August 9th, 2009, we left Yellowstone and Cody, WY and drove to Castle Rock, CO. It was about a 6 hour drive. Justin’s friend Mike lives there and it was a good place to stop on our way back. We stayed overnight in the Walmart parking lot there. LOL We weren’t the only ones either!

Monday, August 10th, 2009 we left Castle Rock, CO and headed home Missouri! It was a 9 hour drive and the longest length of time we’d spent actually driving. But we were so ready to be home!

And that sums up our Vacation 2009! Click on the link below to see photos of Part 5, but be prepared, there are well over 300 photos in this section!


http://s723.photobucket.com/albums/ww239/heatherscustomsewing/Vacation%202009%20Part%205/?albumview=slideshow

Friday, August 28, 2009

Vacation 2009, Part 4

Tuesday, August 4, 2009, we drove to Sheridan, WY. I took lots of pictures along the way. The landscape changed drastically from green and hilly to flat, dry and sandy then changed to sharp peaks but it was still dry and sandy.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009, we drove to Cody, WY. On our way we drove through a mountain range. The roads were the worst to take an RV on. They were windy, back and forth, to climb up the mountain side and windy back down. I didn’t handle it very well! A good portion of the windy roads going up were also being worked on… all the road was ripped up & we took the RV off roading on the dirt path, literally. It scared the crap out of me! On our way down the other side we stopped at Shell Creek to let the breaks cool down. We were very lucky that we did because the breaks were both smoking. We got out and Justin was looking underneath the RV at the breaks on one side and Ian looked at the other side. Ian then yells that he sees flames! Part of the rubber covering on the breaks was literally on fire! Justin yelled at me to get a bottle of water to pour on it. Luckily, I was holding one! We got the fire put out and decided to take a break from driving and let the breaks cool down for awhile. In the mean time we walked the trail at Shell Creek and took lots of pictures. It was very pretty! When we were done the breaks were cool enough and had suffered no serious damage so we drove on and we eventually made it to Cody, WY. Once at our campground we unloaded the car & drove through part of Yellowstone, just to the fishing bridge, took some photos and walked around a bit and went back to rest! What a day!

Click on the link below to view all the pictures of Part 4!
http://s723.photobucket.com/albums/ww239/heatherscustomsewing/Vacation%202009%20Part%204/?albumview=slideshow

Stay tuned for the final Part 5!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Vacation 2009, Part 3

Friday, July 31, 2009 we went to Mount Rushmore. It was very impressive! They had a trail we walked that went down from the entrance towards the foot of the mountain and back up again. There were lots of steps and I didn’t do too bad! At one point in the trail there are several buildings where the original artist’s studio was. We stopped in there and listened to a talk about the artist, the tools used, and why they didn’t finish the carving. It was very interesting! Of course, we took lots of pictures!

After visiting Mount Rushmore we drove around site seeing the Black Hills area. The roads were very winding and curvy! I’m so glad we took my car on the trailer so we didn’t have to drive the RV everywhere. One of the roads we drove has a tunnel through the mountain side that no RV could fit through and the hair-pin turns were a little too exciting for me.

Saturday, August 1, 2009 we went to Crazy Horse. Actually we went there twice that day, once in the morning to see the statue in daylight and to tour the grounds and once at night to watch the laser light show. Crazy Horse is a non-government funded project that was started when a bunch of Native American Indians asked a sculpture artist to carve a monument for all Native American peoples. The artist who designed it worked on the mountain until his death when his children took over for him. They have a wonderful museum full of all sorts of artifacts from all the different tribes. You can also walk through the artists original home. At dark was the laser light show. This basically told the story of the Crazy Horse Monument in laser pictures cast up on the side of the mountain and set to Native American music. We all enjoyed it!

Sunday, August 2, 2009 we drove to the Wind Cave. This cave is one of the largest caves and still hasn’t been totally explored. We took a short tour of the cave. We walked down for awhile and looked at all the different cave features and then we road an elevator back to the top. Ian really liked the cave!

On our way out of the Wind Cave National Park we saw a large herd of buffalo. They were actually all over place and had no fear of our cars. I rolled down the car window to take some pictures of them and Ian kept telling me the put the window back up! He only wanted to look at them if the window was up. He was a little afraid of them!

After that we went to the Mammoth Graveyard in Hot Springs, SD. It was a pretty hot day but luckily the graveyard has had a building built over it so we got to go inside to tour everything! I took lots of pictures and we walked around on the walk way and listened to the tour guide talk about how the place came to be. They still aren’t done excavating everything.

Monday, August 3, 2009, I was too exhausted from all the walking the day before so I decided to stay back at the camp ground to clean up and do some laundry. Justin and Ian took off to go visit Devil’s Tower. Devils Tower is the remnants of the center of a volcano. They took lots of pictures and it looks like they have fun!

Click on the link below to view all the pictures of Part 3!
http://s723.photobucket.com/albums/ww239/heatherscustomsewing/Vacation%202009%20Part%203/?albumview=slideshow

Stay Tuned for Part 4!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Vacation 2009, Part 2

Welcome back for the second part of our Vacation 2009!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009 we left Omaha, NE and headed towards Mitchell, SD. We spent most of the day on the road so when we got to Mitchell we found a camp ground and just stayed there for the rest of the evening.

Thursday, July 30, 2009 we got up and packed up to drive towards Custer, SD. On our way we stopped at several places and took our time driving on this day. We first stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. The place was pretty neat! It’s great how some people can take an ordinary item and turn it into art. After we left the Mitchell area we stopped at a car museum. The boys loved this! We also stopped at Wall Drug, a huge drug store with everything you could imagine. It’s more of a tourist trap then anything. We also drove through the Badlands. It’s really surprising that a place to barren is in the United States. We tried to walk around a little bit but the heat was too much. Our last leg of the drive was driving through Custer State Park in the dark trying to make it to our camp ground. This was really scary for me! I don’t do well on really windy roads in a big RV especially in the dark. We eventually made it to our camp ground that night at about 11pm and somewhere we crossed the time zone line but we didn’t realize it for a while! I was just glad to make it to our destination that day!

Click on the link below to view photos of Part 2!
http://s723.photobucket.com/albums/ww239/heatherscustomsewing/Vacation%202009%20Part%202/?albumview=slideshow

Stay tuned for Part 3!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Vacation 2009, Part 1

We had a great vacation! We took 2 weeks off, borrowed my parents RV, and set off with no clear plans set in place other than our ultimate destination being Yellowstone National Park.

We took off Monday, July 27, 2009 from our mid-Missouri home and headed north. We drove most of the day and arrived in Omaha, NE in the early evening. We managed to find a decent camp ground that didn’t require a call-ahead or reservations. That night we spent relaxing around the campfire and teaching Ian how to not burn marshmallows!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo and Train Museum in Omaha, NE. We did a lot of walking that day! I took tons of pictures at the zoo and we had a great time. We didn’t spend much time at the train museum since we got there a half hour before it closed and I didn’t take any pictures while we were there but it was still neat to visit it.

Back at our camp ground we sat around the campfire again eating marshmallows. There was an interesting bike sculpture at the entrance of the camp ground. The place was actually part of a biking and walking park. There were also baseball & soccer fields nearby. Ian had fun on the nice playground and we just enjoyed ourselves!

Click the link below to view photos of Part 1!
http://s723.photobucket.com/albums/ww239/heatherscustomsewing/Vacation%202009%20Part%201/?albumview=slideshow

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Garden Bouquet Quilt: Month 9- The Pansy


“I want to make a purple pansy,” “I don’t, I want a yellow one.” “Not for me, I want a reddish brown.” Thus spoke the members of the Nancy Page quilt club.

“I don’t see why each one of you can’t make the pansy the color you please. Your choice is dependent on the scraps of material you have and the color you chose for the flowers close to it. If you made a red-orange nasturtium you scarcely want to repeat those tones in the flower next to it. Look your pieces over while I tell you how we will make this flower.

First get the urn block ready, the pattern for that was given much earlier. It is the pieced triangular block which is the lower half of a diamond measuring 12 ½ by 12 ½.

The upper part of the triangle, 17 ½ by 12 ½ by 12 ½ is the piece of white on which the pansy and the two birds are appliquéd.

The patterns for the birds were given much earlier. They may be appliquéd in spare time ahead of each new flower.

Or, if you are varying the color of the birds to match or contrast with the color of the flower you will want to wait until you see what the flower is going to be and until you decided in just what colors you will make it. Once that is decided the rest is simple.

Trace the outline of the flower lightly in place on the upper triangle. This is not necessary. It simplifies the placement of the flower later, but with the small from the paper trace the flower and guide inset given each week it is often omitted.

After the pattern, with its accompanying directions, has been cut leaves and stem onto light weight cardboard.

Now cut out the pattern and you have cardboard cutting pieces.

Lay these on the materials and cut out the cloth. Be sure to allow one-quarter inch on all sides. This is basted under and pressed. And is done before the flowers are appliquéd.

In making the stem use bias tape in green. Other material may be used. If this is done, cut the stem on the bias and cut the material twice as wide as the finished stem will be. Turn raw edges back until
(Pieces of this article are missing along with the ending, seeing as how it was written back in 1931. I have typed out what I have. The main part that is missing is the description on how to appliqué and create a biased stem. You can refer to previous Garden Bouquet Quilt posts on how to do this.)

I haven’t been able to work on my Pansy block so I don’t have anything to show off. I will update this when I do get the chance!

Do you have any Garden Bouquet Quilt blocks to show off? Leave a link to your blog post about it in the comment section or email me a photo at heathers_custom_sewing{at}yahoo.com so I can share with everyone!

I hope you are enjoying this series!
~Heather

Quick Links to:

Month 1: Beginning Instructions, Urn, and Basket Instructions
Month 2, Part 1: The Tulip

Month 2, Part 2: The Saucy Bird
Month 2, Part 3: The Meek Bird
Month 3: The Cactus
Month 4: Lily of the Valley
Month 5: The Wild Rose
Month 6: The Trillium
Month 7: Canterbury Bells
Month 8: Nasturtium
~*~
Hand Appliqué
Machine Appliqué
Alternate Method of Appliqué Tutorial
Biased Binding Tutorial

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