Mountainside Sewing - Sew & Tell - 8/25/25

There wasn't a whole lot of sewing going on last week... the mountains were calling and we responded.  Bright and early on Sunday morning, we jumped in the truck with camper in-tow and headed about two hours north-west of our home to one of our most favorite locations to camp - The Alvarado campground located in the San Isabel National Forest near Westcliffe, CO.

As we did in June, we attended worship in town and then settled into our campsite.  We were blessed to be able to claim a spot next to a creek.  

Dave had hopes of hiking one of the trails on Monday morning.  I consented to his crazy idea, thinking "it's 3 miles (one way)... I can do that.  We ate breakfast and packed lunch and headed out of the campsite at 7:35 a.m.

We went up, up and up... there were switchbacks... and some long, gentle inclines along the side of the mountain and more switchbacks.  We hiked a long, long ways... like 3 miles UP with a 2,600ish feet increase in elevation.  More than once I thought I was going to die! Our original destination was Commanche Lake. 

We did not make it. We went up, and up and up for 4 hours 15 minutes. When I could go no further, we sat and had lunch as we looked at the backside of this mountain where the arrow points... 

By Dave's calculation after returning home, we had another mile to go before getting to the lake. 

This was about 1/2 way back down... 
It doesn't show the actual fatigue and pain I felt

It took 2 hours to get back down. I slipped on rocks and landed on my bum in the last 1/2 mile. (I'm fine other than a bruise... that I will not show you. ;) )  When we got back to our site, we grabbed our water sandals and a couple glasses of water and sat in the cold mountain creek until our feet went numb.  We eventually took showers to wash all the dust and sweat away and then had a simple dinner.

I sewed and worked on hexies the next day.  My legs hurt so bad that I didn't want to do anything else... End of story. 🤣

We did take a few short walks around the campground and headed to town to see if Dave's phone problems could be resolved with better service.  

No such luck... though it did begin working again long enough to get caught up with family messages and he even answered a phone call... twenty minutes later he had no service of any sort and it remained that way until we got home and he was able to purchase a new sim card.  Technology!

Anyway... Here's what I did with my little hexie flower.

I did a simple running stitch in black embroidery thread to applique it onto the shirt. 

I want to pull out some 30s reproduction fabrics to make a pink and green flower for a pastel pink shirt that I have.

And the teal hexies... they have been added to the main project...

I'm feeling a little anxious about how I am going to get this all filled out and complete... I guess time will tell.  I have tried to not duplicate fabrics, though it has happened a few times, I will not go back and replace them.  Live and let live... 

Last week's party was a fun one!  So many pretty projects.  Gretchen shared the progress of her Stonefield's Blocks.  Her applique is just lovely! Head over to Gretchen's Little Corner to see all of the blocks that she featured.  

She was supposed to make two blocks like this but felt that all of those points on the stars were just too much for her... make a visit to see what she chose to do instead.  It is still just as lovely!

I look forward to seeing how her quilt will layout.

I have slowly recovered from the strenuous hike and am over the trauma of it all... The laundry has been managed, and I am ready to return to the studio.  What will I make???  I have no idea!

Since there is one more week remaining August, I will probably pull out my teal/aqua scraps and see what I can create.  I'll likely pull up the folder on my phone for design ideas and see what strikes my fancy.

Do you have a folder or source of inspiration that you turn to?

Leave a comment... I'd love to hear from you.

Keep Piecing,

Melva

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