Let's Go Camping :: Finish!

Recently Dave and I wanted to make one last camping trip.  Thanksgiving was a week+ away and we had just received 8-9 inches of snow on Monday... 

... and we were longing for warmer weather and an opportunity to ride some trails on our bikes.  

I had been working on quilting my Let's Go Camping BOM quilt during the snow storm... I had made progress and had hoped to be able to get all of the quilting done so that I could finish the binding while on the road.  Things were looking good for that plan... 

We had planned to head south to Texas on Saturday, BUT because of another storm front they said would move through that area over the weekend, we chose to leave a few days early and enjoy the beautiful weather that was predicted for Thursday and Friday.  The binding was not meant to happen.  Oh well.  It would all wait for my return... 

We had some beautiful days in Quitaque, TX!

Caprock Canyon State Park has some beautiful views...

On the Thursday we rode 13.7 miles on just the park roads.  We had to wait patiently for the Bison to get off of the road at one point (but who is going to argue with them?), we navigated a short section of 16% grade as we crossed the river at the bottom of the canyon, this also means we walked our bikes up a section of it since we didn't make it all the way to the top; we watched prairie dogs, listened to coyotes call out in the wee hours of the day, headed to bed at 8 p.m. and slept eleven (11!) hours with no problem.

On Friday we ventured a few miles down the road to a section of the trail system that uses an abandoned Railroad bed.  

It was well maintained with crushed gravel that was well packed.  We road 4.5 miles to Clarity Tunnel, which houses some bats...  

Ack!  It was just a short tunnel, 582 feet long, with a bit of a curve.  It was fine dust and was, no doubt, comprised of years and years of accumulation of bat guano... and it was a little stinky!  Gross!! 

Of course, Dave told me to stop for a few seconds to snap a selfie... you could hear the bats "chirping" as they hung from the ceiling. I didn't stay stopped long once I realized what I heard!  

As we rode the trail we saw lots of deer tracks, as well as tracks from the cows that grazed in the pastures on either side of the trail.  And then I noticed this...

Just what do you suppose could have left such a track???  

We did see one small rattlesnake on another section of the trail after lunch, but it was just a little thing... what ever left this behind must have been bigger.  I shudder as I think of how many snakes we may have passed in the grasses on the edge of the trail... which is why I stayed carefully in the center of the trail!

We rode a total of 15 miles on the second day.  Our bums were a little sore! 

Upon our return home, after getting caught up on laundry, I settled in at my sewing table.  I went to work on my feathered wreaths embellished with some vines and leaves in each block and free motion feathers in the open edge blocks.

It has been fun making these blocks, recalling many of the places we have camped, time spent around the campfire, seeing animals and their crossings; taking inventory of what to take and things you do, the food enjoyed while stirring the pot.  Thinking of all the things you can camp in, the various camping activities, as well as friendships made.

My free-motion quilting is far from perfect, but I have improved sooooooo much... and you cannot improve unless you make projects that don't require perfection.  I used a plaid flannel for the backing... perfect for an extra layer of warmth for those cool nights in the camper!

Somehow, I found myself involved in four different block of the month groups this year.  Maybe next year I will keep it to a max of two.  

How many BOMs did you participate in this year?

What BOMs have you heard about for 2019?  

Please share!  I would love to see some more options out there... leave a comment so I can go check them out.  

Sew Happy!

Melva

PS... I would love to continue my Quilters Through The Generations series.  Please, let me know if you are interested in participating by emailing me MelvaLovesScraps@nolanqualitycustoms.com or you can leave a comment below.

Linking with:

Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Moving It Forward Monday at Em's Scrap Bag
Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework
Friday Foto Fun at Powered By Quilting
Show and Tell Monday with Bambi
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
Color Inspiration at Cleave Chameleon Quilting
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
WIP Wednesday with Esther
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Let's Go Camping - Friendships Made

Friends made while camping have a special bond... most of the time because it involves laughter, dirt and lack of sleep.  

While I was in Girl Scouts, I never got to experience Girl Scout camp... I did enjoy several youth retreat weekends that did involve laughter and lack of sleep, but not dirt.  This is from an Up With Youth event held in Estes Park in 1983...

Both of our daughters participated in Girl Scouts (I was even a Daisy and Brownie Troop leader) and both went to Camp Elliott Barker located near Angel Fire, NM.  Our oldest, Heather, had desired to have a horse.  So she signed up for the horseback riding camp so that she could learn about caring for the horses as well as improving her riding skills.  

The next year she signed up for the Outdoor Program Aide camp... (she may have decided that caring for a horse was way more work than she had originally thought.  😉)  The OPA program was training to be a member of the camp staff.  She and all the other OPA girls got to pick their camp names... they said it was easier for the younger campers to remember "silly names" than the actual names... I think there was a bit of privacy offered with the camp names as well.  She chose Tigger as her camp name.

She participated for two years as a camper and when she was 16 she became a junior counselor and was part of the paid staff.  She knew all of the camp songs, she was trained in first aid, fire starting, orienteering, etc.  

She loved the independence of being away from home for 2 months... I'll be honest... I struggled a little with that (yeah, yeah, yeah... I  struggled a lot!  She was only 16!)  

They would have a ten-day session followed by a two-day furlough.  And she didn't always come home.  It was a two hour drive home... a few times she opted to go to a friend's place that was "closer".  Like I said, I struggled a lot!
     
None the less, she gained great experience in handling all of her laundry and other needs and emergencies of life.  

She was even a cover girl for the camp schedule one year!!!


I love the fact that Dave and I were able to encourage both of our girls to strive to be leaders, and upstanding citizens, contributing to the future of our world.

Heather has not stayed in touch with any of the other young ladies that were counselors while she was at Camp Elliott Barker, but I know that she holds those memories as special times in her mind.  

When I asked her about her favorite memory from camp she said, 

"The camp outs! Not necessarily the sleeping in tent or cabin with 3 walls but cooking over a fire, making s'mores, and singing songs!"

Make new friends, but keep the old...
One is silver, and the other gold.
A circle round that has no end
That's how long I'm gonna be your friend.

Did you go to Girl Scout camp or Youth camp? Did you make life long friends?

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

Piece Out,

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - Home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:

Let's Go Camping with Pat Sloan

BOMs Away at What A Hoot Quilts

Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts

Linky Tuesday at Freemotion By the River
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Let's Go Camping :: Camping Activities

Pat Sloan's "Let's Go Camping" Mystery Block of the month is all about Camping Activities.





I have already shared about some of the things we have done while camping... like our bike rides up the original Wolf Creek Pass last year...  and playing ball in the meadow and hiking or Uno or the card game Speed for hours on end when it rained...  

So when I thought of what other activities we would do I thought back to just six short weeks ago (and we need to go camping again... soon!) when we camped with our oldest daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.  We enjoyed time at the hot springs in Ouray, some time in the park and a good game of T-ball that was filled with some rule bending and giggles galore!


But I also recalled when my girls were younger and they would walk the meadow at my Uncle's property and gather wild flowers. 


I don't remember where we were that I watched Heather with Emma telling her that they needed some purple flowers to add to the bouquet they had gathered.  It may have been in the same meadow my cousins and I would play ball when we collected firewood for them last year.  

Wild flower gathering is a great activity for the little ones.  It can be a calming time that invited conversation and... bonus!  You can sneak in some color recognition... and you can keep sending them back for different colors or grasses as filler.  I dug through several old photo albums and photo libraries on cds in search of one of the many bouquets we enjoyed as table centerpieces when we camped.

Something similar to the one I found on-line... >>>

So... my fabric selection for this block isn't really that out of place. The Route 66 fabric represents the road trip portion involved with camping and the floral print is a reminder of all the bouquets gathered with love.

Pat had suggested a scavenger hunt which is also a great idea.  You could make your own or use the link provided... you could even incorporate collecting wildflowers into the hunt!

What are some of your favorite camping activities?  

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

Have you heard about the 2018 Quilter's Meet & Greet hop taking place the entire month of September?  You can jump over to Benita Skinner's Creative Space to see the entire list of participants.  Did I mention there is a fantastic prize to be won???  Details can be found on both blogs.

Sew Happy!

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - Home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:

Pat Sloan's Let's Go Camping Mystery Block
BOMs Away at What a Hoot Quilts
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
TGIFF at Devoted Quilter
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Let's Go Camping - Things To Camp In

The August "Let's Go Camping" block by Pat Sloan is called Things to Camp in.  She used some really cute camping fabric that featured camp trailers.  

I, however, did not have any fabric quite so cute with campers, trailers or tents on it... I chose to go with some fabric that features an assortment of license plates. 

Through out the years and experiences of camping I have camped in tents, pop-up campers, and truck campers.  






Tents are my least favorite.  There always seems to be a problem when a tent goes up...  It is like it is a rain magnet! Everything would end up wet.  And it usually happened on the last day so that the tent would have to be taken down while still damp.  It would require an additional set up once you returned home so that it could dry properly and completely.  And don't forget that the whole sleeping on the ground thing is highly over-rated!  (Tent photo found on the internet)









Of course, the pop-up camper was nothing more than a tent off of the ground.  The rain thing wasn't quite as bad, but it still required an additional set up to dry properly.  And there were advantages of being off of the ground.

However, in the end it really was just a tent and I did not feel very safe in "Bear Country" and would seldom sleep as I was always listening for wildlife.  {{Have you read my "bear stories" over at Bearpaw Block?  No???  You will certainly get a laugh, but you may understand my concern.}}



When we had the opportunity to purchase the truck camper last year I was excited to be able to enjoy camping again with the security of some hard sides that would offer a bit more protection from wildlife.



We wander the campgrounds after we settle in and wonder in awe of the size of some of the motor homes that we see.  

We giggle at the fact that the people have traveled many miles to enjoy the outdoors and then sit in the comfort of recliners watching a big screen television at night... or even all day sometimes.  Hmmmmm.....

We don't mind being the little dog among all the big dogs at all!

While we are not living it up in the Shangri la or a rolling condo, we have all we need in our teeny, tiny home on the truck.  Maybe in a few years we will make a move into a pull behind trailer... or not.  


So my block may not feature "Things to camp in"... but it could easily represent the states we have camped in. 😀

One of our goals to travel to every state of the United States.  We have several international trips we would like to do some day as well, but for now... we will stick to the Continental US.

What do you like camping in?  

Or where do you like to go camping?

I would love to hear from you... leave a comment!
Quilt Happy!

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - Home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:

Pat Sloan's Mystery BOM

Linky Tuesday at Freemotion By The River

Fiber Tuesday at The Quilting Room with Mel

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

BOMs Away at What A Hoot Quilts

Let's Go Camping :: Stir The Pot

Pat Sloan's Let's Go Camping Sew Along block for June is Stir the Pot - and all about camping food...

There is just something about camping food.  I don't know if it is the fresh air or the cooking over a camp stove or open fire... but food just tastes better when you are camping.  Or maybe it is the fact you are usually more active with the hikes and outdoor activities that cause you to burn more calories and you are just plain hungry!  Yeah, I think that is it!

I have mentioned camping as a child many times... and one of the places that we would go is now just 45 minutes away in a canyon located West of Trinidad.  My Uncle has some property there and we would all congregate at "the property" for holiday weekends.  There is a large meadow that has a beautiful view of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range and we kids would play ball for hours in that meadow... 

or hike up the hill that was across the road where there was a unique rock formation that we referred to as "the castle"... 

Oh, and the hours of playing cards and Uno in the tent!  

My aunt was a Girl Scout leader and was all about cooking over an open fire.  My Mom however preferred to prepare our meals in the truck camper with the stove top and small oven... 

I was a picky eater as a kid and don't really recall much about meals while camping other than breakfast!  Again, I am a morning person... reference my recent It's A Wild Life post...

Breakfast with bacon, eggs and toast.  Oh man!  There is nothing better... 

And at the end of the day... S'mores... who doesn't love S'mores???  But of course, with my current dietary restrictions I am a limited to what I can have...




A few weeks ago Dave and I made a "trial run" of camping at Pueblo Lake State Park.  Both of our daughters live in Pueblo so we had invited both families to visit for an evening of a campfire and S'mores.  I had purchased some marshmallows that I could have... YAY!  I took along some of my Enjoy Life chocolate chunks for me so that I could have chocolate stuffed marshmallows while everyone else enjoyed the traditional s'mores.  Mmmmmm.....

As for dinners while camping hamburgers and brats or hot dogs are always easy go-to meals.  And "campfire stews" or the foil-packet meals are good too.  You can "customize" them for each person.  Mine has sweet potatoes and Dave's has the russet potatoes.  both have chicken.  This makes for easy clean up as well!

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law taught us one of their campfire favorites... doughboys.  You carefully stretch and wrap a canned biscuit on the end of a bark-bare stick (we use dowel rods) and slowly cook it over the coals of a campfire.  When cooked properly you can gently twist it off of the stick.  You then fill the vessel with your favorite jam or jelly... or pudding. Or you can stuff it with a breakfast sausage or hotdog... or scrambled eggs... or anything you want really.  How about a some pepperoni wrapped around a cheese stick and dipped in pizza sauce???  

And, while this block name is Stir The Pot, it really reminds me of how everyone would sit around the campfire at my Uncle's property...

What are some of your favorite things to cook while camping?  

Leave a comment... I love to hear from my readers.

Quilt Happy!

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - Home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:

Pat Sloan's 2018 Mystery BOM

Let's Go Camping :: Things You Do

Last fall we had planned a trip to Yellow Stone.  This was a trip that we have had on our "bucket list" of places to go for years.  Like 20 some years... we just never made it.  Other things took precedence... things like family weddings, Girl Scout trips and camps... you know, life in general.

We had our camp reservations and as the time drew closer we started watching the fire danger and the weather reports.  

Fire danger and air quality were a real concern since there were fires in the area.  And then the weather turned cool with moisture moving in.  It was only going to be one or two days with about 20% chance of showers.  No biggie... we can handle it.  And then they were suddenly talking about every day with showers.  We purchased rain gear and we were still not daunted.

The camper was basically loaded and they predicted snow.  WHAT???  We packed in our winter gear, but not thrilled about it.  **sigh**

It came down to the day before we were to leave and my husband suggested a sudden change in plans.  You can read the entire story over at Our Mountain Town Vacation.

In short, we visited some mountain towns and enjoyed some long bike rides.  The ride that stands out to me is when we rode (ok, pushed) our bikes up the original Wolf Creek Pass near Pagosa Springs, CO... well, as far as we could go because there was a downed tree laying across the trail.  

We enjoyed the view for a bit and then began our descent down the trail.  


















Woohoo!



Pat Sloans' Things You Do block reminded me of the downed tree... because though the setting of these blocks is designed to be on point, mine will be square - meaning that my block is going to look like a fallen tree...

I can't wait for more fun this year!  The camper is ready to go and so am I.

What do you do when you go camping?

Do you know of some great trails to ride?

Leave a comment and let me know.  I love to hear from my readers.

Blessings,

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:
BOMs Away at What a Hoot Quilts
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at Thank Goodness it's Finished Friday
Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts
Finished Or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts