Perfect Timing (Hot Springs, SD)

We are all settled in at Cold Brook Lake - Corps of Engineers park.  

We are only one mile from Hot Springs SD.  A very interesting looking town with sandstone buildings with a river and a waterfall in the downtown area. Yes, I do plan to take pictures of the area soon, but I'll be limited on posting photos since our internet is very slow here.  I might need to find the local library and look into using their WiFi.

We like this area a lot, but we are dry camping.  This campground is not setup for large rigs or for hook-ups (no utilities).  I can handle a couple of weeks of dry camping, but not too long.  Having to ration water/showers, turning on our generator to power heaters or my iron has me daydreaming about the convenience of flipping a switch for POWER.

So, here's the perfect timing.  It turns out the camp host is leaving on Monday, 23 June, and the lead ranger asked us if we were willing to fill in.  Can we?  You bet...we can stay until September!  The best part - we get to move into the camp host's site...a very nice site with water, 50 amp electric, and a sewer dump into the pit toilet vault via a sewer solution hookup (a little more work).  The best of two worlds - we can stay and have full hook-ups!

The trade for the site is simple, help any arriving campers who need assistance with self registering, be a on-site presence and call authorities with any problems, minor restocking of pit toilet supplies, and minor trash pickup.  Two summer interns do all the major duties around the large park.  The park itself is large and spread out, but the camping area is smaller with only 13 total sites.  The day use area at the lake gets the most usage from the locals, and there is an archery range.

The weather has been a little crazy.  It goes from hot and humid to cold and wet then back to hot and humid in one day.  Hmm, a lot of changing of clothes.  A couple of nights ago, we had thunderstorm warnings with a chance of golf-ball size hail.  Dangerous for pets and people so stay indoors.  There were a few tent campers and of course, I worried about them.  One family packed up and left.  The other group left their tents and went for a drive.  The hail only got to the size of large peas which can still hurt, and the heavy rains lasted a couple of hours before it passed over us.

In the morning I peeked out to see a clothes line strung from one end of the camping area to the other side.  It looked funny, but if you don't have access to a dryer...well, you got to do whatever you can to dry out your gear, right?

On The Cutting Board

Ironing is out for awhile, but I am getting some hand-work done.  Actually, this is my quilt therapy for stressful times.  It seems to be working quite well.  I went from sleeping a couple of hours a night to sleeping in late.  Even the cats could not wake me at 4 am for an early breakfast.

Variation of the Lover's Knot pattern

I have been working on this project for over a year.  It seems to be the one that I enjoy doing the most when I need to calm down and relax.  Plus, it is very portable so I am taking it outside while I enjoy the sunshine and the sound of birds.  I tried to sew while watching one of the cats, but they are not cooperating.  If I stand with one of them, they just lay in one spot.  I sit down to sew and the little turkey decides it is time to go for a walk.  It doesn't matter which one I have outdoors.  They all do it.

Okay, I'm all caught up for now.  I'm looking forward to doing some more exploring of the Black Hills area, to our new jobs, and of course, to making some more quilts!

Happy Quilting!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Today, I have entered my quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side.  Thanks Amy for hosting this festival.  I am often the viewer, but this time I want to share my favorite quilt..If you have a little time, please click on the link below.  There are some fantastic quilters and beautiful quilts participating in this virtual quilt show!

I picked this quilt because it had a very unusual start.  Most of my quilts start with the fabric or a pattern, but this one started with a photo and became the most fun quilt I have ever made.

We were staying in Camp Lejuene's campground near the beach.  There were "Seashells" marked on a map as squares on the beach.  Curious, we took a walk and found these lovely pastel picnic shelters.  I love the colors so much that I had to dig through my stash to see if I could match them.

Camp Lejeune's Seashells

I'm attracted to bold and primary colors so I was amazed to find these sitting in my stash.  Surprised to see them and actually liking them, I decided to make a quilt.

Using a simple pattern, the top started looking more like a cluster of flowers instead of reminding me of the beach.

Now I am not very talented when it comes to drawing so I like to use books or clipart.  I have a book with some amazing Art Nouveau free clipart.

  I love doing turn-under appliqué, so I picked out a butterfly and a flower patterns.  I find using batiks are very forgiving and easy to manipulate.  I picked colors that would blend into the background and yet I wanted it to look like one flower standing out from the rest.

Close-up of hand-stitching

I challenged myself by making this the largest appliqué project I have done.  I had so much fun with this one that I want to do another.  I'm on the lookout for another photo to inspire me and I'm keeping a few appliqué projects in mind.

 Thanks for stopping by! Happy Quilting!

Size: 49.75 x 40 (126.36 x 101.6 cm)

Quilting: Free form meandering on sewing machine
 
Butterfly and flower from "The Complete Book of ART NOUVEAU DESIGNS"