With all the crazy road construction around the park, it took her a while to get here... but she made it.
Connie and I have spent many years camping together... she lived in Oshkosh/Appleton area and I was in Green Bay with my girls. So we would pick out parks in the middle to meet up and camp on the weekends. Some times we would camp together right here at High Cliff in my old popup camper!
These are my girls, with their Junior Ranger patches they earned at the Wisconsin State Parks... sewn to their sweatshirts that we kept right in the pop up all of the time to wear while camping. Here is Connie cooking up a whiz bang meal on the little three burner stove inside the old popup. Oh my the fun we had with that old thing!!!
Connie brought along some of her recent quilting projects.... and we had a grand Show N Tell under the canopy of green trees and sun-dappled lighting.
She tore apart some vintage quilts from her family that need new batting. Inside she found REAL WOOL strips of batting that she bagged up to bring to me! Some of it is still spinnable into some yarn, so I will work on it and see how much yarn I can get out of it. Just look at this old vintage fabric, some of it from flour sacks!
She is also working on an "Ooops Quilt" which is made from all her scraps from other projects, or pieces that were cut wrong or not the right colors from other quilts. Some of the squares are from swapping with other gals in her quilting group. It sure is turning out bright and cheery!
This quilt is very special to Connie.. .she is making up three of these, one for each of her children. They are made from squares that each child had "colored" using Artex tube paints from the 70's... remember those? Connie took each square, and added rick rack trim and quilted pieces from their favorite childhood clothing around each oval. Each piece has a very special meaning. This is only the first one, for her daughter Dee. She still has to work on the ones for Cindy and Butch.
After we were done oohing and ahhhing over her quilts, we had up a nice little lunch. Connie brought up a new sauce from Target. It's part of their gourmet section, and is a pasta sauce called Giada. Target Giada Sauce It was very pleasant afternoon to sit in the sunshine and share, laugh and love to see each other again.
All too soon, Connie had to leave to get up to Green Bay for the other quilting program. With hugs and promises to see each other again, she wound her way outta the park, through the construction and off to another adventure.
I took out my spinning wheel for a while and am working on finishing up some blue yarn from hand-dyed merino roving, before I start up on her brown quilt batting wool! Should be fun to try...
Later on, Steveio marinated some tenderloin steaks and I did up some baked potatoes and salads. My oh my, we sure eat like KINGS when camping! Add a glass of wine, a setting sun, and it makes for a very romantic evening.
Oh, I forgot to post a pic of our campsite over in the non-electric site area at High Cliff. They are just as wooded and pleasant as in the electric sites we have been in so far. Right now the campground is undergoing an electrical upgrade, so there are NO electric sites for a few days.
We moved over into this area, knowing there would not be any power. These sites are $5 cheaper than the electric ones. The only problem is that when so shady, the solar doesn't recover as quickly due to the shadows on the panels. Nor can we run the generator in this park. So I kept my computer time to a minimum over the weekend. Poor Paula was worried when I hadn't posted in 24 hours!
This site is number 49. I even had up our solar patio lights on the awning, a gift from camping buddy Bob Senior. The recharged nicely each day to glow again in the evening.
That about sums it up for our weekend.... my next blog post will be about our grandtot Allegra, who is here to have an overnight stay with her Granmuddah and Grandfaddah Pfun!
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Nice quilts! does she hand quilt or machine quilt?
ReplyDeleteThe "giada" sauce is from Giada De Lauretis. She has a show on the Food Network called Everyday Italian. She is awesome.
So glad you were able to spend time with a "special" friend. I can only imagine the laughs you had. Oh Memories!
Hugs
I believe hers are mostly hand pieced and hand stitched and hand quilted too. She has basting threads yet in one of the pics while she finishes up the borders and edges.
DeleteI didn't know about the Glada De Lauretis... don't have cable in the woods! LOL
It's always nice to have visitors whether for a few minutes or for short overnighters. With this new lifestyle you will meet many more of them. Be Safe and Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteIt's about time.
I love to camp in rustic places only if they have electric hook-ups or allow you to run a generator. I need to use my oxygen machine during the night. That kind of limits my choice of camping spots.
ReplyDeleteThose quilts are very nice. My mother use to make quilts. She put so much work and love into them. When we sold the house and everything else the four quilts we got from her came with us. My children and grandchildren already have some of hers and will get ours when we are gone.
ReplyDeletegorgeous quilts and wonderful trip down memory lane..:)
ReplyDeleteI use to quilt big time before we became fulltime RVers, but the confines of an RV made it too hard to continue making quilts IMHO. Everything had to stay out till I finished. So I switched to knitting which takes up much less space. I still have my sewing machine though. Enjoyed the photos of the quilts very much.
ReplyDeleteIsn't wonderful to have old friends. We don't get to see them as often as we'd like, but I can think of several I've known for 60 years plus. I loved seeing the quilts. I have a master quilter friend Sally who your Connie reminds me of. I need to call Sally and see how she is.
ReplyDeleteCamping with friends and family has lasting memories.
ReplyDeleteWe just went thru some old camping photos too. Had some laughs. Lauree must have went into 10 Quilt stores while we were in Ohio and Pennsylvania over the last couple weeks. Me? not so much.