MOTORHOME MODIFICATION - *D* - Decor in the Motorhome and My Birthday Quilt

Before I start my regular post, I would like to mention that bloggers Sam and Donna are going through a rough patch.  http://samdonna-5thwheelvagabonds.blogspot.com/  Donna is now home from the hospital and healing and trying to deal with all that goes with Sam in the hospital. It seems that he may have had a stroke and is now being transferred to a larger specialty hospital in St. Louis. Many prayers and wishes for finding some answers for both of them.

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I am going to start off the new year with posting some of our motorhome modifications, a few at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter D now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER D

Decor in the Motorhome:

Since putting that beautiful print out in the motorhome (I mentioned it a few blogs back) I decided to take some other pics of the decor inside of the motorhome. Everyone needs to make their home on wheels feel like "home" and add their own touches.  A lot of the things I have in our motorhome are very personal and things that I cherish.   They aren't worth much to anyone else, but to me they are precious.

Last winter, Mom gave Steve and I each little wooden plaque / box things with sayings painted on them.  We stuck them to the walls on each side of our bed in the bedroom.  When I glance at them, it makes me smile.  The top surface holds Steve's glasses overnight on his side, and on mine it holds the remote to the TV.  Amazingly the remote sits still even during transit!  Once in a while it hits the floor, but mostly it stays snug on top of the little box. 

Steve's says: "Be the person your dog thinks you are"

Mine says: "Happiness is sand between my toes and sunburn on my nose"

(every time I get to Florida I take a pic of my toes in the sand) 

These two are new ones up in the livingroom area:

From our son Dan and wife Heather: "Life is better by a Camp Fire" 

and from our brother Pete and wife Cindy: "Campers like it hot and sticky" 

 (that one covers up the hole left by the old telephone mounting bracket) 

One year, my daughter Erin gave me these matching salt and pepper shakers and spoon rest for the motorhome kitchen. So cute and we use them all the time.  The handy little trash bin sets on the counter and uses smallest kitchen scrap bags or even doggie pickup bags for small kitchen trash.  I got it from RV friends Dee and Jim when they visited us a few years back. http://tumbleweed-jimdee.blogspot.com/

In our bedroom, we double stick taped these two framed wedding prints to the walls....  I don't want to put nail or screws into the woodwork.  We found out that heavy duty 3M double stick tape works very well to mount things that are not too heavy. Steve also made the wooden base with three coat hooks on it for hanging up clothes we are going to wear again.  It is also stuck on with double stick tape and has held up quite well.

Steve's mom gave us this wonderful little pillow, a few years before she passed away.  I just love the sentiment and it is perfect for propping up behind the head when watching tv.

She also gave me this little raccoon crock one day, just out of the blue.  I love it for holding all the cooking utensils. I glued a circular piece of rubbery grippy shelf liner to the bottom to keep it from sliding around. But it is so precious that I do set it in the sink when we are in transit.

I am a weaver, so a lot of the textiles in our motorhome are handwoven by myself.

Two towels from best friends Linda and Rosie also travel along with us. 

This little clip on sheepie found it's way into my motorhome one day from my mom. She insisted that I needed my own "flock on the road" for when we travel. Silly Mom!

This one is Steve's contribution to the motorhome decor.  It is very special to him and we have had it in the same place for the last 10 years that we have owned this motorhome, and prior to that it hung in our Coachmen motorhome, and before that in our Sierra travel trailer camper.  He is pretty proud of it!

This one is pretty cool... our friends Tina and Bruce (also RVers and Tina is a weaver and Bruce is a woodturner)  He made this little wooden bud vase out of a piece of wood.  These are some tiny dried buds from our first RV trip to Florida.  I sprayed them with clear acrylic spray and they hold up well. The base is held to the counter with some of that earthquake putty. Bruce also made us a wooden wine cork stopper and a lovely wood turned pen for writing out postcards.  I love handmade things!

Our daughter Heather and husband Jesse and kids gave us this sweet Grandma Towel to hang in my kitchen.  I don't let anyone wipe their hands on it, so it stays nice and plush and velour puffy clean.  LOL

Our RVing friends Roger and Lila gave us this.. .she makes them with tiny beads!  It hangs from a thin fishing line from the upper cabinets and "flies" around as we drive or in a breeze.  How intricate and delicate!

One time, my Mom sent me some fabric with this gingerbread recipe printed on it. I framed it and keep it on the counter. It never moves during travel, and the little basket from my old neighbor Charlotte sets just fine nearby. I like wooden things that match my woodwork in the motorhome.

Gotta have a stuffed toy for the grandkids to cuddle when they come to sleep over. This one sings "Old McDonald Had a Sheep. E I E I O!"  Daughter Erin bought it one time when we were demonstrating weaving and spinning at the museum up in my hometown in Michigan.

This is decor, but also a useful object as well.  It is a work of art with a natural flavor, but we do like taking it along on walks.  It is helpful to whack the ground as we walk when out in the desert as things warm up. Ya know, spiders and snakes and scorpions????  It is also nice to use to ward off unruly dogs running amok or protect our dogs from their unwanted advances.

My sister Linda and husband Fuzz gave me this leather pencil holder, with the motif of llamas on it from Peru (her co-worker brought it back from a visit there)  and inside is my special woodturned pen from our friend Bruce.

We know that "Home Is Where the Heart Is" but it is nice to remind ourselves once in a while with a glance of this little sign by my passenger seat.  We do not have a lot of empty wall space in our rig, it is mostly windows.  So the few things we stick here and there have to mean a lot.

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I finally finished up my newest quilt... and this one is for MEEEEE!!!!    Steve bought me a gift card to a special quilt shop in Menasha called Primitive Gatherings. https://www.primitivegatherings.us/  I bought up a whole slew of fabrics in coordinating colors and it took a while for me to decide what pattern I wanted to make with it.

I decided to make a quilt for myself, to cuddle with my couch.  I will call it my Birthday Cuddle Quilt!  The pattern I chose is called a Log Cabin.  I put all the dark colors to one side of the diagonal logs and the light colors on the other.  Ahhhhhh 

I sewed one block at a time, with the 2 inch strips. 

I made up 64 blocks, each measuring 10.5 by 10.5 inches. 

Once I got all 64 blocks joined together into a "quilt top", then I load it onto my frame by rolling up the backing, batting and top onto the rollers and doing the quilting stitches through all three layers.  I love doing this process as it is the creative part of adding the stitches in pleasant patterns. I do not have to send it out to a "longarmer" person to do it for me  or pay the big bucks to have it done. 

Once that part is done, then I have to take it off the frame, trim the edges even, and go around the edges with "binding"  This handy tool from Nancy's Notions helps to get it on evenly and get the stitching straight.  It is called Martelli Zip Bind Tool Combo  and is one of the best quilting devices I have! 

The backing fabric is a paisley print I picked up a while back and just loved the pattern, but never found a good quilt pattern to use it on. It is kinda "muddy" with the burgundy and brown and flecks of white here and there.  But it makes a great backing and I know it is just for me. 

I hung it up on the washline outside yesterday in the fresh snowy air to take a pic of it.  Outdoors the colors show up so much better! 

A breeze kicked up and I caught it in motion! 

I spread it out on the bed to get a look at it and both dogs hopped up to check it out.... It is only queen size, and just reaches each edge of our king sized bed.

But it will have a home down on the couch for cuddling! 

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