MOTORHOME MODIFICATION - *F* - Flame Genie, Valentines and Coffee Quilt

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?

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER F

Flame Genie Pellet Campfire:

This is Steve's favorite toy that he got for Christmas a few years ago. Steve saw this product and wanted to try to make his own.  He kept figuring and planning, but never got one made. Sooooo  I made sure Santa brought him one!   LOL ..... It's called the Flame Genie and burns compressed wood pellets. Great for a portable campfire to take along camping!

We have an emerald ash borer infestation in Wisconsin and cannot transport firewood for camping. But transporting compressed pellet bags is totally legal and safe.  It is also good to use while camping in the desert where firewood is scarce.

It lights up in just a few minutes. Full flames in 20 minutes.  It is safe to cook on and smells like a real campfire but no smoke!  Nice....   we got it via Amazon from http://www.pelletfirepit.com/  It is made in the USA.  Ours is the original 14 inch version, but now they came out with a larger 19" model with an ash catcher on the bottom.

Here are some little video clips of ours:

Here is how it works video from the factory:

Steve takes out his Flame Genie pellet campfire unit when we go camping and within just a few minutes we have a nice campfire going.  No smoke (unless you put in too many pellets)  and easy to start and keeps burning nicely.

No digging for newspaper, buying firewood or chopping kindling.   On our trip to the desert, we hauled along three 40 lb bags of pellets because we were not sure of the availability in the southwest. But we did find it at hardware stores in the bigger cities. Our friend Seann hauled us 6 bags from a store in Deming when we were down in Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, MN.

 Just a few scoops at a time, about every half hour.

What a way to spend great evening to sit out and unwind

It produces a nice fire for the evenings.  When you are ready to head to bed, it cools off fast, then it can be put away into storage.  No more leaving smouldering embers overnight or dangerous winds that could whip up a fire again. 

~~~~~~~~

My quilt is finally done on the frame with all of the free motion stitching. All I have to do now is trim the edges even and attach the binding.  It sure came out cute, if I say so myself.  I am going to list it for sale in my Etsy shop in the next week or so. I think I am going to call it "Coffee Break".  I think I have enough fabric left to make one more very similar, but perhaps a bit smaller, a queen maybe.

I really like the hooks and swirls of the stitching,

reminds me of steaming hot cups of coffee. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Valentine's Day is special for us....  

In 1996, after a year of dating, 

Mr. Steveio PROPOSED  to me! 

this is how we looked back then! 

Yes, back in 1996, after I treated him to a romantic home cooked lobster meal in my diningroom, he came around to my side of the table to lean over and give me a kiss.  RRIIIPPPP!  He pulled a velvet ring box from underneath the table that he had secretly taped under there with DUCT TAPE!  (I am NOT kidding!)  

He bent down on one knee and asked me to marry him!  I was flabbergasted and speechless... yes... me... speechless....  as we had not even discussed marriage.  Yes, I fell for him and we have had 21 years of wedded bliss coming up this June.

From there, we combined our families, 

we built our home together, 

we bought various RV's through the years to travel 

and enjoy life! 

For our gifts to each other this year, we bought all new pillows and two new sets of soft cotton flannel bedsheets!  How romantic is that? We are marinating some tenderloin steaks for on the grill tonight, plus Steve cooked us a great breakfast this morning. We brought our coffee cups out in the front porch.  It's going to get over 40 degrees today, but right now it's only 26.  In the sunshine out there, it's almost 60 and quite comfortable!

Happy Valentine's Day 

for each and every one of you! 

Four Prairie Women a Peeping Tom!

I know of four women, who wander across the West in their covered wagon prairie schooners, each unique and creative in their own special ways.

They came together as an old fashioned "quilting bee" to help Prairie Woman Hazel with basting her family heirloom quilt.  She had carefully replaced the deteriorating fabric tiny piece by piece.  Now her roaming friends who are lovers of quilts gathered to help her baste the backing to the front with careful stitches.

Needing a flat surface, and lacking a quilting frame, these ingenious ladies descended upon Poor Bob.  He was manning the visitor center and these four prairie dames decided to use the back meeting room area for their task.  He was no match for these four determined Fiber Felines who took over the room post haste.

(L to R: Patti, Paula, Hazel and Karen)

With flashing needles and flying fingers, these ladies were whipping about the threads and adeptly positioning their needles into the work of art created by another woman so long ago....

This beautiful quilt had been made by Hazel's grandmother, and now she was restoring it to it's former glory, using vintage fabrics whenever possible to replace the ones that had deteriorated.

It took all day for the basting to be completed on the horizontal sections, with much laughter, ladies talk and love putting back into the quilt for Hazel to cherish again.

The final and most laborious step is now for Hazel to painstakingly hand quilt each little section now that the back basted on evenly and hopefully without puckers so she can work a smooth pattern into each diamond shape.  I feel the loving grandmother will be looking over her shoulder while Hazel completes each stitch on the journey of restoring this family heirloom.


When we got back to our campers, we found out that Seann (the Canadian RVer who left us the other day) returned with THREE big bags of wood pellets for our campfire!!!!  We had burned up our last bag the night before and didn't know if any stores in the area carried pellets.  Seann found them in the most unusual of places.... Wallyworld???

Paula and Mel joined us for a dinner, but sadly Jim and Dawn were not feeling up to par, so they stayed home in their RV. We did up a pile of good ole Wisconsin Brats (bratwurst) ....  added summertime tater salad and a crock pot of Calico Beans... finish up with some chips, pickles and veggies.

 That stinker Dawn, even though sick, still made up a batch of cupcakes for desert!

(thank you Dawn, they were great!) 

RV Neighbor Tom came over to tell us a story.... he actually said he was a little shy in telling us, but we said "go on... do tell".  He had been watching the big owls here in the park, and he honest to goodness got to see "Owl Sex"  !!!!!   He actually saw them mating!  I think it was kinda cool to see something like that.  For Tom to get to witness wildlife creating what will be soon the next generation is something.

Fellow RV bloggers Steve and Debbie McCormick said he was a "Peeping Tom" ! Bwahaahaaaa


Now that we were loaded up on pellets again, it was a good night for our campfire... and we fired it up with Mel and Paula hanging out with us till late.

Good Friends 

Good Fire

Good Camping