Military bases plus quilting

Odd title, but we did a couple of quite different things today. First we went to Fort Huachuca and it’s fascinating Buffalo Soldier Museum. Buffalo Soldiers were what African American soldiers were known as before integration of the Armed Forces after World War II. Supposedly the curly hair reminded the Native Americans  of buffalo (bison). It was a good thing the museum was good because it took a very long time to get a pass for the post. It took my driver’s license and a long questionnaire, followed by a criminal background check and military records check before I got the pass, about 30 or 45 minutes total. While most of the post was very modern, I took a few pictures of the older part because I like the history.

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A duplex housing a Major and a Command Sergeant Major.
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Just looking into the distance across the old parade ground.
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An old mission-style building.
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Old barracks now made into offices.

We did exciting things like laundry at the campground, and I got my latest Quilts for Kids project completed. I am pretty pleased with it. I did the quilting on my Bernina sitting at the dinette table, something much harder to do than using the quilting machine at home.

2B069882-93B1-456E-947D-80139E7AE5E4The design is called “I Spy” because of all the different fabrics. I used a dark blue thread for the meander quilting. I probably should have used yellow, but I didn’t have any nor did I want to go to the store, so blue it was. It feels nice to get this one done. Next I need to work on the microwave bowl holders with the cute fabric I bought here, but we are leaving this campground tomorrow. I like the area, but the campsite is not nice at all. There isn’t room for the truck, so we have to park it in the overflow area, and it is quite inconvenient. We will probably head some place north of Phoenix for tomorrow night. Thursday and Friday we will be at Willow Beach below Lake Mead. A full hookup campsite! Of course that assumes the Government doesn’t shit down again.

Oh, and tonight I made baby back ribs in the Instant Pot again. Yum, yum! You notice no pictures; they didn’t last long enough.

Quilts for “Quilts for Kids”

I had started these two little quilts in South Dakota, but I finished the piecing while we were in GTNP. My granddaughter Ava decided the block arrangement. QFK provided the kits, so I will restate that these were not my fabric choices (especially the pink/turquoise one). They came out cute though. I quilted and bound them when we got home.

This one hurt my eyes. Those borders! If you read an earlier post, the turquoise is actually the back side of a printed fabric. I just couldn’t handle that much wildness. The fabrics screamed to me for a flower motif in the quilting, so that is what the main body has. For the outside border I just followed some of the big swirls. The top thread is a light peach SoFine and the bobbin thread is a light tan SuperBob. I used extra backing for the binding and used a feather stitch to finish the binding.

Pretty wild.
The back of the wild one.
Back of the wild one.

This one is full of small animal/bug prints. I like it a lot more! It was so busy I just did an all-over meander in the body of the quilt. I used my rulers on the borders. It is quilted in a YLI multi-colored brown/green/gold thread with the same tan SuperBob the first one used. The binding is a wood grain print I had laying around. I used a 3 stitch zig zag to apply the binding.

I like this one a lot more.
A little old lady bear print was the backing on the brown/green one.

All I need to do to finish these is stitch on the Quilts for Kids label and deliver them. The quilting was done on my Sweet 16.

I really prefer a feather stitch to finish machine bindings, but my machine is having troubles with stitching to the left. There is a definite “click” when it goes far left, so I am taking it in to the repair guy. It either needs timing or a new hook, and maybe both. It gets a lot of use, and it is time to get it some maintenance.

Next up is quilting my big Carpenter’s Square quilt that goes on the queen bed in one of my guest bedrooms. I have two weeks until we take off again, so I have to get going. I hope to have the quilting done, just waiting on the binding until I get my sewing machine back.