And we are off!

We left this morning for more southern climates. The weather has been truly awful for the last two weeks with even the highs below 0 and nasty winds. Kevin and I kept looking at each other saying “This is just too cold!” We always stay until after Christmas though, so we bided our time until we had two decent days. One we needed for packing and the other we needed for driving, and we finally got them. We even scored a FHU winterized site at the local KOA that let us get full de-winterized before taking off. I am towing the cargo trailer with the UTV on it, and Kevin is driving the Jeep separately. So far, so good, though he has to stop for fuel 3 times as often!

We were planning on staying at a campground in Bowling Green, MO, but they have their water turned off. We decided to save $60 and just spend the night in the local Walmart parking lot. With our batteries, solar, and generator, it is an easy thing to do even in cooler weather like we are having. At least it is dry.

We did have a fabulous Christmas though. All four kids, spouses, partners, and grandkids were able to get together for dinner and presents on the 23rd. We needed to work around my daughter’s work schedule as a nurse. And of course I forgot (again!) to take pictures!

I have been frantically trying to keep up with my Mystery Quilt Zoom class.  i got the vast majority of it done, and I was pretty pleased with myself. Even though I posted the first two weeks, I am going to show all of them again to keep the pieces together.

Week 1 – 24”
Week 2 block 1 – 18”
Week 2 block 2 -18”
Week 3 blocks – 12”
Week 4 blocks – 10” I fixed the error on the last block on the left

I actually did week 5 which was a single block plus adding connector blocks, but I forgot to take a picture! I have decided to make this a king sized quilt so I need lots of borders. I saw some people made borders of the connector blocks on the sides of the basic quilt, so that is one of my winter projects. I need to make a few hundred little 4” blocks like those below plus some other ones I didn’t show. I will take all the pieces I have left of the original fabric plus I bought four more fat quarters in coordinating color#, so I should have enough fabric. Then I will add some standard borders too to make it the right size.

Some of the connector blocks

I also have a tradition of making something hand made for each family, something g practical. This year it was oven mitts. I made a total of 8, so each household could take their pick of two. Surprisingly people chose different ones, not coordinating.

Some of the Christmas presents

I was able to get my binding technique down to a fine science which will be handy on other projects too.

Expect more frequent posts since we are finally on the road again. We are heading to Red Bay, AL for some paint touch ups and some small miscellaneous fixes. Then we head off to Quartzsite, AZ.