Family, quilting, and the RZR (mostly)

My daughter did officially graduate with her MS in Midwifery! We camped near where her ceremony was. She is part of the University of Iowa’s very first class of Midwives, and she already has a job beginning in September. Until then she will continue as a L&D nurse as she has been. It takes quite a while to get the official go-ahead to schedule boards and the her DEA license. Luckily her employer is paying for all of that. The evening of the ceremony we had all the local kids, spouses, partners, and grandkids at a restaurant for dinner. It was great fun to see everyone and I not have to cook or clean! We also had a smaller group out to the camp for a peach dump cake and my famous New Mexican style green chili chicken enchiladas, both cooked in Dutch Ovens.

I also have gotten some quilting done even with multiple dentist and medical appointments. We try to condense all our visits into a short period when we guarantee we are home, and this year both of us have had to have follow ups which take even more time! I still have one more next week, but Kevin is finally all done.

I did finish the May Kona Block of the Month, this time quite early for once! I am glad this is just about the last of the brown and dull green blocks. We will be moving to more cheerful colors soon.This one was the easiest yet; just a square in a square, some flying geese, and some squares.

May’s design

I have quilted two quilts. The first one had been sitting in the “pieced not quilted” pile for far too long. I wanted a quilting design that would contrast the linear pattern, so I decided to use two different sizes of circular templates connected randomly with wavy lines. I am actually pretty proud of the circles; it is HARD to quilt around circles! And yes, it is actually nicely square. Luna kept coming by Kevin’s right foot and he twisted around some.

More modern than most

See those pretty circles?

Close up of quilting
Quilting back

I also quilted the Turkey Giblet quilt I pieced during our winter trip. It is so busy I just quilted it in a random meander with black thread. The first picture is pretty true to the actual color; the other not so much.

“”Turkey Giblets” is the official name
Bad color, but it shows the shapes

Kevin worked on the RZR more. He had all the important pieces one, but he still needed to improve how to get it on and off the truck. Our last little RZR had a removable cloth door that he could climb out of easily. The new one has solid plastic doors that remove with screws. The first few times he needed to get out or in he climbed through the open roof, but obviously that wasn’t a long term solution. He decided to build up the wooden supports in the truck so the door was above the truck side walls. Note the ladder in the second picture; it is definitely needed. Luckily the RZR still fits on the truck hitch attachment which was a pleasant surprise. We were worried the hitch would need to be lengthened an inch or so. He also bought new tires so we now increased the total ground clearance about 2” while maintaining the narrow width we need. Impressive! BTW, that’s our old AZ tag; we now have a new one for the new rig. He installed this one to make sure the lighting worked.

RZR in truck bed
All the new ramps

Of course when you get a brand new rig from the dealer you are taking a chance of finding some kind of factory issue. Yup, we have one. The steering is misbehaving some, so the RZR has been at the shop since late last week. Should be home next week, or so the service shop said. They’ve seen it before and seemed to know just what to do.

And here is an in-process picture of my bleeding hearts and shade garden getting weeded by my granddaughters. Their parents don’t like their faces on the internet, but we all agreed this one was ok. The bed looks much nicer now!

Nicer after the granddaughters did weeding
May’s design

My only remaining quilting task here is adding a first border onto the green Mystery Monday quilt I did a year ago. I need to enlarge it to king sized for our motorhome bed. I am also prepping for a class I will be teaching at the Rocky Mountain Motorcoach Association “Ramble” – a rally in October in Farmington, NM. I will be teaching folks how to make oven mitts. It was a popular class last time I did it at the FRVA international convention a couple of years ago, but this is a much smaller rally so I am not expecting more than 4 or 5 people. I am providing supplies for 10 though, just in case. I need to get the insulation cut at least, plus see how much fabric I need to buy new and how much can come from my stash. I have plenty of time for the fabric, but the insulation comes on a big roll, and I don’t want to haul that around!

Other than that we are just getting organized for our trip beginning the first week of June, assuming I get clearance from my doctor which is very probable. We won’t be back until the week before Halloween, our longest summer trip yet.

Update on the new RZR 900 Trail side by side

Since we got home Kevin has been keeping the delivery folks busy. He’s been having a blast getting the new RZR ready for the trail. The version we bought is really stripped down as it comes from the dealer. It didn’t even have a roof, mirrors, or turn signals.
As it came from the dealer

Here is the front so far. Notice the roof, front bumper, winch, low mounted fog lights, a split front windshield (it opens into three separate positions), a manual windshield wiper, side mirrors, a center mirror, and removable side windows that attach with magnets. The 2” lift kit isn’t obvious, but it gives a significant benefit for the rock climbing needed in Arizona. He also got 27” tires all around (the original 26” tires were different widths too).

From the side the windows are a bit more obvious as is the custom GoPro attachment he 3D printed for me! He also installed rock guard at the bottom of the doors to protect the plastic lower doors.

At the back you can see the tail lights, turn signals, lighted license tag holder (we have a tag from Arizona), spare gas can, water can, fire extinguisher, and a spare tire mount (plus tire of course). One of the real advantages of the new tires is now all five tires are the same size. There is lots of storage now for a lunch ice chest, spare parts, tools, two flag pole holders, and emergency gear. We are pretty cautious with emergency gear since we frequently ride by ourselves. Food, water, extra clothing, emergency shelter, and an In-Reach emergency communication device. A few things you can’t see include a radiator rock guard, power outlets in the dash plus custom switches for the new stuff, hangers for our ear protection/radios, and grab handles to make getting in and out of the rig a lot easier for old joints like ours LOL!. Oh, and Kevin had to modify the wooden ramp in the truck so the bottom of the door is just above the side rail of the truck. With the old RZR he just took off the door to climb in or out. This one has OEM doors, and they don’t come off easily.

Since we have had wet weather in the last few weeks we haven’t taken it out to the local OHV area, but it is looking like we can do it next week. We have been busy working on other things and putting off. I did get my garden weeded by my fantastic granddaughters, we have gone to concerts, and then my back ablation added to limited opportunities to ride. Kevin has made sure we have stickers for riding in Iowa, Arizona, and South Dakota (both the state one and the one needed for the Black Hills). We are still waiting for the ones for Oregon and Utah, and we need to order the Wyoming one. Wow, I guess that is enough.

As for sewing, I have another quilt sandwiched just waiting to get on the machine. This one is very modern, and I am looking forward to doing straight lines and circles on it. But my daughter is graduating with her MS in Midwifery, and is planning on taking her boards in the next couple of week. We are heading down  in the RV for a few days to make it easier to get to the graduation. We will be staying a few days just to relax too.

Back in Iowa for a while

When we got home, we had a fabulous Easter dinner with most of the kids and grandkids. This time we had butterflied leg of lamb, and it was lovely. Because Kevin cooked it in the sous vide, it left the oven free for roasted carrots. It takes a LOT of carrots for 13 people! We also had green beans with bacon and onions cooked in the Instant Pot. It took two Instant Pots to cook the four pounds of fresh beans, and it took Kevin and I both working about 45 minutes to snap them all. Memories of my grandmothers house came back when we would snap a lot of beans on a regular basis during summer. My grandmother did all kinds of canning out of her 1 acre garden. She basically provided vegetables for her, my grandfather, my mom, my sister and me all year.

As I noted last time, the cats were very busy exploring. I tried to put the first load in the dryer, and I was treated by this! Good thing she has bright eyes, because she was really hard to see until I called.

But it is a box!

Luna is also a bother downstairs isn the sewing area. She only occasionally will sit with me upstairs, but as soon as I go downstairs she is fully involved! She sits on the quilt while I try to quilt, tries to climb on my lap while I am doing anything, and she is fascinating by seeing the thread  moving from the thread stand to the machine. As soon as I took this picture, I moved her away. Cats and thread are a dangerous combination!

“I love thread Mom”

We are also keeping the Amazon delivery drivers busy. Our English friends Tony and Anne showed us pictures from their game camera when we were in Quartzsite. I bought one myself, and set it up at night in the living room to make sure I had the settings right. I didn’t, but the picture below is pretty cute anyway. I have since set the camera for videos and corrected the AM/PM issue.

Spooky kitties

One of the things I am working on this year is a Block of the Month from Kona Fabrics. It includes a Zoom class with a quilt shop about 45 miles away. She includes all kinds of methods to do the class which is interesting. I pushed my technique in April, and I am not thrilled with the result. I didn’t dislike it enough to take it apart though!

April

The may version was much easier, and I only had one spot I should have re-done. You can see if you notice it. I am just not too picky anymore.

May

I finished the quilting for the partner of one of my son’s. She is a Broadway theater fan, and I was pleased to find the feature fabric.

Sam’s quilt

I quilted it with golden yellow thread (hello Tony Awards!) in a random meander with loops and stars.

Golden yellow meander

I used the same color in the binding. I really like doing machine binding this way. I serge the edges first for a nice firm edge, cut binding at 2.25”, sew on front, press well, turn over the edge holding the fold with clips, then sew the binding from the front with a decorative stitch. This time the stitch was a 3 step zigzag, but I have used a number of other stitches in the past.

Machine binding

Iowa had had a terribly dry winter, but we finally got a bunch of rain. The flowers are all considerably delayed, but they are finally coming out. My pink and white bleeding hearts are doing well. Ignore the massive infestation of weed! My local grandchildren are coming over tomorrow to week for me.

Pink and white bleeding hearts

And in a statement of really good news, I got another radioablation on my back that has really helped in the almost two weeks since I got it. I am also keeping up my pain meds – gabapentin and cyclobenzaprine plus lidocaine patches occasionally. I still have problems with any walking over a block or so, but I have no real pain when I am not moving. This is a huge improvement over how I felt before the procedure.

I am now working on quilting some other tops that I have been ignoring for far too long. I am also taking a sampler class offered virtually and sponsored by the Arizona Quilt Guild. The guild is well worth the $15 a year in dues!