Monday, Aug 29 At the International Airstream Rally this summer, plans were laid for another Airstream quilt to auction for charity. Totally different than the last quilt – it is a whole ‘nother look at Airstreaming! Here are a few details. . . but I don’t want to give it away completely! Here is a picture of last year's quilt, with our quilt team: Carol, Ella, Sue, Suzie! Sue, Suzie and I were anxious to get together to draw up a strategy and assign parts of the quilt, so Tom and I planned two nights in Plain City Pastime Park – just 15 minutes from Dublin where Sue and Suzie live. Carol, our primary #1 quilter, lives in New Hampshire and was with us in spirit! Tom and I were set up at 2:30 – and at 3:00, disaster struck. Little Pippa stepped on a bee and got a bad sting on her foot. Because of her tiny size, we wanted her checked out. We located a vet 6 miles away, and had Pippa there in a pretty respectable time. She was licking and shaking her paw and it was really bothering her. She was immediately surrounded by 3 Vet Techs and a Veterinarian, and they administered two injections and Benadryl and kept checking vitals. Sweet little Pippa gave the tech that administered the injection two little face-licks. The vet was able to pull out a stinger from the outside of the front paw; she said it was her first stinger recovery in 16 years!!!! After they determined she was OK we were on our way quickly with $125 vet bill, a prescription for more Benadryl, and Pippa still working over her paw with licks and little nips. Back at the Silvermine the Benadryl was starting to take effect, we did a makeshift bandage to keep her from licking, and she promptly went to sleep cuddled up to Tom. Meanwhile, Sue picked me up at Pastime Park (thank you so much Sue!) and we drove into our favorite restaurant in downtown Dublin for dinner. Next, we drove with a home stash of green fabrics to JoAnns, and Suzie met us to coordinate more green fabrics. We ended up with a nice variety of nine 1/3-yard cuts to mix with our home stash. I called Tom to come pick me up at JoAnns, and as it began to get dark storm clouds moved in. I think we were all back home before dark and the storm! Tuesday morning Pippa woke feeling good and not favoring her paw. Tom fixed egg/ham/cheese omelets, at 9:45 he dropped me off at Sue’s house and took off for his own adventure. Suzie arrived right after me, and soon we were all down in Sue’s wonderful sewing workshop. She had two machines set up, fabrics laid out, an enormous walkaround cutting table, ironing station, an easy chair (if anyone got tired!) and a TV! I could move in! As we started we were aware there were some conflicts within the pattern. We had individually studied it, messed with it, and given it a couple trial runs for two weeks -- without being able to pinpoint the exact problem. At least we had an idea of where to start, and we methodically set about narrowing down the problem. It was a complicated thought process, and we kept back-tracking and trying new mixes – and finally hit on the solution! At that point we were golden and we moved into high speed! Again, I don’t want to give away too much about the actual quilt pattern, but I will tell you we had over 12 various shades and prints of our chosen color. We quickly cut the main pieces out of our variety of colors, and then cleared the cutting table to use as a lay-out table. We could account for all 18 of our blocks and move them around to achieve different looks. Even with three minds, all having different preferences, it was surprisingly easy to set a final lay-out that satisfied all. Not only satisfied – but I think we were all super-excited about the final result. My final thought is that this is not going to be a matchy-matchy sort of quilt! At that point we had a lot of same-background fabric cutting to do and 18 little contrast pieces to cut to complete each block. Finally, we labeled zip-lock bags for each block, and added the 8 fabric pieces for each block. We each took 6 blocks to make at home! All those creative juices need to be fed, and half-way through the process Sue treated us to chicken salad on croissant rolls, melon, chips, and a special tea/lemonade mix drink! We wrapped up the work session in 5 hours with all of us feeling very fruitful at what we had accomplished. At this point, the piecing of the blocks should go fast and easy for each of us. I sent pictures and a message to Carol showing her what we had been up to – and she has sworn to take her assignment, the focal point of the quilt, and make it really special! I’m not good at keeping secrets – but that is all I’m going to say! I'll end with this quilting high-five!
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October 2021
We don’t go camping any more . . . we go ‘streamin’ ! The “SIlvermine and His” is our 2018 25' Airstream Serenity with Salsa interior and front twin beds., and ‘streamin’ is the name we use to describe our adventures. Stream along as we document everything from weekend trips to longer summer excursions and full-blown vacations. You know what they say: if you’re not in an Airstream – you’re just camping!
Tom & Ella Brown |