Pioneer Quilting and our Trek

To start off, I want to say that yes I have again vanished for over a month.  There is a good reason and my life should get a little simpler in a couple weeks.  Our church from time to time sends our youth on Pioneer Treks.  This is to re-enact the hand cart journey to the Salt Lake Valley where we reside.  I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  My post will not be about the church. It it is relevant to what I have been preparing to do and what we just got back from.

For our trek, we went to Rocky Ridge which is at the sixth crossing of the Sweetwater and also to Martins Cove.  Both are in Wyoming, a 5+ hour drive from where we live in the Salt Lake Valley. There were around 200 youth and leaders. Tanya and I were one of the leaders helping on this Trek.  I will first talk about my quilting involved and then maybe a little about the Trek.  As this is a quilting blog that is mostly what I will talk about.

Above are three quilted seat covers that I made for us.  Tanya, Jared, our son, and I went.  When the Pioneer's came West they were only allowed 17 pounds of  personal gear (on the handcart groups) and for our re-enactment we had 5 gallon buckets to store our stuff in and they also doubled as our chairs and so these were to pad our bucket while we sat on them.

The second thing I made was cooling neck bands, these above are the 20 that I made.  They were for the youth and leaders that went from our ward.

Any way one of the hand carts 

Our son Jared with his family on trek, he is the one standing on top the hand cart (top of picture)

Last a picture of Tanya and I and below just one random handcart picture from our group

Pattern Showoff

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John Deere Girl Quilt #2 and Twin Girls

The purpose of our vacation last week was to deliver this quilt and a similar quilt too it that we posted about Last November.  My brother in law lives in Southern Utah and has spent many a year diving John Deere equipment in the work he does.  So when he had a pair of twin girls we felt it fit to give him a pair of John Deere Rag Quilts.  The first quilt (follow the link above) was made as part of a custom order but was never bought and paid for.  So its now the first of 2 gifts.

It is amazing how much Julia is growing up and how much she wants to help and participate in our quilting adventures. Often she tries to sit on my lap while I quilt or run the pedal while I quilt which tends to make some creative quilting.  Or best of all testing out the quilts we make to make sure they are snuggle enough. For this quilt she wanted to help me take pictures.

I am not sure what I like most in the picture above the cute quilt or the cute smile on Julia's face as she helps me take pictures.  Below is the twins that received these quilts their baby blessing is what prompted our trip and this was the first time Tanya and I had seen the twins and got to hold them.

A visit to Historic Cove Fort and some Antique Quilts.

My family was able to stop and spend some time at Historic Cove Fort,  on the way back from vacation last week   This was a Pioneer way station and Stage Lay over as well as Telegraph relay station back when the first settlers were living in UTAH ,which is my home state.

They have an old wagon that the kids can get on and have pictures taken.  When I visit places like this, I look around for things to inspire my future quilting projects.

I am sure my wife laughs from time to time as she looks though my pictures, but this wooden floor just reminded me of a simple straight line quilting and how you can find beauty in simple things.

Cove Fork was originally a Church Mission Call for the family that supported it. Today it is ran by Senior Missionary Couples, so it seemed fitting that we  find the Scare Crows in traditional Missionary garb.  My son who recently turned 12, wanted to get his picture taken with Elder Crow.

They were kind enough to take our picture standing on top of the fort walls.  The fort doors were big enough to allow the stage to come in if needed into the center of this small fort.

One of my biggest delights in the tour is seeing the quilts.  Although not original to the fort,  they were made in the 1800's when the fort was occupied.  This simple Flying Geese quilt was one of the first I saw. The blue blocks are hard to tell what they are, but they are just half square triangles.

This second quilt was just a simple quilt made out of squares similar to my simple squares pattern.

This quilt here was one of the first that I saw that I really want to make.  It is a neat Half Square triangle blocks with larger in smaller blocks.  I will some time later make a pattern for this one.

This quilt above was the favorite of the missionary that gave us the tour.  She thought it was neat how even though the quilt started in red (chevron quilt), that after a few rows on the end ended up with a white on off white.

The above quilt is another I really liked.  I think it will be another that I try to make some day as it looks fun.

This last quilt with the sewing machine looking  and is my favorite it is a really neat block.  And I have already sketched it out in EQ7 below is what a quilt might look like with this block.

On Vacation and some Animal shots

Last weekend my Family took 2 short vacations.  The first was to Snowbird Ski Resort locally here in Salt Lake City.  A friend had a Condo for a week there and could not stay the whole week so my Rebecca, Julia, Jared, and myself (Richard) stayed up Thursday night. Then Minus Rebecca the secound night but Added Tanya.  The 2 of them had other commitments and had to miss out on some of the vacation.

Then Saturday and Sunday staying in Cedar City for a baby blessing and then Monday we spent a few hours in Zions National Park (literally only a few hours Tanya got sick so we left it was over 100 and it was not treating her well) 

While in the various locations I was able to take a few pictures using my cell phone and wanted to share them with you.  Today's post is only Animal Shots.  I started with a ground squirrel.  Then second shot is a Lizard my favorite animal but a terrible picture. 

Back to more squirrel's.  As you can see some of them like 2 pictures up were running right up too our toes.  It was funny I had Julia stand still so a squirrel that was running along a rock shelf next to a hiking trail we were on would not run off for a picture with the 2 of them together.  So right after I take the picture she leans over and pets it.  LOL bad parenting.  Good thing it did not try her out as a snack.

We also saw many birds only this one would stand still long enough for a picture.

I saw this raccoon while up at snowbird and the below wild turkey in Kolob Canyons which is a less visited part of Zions that you get too going north from the main entry of Zions on I-15 half way to Cedar City.  All in all a nice get away.  Best of all nature has given me a few ideas that may show up in a future quilt.