My younger sister had a birthday last week...I can't remember how old she is, but what's important is she looks MUCH older than me. My sister and her tribe love to go camping...they pull a ginormous trailer into the mountains during the hot summer months and set about fishing, roasting weenies, and playing cards...they used to do all of that from a large tent...now they put the kids in the tent and they stay in the trailer watching TV.
When things were good my parents would buy a trailer at the beginning of the summer - they would load all five of us kids up and off we would go to Yellowstone or Moab or The Grand Canyon. We would make several trips in the trailer and at the end of the summer my mom would have had enough of the "fun" and she would sell the thing. When things weren't so good we would go in a tent...as a kid I thought it was great fun...but I wasn't a bright kid...when we would drive past a Motel 6 I would wonder what it was...I was told it was a home for the poor. I don't think I learned the meaning of the words motel/hotel until I was in my 20's...and then, then my friends, the tent flap was removed from my face and I vowed never to camp again! My poor sister never made the leap from camping in a tent/trailer to staying in a hotel...clean sheets, room service, 500 channels, maid service...sad for her. But she doesn't know any better - she's happy in her trailer - so I made her a Trailer Quilt so she could be happier...as if that were possible...4 kids, a husband and two dogs in a trailer...just doesn't get any happier than that!
The quilt is not large...it measures 54x60-inches...but I figured anyone who can lay in a trailer bed (a piece of foam on top of plywood...but I say nothing...) and operate the microwave with her big toe while flushing the toilet with her right hand and still be able to reach the handy-dandy-flip-down-table doesn't need a big quilt, am I right?
The center of the quilt is made from 9-patches that were a quilt group project...Lori decided she was not EVER going to use her 9-patches so she gave them to me...so thanks Lori, as you can see, the ugly patches work beautifully here! Denim fabric is the border fabric and the pictures are machine-appliqued on. I quilted a secret message to my sister in the quilt somewhere...she'll have to find it...it's so secret that even I couldn't find it after I "birthed" it this morning (pulled it from the dryer).
The back of the quilt has colorful umbrellas - so my sister can think of me as she's hunkered down in her trailer while a typical summer torrential down pour threatens to wash them off the mountain as she prays they don't get hit with lightning. If thunderheads aren't threatening them while they camp, she'll wish for rain just to help contain the dust and dirt on the fine linoleum floor in her trailer or on the naugahyde/pleather sofa/double bed/game table...those camp-grounds can be dust bowls!
Happy birthday Joni...I'll think of you, your trailer and your tribe while I'm in a hotel room somewhere ordering room service.
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Happy Birthday to the boy! He informed us that we can take him to dinner tomorrow night because he has plans for tonight...but he'll be home in time to eat a piece of chocolate cake...hint-hint!
