Off to Camp

Last weekend I went to Quilt Camp--a quilting retreat at a campground. I have been going to Spring Camp for years, but this is the first time I have gone to Fall Camp. I knew that it would be an unstructured weekend, with nothing to do but sew, sew, sew, from 4pm Friday to 4pm on Sunday.
I had hopes of getting LOTS accomplished. So I packed a UFO (a small quilt top for my daughter that was all cut out and ready to sew), the fabrics for my niece's quilt, the parts for a pattern I've been wanting to make for quite some time, a hand-applique project, an embroidery project and a shop model that I am making of one of my patterns. I wanted to have a variety to choose from. Whatever mood I was in would determine what I would work on!
I arrived ~4:30. Most of the women were already there with their sewing machines buzzing. It looked like they'd been there all afternoon! I was told that no, they just got there at 4. Obviously they were on a mission, too!
Once I got settled in, I chose to work on the UFO. By the time I was ready to call it a night, I had all my blocks finished, ready to put together. That would be tomorrow's project.
Quilt Camp is wonderful...no meals to plan and prepare, no dishes to wash, no phone calls to interrupt your work. Many great quilters around you, lots of different projects being worked on, lots of inspiration. As an added bonus, camp is set on a lake and the trees surrounding the lake were in brilliant color last weekend! What more could a quilter ask for???

In the Works

A couple of weeks ago I got out the pieces for that little old quilt. Time to finally put it back together! The nine-patch blocks went together fairly easily. Some pieces had originally been cut on the bias, but they were small enough that they didn't distort when put together into the 9-patch blocks. After pressing the blocks, I laid them out on point.

The alternate blocks in the original quilt were indigo fabric. This fabric felt very thin to me (very much like cheese cloth!), but I decided to use it anyway. I cut the squares of indigo down to fit the 9-patch blocks, cutting both alternate squares and side set-in triangles.

The quilt top pieced together fairly quickly--all the pieces seemed to fit. The outside triangles were a bit oversized--on purpose so that I could square things up when all pieced together.

Time to cut the borders to fit. These, too, were the same thin indigo fabric. I measured the quilt top through the center and cut the borders to this length. But when I pinned them onto the edge of the quilt top, I had an extra inch at each end!!! Back to measuring again, and sure enough, the quilt top measures much bigger through the centers than it does along the edges. Being put on point, the alternate squares end up on the bias. Because of the thinness of the indigo fabric, they are very stretchy.

I've vowed that this project is not going to get put away again. This time it is going to be finished! I plan to omit the borders and use the border fabric for binding. And I have a new admiration for the quilters of that time period who had to work with these fabrics! We are so lucky to have quality fabrics to use in our quilts!!!!

Finally, a start!

At least 15 years ago, in an antique shop in Ligonier, IN, a little quilt top spoke to me. Judging by the indigo blues, deep reds, and other fabrics in the top, I could tell it was old (circa 1900). It was also tattered and a bit faded in places. But I thought it had potential and the price was right. I bought it with the intention of re-working it, just to play with the fabrics.
The little scrappy 9-patch on point quilt top sat in a corner of my sewing room until last year. It was time to do something with it. I took it along on an "up-north" quilting retreat as a "no-brainer" project. One afternoon I started taking it apart. Because it was hand-pieced (and a lot of the seams had already pulled apart), it wasn't too bad a job. One of my friends sat down to help and we quickly had it all in pieces.
The next step was to sort. Which pieces were too badly damaged to save and which ones were salvageable? Many of the pieces went in the trash (yes, I admit I did throw them away). The rest were pressed. This gave me another chance to examine them to see if they were worth putting back into the quilt.
I measured the squares from the 9-patches. I knew that I wanted to trim them down to have fresh edges to piece together. Once a good size was determined, and the squares trimmed, I then had to count them to see how many 9-patches I could make from what I had. The original quilt had 20 9-patch blocks, but I decided to only use 16 in my new project. I needed a few more little squares, so I cut some from my collection of old and reproduction fabrics.
Everything was cut, ready to go, and I had a plan. But it all got put away. Guess some other project was more important at the time. That happens to me a lot!!!

Fall Color

I just got back from a walk. On the days I don't go to Curves, I'm trying to get in at least 30 minutes of walking. On a day like today, it is easy! The sun is shining, the sky is bright blue and the air is cool and crisp.

I LOVE Fall! And I'm sure it is because of the gorgeous colors! On my way to church for Bible study this morning I couldn't help but notice that almost every color imaginable is out there for us to see right now, and around here, the colors are only going to get better! Just look at the bushes, trees and flowers! Amid the green, you'll see red, orange, yellow, gold, purple, blue-purple, pink, white, you-name-it.* An unknown bush, out in the middle of nowhere on church property, is brilliant today--green leaves, but fuchsia stems and berry sprays. Awesome! (My picture does not do it justice!)

God must love scrap quilts too! :)

*The quilt I'm making for the niece who graduated from college in May has this color scheme. I'm using the block "Country Roads". The main fabric is green, the background is light blue and scrap squares of the colors of nature run through the block. I'll show you a block soon...(I'm just in the "cutting out" stage.)

Time Saver???

More from the 1998 issue of QUILT:
The computer is so much a part of our lives these days, supposedly saving us time, that it's hard to remember when we didn't rely on it!
I found myself smiling over several of the articles in this 11-year-old publication, articles that referred to using the internet "to enhance your quilting activities."
One article is about a quilter, proficient in computer skills, who ended up hosting "cyberspace swaps for the increasing number of quilters who were meeting each other in an interactive chat room for quilters." (where they could communicate instantly with one another!!!!) She figured out a way for the quilters to post pictures of their quilts for the others to enjoy. Imagine that!!!!
Another article gives detailed instructions on how to do a "Round Robin in CyberSpace". Still another is titled "Paper Piecing in CyberSpace: A new source for Quilting Patterns".
QUILT magazine lists a website and invites readers to visit. A few of the advertisers list websites, but most still list street addresses and phone numbers.
Oh how far we've come!!! Think blogs :), Instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter/Tweets, "Google this and Google that", "online communities", free downloads, etc. These days, one could spend all day "quilting" on the computer!!! Too bad the computer can't do some of the actual sewing for us! Now THAT would be a real time-saver!!!
Honestly, I'd rather play with my fabrics! How about you? Happy stitching!
Carol :)

Timeless

Most of today was spent at the eye clinic with my husband. He is contemplating eye surgery and wanted me to be present to hear what the specialist had to tell him. Knowing that I'd be sitting a long time, I packed a bag of things to do...a small stitching project and some old quilt magazines I'd been wanting to look through.
Turns out there wasn't enough light to stitch by in the examining rooms (lights very dim for looking deeply into the eyes), but there was enough light to read by. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Spring 1998 issue of QUILT magazine.
QUILT has always been one of my very favorite quilting magazines, probably because they feature mostly traditional quilts/patterns. I love to look at all of the quilts they've photographed. It's always fun when I come across a quilt made by someone I know--in this issue is a Dresden Plate quilt made by Beth Payne, whom I know from Cal-Co quilt guild in Battle Creek.
As I read the articles in the magazine, I couldn't help but think how quilting is one pasttime where things don't really change a whole lot. Patterns get recycled, but in new fabrics. New gadgets come out, but the basic tools are still old reliables. Our reasons for quilting are no different from those of quilters before us. (And this issue contains an article about Harriet Powers and her Bible quilt of 1886. I just received an e-mail telling me about a new book on Harriet Powers, her life and her quilts!)
Lots of scrap quilts are pictured in this issue, too! Scrap quilts will never go out of style, will they?!
Happy Scrap Quilting! Carol :)

No time to quilt!

I haven't had much time to quilt lately. Last week we were visiting my parents in Wisconsin and were kept busy doing odd jobs and errands for them. I did manage to do a bit of embroidery (sitting in the waiting room of the dentist's office while Mom had a root canal) and finished the binding on one little quilt. Also did a bit of hand piecing.
This week I'm playing catch-up--laundry, mail, e-mail, etc. Plus, my usual activities have started up again. And there are plenty more tomatoes and beans from the garden!
It's a good thing that my current projects are small ones because I'm only getting "scraps" of time to work on them! Hope you are getting in some stitching time! :)