February Trip Review #2: The Mini Quilt Retreat

 My MIL is also a quilter so when my DH and I visit, she and I also have a mini quilt retreat!  Athough with all the projects I brought with me (and one picked up during the trip) this was more of a "maximalist-mini retreat",  LOL!!  This covers the two weeks we were there so this is your advance "long post warning"!! 

As usual, I brought a lot of projects down with me as I can never be too sure what I will get to or feel like working on day to day.  So here's all the stitching and quilty doings during our stay: 

#1.  I had brought down the "Year of the Red Horse" cross stitch project I had been working on.  When I left home it was here:  

I was able to get everything including the numbers for the year (but not the orange highlights) and brown outer border line done before we left on Sunday.  I finished the highlights on the numbers and the border and center floral accents in the car during the the first half of the drive home.

Now it's ready for "fully finishing"!

#2.  I was also able to finish stitching down onto its background the last half of the "Hexie Snowflake" block I had set up before we left.

Pinned....

Stitched!

I actually brought all four of the blocks for this wallhanging project as I was hoping I could get them all done and bring them home ready to constuct the top.  Nope!  

After stitching that block, I only managed to get the papers pulled from half of the next block.  Part of the reason was that I forgot to also bring my "Sixth Finger" stilleto tool.  Ironically I saw one at the Quilt Con show we attended but at almost $20 I decided to try to just find a tapered cuticle stick to use temporarily.  That turned out to be hard to find too but eventually I got one from a manicure kit sold in Dollar Tree.

"Sixth Finger" Stilletto vs Cuticle Stick

Since it is thicker than the stilletto, it was a little harder to work the glued fabric loose from the papers  so it took longer to release them than it had for the first block.  As a result, I only got half of the papers in the second block out during our trip and then finished removing the other half in the car on the last leg of the drive home.  When we got back home was I able to pin it to its background so it's now ready to be stitched down.

#3.  I've visited my MIL enough that I had often attended her guild meetings with her if they were scheduled during our trip.  As a result, last year I joined the guild as a "long distance" member!  We arrived on a Friday and the next day was the Guild's monthly meeting.  There was a great show and tell and some of the Guild members did a presentation on one of my favorite topics:  adding labels to quilts! 

After the meeting,  my MIL and I went to purchase a ruler table and foot for her Handiquilter Moxie longarm.

We agreed to go "halfsies" on the purchase.  I had brought down with me all the rulers I have that can be used on a longarm.  

The plan for this trip had been to try learning to do ruler quilting on her machine.  To facilitate that I brought my "Modern Bohemia" project with me as I originally had plans to ruler quilt it at home anyway.  

When we got back to her house, my DH helped us install the table onto the machine.  Later we took it back off the supports that hold it on the machine as my MIL had a project we needed to quilt but would be using programmed stitches for that.  

In the end, we never did get around to doing the ruler quilting lessons so it looks like those will have to be a project for our next trip down!

#4.  Long aside for a back story:  Each year "our" Guild (still feels a little funny saying that) does a member challenge.  Sometimes it's a specific project, other times it is making a quilt in a specific color or using a specific type of fabric.  Prior to us coming down, my MIL let me know that the Guild had announced that this year's challenge is to make a Log Cabin quilt.  It can be in any design of your choosing for presentation to the membership at the June meeting. 

This is right up my alley!  Every since buying the Accuquilt Log Cabin die as my first BOB purchase, I've been obsessed with the idea of making a lot of Log cabin quilts.  I think this block is one of the most versatile in quilting next to HSTs or Flying Geese.  I believe that you could spend your whole quilting life just making LC quilts and never make the same design twice.  Heck, you could make the exact same block layout but color it different ways and still have them all look different!   

So this was my opportunity to bring down two projects that I've long wanted to make.  

Years ago I regularly followed the blog of Elaine Adair and back in 2006 she designed a quilt called a "Rebuilt Log Cabin" (the one on the left).  I always thought it was such an innovative and unique looking Log Cabin design so of course wanted to make it.  However, this was also well before I had the Accuquilt die so while I collected red fabrics for the block centers,  I never really focused on all the other cutting that needed to be done for the rest of the blocks.  However, once I had the die, I planned to make it using scrap strip cuts like the ones stored in the box shown.  

Eventually, I discovered another design that also became a "want to make priority" that could use the same scrap cuts:  Carrie Nelson's (of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.) "Raise the Roof" (on the right).  I generally kept these two patterns sitting by each other as I believed if I had reason to make one,  I'd also start making blocks for the other.  So with the Guild Challenge in mind, I brought both patterns and the LC Strips box down with me figuring I'd see which I wound up working towards.  

At the Guild meeting they announced there'd be an open "Sit and Sew" session the last Saturday of our stay.  So I figured if I didn't get to these before then, I'd get a chance to sew some blocks up on that day.

However, I also had another "must make" priority LC design I've long wanted to do.  

From the American Patchwork & Quilting December 2020 issue.

In the spirit of Quilt Con, this one is a bright colored log cabin quilt made in what I like to refer to as "mod" fabrics.  The fabrics I put towards this came from the stash I built when I had decided to make the "Modern Boehmia" quilt referred to earlier.  I pulled some background prints from my stash to put with them for the lights.  I also added a bunch of fabrics purchased in 2024 when Keepsake Quilting had the Andover Fabrics "Century Black on White" line on sale which I thought would also work well for this.   

This project has been sitting in a project bag ever since.  When I did the Just Get It Done Declutter Challenge earlier this year,  I thought this would be an easy one to tackle in order to free up the bag.  So I also brought it along on this trip to add to the Log Cabin fun!  I should note that it is a little diffferent approach to LC as the blocks are pieced "Courthouse Steps" style and the "logs" are made using 2-1/2" cut (aka "jelly roll" but not pre-cut) strips. 

I figured the priority was to cut the fabrics for this project first but that wound up taking two days to get done.  Then busy with other things and interrupted by the four days spent at the Quilt Con Show,  in the end I only managed to leader/ender the center of one block before we went home.   I should note here that we got word the day before the "Sit and Sew" session that it was being canceled because the heating sytem malfunctioned at the meeting center they were going to hold it at.  

#5.  Also in the spirit of Quilt Con, I brought the pattern, a sweatshirt and charm squares from my scrap stash to work on a "Charming Hoodie" that I hoped to wear to the show.  I picked up some addtional supplies I needed from Hobby Lobby once we got down to my MIL's.  

However, even though I started working on it about five days before the show, I had to alternate focus on it with some of the other projects that follow.  So I only got the sweatshirt deconstructed and prepped for adding the charm squares to it.  

I did get another coordinating charm pack of tone-on-tone prints at the show so am actually happy about what they will add to this once I can get back to it.  

#6.  Another benefit of being in the Guild is that members lend out Accuquilt dies they have.  I've enjoyed making Bowl Cozies for a while now using square ruler cuts and templates to round the corners and cut the darts.  However, I've long wanted to try the Small Bowl Cozy Die to compare the finished size of it to the method I've been using before committing to buying it.  My MIL let the member who had it know and I was able to pick it up at the meeting we attended.  

I had brought fabric for four Cozies (three "Yellowstone" and one for "Bridgerton") and immediately cut them so I could return the die ASAP. 

I did get them all stitched to their batting.  I started the darts on one of them and got another one pinned and ready for stitching around the perimeter but that's as far as I got.  However, I plan to work on finishing them up them so I can add them to my next "Finished Or Not Friday" post.

#7.  For Black history month my MIL volunteered to make an "Underground Railroad Quilt" for a presentation at her church of the "Quilt Codes".  A few years ago she had borrowed the one I made and used it for a similar presentation and ever since has wanted to make one for herself.  Using the Eleanor Burns book as I had, she had been piecing it over the last couple of months but was having problems with a few blocks.  So when I arrived, we worked out the kinks on those and I helped her decide on the final sashing and border fabric.  

This was the first project to get longarmed on this trip.  We discussed potential stitch patterns to use and finally settled on doing "Baptist Fans" which I was familiar with from having quilted one of my quilts on her machine using that pattern two years ago.  This is when we took the ruler table we had purchased off the machine.  

The good news is that we spent the two days before Quilt Con getting it done which gave her time after our show days to trim the quilt and prep and apply the binding for the presentation that Sunday.  

Since Sunday we'd be at the last day of the quilt show,  my DH was given the task of delivering the finished quilt to the church and helping set it up for display.  The presentation was made by one of her church members and assisted by my MIL's friend (also a quilter) who had retired to her town last year.

On display at the church.

#8.  The day before the first day of Quilt Con, we went to the home of one of the chairs of the Guild's "Patriotic Bee" to pick out fabrics for "Quilt Of Valor" kits.  This is also the member who owns the Bowl Cozy die so I returned that on that trip too.  

The guild had been able to purchase fabric for members to make these quilts because of a grant they had been awarded.  It was my intention to get fabrics for two kits:  one was to fill out the additional fabrics needed for a pattern called "Picture That" that I plan to use with a panel I am donating.  

I was able to get the fabrics I needed and since I only brought the panel down with me, I'd wait until I got home to add in the other fabrics I have and work on that one.  

I also picked up enough fabrics to make another top called "Freedom Stars".  My hope was to try to get this one to a top before I left.  I got it all cut and partially laid out and where I could, I pieced the star points.

I did them as Flying Geese as it was also an opportunity to give my MIL a hands-on demo of the Eleanor Burns method I use to make them.  I had also brought down the rulers I use to trim them even more quickly than with a regular ruler so I could demo those too.  

She had also looked at the "4 at a time method" and wasn't sure she was doing that right either.  I had originally learned to do that method and only abandonded it because there is less cutting with the EB method and to get the exact size geese needed, the math for that method wasn't as simple as for Eleanor's method.  

However my MIL showed me a tutorial that gives a simple math formula for doing the "4 at a time method" with oversized squares so now I can go back to using this method in those cases when I need to use different colors for the two "sky triangles" and need to control where the colors are placed.

But back to the QOV:  I did lay out the squares I cut but as I got down to the last of them,  I was finding it hard to keep the variety of prints evenly distributed which left me with a few holes in the layout and kept me from starting to stitch the rows.  

It wasn't until our last Friday there that we went to run what was supposed to be a few errands and make two fabric stops.  Well that turned into a mini shop hop as we wound up making stops at four fabric shops but the good news there was that I found another print at one of them that depicted all the armed forces:  

It was perfect for filling the holes in my layout!  So as I completed the layout...

...and while continuing to work on longarming my quilt (the other  UFO --- details to follow),  the next day I did get to leader/ender this project a bit and get four of the rows stitched up before we had to leave.

And now they are home on my design wall!

  #9.  So the only big thing I actually finished on the trip was that I got to longarm the other of the two UFOs I brought:  a quilt I call "Pulpit Tile".  

A closeup of the different stitch patterns used around the quilt.

I pieced this all the way back in 2006 in my early quilting days.  Made with "Jack in the Pulpit" and "Snowball" blocks, it has sat for so long because after I made it I could never decide how to quilt it.  In my mind, I thought it needed very traditional patterns like Feather Wreaths and other advanced patterns that were definitely not in my wheelhouse at the time.  Then once I gained some of those skills, I had moved on to other styles of quilts so finishing this wasn't a big priority.  

It came around now because I thought I might be able to actually get this done simply using stitch patterns programmed into my MIL's longarm tablet.  I was also looking forward to learning to connect continuous patterns to fill borders which is something I really haven't done up to now.  On my last visit, I had taken a picture of all the stitch pattern screens so I could sit down and figure out possible designs to use for the blocks before I arrived.  

I had my choices mapped out but things went sideways (figuratively) once the quilt was loaded!  This was a doozy that didn't progress at all the way I planned.  Due to throat space limitations and not remembering to bring the right thread for this,  I had to change my pattern choices on the fly.  However,  as usual I learned a lot of longarm lessons.  I won't go into further detail here,  I'll also save that for the next FONF post.   

CODA:  I should note, I also brought two more things that I didn't get to work on:  I had my scrappy "Magic Cube" Shoo-Fly blocks to also use for leader/enders.  

Had I got to do more sewing they might have gotten worked on but the good news is that needing to work on the two QOVs at home now (and on deadline) means they will get done now!

The second thing was that during the December Accuquilt sales,  I had lucked up on getting two of the June Tailor "quilt-as-you-go" kits to make covers for the Accuquilt Go! machine.  

I got one for my MIL and one for myself and had gotten the fabric bundle of the Accuquilt fabrics.  We split the eight fabrics in it between us (she took the light/white/blue fabrics and I took the lime green and orange fabrics).  We both had to add two additional fabrics to our sets because the kit requires having six fat quarters to make the cover.  I added the white and grey and the turquoise prints at the top to fill out mine.  Both of us also made some cuts at the Accuquilt booth "make & take" station at Quilt Con that we hope to add to our covers.  So that too is another project for future sewing or the Fall trip back!

So a lot attempted but definitely not as many things finished up as hoped.  Our next visit in September will be quieter as the annual NC Shop Hop dates have been changed to May/June so we won't have that to participate in.  We will be coming in time for the guild meeting that month.  If DH and I come down on the Friday before as we did this time,  that will also lessen the impact on the rest of the time spent there.  And thus ends the maximalist-mini retreat report!       

To Do Tuesday: Not Long Before the Month Ends!

We are getting closer to Thanksgiving and the end of the year is already starting to feel like it's rushing to a close!  Heck, even Bonnie Hunter will be releasing the start of her annual Quiltville mystery a week early!!  So before the holidays step on the gas and I get run over, let me check in for another "To Do Tuesday" chat along with everyone gathering at Carol's over at "Quilt Schmilt"!  

I managed to stay mostly on track during the last week so moved a few of the things on my "To Do" list forward.  

So the plans from the last report were:  

1.  Continue stitching the "New York Skyline" cross stitch project.  I'm expecting it will take me until a little past next week's check-in to get through Page 4 of the pattern.  

It is moving along but in doing so I realized that "Houston, we have a problem"!  I am here on my fabric....

And like the year, the end is near!

... but I have this much more of the pattern left to do!

When I finish that building, I have a whole bridge still to stitch!

Oh no, what happened?  Well, what happened is that I am still a cross stitch-Noob and misread the pattern!  For some reason when I started this, I thought this was the last page and stitch count:  

So I started in the middle here:

But in fact the pattern is one page longer and the end stitch count is this:

As experienced (aka: not me) CS-ers know, most good cross stitch patterns have a marker that shows the midpoints (both horizontal and vertical of the pattern.  This one was no exception:

But of course I didn't look for that or even notice it until now, sigh!!  Needless to say I've already stitched too far to consider starting over and love it too much to abandon it.  

I actually think I may be able to save this by taking off some of the excess fabric I have on the left side and somehow attach it to the right side to extend it, even if it means I might have a visible seam on one side of the finished piece.  Another option is to leave off the bridge on the right side or stitch it split onto both sides.  I'm not sure I like either of those options.  

So I'm going to keep stitching and finish this page and then give some more thought to a potential solution before starting in on the last page.  Definitely a hard but very good lesson learned for future projects!!  

2.  Finish stitching the remaining three September "Alaska" BOM blocks.  If I can, I might also try to start the cutting for the October blocks but there's no pressure on getting to that.  

Done and Done!

September blocks completed.

Next up to bat!

I had some issues stitching the blocks this time around:  they were a lot harder to get flat in the center.   After stitching the second of the four blocks,  I went back to Marti Michell's instructions for making these Kaleidoscope blocks and followed them closely like I did when I began this project.  The last two came out a little better but still not as flat as my test block had been.  

One thing I did learn was that for these blocks with pieced triangles, it is actually better to piece the blocks a little differently than in Marti's instructions:

There are options when adding those corner triangles.

Marti instructs that you can add the last corners either to the corner triangles first (which she preferred) or add them after.  When using the plain triangles, adding them first works fine.  However, I found that for the pieced triangles, you had more flexibility on which way you can flip the seams to butt the intersections if you wait until the end to attach the corner triangles.  I also think that I was probably rushing to get these done so might have stretched some of the diamond points this time around which I didn't do to the test block.

Fortunately, the blocks I will be doing this week (technically the blocks I should have cut out and stitched up back in October) are also made with pieced triangles, so I will get another shot at improving my technique for making them.

In the course of sewing the BOM blocks, I also got a few more of the scrappy Kaleidoscope blocks I've been making done as leader/enders as well as another "Scrappity-Do" block too.

3.  Continue to think about plans for "fully finishing" the two Christmas-In-July cross stitch pieces. 

I'm thinking of continuing with the ribbon theme so now have to decide whether to go with a fabric strip to channel that or consider making another "pieced ribbon" to extend down from the bow.

4.  Start work on the new Fall wool wallhanging.  

The only thing done there was that I printed out all the applique templates onto freezer paper so now need to iron them onto the wool I'll be using and cut them out.

In addtion to the "To Do" list items, when I talked about the quilts I finished during Sept and Oct , I had mentioned a new project related to one of them.  I had made another quilt using Shelly Comisky's "I Love Sn'Gnomies" flannel fabric line for Henry Glass Fabrics and had discovered two rag pillow designs also using fabrics from that line.  I picked up a kit for one but when it came, I decided I wanted to incorporate more of the fabrics I had left over from the quilt just made since this pillow will reside with it.

Note the differences in the kit picture and the fabrics I've cut out.

Then when I realized I'd now have a bunch of the kit fabrics I wasn't going to use,  I also realized that the two Fat Quarters from the line sent for the pillow backing was another of the kit prints I'd like to preserve.  But then how to fill out the backing?  

Turns out it was not a problem as my flannel stash came to the rescue!  Actually in this case, it was once again leftovers from a long ago project in that stash that saved the day.  

I had used this fabric for the backing of my "Brrr!!" quilt back in 2013.  It was not only perfectly colored but also perfectly themed to fill the bill for this new project!  I did have to do a little "poverty piecing" so I could keep the integrity of the directional fabric to make the two pieces needed for the pillow back.

So everything for the pillow is now cut out.  I put the fabrics I took from the pillow kit with what I have left of one of the original set of fabrics I purchased and it looks like that will be the start of yet another stash of FQs for yet another "Sn'Gnomies" and/or 9FQ quilt!

And the FQ on the left will be added to my flannel stash.

So my plans moving forward for this week:  

1.  Continue stitching the "New York Skyline" cross stitch project.  The question is how will I resolve the issue of placing that last page?

2.  Stitching up the October "Alaska" BOM blocks.  If I can, I hope to also start the cutting for the next (November) blocks but like last week, there's no pressure on getting to that before next Tuesday.  

3.  Continue to think about plans for "fully finishing" the two holiday cross stitch pieces. 

4.  Start cutting the parts for the new Fall wool wallhanging.  Even though it already feels like winter, I'd love to get it made before the Fall season officially ends!  

5.  Construct the Sn'Gnomies rag pillow.

I know that a lot of people have been busy working on projects in honor of Fall or to prepare for holiday decorating and gifting.  I'll bet we'll both find many of them over at "Quilt Schmilt" for this week's "To Do Tuesday"!

To Do Tuesday - Two Days Late!

 I missed  the last two weeks of checking-in with Carol over at "Quilt Schmilt" for "To Do Tuesday".  Now due to technology problems,  I'm two days late to review how August finished up and to set up the agenda for September!

The past couple of weeks were as productive as the weeks that started the month but as always when they were done, there was still more to do!  

I also had a slight interruption as I decided at the last minute to sign up for this year's Free Motion Quilting Summit hosted by Mary Davis of Mary Go Round Quilts.  I had enjoyed last year's summit and picked up quite a few new stitch pattern ideas so joined in while the early registration discount was still in effect.  I'm glad I opted for the "All Access Pass" as I still have some videos from Day 2 and all the ones from Day 3 still to watch.  

So the things I was able to accomplish since my last To Do Tuesday report were as follows:

1.  Add the borders to the QOV top by adding "filler" to the strips sent in the kit.  That got done although it took way more days, time and thinking than planned!  

Then last week there was more to do here as I seemed to have messed up that lower right corner of the borders as you see in the picture.  I don't know why but that was the only border section like that and it was pretty wavy so had to be be opened up, trimmed and re-done.  I also pieced together the binding strips that were provided in the kit which was an easy enough task.  

I contacted the guild's charity quilt coordinator for instructions on where to send it and checking the tracking, see that it arrived in North Carolina on Tuesday.  Next it will be passed on to the guild's longarmer for quilting.  

After it's quilted, my MIL will probably put the binding on it unless they can wait until we go down to visit her in early October for me to add it myself.  The guild's QOV presentation event is in November.

2.  Continue the "Alaska" BOM block making.  

Did well on that too!  As before, I continued to sew up the blocks as I worked on the QOV top.  The good news is that I got them all done for the second month of this self-directed BOM!  

I also sewed up the four scrappy blocks I also cut out.  

So looks like I made the month-end deadline ahead of time for a change!  

3.  Focused on getting the QOV done and on the "Alaska" blocks, I'm not sure if the "Gathering A Garden" backing will get a push this week.  

Well contrary to expectations, once the QOV top was off the design wall, I did finally make  the backing for the "Gathering Garden" top that had been completed in July . 

I basically mimicked the front layout using strips to create the pieced backing.  The light strip will also serve as my label area.  I also already have a simple quilting plan for it.  However, I don't know if it'll move any further forward since I now have two deadline projects I need to work on.

4.  I have now gone back to working on my "New York Skyline" cross stitch project. 

Definite progress on that:  I now have two pages of the pattern completed on this one!   

I still have three more pages to go and figure each will take at least a month.  This means I should get this done by the end of November and then hopefully can display it before the end of the year.  

Speaking of which, I also did some more shopping at my local "At Home" store that is closing and was lucky enough to find the perfect size frame for this!

A $10 score that I'm hoping to mount the finished piece onto the board in the frame.  What I'm not sure at this point is whether I can do that and still have it under the glass or will have to remove it.

So moving forward for the start of September:

1.  I now need to get September's "Alaska BOM" blocks cut and ready for leader/ender sewing.

2.  I will resume stitching on my "New York Skyline" cross stitch project.  However, once again I won't be "monogamous stitching" this month because I have something new I've decided to add to the cross stitch rotation.... 

3.  Continuing work on a new holiday cross stitch project.

The Fat Quarter Shop had done a Quilt and Stitch Along for "Christmas In July" called "Up On the Rooftop".  While I downloaded the free patterns, I hadn't planned to do either since I already have two Christmas quilts that need quilting and had finished last year's "Letters To Santa" cross stitch for CIJ this year but still need to "fully finish" it. 

However, thinking now about how things will be displayed, I realized that another piece that could go along with "Letters" would help fill the space where I want to hang it.  I also plan to incorporate the "Patchwork Bow" I had made for Melva's "CIJ Blog Hop" into the display as well.

What pushed this to the forefront was that the "called for" fabric was the same used for "Letters" and I had enough of it left over to make up the new one.  Once I saw the finished design, I liked that it seemed like a relatively quick and easy stitch.  I also liked the look of the Classic Colorworks "fancy floss" it was stitched up in.  I like hand dyed flosses but since they are more expensive than DMC I need good reasons to stash them.  Needless to say, this seemed like a good enough reason, LOL! 

Once the threads arrived, I got started on it during the last few days of August and did a little more on Labor Day.  

4. Make a quilt to raffle at the community garden Art Show.  

At our monthly meeting two Saturday's ago, the President of our community garden announced that they'd like to try to hold another of the garden's Art Shows and want me to participate.  A date hasn't been formally set yet but I've thought about my display theme which will be "Fall Quilts".  

Everyone would like me to sell quilts but it's too short notice to think about making something for that.  However, I can make another "9 Fat Quarter Disappearing Nine Patch" to raffle off like last time.  It just so happens that I already had a fall themed FQ bundle that I purchased on a Shop Hop back in 2023.  This design is quick to make and hopefully to quilt with tips from the Summit so I could be ready for when a show date is announced.  

5.  Start work on the Children's Tumbler quilt for the North Carolina guild's donation efforts.  

I had picked up the set of pre-cut tumbers shown above from the Charity Coordinator back in February.  While down there I also got the backing (on the top right).  I had also purchased a light fabric to make more Tumblers and another for a coordinating border fabric.  Unfortunately, I decided to use those in another project so then had to purchase the replacements shown.  

I have the same Accuquilt die that was used for the pre-cuts so plan to cut more out of the light fabric and work out a pleasing arrangement in EQ8 while I work up the raffle quilt on the design wall.  I want to get this one made up and quilted so I can take it down with me in October completed and ready for donation.   I feel like it's a doable project but it means I have to plan it out in order to be sure to stay on track.

So with a list slightly longer than in the past few weeks, I'll stop here so I can amble back over to Carol's Quilt Schmilt and check out the plans everyone else has more promptly posted for "To Do Tuesday" for the coming week!