UFO or New Start or It's Own Category?

 In my quilting log, I keep records of my finishes, and I like to note whether a finish was a UFO (for my purposes a UFO was started in the prior year or earlier) or a new start. If I am working start to finish on a quilt over January 1st, I tend to annotate it as a WIP, so I know it may have been started the previous year, but never languished waiting for attention. 

When I got back from the last trip, I had a few basted quilts waiting for me. One of those was a denim quilt I wanted to finish for DD#2's birthday. DD#2 started asking me for a new denim quilt a couple years ago. Her old denim quilt was one of my first bed-sized quilts, and she was just a young girl when I made it. I used a juvenile sheet set to back both it and it's twin, and I added all kinds of fun girly patches on the front. DD#2 still loves that quilt, it's a good childhood memory for her. Her husband is not a fan of it, however. He thinks it looks like a little girls quilt, which of course, it is. Since they don't have any girls, he's never been immersed in girl stuff, so he doesn't get it. DD#2 loves the weight of a denim quilt (I made her a weighted blanket but she doesn't like it as much) but she wanted to know if I could make her a new denim quilt. I have plenty of denim, I could likely make six denim quilts, but what I don't have a lot of is time to make said quilts. 

My sister and I were trolling thrift stores looking for craft supplies a few months ago, and I came across a denim quilt top that was finished. It was unremarkable in pattern, but was well sewn. I knew DD#2 would get a denim quilt a lot faster if I just bought that quilt top. Since piecing and quilting are two totally different lists in my life, a finished quilt top could jump the line. 

I basted the quilt before I left on the last trip, knowing that I would only have two weeks or less to get it quilted when I got back if I wanted it done for her birthday. Since I didn't piece the top myself, and DD#2 is all about the actual quilting, I decided to quilt something different in every area.

I ended up with some bunching in the sashing strips between rows. Funnily enough the border is OK, so maybe the borders were a little short. I used every shade of purple thread I had, including every variegated thread that included purple. There are about 100 different quilting designs on this quilt, all done freehand. 

As usual, the quilting show up better on the back. There is no bunching on the back, so maybe the front is just a matter of denim not being amenable to "quilting it out" as far as imperfections go. 

No matter how much I played with the color in editing mode, I couldn't get the close ups right. The purple in the photo where you can see the whole back is closest to the correct color of the minky backing. It's a blue-purple, not a red-purple.

I quilted many long hours, much to the chagrin of my RSI, to get this done in time. I did, however, get to give it to her on her birthday! It was someone's UFO, but not mine. It was my finish #7 for 2025!

Hotel Sewing- Tips and Tricks

DH and I started doing sewing/scooting vacations when we still had a houseful. Those were often just a 3 or 4 days away. I could sew uninterrupted, and he could ride someplace different. Those weekend getaways got me ready for the times he had to travel for work, and we would be in hotels for months at a time. 

This year we've taken three big trips. Two of those times I brought a sewing machine, one I did not. At this point I've sewn in dozens of hotels, and I learned a thing or two about packing for these types of trips. 

If you have a choice of hotels, old hotels are often NOT a good choice to sew in. DH loves kitchy Route 66 type hotels, and though they can be fun to stay in, they are NOT fun to sew in. Old hotels usually have much smaller rooms than modern hotels. They also tend to not have enough electric sockets. Sometimes even charging a phone becomes an issue when there are multiple phones and devices to charge. 

No hotel I've ever stayed in had adequate lighting for sewing. There are ways around that, which I'll get to. 

Most hotel rooms in the USA have an iron and ironing board. Even in hotels where there isn't one in the room already, a quick check with the front desk usually gets you use of both. How good said iron and ironing board are vary from hotel to hotel, but at least it will be something.

My first sewing machine trolley was from a big box store, and although it was inexpensive, it still wasn't worth it. I only used that for one trip, and after two broken zippers on that one trip, I learned why sewists who travel invest in a Tutto. I'm sure there are other good brands of sewing trolleys, but Tutto is what I am familiar with, and they get rave reviews from quilters. I bought my first Tutto on a Black Friday sale, and I bought a medium sized case. At the time I was traveling with a cheaper Brother machine, and it worked ok with that. When I started bringing my Bernina on longer trips, my 440 barely fit in it, so I had very little extra space in it. This year I snagged an XL Tutto on clearance, and I'm so glad I did!

You might think I loaded my machine first, but I didn't. First thing in were my rulers, which I placed under the false bottom.

 Two of my travel rulers are Fiskars folding rulers. The orange one can be used to cut triangles or squares. It's 8x8"

The other is 6x24". The "hinge" is some really heavy duty adhesive plastic. It's thicker than tape. 

I also put in a couple other rulers I use the most, but by putting them under the false bottom they lay flat without much weight on them. 

In the medium sized Tutto this machine barely fit, but in the XL, I've got lots of space to add projects and accessories.

Foot pedal and power cord, don't forget those! I also have a travel iron which I prefer when pressing units over a full sized iron. Under the iron is a power strip. I always travel with a power strip so I can plug in all the things I need. All the remaining space in this section went to packing projects, plus my ikea lamp.

I have a June Tailor Press and Cut in here, but I also travel with a folding cutting mat. 

An 18x24" mat will be large enough to cut anything I'm doing in a hotel. 

The front pocket holds my extension table for my Bernina and a thread cone stand. I have a plastic container that holds my threads and extra needles, plus I've got all the regular sewing notions in here somewhere. 

I have travelled without a sewing table before, but if at all possible, I bring my folding sewing table. Putting a sewing machine on a hotel desk is a disaster ergonomically, and although I can do it for short periods of time, I prefer to bring a sewing table and a folding chair from home whenever I can.

In Arkansas, this was my sewing setup. The hotel chair was decent so I didn't bring in the folding chair, but we had to bring folding chairs for other parts of the trip anyway so it wasn't a big deal. This hotel room had no desk, so if I hadn't brought my sewing table, I wouldn't have been able to sew at all. You can see my white ikea lamp on top of my press and cut. I know a lot of women travel with clip-on lamps, but I don't, because I have learned that there isn't always a good place to clip it on! I couldn't have had my Press and Cut on the edge of the table if my lamp was a clip-on. The only plug open in this older hotel was right next to the door to the outside. If I hadn't brought a power strip,  I would have had to put the sewing table directly in front of the exterior door. Even with the power strip, I had to have DH knock so I could unplug the power strip every time he got back, but at least I didn't have to move the sewing table! 

I brought five projects with me, and they all fit inside the Tutto. I only ended up working on a couple. 

I had pre-cut this Spring Twist quilt from Sharon's scraps, but the green was mine, leftover from a backing. I really wanted another border on it, but this was as far as I got at the hotel.

Now that I'm home, the top is finished, and I had the perfect border fabric in my stash, but it was originally in my mom's stash! I liked this quilt so much, I've already cut another one in a different colorway, again from Sharon's scraps. 

I also played around with my Burst template. I only got a couple of these blocks done, but at least I know how to use the template now! The hotel room ironing board was adequate, I lucked out that it was height adjustable, not all hotel ironing boards are. 

The iron was a bit of an adventure I have no idea what setting the iron was on, so I only used it when pressing the quilt top, other than that I used my travel iron. I'm sure if I had asked I could have gotten a different iron, but I just made do with what I had. 

Why didn't I work on the other projects? I really needed a desk to work on the other projects. They were not quilting projects, and I needed space to mark and pin on a hard surface. This hotel did not work out for that. I tried pinning on the bed, but that did not work well at all. It was a really long seam, and I needed a flat hard surface to keep everything lined up. The carpeting was filthy, so no way was I going to put anything on the floor. This was an old hotel, but we didn't choose the hotel, it was the scooter rally hotel. At least it had larger rooms than a lot of old hotels, so it could have been worse. 

If you are going to be sewing at a hotel, my best tips are these-

*Bring extra lighting and a power strip with a long cord. In my mind, these are non-negotiable. 

*get a good sewing trolley, it makes a world of difference.

*if you can, bring a portable sewing table and a chair, if you end up sewing on a desk, get and and stretch frequently. 

*bring more than one project. Sometimes your set-up won't make working on certain projects easy. I try to bring at least one easy project, something I've already cut out, or strings or crumbs, that don't have to be super accurate. 

I've had to sew on desks, I've forgotten a power cord, I've had to have my sewing table in the center of a very small room, because it was the only space available. I've cut out entire quilts, sewn dozens of quilt tops in hotel rooms, and even done some FMQ in a pinch. Not everyone has the need or desire to sew in a hotel room, but it can be done, and it can be a lot of fun. If bringing a machine with you seems daunting, try bringing handwork, or a box of squares that need lines drawn on them. I've even brought quilt kits and cut them out at a hotel, but didn't bring a machine. Getting all the prep work done for a project and getting right to sewing when you get home is huge win! 

In case you wondered, I only sewed in Arkansas while DH was riding in a scooter rally. The rest of the trip we were doing things together. I would not bring a machine for a road trip where we are in a different hotel every night, but when we are one hotel for several days, sure! BTW, I can draw lines on squares in the car too! Just bring a clipboard! 

I hope this helps someone! Surely I'm not the only quilter on the move without an RV.

On the Road Again...But I'm Back

 This has been a year of travel for sure! We were just gone again, for over three weeks. I did manage to get some posts ready before left, so you shouldn't have noticed a gap this time! 

So where were we off to this time? Well, it was a series of places, and our first stop was Kansas City. We were towing one of DH's scooters, and we were headed to Chicago. We've been to Chicago before, and knew better than driving through Chicago with a trailer if we didn't have to, so we dropped the scooter off at a nephew's house in the Kansas City area. It was a lightning fast drop-off, because we knew we'd be back in just a few days. 

From Kansas City to Chicago it was made a bit more interesting for me, because we stopped at a quilting Hot Spot!

This was my first time to Missouri Star Quilt Company. We used to live in Missouri, but it was before the Doans moved there. That's OK, because I didn't have much time to quilt in Missouri, I was homeschooling full time and doing a lot of work at our local church. We also didn't have much money in those days, so even if it had been a thing back then, I likely wouldn't have gone.

Life is much different now, and it was a great time to go! We knew we'd be going there before my birthday, so DD#2 had given me a gift card to Missouri Star, and my MIL gave me birthday money to spend there. I didn't want to go crazy, because goodness knows I have a LOT of fabric already, so I went with a list. 

My list was as follows-

White fabrics with gray designs

Greens or blues with gold metallics for a quilt for DD#2

Something I could use as an ornament for the Christmas tree. 

How well did I stick to my list? You be the judge.

Starting at the top row, I bought the new Fabric Cafe book that I mentioned in my last post. I didn't know Missouri Star would have it, but I planned on buying it when I got back home. When I saw it, I decided to just buy it there. The purple and orange fat quarters were for my stash, I am always running out of purple, orange and yellow, so if I see those on sale, I snag some. Second row- the whites with gray designs per my list, a keychain that says Life is Sew Good with the MSQC logo for the Christmas tree, also per my list. The mug DH insisted on me buying. It's a teal color, and says Love in Every Stitch, with a quilt block on the backside. The bottom row is all fat quarter possibilities for DD#2 next quilt, with the gold metallics she wants, also per my list. I also bought two things for Christmas gifts that I can't show now. I went over my birthday money by $40, but the Christmas gifts were over $40, so I think I did pretty well. 

Here is a quick photo dump if you've never gone to Missouri Star. There are several different shops to go into, all with a theme so it's easier to find what you are looking for. All of the shop workers were very nice and helpful. They were spot on when they suggested Penney's Shop for the white with gray designs, and when I said I was looking for individual fat quarters and NOT bundles, they told me that only the wideback shop sells individual fat quarters. I don't know if that's always the case, but it was the day I was there. 

From Hamilton, MO it was almost straight to Chicago. I say almost, because we made a sidetrip to Riverside, Iowa. If you are a Star Trek fan like we are, you may know why.

In Chicago it was all about being a vendor at the Slaughterhouse Scooter Rally. We didn't get in any sight seeing, but I finally did score some Deep Dish Chicago pizza! Every other time we've been to Chicago we opted for something else, but now I can finally say I've had it.

After the rally it was back to Kansas City to pick up the scooter. We only stayed for a couple days, so we couldn't see everyone we would have liked to, but since we were early to have dinner with my niece one day, we made another quilty stop!

We went to Quilting is my Therapy shop in Liberty, MO. It's Angela Walters shop, and I rightly assumed she would not be there. That's ok, because my intention was not to fangirl, but to be able to try on the quilting gloves she uses. Some quilting gloves I wear a medium, and others a large. I've been wanting to buy a pair of the gloves she uses, figuring they would be cooler to wear in the summer, and the woman manning the shop was very nice and let me try on the gloves. Just an FYI, if you are in between sizes on gloves, I ended up getting the large in these. So what else did I get?

I bought the quilting gloves, and four fat quarters. three more gray on white designs, and one yellow FQ for stash. They didn't have a lot of individual fat quarters already cut, but they were willing to cut any fabric I wanted into fat quarters so that is good info to have. We were in a hurry, so I passed on that, but it was a fun quilt shop. 

We spent just a couple days in KC seeing family, then we went to southeastern MO to spend a few days with DD#1 and family. I spent a lot of time with them, but DH was busy getting new tires on his scooter and getting some riding in. We went to a local production of Annie at the community college, and I really loved watching the grandkids watch the show. I think two of the four would love to be involved in local theater. 

After a few days with DD#1's family, and getting as many hugs as I could from the grands, it was on to Arkansas. DH's goal was the Scooting the Ozarks scooter rally, but I had another side trip in mind. If I'm in Arkansas, or even near Arkansas, DH knows I'm going to want to go to Marshall Dry Goods in Batesville. 

I wanted a bolt of one specific fabric, which I bought wholesale. Aside from that, I made myself stick with the flatfolds. I didn't want to add a ridiculous amount to stash, but I did have a couple specific projects in mind. 

The bolt I purchased is top right. It has a woven look and the colors match so many projects I have in progress. I had a six yard piece of that fabric, and went through it quickly, and wished I had more of it. I got a 15 yard bolt for $47. As far as the fabrics go, the upper left is wideback remnants. The navy blue I needed for a project already started, I ran out of the blue which I was using as a background. The lower left is digital prints. I've heard various things about using digital fabrics, some people like them, some don't, and I knew trying some remnants of them was a good way to test them without dropping a bunch of money on them. The center column is mostly brights to go with a black/white bright project I want to start. There's also one more gray on white remnant. The far right is more green with gold metallic for DD#2 new quilt. 

The flat fold section at Marshall Dry Goods is a great place to find some deals.

Marshall Dry Goods was the last quilt related stop on our trip, but it wasn't the end of the trip. We were then on our way to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for the Scooting the Ozarks Rally. For DH, it was finally a chance to be a rider at a rally, instead of a vendor, and for me, it was sewing time in a hotel room. I think I'll save that for my next post! 

Finish #6

 I may not be racking up a lot of finishes this year, but at least this one will never make my UFO list! I cut this baby quilt out early this year, just in case I needed a baby boy quilt for someone who ended up having a girl. I do actually need a baby boy quilt, but this one is not right for the family having a boy. I do know someone who is who hoping for more kids and this one would be great for them so I'm putting it aside instead of donating it.

This is the same type of quilt as my last scooter quilt finish, but I really like putting hexies and triangles together. The hexies on this are from a Grand Canyon National Park panel. The panel had four smaller pictures. I cut hexies out of my favorite pictures, and cut up the fourth picture into triangles. I made a very similar baby quilt last year in the same colors, but I used a different panel in that one. 

It's kind of funny, but when I started quilting I didn't like using panels. I think in my head I was thinking they had to be used as intended, which killed my creativity. Now that I've used panels in multiple ways, including sometimes as intended 😉 I find I enjoy using them more and more. There are some great panels out there, and now I find myself looking for them instead of shying away from them. They are especially useful if I need a themed quilt, but don't want to spend much money on fabric. One panel packs a lot of punch, so one panel mixed with stash and voila, themed quilt on a budget!

Just as I'm really enjoying using panels, Fabric Cafe just came out with a book to use panels. Panel Perfect 3 yard quilts would be a great introduction to using panels if you have shied away from them too. Panels really are fun to use once you jump in and start using them. 

More Quilt Tops!

 

I finished both the quilt tops from my last post! This quilt was so much fun to make, and I'm already thinking about making more. I think it would be a fantastic two color quilt done in scraps. For this quilt, I was using a partial jelly roll that was given to me, along with some of my own scrap strips. Choosing the background/border color was fun, and I just went with what matched the most strips without matching too closely for contrast. I used all WOF strips, but I think this quilt would work well with short strips. The pattern is called Off Course and it's in this quilt book.

If you've never looked through a Kim Brackett scrap book, you are missing out! She has so many great designs, and if you are like me and cut your scraps to size, there are a lot of great options in her books for you to bust those scraps. 

I also assembled the big quilt that was on the design wall. I wanted a border to add to the size, and I just happened to pick up a purple remnant of 108" wide fabric the other day. I rarely pass up a 108" wide remnant. Sure you aren't going to back a quilt with a remnant, but it's quick borders, or easily enough fabric for backgrounds of smaller quilts. Widebacks don't need to be relegated to the back, it's just fabric, and even a remnant of 108" wide fabric goes a long way. Without the border, this quilt was 90" square, with the border it's 100" square.100" is my minimum for a queen sized quilts, so that remnant was just what I needed, and I even have a little bit left since it was a 25" long remnant. The little bit left goes in scrap user system.

I haven't minded assembling the throw sized quilts, but this big one was pretty hot to assemble and iron during summer. I think I'd like to wait until it cools off a bit before assembling any more big quilts. I do have several big quilts that need assembling though, so I don't want to wait too long. I have a good opportunity coming up to take over the living room with basting tables and baste the big ones. Anything twin sized or smaller I just baste on my cutting table. If it's bigger than that, I prefer setting up my two 8 ft long folding tables. I have to move furniture to do it and it completely takes over the living room, but It makes basting the big ones easier. I try to wait until I have at least three big ones ready to baste, and then I'll baste until I run out of pins. Good thing I have lots of pins! I've got three quilts basted right now, so If I can get those quilted before I have the big quilt tops assembled, I can baste more big quilts with the reclaimed pins. Having a big pile of basted quilts to quilt over the winter will be a great start to hopefully cooler weather!