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!

Why So Many Design Walls?

 I have a giant design wall in my sewing room. It's seven feet high and eight feet wide. I have an extra piece to it where I can make it ten feet wide. The insulation boards I used to make it were originally 8 feet tall, but I can't reach anywhere near that high so I had DH cut them down to seven feet.

You'd think with that size design wall, it would be enough. For some people I'm sure it would be enough. For me, I like having more options than that. I have quilt block design boards that I made using this tutorial. Blocks that are easy to get confused on, like ones with lots of HSTs are really great to lay out on these boards.

I also have a couple medium sized design boards on the wall next to my sewing stations. Why so many? Because I am always using one project as a leader/ender project for another, and sometimes the block boards are just what I need, sometimes the giant design wall is what I need, and other times I need something in between.

Right now there is (most) of a queen sized quilt on my giant design wall. The blocks are very large, and the bottom row doesn't fit on the design wall, but the rest of it is there. 

When I start assembling this quilt, with the blocks being so large, I don't have space to put a block design board anywhere on my sewing table. If I were starting a project that needed a bunch of HST's or something, that would be a good leader/ender for assembling the big blocks into rows, but I'm not working on anything like that now. I am, however, assembling some smaller blocks (made from other people's scraps) Block boards would be in my way, so my way around that is to use the medium sized design walls next to my sewing station. 

These design walls are flannel over foam board, and there are two pieces of foam board here. For these blocks I need to make sure no fabric is repeated in the same block, so being able to lay out a few at a time is very helpful. I can reach this board while I'm sitting at the sewing machine, so in between adding blocks to a row of the big quilt, I can assemble the small blocks for a different quilt. I don't need to worry about messing up the blocks, or knocking a bunch of pieces to the ground, because they are on the wall and not in my way. 

My big design wall is not mounted in any way, the big pieces of insulation board (covered with Warm and Natural batting) are just leaning against the wall. My block design boards are just upright on a shelf like a collection of books. The foam board design walls I have stuck up with Velcro Command Strips. If I want to move them, I can simply pull the foam boards off the wall, then the strips will pull off the wall leaving no damage. I'm sure about the no damage part, because I've moved them several times already. At one point I even had these mounted on the doors to a big wardrobe. 

We own our house, but any of my design wall options would work just as well in a rental. There's no big mounting ordeal, no damage to any walls, and easily moved to a different house. Originally I didn't think I had space for a big design wall, until I started facing the sewing furniture towards the center of the room instead of against the walls. Once I made myself a sewing "island" in the room, that freed up the wall space I needed. 

If you've been wanting a design wall, but thought you couldn't have one, maybe you can. You may just need to look at it with new eyes. If my house had a long hallway, I'd have put a design wall there. Once I rearranged my sewing room, a design wall fit in there just fine. There are a lot of options for design walls, my first was flannel glued to a bamboo shade so I could roll it up when not in use, since it blocked the closet. I really love having a design wall, or in my case design walls. Sure you can buy them ready made, but DIY ones like mine work just fine, and they are game changers. I used to lay out quilts on my bed, but this is easier, and better, so I highly recommend it. If you really can't have a design wall, a bed or the floor will work though. Where there's a will to quilt, there's a way!