Quilt Travel Hacks

December 28, 2024

Today, I received an email about a 2026 quilt tour of America’s Heartland to include stops at Missouri Star, the International Quilt Study Center, Iowa Quilt Museum and the Dignity statue in South Dakota. A quilt shop hop plus museums and other stuff along the way is included. There’s also an optional 3 day retreat at Missouri Star hosted by the tour guide along with the quilting instructor. Cost: $3,495.00 per person double occupancy. The fine print shows that airfare, many meals, all beverages, and gratuities are not included in the fee. You’ll also want money for shop hopping along the route, as well! The retreat at the end is $700.00. If you decide to do everything, you’re probably looking at a $5,000.00 + for the entire trip.

Photo by Leah Kelley on Pexels.com

All of the attractions listed on this tour are definitely worth a visit. That said, I’d rather spend $5000.00 on international travel rather than domestic. Why? Simply because I can DIY my own version of a published domestic tour for a lot less money. My sister-in-law and I did Missouri Star, Missouri Quilt Museum, an Amish community, Winterset Iowa (Iowa Quilt Museum and explore local town for a couple of hours), quilt show in Omaha, International Quilt Museum and fair amount of shop hopping over 5 days and 4 nights. Airfare for both of us, hotel and car rental totaled about $1750.00. I probably spent another $500.00 on food, gas and quilty goodness. My sister-in-law spent that much on quilty souvenirs alone! Notice that total expenses for both of us for a similar trip were less than the land only portion for one person in the America’s Heartland trip.

For the amount of money saved by going DIY versus the tour price, I could easily take 1-2 additional trips. If money’s tight and you really like the itinerary, there are ways to reduce costs even more. Get creative. Drive instead of fly. Take a cooler with snacks & drinks. Stay outside major areas where accommodations tend to be less expensive. Utilize every coupon and discount code you can find. Cash in those reward points and airline miles you’ve been hoarding.

Collect tour brochures for all the destinations that interest you. Make a list of the museums, attractions and quilt shops that look interesting. Spend a little time visiting websites to do some research. It’s free and entertaining. If the destination is less than four hours away by car, can you drive and see the same sights over a long weekend rather than taking a 7 day tour by bus? There are currently quilting tours available for Gee’s Bend, Charleston SC and coastal GA, plus the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and NC. Prices listed for each tour are just under $2900.00 per person double occupancy for the land portion only. Depending on traffic, all of these places are less than a 5 hour drive from Atlanta. I could easily DIY all 3 tours for less than the cost of a single trip with the tour company.

My point is – use tour brochures to fuel your quilty travel dreams. Remember, there are DIY options available to help make those quilty travel dreams a possibility – even in today’s inflationary, tight times.

Here’s to safe, quilty travels in 2025!

Holiday Festivities

December 18, 2024

It’s been a quiet December. A number of local holiday gatherings have conflicted with family plans and therapy dog activities this year. The one event I could attend was lunch with my Friday Sew Squad. Unfortunately, I had to pass on this one because I had the upper respiratory ick that’s currently making the rounds. Ditto for the neighborhood holiday gathering that was rescheduled due to weather.

When not sleeping, I read and made HSTs for the Bonnie Hunter Winter Mystery Quilt. My chosen color way is blue (Bonnie used red), aqua/teal and green (Bonnie used coral) with an assortment of white and cream fabrics. As with the FG for Week 1, I had to rework the instructions to incorporate my green charm squares. The HSTs are done and I’m happy to say all the miscellaneous green charm squares in my stash were used up in the HSTs.

Half square triangles for Bonnie Hunter Old Town mystery quilt.

After four days, I felt human again. My final Monday enrichment class was yesterday. Sadie and I made our last therapy dog visit for 2024 today. One of my private sewing students completed her craft apron. The finished project is absolutely adorable; however, the project’s poorly written directions made it a true pain the posterior to make. I’ll modify the instructions with our methods for her to follow as she wants to make aprons for her crafty homeschool friends.

Student modeling her craft apron.

All the family gatherings happen between now and next Monday. This means I’m really looking look forward to a quiet Christmas at home! I plan to make good use of the three week break before 2025 therapy dog visits resume and classes at the SQTM begin.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. See you in 2025!

Our R.E.A.D. program begins

December 12, 2024

Big Girl is demonstrating what good listeners do while waiting for our next student. What you don’t see is a small group of special needs students being read to by a teacher in the opposite corner of the library. Sadie’s being quiet, listening attentively and watching the speaker.

We have four students we’ll see each week – 3 boys and 1 girl with very different reading levels and backgrounds. Sadie was so excited to get to work this morning! The front office buzzed us in and she led me straight to the library once I obtained my visitor pass. Zoomies around the library while I set up and an enthusiastic greeting for our first reader made for a great session. We worked on assigned reading passages together and students learned to use text evidence to figure out the correct answer to the comprehension questions. A little bit of test taking strategies thrown in there too, but it’ll help come time for Milestones testing next spring. This is exactly what I wanted to do in retirement.

P.S. I understand her friend Barney (the K-9 dog assigned to the school) stopped by to check on us, but we were busy with a student and he didn’t want to interrupt.

In other news:

Next week marks my final Monday enrichment class at CAA. My rolling tote is already packed for the lesson and activities. I’ll spend some time this weekend weeding my general craft supplies and gifting a couple of teachers the bulk of them. In late January, Sadie and I will return to CAA as literacy volunteers on Thursday mornings. This could morph into a homegrown read-to-a-dog program as there is another family in the school community who also has a certified therapy dog.

Our therapy dog work is definitely influenced by the academic calendar. Most school and library visits wrap up by mid-May. Summer months tend to be slower with random summer camps and corporate event visit opportunities. Sadie and I try to make one visit in June and another in July/August. Our established school and library programs typically resume after Labor Day.

Someone asked about the cost of being a therapy dog volunteer. There are certain requirements as to attire/accessories for the handler and dog. You’ll definitely need at least one logo shirt, harness/scarf for your dog and a 4′ leash. Besides the $40 in annual dues to the national organization, it’s really up to you. The more visits you do, the more it will cost in terms of dog grooming, logo attire for you and transportation costs. If you do kid and young adult visits like Sadie & I do, you will also need to budget for trading cards, stickers, pencils, bookmarks and other swag to pass out on visits. It all adds up to a few hundred dollars each year plus my time. Money and time well spent, in my opinion.