Tag: quilt

The Joy of Solo Quilty Travel

June 13, 2025

My favorite type of quilty travel happened this week – an event with classes, shopportunity and pretty quilts to see – Mountain QuiltFest in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It’s a regional quilt show that attracts national teaching faculty. I really like the work of two west-coast based instructors teaching this year, so I took advantage of the opportunity to take classes with them close to home.

At least one solo quilty adventure each year seems to be the norm for me since retirement. It’s a time to focus exclusively on quilting and whatever else I want to do. Outside of classes and viewing the quilts, I can be as social as I choose to be. This year included a dinner event with Edyta Sitar (where I ran into four members from my quilt guild who’d come up to get quilt appraisals and check out potential instructors for the guild to bring to ATL in 2026 and 2027). There was also an evening show & tell, antique quilt lectures and a local quilt tour. Severe thunderstorms arrived just as my final class ended. I took myself out to dinner at a local Italian restaurant and spent the stormy evening stitching in my hotel room.

Classes with Edyta Sitar and Krista Moser were wonderful. I completed all the log cabin blocks in the Pioneer Log Cabin class with Mrs. Sitar. I even won one of her autographed books as a door prize!

For Krisa Moser’s class, once I understood the preparation and process for handling diamonds and pieced equilateral triangles, block assembly went quickly. The goal was for each student to complete at least 3 blocks by the end of class. She demonstrated how to assemble the quilt top by using all of the student blocks as her example. Here’s a sample Vintage Windmill layout utilizing blocks from 17 students:

Here’s one of my blocks:

I completed the required 3 blocks in class. The rest of the time was spent cutting diamonds from my pre-cut strips and assembling strip sets/cutting equilateral triangles for each hexie block. Next week will be spent getting the rest of the diamonds cut out and the pieced triangles made (12 required for each block).

Everyone I met in classes and in the show area was raving about how good this year’s event was. I concur. It was definitely the right call to attend this event in lieu of some other events I typically do this time of year. A return in 2026 depends how it works with my guild’s big quilt show to be held June 4-6, 2026.

Random stuff:
My stay at the Best Western Plus Apple Valley Lodge on the Parkway was comfortable and convenient. Tips: Request a non-balcony room on an upper floor if you like maximum quiet and privacy. The parking garage exits to a street that runs behind the property. Go two blocks over toward the Hampton Inn. There’s a traffic signal that will make left turns much easier. Traffic on the Parkway can be a nightmare. My plan is to stay at a hotel closer to the LeConte Center next time.

Learn new things

May 25, 2025
My second attempt at creating an SVG file. Thinned the cut line to .25 and 3rd time was perfect (no excess left on the mat)

This week I did two things on my retirement “to-do” list.

Learn how to create an SVG file from a paper pattern/template. My guild makes little teddies for the local children’s hospital. I knew this was something that I could do faster on my Cricut if I had an SVG file. No one in the guild had created one. Perfect project while waiting on the HVAC company to service and repair our a/c units on Tuesday. It took three tries and a few choice words, but I now have a SVG file that works and takes less than 2 minutes to cut both parts of the teddy bear.

Take a longarm certification class from a local quilt shop. Said shop is the only one in the area that allows folks to rent time on their longarm machines. A four-hour “certification” class is required prior to renting time. I spent 4 hours standing on a concrete floor while the instructor lectured about proper quilt preparation and introduced us to the different machines. Three of the students already had longarm machines at home, so the instructor geared most of the class towards them. I got about 20 minutes of hands-on time total across all 3 machines. I was a little disappointed, but with the way the rental process works, the instructor (or another employee) will actually load the quilt and set everything up for me. All I’ll do is hand guided E2E quilting following a pantograph. We are not allowed to use the Pro Stitcher (boo-hiss!) It’s very different guiding a 40-60 pound longarm machine head versus moving the quilt to FMQ on my domestic machine.

E2E meander following a pantograph using a HandiQuilter Amara 20 longarm machine.

I did learn 3 things: (1) A stitch regulator is a game changer for me, (2) I do not want my own longarm and (3) I’ll still be quilting by checkbook for specialty computerized quilting designs and really large quilts.

After yesterday, my personal preference is still for a sit-down machine where I maneuver the quilt. The photo above shows improved stitching after only 20 minutes, so I’m not going to rule out getting used to a long-arm. The benefits of using a longarm include a much faster turnaround time and no need to baste the quilt.

I’ll buy a block of 10 hours machine rental time and what happens. If nothing else, I should be able to finish 5-7 lap size quilts in that amount of time. At the going rate of 2.5 cents per square inch, it would cost me $75-$100 per quilt to send each one out. That’s $375-$750 versus $180 for a block of 10 hours.

And I have a stack of quilt tops needing to get finished.

Are subscription boxes worth it?

April 26, 2025

It really depends. I’d ordered a Liberty Box from Fat Quarter Shop and really liked it, so I asked for a Sew Sampler Box subscription for Christmas last year. All the gift cards were redeemed and my 7 month subscription started in late December. For $37.00 each month, a small turquoise box of sewing/quilting goodness magically appears on my doorstep.

Four of the five boxes received so far have offered projects that appeal to me. Snowdrift is almost finished. Hot Cross Buns will be my next EPP project and fabric for Waterfall has already been pulled. This month’s Dahlia pattern will be made in a different colorway. I’m making the tote bag option from Sherri McConnell out of the included dessert roll instead.

There’s also a separate year long BOM program that’s exclusive to the Sew Sampler boxes. Apparently this is a big deal for many subscribers. Each month has a new block pattern. I like the first block in the new BOM.

Additionally, you’ll find 1-2 useful sewing notions in each box – pins, sewing machine needles, EPP needles, thread, rotary cutter, rotary cutter replacement blades, etc. Some of the gimmicky stuff like the clip-on charms, fabric sticker labels and mini-vacuum I could do without. I’d rather have a set of Sarah Hearts labels to sew in my projects instead. Even better – one box a year where ALL the supplies needed to complete the quilt top & binding are included in the box without any of the other knick-knacks.

My Sew Sampler Box subscription has been fun to try. The June box will complete my Christmas gift and I have no plans to continue the monthly subscription. Why? I already have a sizable stash and an abundance of projects in various stages of completion. I do not need to add any more projects, fabric or doo-dads at this time. If I lived in an area with limited access to sewing and quilting supplies, then this subscription box would be absolutely worth it. Same goes if you’re someone who can’t get to a quilt shop due to transportation or health issues. Even new quilters wanting to build their stash and tool collection, will find value and convenience in a subscription.

If you’re curious as to what’s included in a Sew Sampler box, click here to check out the past few monthly boxes or head over to YouTube to see any number of unboxing videos from different quilters.