Tag: quilt

Time to get busy quilting

July 7, 2024
Quilting a quilt using a sewing machine.
Machine quilting my jelly roll race quilt in using an elongated wavy stitch pattern.

It’s hot outside. I can’t think of a better way to keep cool than to spend afternoons in my basement sewing space diligently chipping away at the pile of tops needing to be quilted. The pictured quilt is a version of the Jelly Roll Race 2 quilt using one of three Liberty of London jelly rolls I purchased from Mostly Mutts Marketplace back in April. I have two more tops to quilt made from the remaining jelly rolls. Each quilt top is a different design, but all three will share the same backing and binding fabrics. This one was quilted using my walking foot and the long, curvy stitch 99 on my Janome 8900. The other two will provide me with some much needed FMQ practice. All will be donated to my guild’s community service partners.

At the last community service sew day, one of my bee group members presented me with a floral charm pack and challenged me to see what I could do with it without spending any money. My personal challenge has been to make donation quilts using existing stash, fabrics procured from the free table or given by friends as much as possible. Here’s a disappearing 4 patch based off something I saw on Pinterest. It uses the floral charm pack, along with some batiks and white background from my stash. It’s now also ready for quilting. I didn’t spent any money on the top, but I did buy backing fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby.

Quilt top in a disappearing four patch design
Disappearing four patch quilt design inspired by a photo found on Pinterest!

Personally, I’m on a mission to complete the half-done quilt tops and get the stack of completed tops quilted ASAP. Larger quilt tops will be sent to a long armer and I’ll do the rest myself (practicing various FMQ motifs learned in class). At the moment, I have no plans to replace my Janome 8900, as my system of piecing on a FW or small Elna and reserving the 8900 for borders and machine quilting seems to be working well.

New big quilt show coming to East Coast

July 2, 2024

Road to California recently announced it will bring a version of its event to the East Coast next summer. This event will be held at the Richmond Convention Center in Richmond, VA in late June 2025. RTC is a quilt show that offers classes with national instructors and plenty of shopportunity. Attending a Road to California event is on my retirement quilty bucket list; however, the January event date hasn’t worked since retiring two years ago. It will be so awesome to have it close enough to drive with friends rather than having to fly!

Wonder if QuiltCon’s success in Raleigh earlier this year made other event organizers decide to take a look at heading east? Who knows? ICYMI, QuiltCon will be returning to Raleigh, NC in February, 2026. I was so hoping for a beach location! Fortunately, there are other quilting events that usually take place at the beach around the same time. 🙂

My sewing machine is packed and ready to travel!

A Quilter’s Tour – Self-guided edition

June 25, 2024

Missouri Star Quilt Company (aka Disneyland for Quilters)
Missouri Quilt Museum
Jamesport Amish Community (about 30 miles north of MSQC)
Iowa Quilt Museum and Piece Works Quilt Shop in Winterset, Iowa (home of original Fons & Porter store)
John Wayne Birthplace and Covered Bridges in Madison County around Winterset, Iowa
Omaha Quilt Show
International Quilt Study Center & Museum

Last week, I took my sister-in-law on her quilty bucket list trip. We met in Kansas City and spent 5 days visiting parts of Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. Our favorite parts of the trip were the Missouri Quilt Museum, our day in Winterset, Iowa and the International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln. She flew Southwest with a an empty suitcase inside of her main suitcase so she could take all of her “treasures” home. Both suitcases returned home filled to the brim! I flew Delta with a carry-on, but shipped the non-quilty purchases I made at the Amish store home via USPS. Helpful hint: if you spend $60 at MSQC during your visit, it will ship to your home free. Merely go to the main store and tell them you want to start a box. You can stop by and add purchases to the box throughout the day.

This was not my first trip to MSQC, but it’s always fun to see it through a first-timer’s eyes. Unless there’s a special event, a full day to explore the MSQC shops and visit the Missouri Quilt Museum is plenty of time for your visit. We stayed at one of the “recommended” hotels in Cameron. It was okay, but I’d suggest Liberty or Chillicothe if you prefer something besides very basic accommodations.

Winterset is a lovely town and the scenery was so pretty during our drive over from MSQC. There’s definitely enough to do to fill an entire day if you want! The Iowa Quilt Museum is a beautiful facility and the exhibit was well-done. Piece Works Quilt Shop is literally a block long and packed full of anything a quilter would ever need. I succumbed to the quilt in the window. It was the fabrics that pulled me in. I did a double take when the shop owner showed me the actual pattern used to make the quilt. The cover quilt was made in browns and grays. No way would I have purchased this one off the spin rack.

Omaha was crowded due to the College Baseball Championships being held this past week. The highly touted quilt show was just so-so and we’re both glad we decided to take the side trip to Winterset instead of spending the entire day at the quilt show and shop hopping Omaha as originally planned.

The International Quilt Study Center & Museum is always fabulous. Go on a weekday and not during lunchtime if you want to see all the behind the scenes action. Feedsacks and Sue Spargo were our favorite current exhibits. Of course, we visited a couple of recommended quilt shops – Cosmic Cow and Calico House.


Make out your quilty travel bucket list and get busy visiting all those places you’ve wanted to see while you still can. Life is short. You never know when a health issue will impact your ability to travel.