Well sort of – but only a day trip.  Since our camper was totaled last December, cancelling our winter trip, we haven’t done much traveling.  But now that the warmer weather is just around the corner, we’re planning on taking more day trips in Central New York.

Today was a perfect excuse for the first one this year.  We picked up my new car, a Ford Fusion, and just had to take it on a road trip.

We decided on a drive to the Finger Lakes, specifically Seneca Lake wine country.  We’ll be hosting a nature photo tour of Finger Lakes Wineries this summer and needed to line up some of the photo shoots.

So of course I packed up my current applique project to take along. Any hand work, especially needle turn applique is so portable and easy to bring along on any kind of car trip.  I like to work on projects while riding or whenever my photographer husband ‘finds’ the perfect picture and just has to stop.

Everything neatly fits into a small satchel that can easily fit in my purse.

The weather could have been a little warmer.  The temperature seems to be stuck in the 20′s lately(should be in the 40′s this time of year).  It was a mostly sunny day with only had a few snow flurries to accompany us; not the multiple ‘inches’ of snow that we’ve had to contend with lately.

Yes I did drive the car off the lot but turned over the driving to my husband after our stop for lunch.  I needed to make sure that I could comfortably quilt in the car.  I was pleased that the passenger door has two decent receptacles to hold my quilting notions.  What luck!

I thought when I took this car for a test drive that  it was perfect for me as a driver and now I’ve found that is also fits my needs as a passenger whose passion is ‘quilting’!

Tuesday evening our Guild held it’s annual dinner and we were  treated to a presentation by Barb Robinson.  Barb’s trunk show features many of her beautiful quilts.  In addition she gave us a handout noting her favorite tools, batting, fabric and tips for rotary cutting, piecing and pressing.

One of the quilts in the trunk show features her hand-dyed fabrics.  These were pieced  into 9-patch blocks and then put together with strips of a bold tulip fabric.   Quite a dramatic Quilt!

Hand-Dyes & Tulips

In addition I was interested in the stitch and thread she uses when  machine appliqueing.  The small zig-zag stitch and invisible thread looks like the perfect way to almost invisibly attach the applique pieces  to a background.

Machine Applique

It gave me a good preview of this technique.  I’m thinking that I may finish my autumn leaves quilt the same way.

One of her many tips was how she washes fabric.  I always wash my fabric before it is stored away.  I just like the feel of the fabric after the sizing has been removed.

I’ve always thought that fabric should washed the same way it will be washed when the quilt is finished.  Instead Barb suggests that you run fabric through the a warm rinse cycle only, adding  a Shout Color Catcher with the fabric.  The will ensure that the fabric shrinks and bleeds thoroughly.  In addition, she suggests that you only dry the fabric until it is almost dry; not crisp dry.   This will eliminate the need for ironing.  The material can then be folded and put away.  Sounds like a good idea to me!

What a great day Monday was – we were able to spend the whole day at our favorite pastime -  quilting.

The Gang

We started off with an all day class with Linda Hunter on Redwork.  We’ll be putting the embroidery in this cute wall hanging.  She shared tips on making easy half square triangles using  Thangles, a grid and the Easy Angle ruler (I’ve had one of these rulers for some time, but have never used it);  as well as tips to addsetting triangles to finish the quilt and discussed some border options.  At the end of the class she challenged us to finish our quilts within the next couple of weeks – Sure -  right!   We all enjoyed her laid-back teaching style.

As the  guest speaker at our monthly Guild meeting Monday evening, Linda treated us to a Trunk Show of some of her beautiful quilts along with a lecture on the History of Redwork.

In addition, we  showcased our 2011 raffle quilt at the meeting.   The Thumbstall membership has been working on the applique borders and pieced blocks for the quilt over the past few months.   The pieced blocks are from the pattern, Granny Stars by Nancy Mahoney.  The border pattern was designed by one of our Guild members, Sandi Holland.  She based it on the  fabric we’ll be using in the center of the block.

Elegence

Center Block Fabric

We’re finally here!  Cape Cod that is.  We’ll be celebrating our 45th Anniversary this Saturday and this is a trip long over due.  We were headed to the Cape for our honeymoon, but had to cancel when Tom lost his wallet two days into the trip.  Wanting to make this milestone anniversary special, we decided that we should finally get to the Cape.

Pastoral Scene at Sturbridge Village

On our way to the campground at the Upper Cape, we stopped at Old Sturbridge Village. It’s a recreation of a 1790-1840 New England village.  I was surprised that not only quilts but woven blankets normally covered the beds. We’ll probably stop again on the way back home as we only got to see about half of the 59 buildings.  We crossed the Cape Cod Canal on the Bourne Bridge.

Bourne Bridge

The width of the canal in 616 feet where the bridge crosses over it.  That’s a canal?
Of course I brought along some quilting projects.

Sunflower positioned on Falling Leaves background

The third in the series of fat quarter quilts is supposed to be finished in September.  I pieced the background before we left and am now working on the applique pieces.  The sunflower will be appliqued first.

To end the day we went to the ocean side of the island to get a view the night sky.

Night Sky at Marconi Beach

The quilter’s knot is a small knot that can easily be hidden within the batting when hand quilting or between the background fabric and applique piece when doing hand applique.   I’ve been looking for directions on  making an end knot for some time now – and one of the tips in the second lesson of the Celtic applique class that I’m taking had just that.  A video can also be found at eHow.com page on Applique End Knot.  It produces a very small knot that can be hidden easily.

I should have searched the web before this to find out how to do it.

Bring the needle through to the back of the background fabric.

Secure the applique stitch near the entry point

Make a loop and then bring the thread through the loop three times

Pull the thread taunt, buring the knot between the background fabric and applique  This means that there will be no tails that might show through to the background fabric.