Quilting, RVing

Winter Vacation

Here we are in South Carolina enjoying the last month (I hope) or winter. Our upstate home in Central New York is enjoying a high temperature today in the low 50’s. That’s where our temperature started today With the arrival of the Covid vaccine we cancelled our two month winter trip to Georgia this year and opted to go to Myrtle Beach for a shorter period.

Of course I brought along some quilting projects and have worked a bit on them. We’ve only had one rainy morning when we didn’t want to leave the camper. So I’ve done more handwork while watching TV in the evening. I’m currently working on a embroidered center for a Kathy Schmitz wall hanging “Fall Harvest”. I really like combining two techniques (in this case embroidery and piecing) while quilting.

As you can imagine most of our time has been spent sitting or walking the beach. Sitting on the beach is quite a rarity for us.

It’s become very relaxing to take a book down to the beach while the waves are rushing towards shore. I’m amazed at the different colors the ocean displays from day to day: sky blue to green; brown to dark grey. Makes you want to put them all into a quilt!

There is always time to quilt!
March 5, 2021 by
Barn Quilts, Quilting

For Everything there is a Purpose….

…and maybe more than one purpose.

My rotary cutting mat (The Boston Revolver) is not just for quilting anymore. I’ve had this tool for at least 18 years. As a matter fact when I did an internet search I could not find any listing for the product. There are turntables available but they are quite a bit thinner than mine.

It certainly came in handy when painting my first barn quilt, holding up the board a bit from the table and makng it easy to turn the board around to get it at comfortable angle

Certainly a handy tool!

There is always time to quilt!
August 10, 2020 by
Barn Quilts, Quilting

Yes I’ve Got the ‘Barn Quilt Bug’

Just finished my second Barn Quilt and am looking forward to displaying it with our new (that is new to us) on our first trip next week.

Illusion Quilt: Wandering Star

We’re headed up to Clayton NY, along the St. Lawrence River. This will be the second time there is as many weeks. We enjoyed our first trip so much in our old camper that we decided to go again to christen the new one. During our stay we plan on visiting the Barn Quilt Exhibit at the TAUNY (Traditional Arts in Upstate NY) Center in Canton NY.

There is always time to quilt!
July 1, 2020 by
Quilting and the Internet, RVing

Camping Again – Finally!

Our first actual trip in 2020. Like most Americans, Covid-19 has delayed any travel this year. New York is beginning to get back to some sort of normalcy and we are now able to do some traveling. As a result, this trip brings us to Clayton NY on the St. Lawrence Seaway. On our first night in the campground. we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

Unfortunately, since this is the first week of Phase 3, many of the beautiful venues are not opened yet. We did visit the lighthouse at Tibbits Point,, where Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence meet.

Here we enjoyed a leisurely lunch by the river.

Last evening before dinner we sighted a beautiful sailboat from our campsite.

Oh, I wish I was on this sailboat right now!

In addition, I was able to attend of virtual zoom meeting of my quilt guild. This is only the second time we have had a virtual meeting this year. Our presenter was Karen Miller of Red Bird Quilts. She gave a very informative session on Auriful Threads. It’s so good to see everyone even if only on the screen.

Today we are headed for Alex Bay and the Thousand Islands to check out some of the tourist sites. Even if they are not open, the area is so beautiful that we may just enjoy a hike and lunch by the water.

Does it get any better than this?

There is always time to quilt!
June 17, 2020 by
Barn Quilts, Quilting, Quilting and the Internet

Outside My Element

Each year our quilt guild members are able to enjoy a number of workshops. This year is no exception – although the workshops and monthly meetings will be presented a bit differently. Unfortunately, thanks to Covid-19 we have not been able to have a physical meeting since February.

Last month our membership participated in a virtual meeting via ‘Zoom’. We had our scheduled program on ‘Barn Quilts’ along with our regular business meeting and ‘show and tell’. Our members (58 of our 90+ members participated) have certainly been busy during our time of isolation. Many of them had multiple ‘show and tell’ quilts. It was definitely welcome to participate again!

Also our May meeting was paired with a workshop giving us the opportunity to make our own Barn Quilts. Even though I was anxious to participate, having seen some barn quits on recent trips in our camper, I was definitely working out my element. Quilting is one thing, painting and drawing quilt another!

Luckily Wenda Coburn of Barn Quilts with Wenda was able to transform the workshop to a Facebook group with videos that gave us the step-by-step directions on the how-to’s of making a barn quilt. She readily answered questions as they came up

Also we were provided an extensive collection of designs. I planned on making the illusion pattern Pinwheel Maze but when I looked on Pinterest to see some color variations I came across a barn quilt featuring a hummingbird . I couldn’t resist. The result:

HummingBird Haven

I still have some finishing work to do. Can’t wait to see it hung on our shed.

Now I’m looking for an excuse to make another one!

There is always time to quilt!
June 7, 2020 by