Camping

I spent the weekend in Solon Springs on my fall Quilt Camp getaway.

I packed up the car on Wednesday and left Thursday morning for camp.  It's a chore to pack the car, and I'm always bringing many more projects than is humanly possible to complete in a few days, but the fear of running out of something to sew is real. 

Leaving the house I stopped for a minute to capture the maples & oak on the East side of my yard.

Setting up at camp takes a little time, stashing all that I brought my allotted spot. But soon I was ready to sew.

The view from my sewing machine was awesome, the leaves are beautiful, although little sunshine would have been nice, but it was not to be.  In fact, Saturday morning there was a little coating of snow added to the view.

I spent Thursday sewing bindings on 3 quilts which were machine quilted last Spring.  Once the bindings are on, those quilts can find a new home, so I wanted to get those done first.  Plus, bindings are not fun sewing so is always good to get the tedious work out of the way.

A blue gingham border on the Wizard of Oz quilt.  This quilt has a matching pillow case.  I bought this quilt kit from a vendor at a quilt camp at Oak Forest in Frederic may years ago.  The vendor was a quilt shop in New Richmond, A Little Piece of Mind.

I'm not sure where this quilt is going, but I have an idea that a great niece might like it.

This scrappy quilt got a border of the left overs from piecing the quilt.  It has a matching pillow case too.  I sewed up this lap quilt at a class in Cornucopia quite some time ago.  At that time I thought it was for great great nephew Vinny who was a little boy then.  Even though he's a bigger boy/young man now, I think he might like it for a TV blanket, so that's where it is going. 

This quilt came about because I had some fabric I picked up on sale that I thought would work for the gradient pattern.  Once I started sewing it together, I thought it looked like a Latte.  

When the quilt top was finished, I knew it needed to have a coffee theme.   

Mary and Sharon found the backing fabric and knew it was perfect so they bought it for me.  

I found a remnant of the spilled coffee border.  

It turned out to be a pretty quilt with swirls of steam as the quilt stitch.  

I have a great niece who works, goes to college and lives the life of a 20-something woman. I'm proud of her study & nursing home work plus she makes sure that she works family into her schedule as I see her at volleyball and basketball games when I know she should probably be taking a nap. 

She often posts about coffee on her Facebook page, so that is where this quilt is headed. I hope she will use it to take a nap, plus it matches the colors of her little dog.

Oh yea, I did a fancy stitch on the corners of the binding on this quilt.  Mostly to cover up some uneven stitches in the corners, but I kind of like this technique of personalization, so I'll use it again.

 Okay, that was Thursday.

I drove home Thursday night to sleep so I could feed the cats their special food and clean the box on Friday morning.  The drive to Solon Springs is just beautiful, so I didn't mind seeing it again Friday morning.

***

Friday I decided to get started on a quilt for Nephew Kris.  I had settled on a flannel log cabin pattern.  The flannel I bought is called 'woolies' and looks like old woolen shirts like my Grandfather Ansgar used to wear.  

First square.

The Log Cabin quilt pattern is one of the most beloved and recognized of quilt designs. However, it may be both older and newer than you might think. While it’s natural to assume that this traditional block originated in the United States during the pioneer days, the origins of the block seem to go back much further in time and location. Similar designs have been found on ancient Egyptian mummies and in an English quilt predating 1830.

Log Cabin quilts first made a wide-spread appearance in the United States in the 1860s during the time of the Civil War. The block name may very well have had a connection to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. The Log Cabin quilt became wildly popular and was identified with the pioneer spirit and values of America.

Early Log Cabin blocks were hand-pieced using strips of fabrics around a central square. In traditional Log Cabin blocks, one half is made of dark fabrics and the other half light. A red center symbolized the hearth of home and a yellow center represented a welcoming light in the window. Anecdotal evidence, based on oral folklore, suggests that during the Civil War, a Log Cabin quilt with a black center hanging on a clothesline was meant to signal a stop for the Underground Railroad.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, many Log Cabin quilts were made by the foundation method with a muslin base. Wools, velvets, satins, and other nontraditional fabrics were used. Log Cabins of this period often had strips that were folded and laid down creating a three-dimensional effect. For this reason, many late-nineteenth-century Log Cabins do not have batting but are backed and tied like Crazy Quilts.  Per the American Quilting Society webpage.

Once I laid it out, thinking I was done, I could see I needed another row across AND down for it to be Queen sized.  So, more sewing.

 I had it my head that this would sew up quicker than it did, but I got it done, love the red border which matches the red centers.  This red flannel was something Mary found at Goodwill for $2, and it was perfect.

I stayed up until almost 2am sewing Friday night.  

It gets really quiet and a little eerie when everyone else heads off to bed.  

But I was still going strong so decided to keep sewing.

Saturday night I only made midnight, and I wasn't the last to give up.

I had some of the strips left over from the quilt top and decided that I wanted to sew up a couple of pillow cases to accent the log cabin quilt.  It took a trip to the quilt shop in town for the burgundy flannel, but then I figured out how to make the cuff on the pillowcase out of the strip scraps.

 Saturday night, I gave up on these pillow cases, thinking I needed to buy more fabric for the cuff, but Sunday morning in the shower, I had a idea of how to make it work.  So, after some creative cutting, I was able to make the left over strips work just fine.  These pillow cases made my day, figuring out how to get them made with what I had and then seeing how they turned out.  I was on cloud nine.

Also during the weekend, I sewed up a batch of dinner napkins

 to be sent to Conor, the son of one of my Coors pals.  

Ann and I worked together for years and I stood up for her when she married Mike.  Conor, their son, is engaged. I was invited to, but missed, the engagement party   I wanted to send a little something to Conor & Kassandra.  I love cloth napkins, the more you use them, the better they are.  Conor is a brewer at West O Beer in West Okoboji, IA.  Recently Ann gave me a couple of cans of Watermelon Shandy (that might not be the official name) from West O.  It was the best!  I loved it.  I'm not sure if that beer influenced me when I picked out the fabric for the napkins, 

but let's just say it did.  

I also finished up a little baby gift that I started some time ago. I had sewn these bibs but wanted to jazz up some cotton diapers to be used as burp cloths.  And then I had left over fabric, so whipped up a little zippered bag to match.

This little ensemble is headed to Alec and Ashlyn.  Alec is my nephew's nephew, so does that make him my great nephew by marriage?  Anyway, Alec is married to my second cousin's daughter, so my second cousin once removed.  

Anyway, they are family and they are having a baby in November, so I'm ready with my gift.

No photo, but I also sewed up a couple of pieces of flannel for a lap quilt that I will crochet an edge on.  I don't have a home for the lap quilt yet, but it might be part of a donation to the Luck Community Ed annual scholarship fundraiser.

As always, I saw lots of projects at camp that I would like to try.  As always, I hauled home a number of projects that didn't make it to the machine this time.  As always, I had a great time and feel accomplished to have finished up so many projects.

My sewing companions were great.  At our table, Sandy from Superior, Mary from Mason and Sharon from Ashland.  Next to us were Denise and Becky from The Cities.  We 6 made a nice sewing group, quiet but great conversations at our dining table.  I'm looking forward to seeing Denise and Becky again next fall.  Mary and Sharon and Sandy & I will be sewing again at camp in April.

I arrived back home Sunday afternoon, unloaded the car and headed for my recliner.  

I was worn out.

The kitties left a pile of puke on the front door rug to welcome me home.

Life is back to normal.