I finally finished my Mosaic Story camping quilt! I started cutting the 3″ on-point center squares (diamonds) in January to use in the blocks for my 54″ x 54″ camping quilt using the Mosaic Story Quilt pattern by Amy Friend at During Quiet Time (total of 49 blocks for the quilt top). I’ve wanted to make a camping quilt to keep since I made my first camping quilt in 2019, though truth be told, these days I enjoy glamping more than camping! See my three other camping quilts here, here, and here.
The fabric I used for the corners of the blocks and the outer borders is called Smoke Rust Stone in Grey. I purchased it from the Etsy shop Pink Chihuahua Fabric. Below is a screen shot of the fabric image in Soot where some of the words that relate to the outdoors can be more easily read. There are so many cool outdoorsy/travel-related expressions in this fabric, not all visible below. I can totally relate to: resfeber (noun, Swedish) the restless race of a traveler’s heart before a journey begins, when anxiety and anticipation are tangled together. After a cold winter, I absolutely love to apricate (verb) to bask in the warmth of the sun. How about perigrinate (verb) to travel or wander from place to place, fernweh (noun) an ache for distant places; an ache for travel, dendrophile (noun) one who loves the trees or the forest, or alpenglow (noun) the rosy light of a setting sun or rising sun seen on high mountains (this I have seen on the Sandias near Albuquerque, and it is so beautiful). My favorite definition on this fabric is coddiwomple (verb) to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination.
Below are some close-ups of the front of the quilt:
I did get my camping quilt bound. Below is a sneak peak of the back that shows a tree and a picnic table that is part of the Camping Quilt Pattern used by Melissa of Sew Shabby Quilting.
To-Do #2
I made three camping placemats this past week. I sized down the star from the star table runner pattern by A Spoonful of Sugar Designs and did some simple echo quilting in one of my favorite Aurafil threads, Medium Orange 5009. The back of these placemats is pieced entirely from fabrics from Aneela Hoey’s Meander fabric collection for Moda Fabrics. The color is called Saddle, and I just love it. I figure it will be best to have the back facing up when eating messy foods!
To-Do #3
Another activity that is a priority to do now that I’m retired is to spend regular time organizing my fabric stash and quilting space. Now, that’s truly not one of my more enjoyable activities, but it sure does feel good to have less clutter and know where things are. One thing I try to do is to label my new fabric in case I might need more in the future. Below is a Halloween text fabric I received this past week:
To-Do for week of August 21st 2023:
Take photos of my finished camping quilt and write a post about it.
This past week I made a star table runner using the pattern by A Spoonful of Sugar Designs. I did some simple echo quilting in one of my favorite Aurafil threads, Medium Orange 5009.
To-Do #2
I finally finished the boy’s baby quilt that I will be donating to Little Lambs Foundation of Utah. I originally planned to make this quilt in the spring as part of Confessions of a Fabric Addict: Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge 2023, but I started experiencing pain and numbness in my right hand which was diagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome. After getting a cortisone shot, wearing a brace at night, and doing hand stretches, my hand discomfort is less, but I may end up getting surgery on it. I quilted this baby quilt myself using simple wavy lines in Aurafil Light Wedgewood 2725, and after I washed it, the quilt measures about 37″ square. Below are pics of the quilt and the back:
To-Do #3
One of my retirement goals was to start doing yoga, and I’m happy to share that I finally went to a yoga class on Friday. Here’s a pic of my yoga mat that looks so nice with my Ombre Lotus Quilt. I ordered this mat two years ago and finally took the plastic off it on Friday. Hopefully I will get a lot of use out of it now that it has been broken in.
This past week I finished my beach quilt top that measures 54″ square and sent it off for quilting to Cara at Sew Colorado Quilting.
To-Do #2
I pieced the backing for my Beach quilt from a fabric collection I have hoarded for about 8 years! It is called Low Tide by Jane Dixon for Andover Fabrics.
To-Do #3
I was able to go to Albuquerque on Tuesday and visit with my friend, James, and gave him his Mid Century Modern quilt. He loved it and was very appreciative of the work that went into the quilt. James wants to display this almost 60″ square quilt on one of his walls, so I brought it home with me and sewed a quilt sleeve on the back. Here are some pics I took on Tuesday.
Then James picked it up yesterday, and we had Mary take a pic of the two of us with the quilt at the local plaza park.
Take photos of my finished Mid Century Modern quilt and write a post about the finish. Done
Continue to enjoy my retirement! Done
To-Do #1
When I visited my friend, Annette, last year in Central Florida, I showed her a photo album on my iPad of some of the favorite quilts I’ve made and offered to made her a quilt for her 60th birthday this October. She really liked the camping quilt I made (the first of five camping quilts that I’ve made) for my brother and sister-in-law. Her favorite part of the quilt was the sashing, and she said she’d like a similar one only with beach fabrics. Most of the centers are cut from leftover fabric from the Whale Tales Quilt that I made for my nephew two years ago. The inner triangles are Kona Prussian Blue, Kona Storm, Kona Sky, Kona Teal Blue, Bella Teal, Studio Revelation Etching (orange), Free Spirit Designer Solid in Spark Gold, and an unknown white on white “bubbles” fabric. The outer triangles are cut from a pretty print called Mermaid Scales in Aqua, but I ran out of it and had to order some more from Hawthorne Supply Co.
To-Do #2
I got my Mid Century Modern quilt photographed and wrote a blog post about it. Read it here.
To-Do #3
No doubt one of the advantages of being retired is having time to fit an extra project into my schedule. I decided about a month ago that I wanted to make a Stand ‘N Stow bag for my friend, Tasia, for her birthday next month. I found out about this bag pattern from my friend, Wendy, at Pieceful Thoughts. I made several of them this past Spring to give to our friends and family on my retirement celebration trip, but I did not take one photo of them! Well, here is the one for Tasia in a pink Halloween print because she loves both the color pink and Halloween. The fabric is from Melissa Mortenson’s Spooky Schoolhouse at Hawthorne Supply Co. I thought I’d make the bag in early August but found myself with some extra time waiting for more Mermaid Scales in Aqua fabric to arrive, so I was able to get Tasia’s bag made in plenty of time for her August 17th birthday.
I am so thrilled to share the finished Mid Century Modern quilt I have made for my friend, James, who will be celebrating his 50th birthday next month. Rebecca with Rebecca Grace Quilting outdid herself quilting this 60″ x 60″ quilt with a Square Meander Edge-to-Edge design in Aurafil 3-ply 40-weight thread in Dove Grey. Read a little about the quilting and her thread choice here.
Below is a close-up of the quilting:
And a cool on-point close-up taken by Rebecca:
I was inspired to make this quilt for James when I saw his bathroom tile during a visit to his spectacular Mid Century Modern home. Below is one of the pics I took in March. I became very excited when I pulled back the shower curtain to take a shower because I knew many of the images would translate wonderfully into quilt blocks. So I postponed my shower for a few minutes and went to grab my phone from the guest room to take a few pics.
I’m only a basic Electric Quilt 8 user, but my skills improved while drafting blocks for this project. What I found is some blocks were much easier to draw in EQ8 than to make! I ended up selecting the 16 simplest images to replicate in EQ8. Please see my MCM Update #1 post for close-ups of the first eight blocks I made and the details about this project and my MCM Update #2 post that shows close-ups of last eight blocks. For a photo of the finished quilt top, click here.
I am considering entering this quilt into QuiltCon 2024 in Raleigh, NC and possibly the American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show in Paducah, KY. The only reason I’m considering the AQS show is that I have plans to be there next April. My MCM quilt seems like it would be a much better fit for QuiltCon. When I give the quilt to James, I’m not going to wash it first, and I’ll ask him to not really use it until I hear if his quilt has been accepted into either show. If it does get accepted, I’ll get it back from him and sew a hanging sleeve on it before shipping it off. I know the odds are not in my favor of having MCM accepted, but it’s been an item on my quilty bucket list for awhile to enter a quilt show. I also know that I need to seek permission from the tile manufacturer to submit this quilt into a national quilt show. It took me awhile to find the tile online, but I finally did. See it here. I’ve sent two emails so far but have not heard back. Wish me luck, and please pass on any quilt show submission tips you might have.
I did get my camping quilt top finished this past week, and I’m very pleased with how it looks. It just makes happy looking at it!
The fabric I used for the corner squares and the outer borders is called Smoke Rust Stone in Grey. I purchased it from the Etsy shop Pink Chihuahua Fabric. The Etsy shop HunnieQuilt had a half yard in Soot earlier today but I snatched it up. I did take a screen shot of the fabric image, so some of the words that relate to the outdoors can be more easily read.
To-Do #2
I also got the back of my camping quilt pieced this past week. The outer border of parks is from a panel I purchased from Quilting Mayhem on my trip in June. I purchased the poster panel from the Etsy shop Cute Little Fabric Shop.
To-Do #3
I am continuing to enjoy my retirement. Below is a pic of a baseball game on my iPad that I was enjoying while binding my Mid Century Modern quilt.
To-Do for the week of July 24th 2023:
Make some blocks for a beach quilt.
Take photos of my finished Mid Century Modern quilt and write a post about the finish.
I have finished sewing the blocks for my camping quilt using the Mosaic Story Quilt pattern by Amy Friend at During Quiet Time (total of 49 blocks for the quilt top). Here are four of the blocks I made this past week:
To-Do #2
I started the Sashiko project below before we left for my retirement celebration trip and was able to get a little more stitching done during a couple out-of-town appointments. I plan to use the finished panel as the center of a wall hanging.
To-Do #3
I am continuing to enjoy my retirement, but of course life challenges still occur. This is how my Saturday morning started!
Work on my #2023 Quilting Q2 Check In post, linky party hosted through Yvonne@Quilting Jetgirl.
Enjoy being retired!
To-Do #1
I made good progress sewing the blocks for my camping quilt using the Mosaic Story Quilt pattern by Amy Friend at During Quiet Time. Below are the next 17 blocks for this project:
To-Do #2
I did get my #2023QuiltingQ2Checkin post written. If you happened to have already read it and clicked on the link to see Rebecca’s “perfect quilting” on my Mid Century Modern quilt and saw my Easy Bargello quilt instead, I have fixed that link. Below is pic of a my 93-year-old Aunt Lois that I did not include in my post, but I decided to share it here because I love the memory quilt she made of the trip to Australia she took with my Uncle Jim (please click the link above to see a more flattering photo of Aunt Lois).
To-Do #3
I’ve been housesitting this past week for our friend, Rita. Here is a pic of her cat Sophia who decided to join me for a nap while watching a baseball game. We were both pretty cozy!
To-Do for the week of July 10th 2023:
Make more camping blocks.
Work on a Sashiko project.
Enjoy my retirement! Though I agree with my cousin, McKenzie, that enjoying my retirement should be my number one priority, I want quilting-related pics to be the first photo everyone sees, but I do plan to share a little every week about my retirement.
The second quarter of 2023 definitely did not go as I had planned, but I did accomplish a few things on my 1st Qtr 2023 Quilting List. More on that below. But first I want to give a brief update on what else has been going on with me. I haven’t been blogging much in the past few months and significantly reduced my sewing/stitching time due to developing carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand which was officially diagnosed in May and treated with a cortisone shot. My hand is doing MUCH better, but the shot is only a short-term remedy, and the hand specialist I saw recommended surgery when I’m ready for it. The other major thing that has been going on is that I RETIRED on June 9th!!!
Then my best friend, Mary, and I went on a two-week driving retirement celebration trip all the way up to Seattle, WA (through Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon) where we visited her son, Drew, and her sister, Debra.We had a little time in our schedule there to visit a really wonderful quilting store in Snohomish, WA, called Quilting Mayhem, where I bought a few more fabrics to use in my camping quilt. Then we headed south and had a short visit with my 93-year-old Aunt Lois in Eugene, Oregon, who is still quilting, driving, and living independently. Here is Aunt Lois standing next to a quilt made by her and her guild members in Eugene using patterns by Kumiko Sudo. The block she made is right next to her. She shared that some of her guild members were understandably terrified to make these blocks, but they all turned out so well. I am SO impressed! And doesn’t my aunt look AMAZING!?!
She showed me one of Kumiko Sudo’s books, so I took a pic of it with the amazing quilt (and I just found it on Amazon Used Books and ordered a copy for myself):
We visited many more family and friends on our trip, but I’m only to share about two more quilting related visits in this post. A couple days after our visit with Aunt Lois, I had a visit with her daughter, Sally, and her granddaughter, McKenzie, who are also quilters who live outside of Sacramento, CA, and in the past year, they bought a longarm machine together. Some of you may remember that we all made Blakely quilts in 2021 because we are all Blakely family descendants (Blakely was my mom’s and Aunt Lois’ maiden name). Click here to read the post I wrote about my Blakely quilt which also shows a pic of Aunt Lois, Sally, McKenzie, and McKenzie’s 11-year-old son showing the Blakely quilts they made. How cool–four generations of quilters participating in this family sew-along! I took my Blakely quilt on our trip, so Sally, McKenzie, and I took a photo together of us with our quilts (McKenzie on the left, me in the middle, and Sally on the right).
Sally and McKenzie took us to a quilt store near where they live called Swifty Stitches. I found one more fabric there for my camping quilt but also had to pick up a couple cute Halloween fabrics.
The last visit I want to share from our trip was when I gave my niece, Kim, her Ripples Camping quilt, which was an early birthday present for her 50th in October. This quilt measures 64″ square and finishing it was one of my 2023 Qtr 1 goals. Kim lives in the Bay Area in California.
I was given so many wonderful gifts for my retirement, but my favorite has to be the crocheted sewing doll given to me by Raquel (one of the therapists at my old job who is now my friend). The doll was handmade by Raquel’s mom. I especially love the two-toned curly grey hair that looks like my hair and also my mother’s curly grey hair. I have named the doll, Cleo, in honor of my mother.
Quarter 2 Finishes
I got my Mid Century Modern quilt top done in April, sent off to Rebecca Grace Quilting, and received it back from Rebecca on Friday (I specifically requested for her NOT to work on the quilt until I returned from my vacation to ensure that it would not arrive when I was out of state). Read about this project here. I plan to get this quilt trimmed and bound in the next couple weeks and will be writing a post when it is finished, but if you’d like to see a glimpse of the absolutely perfect quilting, take a look at Rebecca’s post here.
I also finished my Turquoise Stars quilt. Read about it here.
Below is a photo of my Easy Bargello quilt (read the post about this finish here ).
Goals for the last half of 2023
As my cousin McKenzie reminded me, the number one item on my to-do list should be to enjoy my retirement, which will definitely include sewing/quilting but also reading, gardening, walking, riding my Peloton, stretching/Yoga/Pilates, spending time with friends and family, enjoying nature, watching/listening to baseball, and cooking meals from scratch. Below are my quilting priorities:
Quilting is in my Blood 