Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Books

A Whirlwind Trip

Last Thursday morning my SIL and I headed off to the Kansas City metro area.  The occasion?  The start of Hunter Quilt Marts Customer Appreciation sale where everything in the store is 25% off. (I’m not sure is that is true for sewing machines and longarms).  I was in need of quilt batting.  I’m down to about 9 yards on my king roll and maybe 9 yards on my queen roll.

After 12 hours switching off the driving every few hours we arrived at my brother’s just outside of Ottawa (KS).  We visited that evening and Friday morning. We then headed toward the city where I visited with a friend from my previous guild for a few minutes — she was holding some quilt books for me (will do a post on those books) and we did another small task that I cannot do here in Mississippi. Then we kept driving north to St Joseph (MO) where we visited with my sister who had quilts I had purchased from a guild members estate via proxy. We spent the night, heading to bed early so we could get to Hunters Quilt Mart in Centerview (MO).

The goal was to get there by 10:15 or so because we wanted to leave by Noon so we could get to another shop before they closed.  We got there at 10:45.  Oops.

We both had lists.  Ruby started with her notions and notions she remembered from my list.  I headed to the thread.

All of these are Glide 40wt thread which stitches beautifully with no tension issues.  Cool Gray 7, Mercury, Biscotti, Magic Mint, Grape, Salmon, Strawberry Blonde, and Yellow Whisper. All of these are replacement cones except for Salmon and Yellow Whisper.

As for the notions, I picked up needles for the longarm, an 8″ rotating mat, a Hot Ruler, a tube of bobbins, 2 backlash springs for my bobbin case, a new ruler and small snips.  The small snips were not on my list.  They did not have the Brother bobbins for my sewing machine in stock, but now I know exactly what I’m looking for.

That just left backings – not that any of these quilts are finished (or started in some cases).  At the top left is the backing for my Quartered Squared quilt which I haven’t started. In the middle is the backing for Cascade which clearly hasn’t been started.  At the top right is the backing for my Rivanna which is my current leader/ender project. I have just over half of the HST made for it.   That’s the left over FQs sitting on top of it.  At the bottom is the backing for Star Studded, a BOM I started in 2019.  It turns out I only have to made the center star and assemble it.

Although the batiks were calling to me, I remained strong and stopped shopping.  We checked out, stopped by the batting and told them what we bought and headed to the car to unload it so we could load the batting.  A Honda CRV has more cargo room than my Nissan Cube.  The same amount of batting was brought home, but I had plenty of leg room this year and there were 2 us in the car!

Where we went next later this week.

 

 

 

 

 

What’s on My Design Wall

My design wall is still not back up on the wall from last week’s retreat. For that matter, I’m having difficult moving around in my sewing room. Stuff is piled up every where. It has not, however prevented me from basic piecing. All of my Carolina Christmas blocks are done.

Last week I picked up several books from the library (I love my library — ‘quilting’ returns 1746 listings) including Saving the Scraps – Great Quilts from Small Bits by Gayle Bong. I think there are 4 quilts that I would like to make in this book, so I think I’ll be buying it for my personal library. The block pictured above is 1/4 of a block for Fractured Diamonds.

Having made one unit, it going to go into my orphan quilt block box (which is almost as stuffed as the sting box). I don’t really want to start a new quilt right now — too many quilts waiting for me to complete.

See if anyone has started something new or if they are working on their UFOs by checking out the links at Patchwork Times.

Kansas Troubles Stash Society


Last night was the Kansas Troubles Stash Society meeting at Prairie Point Quilts. There are five of us which generally attend the meeting together, but forces were working such that I’m the only one who made it to the meeting, and then just barely.

I got out of the house in time to run by the library to pick up Part One of Diana Gabaldon’s Voyager and grab a bite to eat at the Sonic across the street before going to the meeting. While I was waiting for my food, I popped in the first disk and started listening to the book. When I got ready to leave, the engine wouldn’t turn over. Apparently, between the cold and leaving the lights while waiting on my food, my old battery couldn’t take it. So, I called my husband to the rescue. We jumped my car off, swapped vehicles, he went home and I got to the meeting about 5 minutes late.

Lots of great quilts using Kansas Troubles fabrics both in KTQ patterns and other patterns. There were two pattern books which caught my eye. Scrap-Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett and Positively Pineapple by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith. I’ve looked at Scrap-Basket Surprises a number of times, but I haven’t gotten to the point of purchase. Tonight was no different. I’m not sure what is holding me back, except for my pile of UFOs and more patterns in my personal library than I’ll ever get around to making.

Positively Pineapple came closer. There was a quilt with 2 1/2″ strips and another with 1 1/2″ strips. Neither the book nor ruler came home tonight, but I do have the book on reserve at the library. After I look at it closer we’ll see if it makes the cut the next time I have a bit of book money.

What did come home with me? Just those 4 eighth yard cuts — which were paid for back in January or February.

So tell me, does it count as a new project if I make a sample block, or if I’m using strips from my pre-cut bins?