Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

A Quilting Road Trip – Part 2

June 25, 2025 10:27 am ⋅

The plan was to make it to St Cloud, Minnesota in time for the Preview Night a The Minnesota Quilt Show – and actually make a stop at Vertical Spice in Maple Grove before that.  HA!  We spent the night in Ames, Iowa and I wanted to stop in at the Quilting Connection which didn’t open until 10 AM. We then visited with Ruby’s friend who took us to It’s Sew Tempting in Story City.  At this point I decided we would stop at Vertical Spice on our way home.  After a few more quilt shops we decided to just wait until Thursday morning to go to the quilt show.

For this show we started with the quilts first.  The quilts were divided into 4 sections: Judged, Youth, NonJudged (viewer choice) and Special Exhibits.  The quilt above was one of my favorites in the Judged category. It is called Eyes on You.

 

The Eagle and Sunset were my choices for the Viewer’s Choice in the Non-Judged category.

After viewing all of the quilts, we wandered through the vendor area. After spending way too much money in Kansas City, I showed considerable restraint.  I picked up a top for the school glue stick, 1 yard of clearance fabric, a new rotary cutter and blades, and a couple of water damaged books.

It was early afternoon when we finished at the show, so we made the spontaneous decision to drive to the headwaters of the Mississippi River, located in Itasca State Park, about 2 1/2 hours north of St Cloud.

Here I am contemplating crossing the river on foot.  I got out about 2 stones and decided I needed to be barefoot.  That got me out to about 4 stones at which time I turned around and came back.  I did get across about 20 feet down stream.

Look at how clear that water is!  It’s nothing like the river here in Mississippi.

Friday morning we started our trek home.  The first stop was Vertical Spice.  I didn’t buy the spice drawers, but plan to once I figure out my configuration. I was told there will be a sale July 4th weekend.

It wasn’t a straight shot home.  I needed to hit 2 more quilt shops in Iowa to get to 5 for the Shop Hop and Ruby had never been to Wisconsin, so naturally we took a detour, aiming for River Falls, before heading south.

About 1/2 hour outside of Hannibal, Missouri, I asked Ruby if she had ever been to Illinois. Since the answer was no, I popped over the river to Quincy.  Made a wrong turn and got caught in a safety stop by the highway patrol.  Eventually we got to our hotel in O’Fallon, Missouri.

Saturday morning we had one stop planned — The Quilted Cow in St Peter’s, Missouri.  I’ve now been to 5 – West Branson, MO, Raymore, MO, Gulf Shores, AL, Bentonville, Ark, and St Peter’s, MO.  I still need to get to the Springfield, MO and Colorado Springs, CO.

We swapped drivers every hour, stopping just off the interstate getting home about 7 PM.

It was a great trip. Now to get every thing put away.

Posted in: Quilt Show, Road Trip

A Quilting Road Trip – Part 1

June 24, 2025 10:53 am ⋅

I recently got back from a 10 day quilting road trip.  Last fall I had the opportunity to choose any date for a speaking engagement at Candlelight Quilters in Raytown, Missouri. They meet on the 3rd Monday of the month.  I picked June as I could drive up and go to the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival the weekend prior and the Minnesota State Guilt Quilt Show the following weekend.  Naturally, along the way my SIL Ruby & I  visited family and friends and hit a few quilt shops between here and there.  Pictured above is my portion of the luggage.  The big suit cases have the quilts I’m showing, the little bag next to Luger contains my laptops (yes plural – I had to haul my work laptop) and the next bag my clothes.  The charm bag has a quilt & pillow and the other two were my purchases through Monday morning.

My SIL Penny and my sister Alison joined us at the KCRQF.  Penny doesn’t quilt, but enjoyed looking at the quilts, did some Christmas shopping and picked out a quilt for me to make her.

This is one of my favorite quilts in the show.  

Those blocks are tiny — I just happened to have a yardstick from one of the vendors — then I read the the card….

 

Sunday we took in a ball game. Penny is a great one for taking selfies.  Alas, the Royals lost to the A’s.

 

Let me backup a moment.  Penny fell in love with this quilt and I agreed to make it for her.

But the Quilted Chicken had sold their last kit. They found these FQ (not the bottom one) they had used in their quilt, so Penny bought the pattern and FQs.  Monday, before my presentation at the guild, we wandered around to a few quilt shops.  I found the border, binding, and background fabric and a few more FQs.  I was not able to find the backing, even trekking through the Iowa and Minnesota shops, so I ordered it from a shop in Ohio.  It should be here on Friday.

I don’t have any pictures from the presentation. There was a communication mix up between the group and the venue, so we were in a small room with out a projector (and I’m not convinced there was AC in the space).  Fortunately I had 2 suitcases of quilts and a printout of the notes from the slideshow.  That evening we stayed with my sister as she lives north of Kansas City and I got to shop in her ruler collection!

The next morning we headed to Iowa.  We saw 3 of the 5 covered bridged of Madison County, but not the one in the movie as it was in the wrong direction.

We also saw the exhibit at the Iowa State Quilt Museum.  That evening we had dinner with one of Ruby’s friends. The next day she took us to the quilt shop in her town. Then we were off to Minnesota. Did I mention June & July is the All Iowa Shop Hop?  Naturally we stopped at a few more shops before we hit the state line. We did not make it to St Cloud in time for the Preview night.

More on the rest of the trip in the next post.

 

 

Posted in: Art Quilts, Quilt Show, Road Trip

Stash Report for Week Ending 6/7/2025

June 10, 2025 8:05 am ⋅

Yes, I’m a little late in the report.  But I want to get it in before I hit the quilt shows and shops and my numbers go the other way.  No new fabric was purchased — but have you seen the neutrals from the Free Spirit Complements line?

Complements - Fat Quarter || Complements

My LQS brought the whole line in and I’m drooling. I don’t need any of it. I want all of it.  I’ll have to see how much of it she has when she gets back from her 3 show road trip.

Cacophony was a complete stash quilt 8 1/2 yards for the top, backing and binding.

The Stash Report.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  109.15 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 8.5 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 95.468 yards

Net Fabric Stash: 13.682 yards

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

Goals for the Week of June 9, 2025

June 9, 2025 5:21 pm ⋅

First a recap of last week’s goal:

  • Finish the Cacophony top – DONE! Not only a top, but a quilt as it is bound!

  • Pick a block for a Barn Quilt Block – I’m taking a class at the Summer Gathering of the Mississippi Quilters Association – Done. It still needs to be sealed so I can hang it outside.

  • Prepare the Quilters By Hearts Desire Newsletter — this can carry over into next week – I’ll do this tonight when I get back from playing Bunco
  • Revise “Got Blocks, Now What?” presentation – Done! Quilts are packed.

Limited goals this week as I’m preparing to attend 2 quilt shows and visit a few quilt shops

  • Get the QBHD Newsletter sent out.
  • Decide how much money I’m willing to spend at the shows and shops

Honestly, it’s less about the money and more about wanting to work on the quilts I have in progress and the “kits” I’ve purchased over the past few years. I have a 4 year goal of getting all of my existing quilt tops quilted and bound (there are currently 11 in the queue) and getting my WIP topped, quilted and bound  — this number is slightly (cough, cough) higher at 34. That’s less than 1 a month.  Will I be successful? Who knows. After all there at least 50 pigs (many small projects) in my stash and I’m sure I’ll have other things pop up that I’ll want to do.

Posted in: Cacophony, goals

Cacophony is a Top

June 6, 2025 10:33 am ⋅

After pulling a a dozen fabrics to audition for the borders, I ultimately went with my first choice that I picked when I first started working on the top.  It’s a vintage Robert Kaufman print of musical instruments.  It currently measures 73″ x 92″, so it will fit beautifully on a twin bed with a 15″ drop on 3 sides of the bed after quilting and washing.

I have a bin of backings and leftover backing pieces.  Since this is a stash quilt, I thought I would have to piece a backing together, but I found this backing fabric which is 82″ x 108″ — the exact size I need – in the bin without a quilt name attached to it.  Guess what I’m using.

This weekend is the Mississippi Quilt Association Summer Gathering – if I get home early enough, I’ll press the backing and get the quilt loaded so I can quilt it over the weekend.

 

Posted in: Cacophony, Orphan Blocks, Stash

Cacophony Is Ready for the Border

June 5, 2025 8:31 am ⋅

Cacophony is ready for the borders.  I just had a small section to finish and it took me nearly 4 hours.  The center of the quilt measures 60″ x 79″ so this is not a small quilt.  After I get the borders on it, it will fit a twin bed with about a 15″ drop on 3 sides — before quilting and washing.

After the center was done, I spent an hour pulling fabrics from the stash trying to find a border.

I think this is the winner, which is ironic, as this is what I pulled last week.

It is a busy print, but I think it will be OK with a narrow border.

 

Posted in: Cacophony, Orphan Blocks

What I’m Working on 6/4/2025

June 4, 2025 1:19 am ⋅

I am nearing the finish of the center of Cacophony. It’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. I worked down from the top keeping the width the same, but when I got to the bottom I realized the bottom was going to be about 1 1/2″ too wide, so I need to regroup. Thus the bottom row of the quilt was assembled.  Now I need to fill in the missing pieces.

This is roughly what I’m going to do. I just need to get the measurements right.

 

Posted in: Cacophony, Orphan Blocks, Uncategorized

Goals for the Week of June 2, 2025

June 2, 2025 2:06 am ⋅

Last week I picked just 3 goals:

  • Quilt, bind & label my the Gunge 2025 Brandon Quilters BOM. – DONE – See it HERE.
  • Process & put away the scraps from the Grunge quilt. – DONE
  • Continue moving stuff back into the kitchen. – Still a work in progress.

I am continuing to enjoy my newly remodeled kitchen and I’m still dragging stuff back into the kitchen.  On the quilting front, I’m looking forward to receiving the first installment of A Vintage Christmas Sampler by Kansas Troubles Quilters. It is my understanding it is being shipped out this week. The first FB Live tutorial is Thursday, June 12th.  My SIL and I will work on them this summer.

In the meantime, I’m working on Cacophony, my 2025 Orphan Block quilt.

My goals for this week:

  • Finish the Cacophony top
  • Pick a block for a Barn Quilt Block – I’m taking a class at the Summer Gathering of the Mississippi Quilters Association
  • Prepare the Quilters By Hearts Desire Newsletter — this can carry over into next week
  • Revise “Got Blocks, Now What?” presentation – this can also carry over into next week

 

Posted in: Cacophony, House

Cacophony – A New Orphan Block Quilt

May 30, 2025 9:10 am ⋅

Because I apparently like unrealistic deadlines, Wednesday night I thought to myself “I bet you can get an Orphan Block quilt made before the next Guild meeting.” Never mind that I’m going to my great-niece’s high school graduation this weekend.

Thursday night I spent some time shuffling blocks. This is where I’m at right now.  Any sane person would try to do columns or rows so they all are the same size. I’m doing this on the fly.  The top is 50″, but move down a bit and the numbers add up to 52″ or 54″ – I can’t remember which at the moment.  I’m going to need a filler.  I also need to shuffle some blocks.  This is going to take longer that a weekend.  But maybe I can have it ready for Kansas City.

Posted in: Cacophony, Orphan Blocks

The Last 2024 Brandon Quilters BOM

May 29, 2025 10:09 am ⋅

I made 6 versions of the 2024 Block of the Month.  Each one has different fabric and layouts. At the last minute – Sept 2nd and I needed the quilt by Sept 9th – I decided to do one more simply with sashing and cornerstones.  I was on track until it came time for the sashing. Nothing was working and I didn’t want to buy more fabric. The blocks were put back in the project box and I went on my way.

This week I pulled out the blocks with the intention of finishing the quilt. The deep teal was purchased for another quilt and I didn’t use it.  I threw it upon the design wall and put the blocks up on it. It was perfect.  The border cornerstones are a design element born of necessity – I couldn’t figure out how to turn the corner with the print.

Butterfly Flight

  • 56 1/2″ x 70 1/2″
  • Glide 40 wt in Persian
  • 11 spi
  • Butterfly Kisses E2E
  • Pellon 80/20 Batting
  • Started 9/2/2024
  • Finished 5/28/2025

This quilt is on my 2025 Brandon Quilters UFO list and the MQA list.

Posted in: 2024 Brandon Quilter, 2025 Brandon Quilters UFO, Butterfly Flight