Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Road Trip

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

July 2022 Road Trip Fabric

October 26, 2022 2:05 pm ⋅

While in Kansas City, my SIL and I did a quilt shop hop of our own making.  I knew I wanted to go to Hunters Quilt Mart in Centerview, Missouri since the batiks were on sale. I am making Bonnie Hunter’s Rivanna in batiks on black.  I picked up 18 of the batiks at Hunters and more at other shops during the week.  Since I’ve been home I’ve brought my total count up to 30.

The pictures are sorted by ‘quilt’, not shops and are not in the order I visited the shops.  The Magnolia, gold, cream and gold & green piece I found at Hunters. I think the dark green, almost black I found at Stitch On in Lawrence, Kansas and the bottom green on green was in the bucket I won at the Guild meeting! It’s going to be the backing.  As I look at this picture I think I have an extra fabric.

The stripe in the middle I found at Missouri Star, which is where I picked up the pattern Quartered Stripes. The purple fabric I bought on a whim while I was at Hunter’s. Later that week we called and ordered the rest of the bolt as we discovered it works so well with several fabrics we picked up.

The final stack of fabric is from a variety of shops and are not for specific projects.  The solids were on the clearance rack at Hunters. the FQs I bought at Mes Amis in New Orleans. The black on white I found at KC Maker Studio.

Tuesday we stopped in at Show-Me-Quilting in Raytown, MO specifically to pick up a couple of things I ordered on line — the book and blue fabric in the left picture. I picked up some cork to use in bag making and found fabric on clearance for the quilt, binding and backing. Of course now that I look at the stripe, I’m not sure it will work well for the Quarter Stripes quilt.

Purchased at Mes Amis, the tiger stripe will be the backing to the purple, yellow & white Athena I’m making. The green backing I picked up at Missouri Star to make tablecloths. I’m not sure where I found the red buttons. I purchased it for the centers of a log cabin quilt, but then opted for another fabric.

I love these waterlilies and dragonflies.  The prints I picked up at Missouri Star, there’s that purple again from Hunters. I’m not sure where I picked up the pink/lavender.

At Prairie Point Quilt and Fabric Shop in Lenexa, Kansas I picked up fabric to make a blouse and the pattern for a bag. The bag fabric came from KC Maker Studio off the clearance rack.

Notions from Mes Amis, KC Maker Studio and Missouri Star, thread from Hunter’s Quilt Mark, and the barn wood star from the grocery store in Hamilton, Missouri.

I’m happy to report that the tablecloths are made.

And I’ve started on Rivanna.  I’m using it as my leader/ender project.  Lots of HST, so I’m working on them one color at a time. 3 down and 27 to go.

Posted in: Athena, Butterscotch, Leaders & Enders, Rivanna, Road Trip, Stash

A Few More Pieces and Planning a Road Trip

February 7, 2018 9:55 pm ⋅

Today I mixed it up. Did a few combination triangle units from Part 6 of On Ringo Lake and stitched a few geese together from Part 7.  I’m 3/4 of the way through Part 7, so when I finish those I guess I’ll circle back to Part 3, which turned out to be the sashing.

In the meantime, I’ve started thinking about my Memorial Day week road trip to Jackson, Mississippi and the Mississippi Quilt Association June Gathering. Over the years we’ve taken several different routes:

  • Kansas City – St Louis – Memphis – Jackson
  • Kansas City – Fayetteville – Little Rock – Jackson
  • Kansas City – Springfield – Jonesboro – Memphis – Jackson

The route depended on the weather, where exactly in Mississippi we were going and when we needed to be there. Stopping at quilt shops has always been hit or miss. Frequently we pass by the shops outside of business hours, but you can bet your rotary cutter I knew where the shops on our route were and stopped at them if they were open.

On this trip I have the luxury 4 or 5 days off before I need to be in Jackson, so I can plan my trip around quilt shop hours. Earlier today I asked on Facebook if there were any MUST SEE shops along the route and was reminded that Paducah is not that far off the first route.

So the first route is the one I’m going to investigate first. I’ve always wanted to go Paducah – ideally during Quilt Week – but it’s never worked out. I’ve been through Paducah twice. Once when I was still in college and before I started quilting. The only thing I can remember about the second time was it was Saturday just after business hours.

 

Posted in: On Ringo Lake, Road Trip