Missives from Quilt Camp October 2023

 

Nordic Star Table Runner from The Crafty Quilter [Free Pattern]

I think the fabric is all from my mom's stash.
 

Another year of Laura's Quilt Camp at Lake Lucerne in Neshkoro, WI.  We've been going there for 15 years now! 

 

My first project was to finish the 6 additional blocks for the Cathedral Windows Quilt.  Now I can start putting the blocks together for a wall hanging. 

 

This looked familiar to several ladies there ...  I found the blocks in my mom's sewing room.  It was a block-of-the-month project from The Cutting Edge Quilt Shop in Antigo, WI. It must have been a class to help her get familiar with one of her new sewing machines.  

I thought she might have even used the embroidery machine to do the quilting around the flowers?  But no -- it looks like she got to use multiple stitches and feet in the making of these blocks.  

She also quilted all the backgrounds BEFORE she did the applique flowers.  Each block had a Warm n Natural backing that also doubled as stabilizer.

All I had to do was lay the blocks out, add the sashing and borders.  I'll need to finish it some day ...

 

 

And finally, the mindless sewing of the weekend was to make hourglass blocks.  These will be alternate blocks for the scrappy crumb blocks.  I love how they will create a secondary pattern in this quilt when it's all done ...  These blocks are all 5-inch squares.  So that means I started with 6-inch squares to make the hour glass blocks. 

Of course it was lovely to see the ladies again, too, even though it was a smaller group this year.

My table mate was Laura Ramseier, as usual.  This year, our table was over by the lake and the windows.  There was so much more light in that spot, that I never needed to pull out my Ott light!  What a revelation!

My cabin mate was Pat Saft.  We got along very well, as expected.  Although she did NOT tell any ghost stories this year. ;-)  I love going to Guild Meetings and talking with these older ladies who still are of sound mind and body into their 80s.  

Sheila, Laura, Michele

And Sheila at the next table over.  

And Shirley a few tables down the line ...

And the Charmers at the other end of the hall.

 

Here's the whole group this year.  About 20 ladies. 

The food was good this year, too -- more befitting for the average age of the Quilters present, rather than meals better suited for much younger campers with speedy metabolisms.   And there was a lot of food!  But the snack tables were blessedly sparse this year.

Several people brought their Singer Featherweights.  If I had known, I might have brought mine along as well.  All the projects I worked on were straight stitching anyway, so it would have been fine.  Singers do straight stitching very well!

Bonus:  I came home with an antique quilt frame.  The lumberjack was there this weekend cutting fallen trees out of the woods at Lake Lucerne.  At lunch he asked if anyone would be interested in an old quilt frame.  "It's free, and comes with a stand," he said.   He offered this same set last year, too, but no one took him up on it.  He said it would wind up on the burn pile this year if no one claimed it.  So I finally said yes -- all the while wondering how I would get it into my car.  The rails are 105 inches long.  It fit ...  but now what do I do with it?  I guess -- The next time I want to tie a quilt, I can take it to an Open Sew Day and set it up in the middle.  Someone there will know how to set it up.   I don't really have the space to do it at home -- unless I fold up the big loom for a while?

Still can't picture what a Quilt Frame is?  Here's a selection of photos from Flicker showing other frames in use.   This post explains how to use an old quilt frame.  There's a tag on it, but more than half of it has been scratched away, or I would try to look up this particular brand.  I hope all the pieces are there.

I remember when I was a kid, my mom had the quilt rails (no legs) and the women of the family would set them up on dining room chairs, and then set about tying quilts the old-fashioned way.  I have no idea whatever became of those rails, though ...

 

Although there was a little fall color on the drive out there and back, not a lot of fall color out there yet.  The trees across the lake were mostly still green.

This is the view out our closest windows this year.