Missives from Quilt Camp October 2018 at Lake Lucerne, WI

Look Ma ---  What I got done at Quilt Camp last wkd :
This was such a wonderful, relaxing, and productive quilt retreat.  I feel fortunate to be included in this group of quilting friends.   Also neat to see what everyone else is working on, too.



Enveloping a quilt with a wool batt. [I wrote about this process a few years ago ...]
At quilt camp, I have room to spread out on long tables, and work with the quilt layers laid out flat.  It makes it so much easier!  

I think I gained some "street cred" with the ladies for bringing a wool batt to sandwich into a quilt.  ;-)      My friend Karla S. had given me the batt because she knew I'd actually use it.  I was having a hard time deciding how to free-motion quilt this one, and finally settled on tie-ing it with a wool batt.  It will be toasty and warm this winter.     Someone suggested I might have had the batt re-carded before I used it.  I hadn't thought of that ...  I also did not want to delay the process any longer.

In this picture above, the quilt is already turned right-side-out.  The batting is now encased, and I am pinning the edges for the  faux binding.

Here's the back-side.  You can see why I say faux binding.  It naturally folds itself over just like a regular binding. 

Here it is back home in my sewing studio where I've just finished going around the borders 3x to secure the batting at the edges of the quilt.  Otherwise it may have a tendency to scoot inwards, leaving some sections with no batting.   You can also see my wonderful quilt suspension system, that saves so much stress on my neck, shoulders, and back.  The next step is to start tying the flower blocks and the blue/pink blocks.  At present, they are pinned with safety pins to hold them in place.

2 more turned flower appliques for the Morningstar Quilt.

Just 1 more large flower to go, 7 small ones, 3 finials, and all the vines.

Winter Trees Landscape Quilt

A simple little landscape quilt.  I got the tree trunks and branches cut out and fused on.  This was a kit purchased at the old Quilt Shop in Antigo, WI.  

One of the ladies at Quilt Camp said that there was a special exhibit for Nancy Zeiman's landscape quilts at Quilt Expo in Madison in September.  She died earlier in the year.

Batik Blocks

This is another UFO (unfinished object) that I probably started 10 years ago.  It started out as a batik jelly roll (2-1/2 inch strips).  I was delighted to discover that I had already matched up and sewn the strips light + dark.  So I felt like I had a jump start on this one.   After pressing everything flat, all I had to do was cut them into bite-sized pieces, and sew them into 2x2 blocks.  I had the stacks of each flavor, and just matched them up systematically.  Then add the black "leading."  It was a great mindless sewing project for the end of camp, when you are getting tired, and just want to do some production sewing that will pay off, but doesn't make you think or design too much.

 Here's the stack all nicely pressed, and ready for the design wall.

The ladies always have lots of ideas and inspiration.

My friend, Shirley [in yellow] was back this year.  She missed last year due to a myriad of health problems.  She's been working hard in PT, and with her health care team, and was able to come back this year.  She's doing much better than I've seen her before.     The first time I came to this Quilt Retreat about 10 years ago, I was seated in the far corner with the other newbies.  Apparently, the light was not good there, and no one else wanted to sit there.  Shirley, me and Liz Lahm had a wonderful time getting to know each other. Later we "graduated," and moved to the opposite corner where we get to sit by Laura R.     This year, Laura was across the table from me, and Shirley was beside me at the next table. 

Shirley was working on a kit she picked up at Hancock's of Paducah this summer.  I was in love with the colors and kept teasing her ...  "How are you coming on MY quilt?  Purple and turquoise are my colors, you know."

Here's the whole thing.  [Laura is holding it up, while Shirley (in the yellow shirt) talks about it.]
Shirley was saying that she mistakenly turned one of the blocks in the top row the wrong way.  She was going to change it, but everyone there unanimously told her to leave it as it is, because it looks more like a spiral.    Sometimes the best ideas come from unintentional mistakes!  From mistake to design choice!

Me and Laura Ramseier

October 2018 at Lake Lucerne, WI.