Missives from Quilt Camp - October 2025

Zora, my little Singer Featherweight (c1941) 

For weeks leading up to Quilt Camp, I've been making preparations for projects to take to Quilt Camp in October.  I took my little Singer Featherweight (c. 1941), so I oiled it up and did some trial runs with it a few weeks ago.  Things were going so well that I wound up sewing 30 of the 96 arcs required for the Wedding Ring Quilt.  ;-)

 

Here's a shot of sewing the "chips" of color together on my 1941 Featherweight.  Each arc gets 6 "chips" of color.  They are wedge-shaped, so they naturally make the arc when sewed together.  The Featherweight sewed like a champ the whole weekend!

 

The "Chips" of color.  This project required 576 chips.

The chips were made from a "Seaside" layer cake, that I cut into 2-1/2 inch strips, and then sub-cut into 2-1/2 inch squares.  Then you use a template to cut them into wedges.  I did 4 layers on the turning cutting matt, and it wasn't too bad.  Did that a few weeks ago in preparation for Quilt Camp.  I did not worry too much about how I put the chips together in the arcs -- 6 chips per arc.  As long as I did not have the same colors next to each other.

  

The arcs were sewn oversize.  After they were pressed flat, I used a template to cut out the official arcs, so they would be a uniform size.  Also note the cut marks that help you meet the other pieces properly.  Although I used a regular-sized rotary cutter to cut the general arc shape, I used a mini rotary cutter to do the cut marks.  The templates are from Cut-Rite.

I thought I'd better cut out the background pieces -- in case I get that far at Quilt Camp.  It seems like all the cutting would be tedious and impossible -- Not something to look forward to.  But I can do 4 layers at a time; The templates have a bit of sandpaper on them, so they grip and don't slide around.  

 

I got the other 70 arcs sewn Friday night.  And trimmed by Saturday morning. 

 

  

One of the other Featherwight owners there for the wkd told me that you can get pre-wound bobbins for our old machines.  They use a wider flatter bobbin than my Vikings, so I can't use the pre-wound bobbins that I keep in stock.

As it was, I went through 5 bobbins sewing on this 1 project this weekend.

Before lunch on Saturday, I was starting to sew some of the curves.  Not as hard as you might think.  I found it easier to match the cut marks and pin them for sewing.  So I would pin as many together as I had pins, and then chain stitch them.  When I had a pile at the back of the machine, I could finger press them so they'd behave and lay flat until I could press them later.  It's amazing that those curved pieces do come together so well.

 

  

Me and Laura on Sunday morning.

Ha!  I may have to start wearing lipstick!

 

 

Table Mates.

Here you can see I started sewing on the melon/football shape in the background.  This actually went better than I thought it would. The edges line up pretty well once it's flipped to the right side out.  The L-shape side will need a little remedial work this week.

Laura is working on finishing yet another Dee Project. 

See that little iron in the foreground?  Laura bought that at St Vinny's for about $2.  It must be from the 1950s with a solid flat sole plate.  It heats up fast and perfectly presses our blocks--even after all this time! 

 From the trees outside, there was hardly any fall color yet on the trees.  It was 91 degrees on Friday when we drove out to Camp Lucerne.  Unusually hot for this time of year.  Ugh!

 

Laura was working on this Grandmother's Flower Garden.  Her friend Dee is 96 years old and is giving her unfinished projects to finish.  Dee had made the hexie blocks by hand -- She's a master quilter!  All Laura had to do was sew the blocks together.   And still impressive! 

One of the other gems from the weekend was this little jar of Black Walnut and Tea Tree Salve, good for all manner of skin conditions.  Available at Remedies in Oshkosh.   This was recommended by Donna, who was sitting 1 table over from us this year.  

Laura has such a huge stash herself from multiple lifetimes of quilting, that she always makes some kind of quilted gift for the ladies who come to this quilt retreat.  This year, she made these darling little chicken pin cushions.   I got the midnight forest chicken!  ;-) 

After I got home, I had to do a little "recovery" work, meaning some seam ripping.  When I sewed the arcs to the background Ls, I didn't leave enough room to make the next seam.  So I had to re-sew those seams closer to the edge, and then pull the too fat seams.  It took about 4 hours (?) to do this handwork.   It's a little hard to see on this blurry photo, but the dots are the old seam, so you can see I was able to recover about 1/4 inch this way.  Don't worry -- Those holes will eventually disappear.   

Now it looks more like it should!

 

Here is the block with pieces pressed as of Tuesday AFTER Quilt Camp. 

I still need to add the corner pieces and then sew the center curve to bring it all together.  By now, I have plenty of practice sewing the curves!  The rest should be easy! 

Missives from Quilt Camp at Lake Lucerne - October 2024

Although I didn't finish anything at Quilt Camp this year, I did make good progress on 2 big projects.

Quilt-as-You-Go Crumb Quilt from The Sewing Channel

Laundry Basket Quilts fat quarter set, plus a few extra fat quarters

 

I cut these into the strips of the recommended widths, and then reconstituted them into fat quarter strip sets, which need to be cut up again into the recommended widths. 

First Block QAYG

I only cut up enough reconstituted fat quarters to try putting together one of the actual QAYG blocks--Just to see how it would work: Proof of concept.  That process proved to be enormously satisfying, and I look forward to working on the other blocks at home.   

The method: Basically, you choose a suitable center block from your strips (in this case, the red flowers with red wheat t the center), then cut off the rest of the strip.  Turn the quilt block sandwich 90 degrees, and add another segment along that side and cut off the rest to use later ...  You just keep working around that center block, building the rows (sort of potato chip fashion) until you've filled up the rectangle.  Just make sure that the patches and seams in the latest row don't match / clash with the previous row.

The quilting seems almost invisible -- or maybe more like quilt-in-the-ditch.  You don't see that layer of top stitching as you do in other quilts.  It is melded with sewing the patches together.   You can see it on the back (sort of).  It's not pretty -- pretty "blocky" and functional.  But then, how much time do you spend looking at the back of a quilt?   I am using an old sheet for the backing because I liked the pattern.

The great part about QAYG is that the bulk of the quilting is done in bite-sized pieces. Once you get the blocks together, you're almost done!

The other project I worked on ...

The Watermelon Quilt

These blocks have been done for a while.   I just haven't wanted to do the next step of squaring them up, pressing them (yet again), laying them out on a design wall and sewing them together--until now.

At camp this year, I brought a cheap flannel-backed table cloth for a design wall.  Laura helped me tape it over the fireplace, where I could lay out the blocks and re-arrange them until I was happy with the layout.  Mostly distributing the pinks and the black watermelon seeds.  You can't really go wrong with a jelly roll, though I did add a few other colors to round it out (reds and greens).

Yes -- watermelons do have this much variety in their red to pink flesh, and the green rinds too.  Some are even yellow and orange flesh but I did not want to introduce those colors too.  In the lighter borders around each block, you can see the lighter melon rind. And of course the black seeds.  I am old enough to remember when watermelons had many more seeds than you see today.

There was some wind on Saturday evening, and it caused the fireplace to "breathe" in and out, so my design wall had some life to it.  I had to pin most of the blocks on it or they would fall off as the fireplace took a breath in and out. 

Sewing them together went faster than it does at home where I am up and down to pull and press each pair of blocks individually.  At camp, I pinned a row together so they would stay in order, and I sewed them all together at the machine, pressed the seams, put it back up on the design wall and went on to the next row.  This seemed to go faster, and I will try this workflow at home for the next quilt top that needs to come together. 

This one still needs the borders -- so there is still some work to be done before I can call it a finished quilt top.

 

Laura's Tea Cozy

At one point, Laura pulled out a box of 1-1/2 in squares cut from scraps.  I was aghast and told her to throw those away!  They were too small to work with.  Ugh!  Too small for ME to work with.  She does just fine with them.  Last year, she gifted me a postage stamp tea cozy made from such bits and scraps, for which I am very grateful to have some of Laura's handywork at home.  ;-) It is on display in the dining room, awaiting pots of tea to keep warm.

 

Sheila, Laura and Me - October 2024

Sheila learned several new skills this year: 

1. How to put on a binding by machine, and 
2. How to pin-baste a quilt sandwich and then tie a quilt with a thicker batting.
   

One of the great things about Quilt Camp is that there are veteran quilters there who will be able to help you with anything you don't know how to do yourself.  She was able to finish several quilts that have been in the works for the past few years.  She says she only quilts at this retreat, and doesn't get around to it the rest of the year.  Too busy with work and kids. 

Speaking of kids:  There was a cub scout (actually he was a Webelo, the group BEFORE cub scouts) there who asked Sheila for help in sewing his patches onto his shirt.  The iron-on method wasn't working.  He looked a lot like one of Sheila's own kids, so he must have felt comfortable asking her initially.  She pointed him to Laura who actually did the work of stitching down his patches as he watched.  That was delightful!  There was a lot of grandmother goodwill energy in that room--and we all knew how to sew.  He'd come to the right place!

Pat Schneider and her daughter Trish even came for a few hours to do handwork on Saturday, though they did not stay for the whole weekend.  It was nice to catch up with them.

Lake View from the lodge where we were working.  No Fall color yet -- not with the California weather we had in September.  I did see some of the Sumac turning red on the way home on Sunday, so it is starting ...  Also saw multiple dust devils swirling, as it has been very dry.

Ribbon on jeans - Fall Flair

 

I'd better get this posted.  Laura has been wondering if she missed it!

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.

Missives from Quilt Camp - Lake Lucerne October 2022

 

Laura Ramseier hosted another lovely Quilting Friends Quilt Retreat at Camp Lake Lucerne in Neshkoro, WI.  There were about 20 quilters attending this year.  The camp is on the edge of a beautiful glacial spring-fed lake (very similar to the one I grew up near).  

[This photo is NOT of Lake Lucerne, but Mueller's Lake in 2014 near where I grew up. I neglected to take any fall color pictures, but this will give you a good idea of what it's like.]
 

We have a gorgeous view of the Lake from the main hall of the lodge.   The fall color is moving into full swing -- lovely yellows, oranges and a few reds among the trees on the drive out.  In the mornings, there would be mist over the lake -- Neat!

At Quilt Camp, as usual, I was back in the corner with Laura and Sheila again.  [See the photo above.]

I was working 2 pumpkins -- patterns and kits from my mom's stash, along with some scraps of my own.  I finished both pumpkins, complete with proper satin edges along the appliques--just to prove I can still do it!  I put an extra layer of batting underneath the pumpkins so they would pop up for more of a 3-D effect. I think that's called trapunto.   

 

This one could use a little more quilting in the borders.  Still need hanging pockets or some other way to hang them.

 

The 3rd project I brought along was an autumn and turquoise jelly roll already cut into prescribed  1-in - 1-1/2-inch and 2-inch strips to make carousel blocks, according to Donna Jordan in this video:

I used the 45-degree Kaliedescope Ruler to cut these out.  My set yielded 7 carousel blocks.  I thought it might be putsy to sew together with all those intersecting seams -- esp. in the middle, but DJ advises making sure the seams of the wedges are opposing (1 up and the next one down) so that they nest.  She also advises a slightly wider than 1/4-inch seam, and that allowed things to meet in the middle without a lot of bulk.  It worked!

I am still contemplating how to set them in order to use all 7 octagons.  I also took some of the scraps and cut 2-inch strips and chained them together to make 1 more element in the final quilt.  I still need to pick a background fabric, and possibly a border.  

 

 

This year again, we had to bring our own bedding -- It's a great opportunity to USE some of the quilts we've made over the years, though some ladies just bring sleeping bags.   This time, I brought one of my woven coverlets.  It got down to freezing on Friday night, and I was grateful for the extra layer of warmth!    

The food this year was better than I remember it.  Laura spoke with them about the food this time. In other years, the menu has been more appropriate for much younger people, very heavy on the carbs. This year, they served us soups and salads, oatmeal and egg bake for breakfast, chicken pot pie with biscuits, and a ham dinner with riced cauliflower -- I've never had that before but with this preparation, I think I could finally become a fan of cauliflower. 

Some great things about attending Quilt Camp:

* If you are stuck on a project or a technique, there is always someone there who knows how to get you through it, or can show you an easier way.    There was prob. more than 1000 years of quilting experience in that room this weekend!

* Laura always makes something for all the ladies who attend the retreat.  This year, she used her scraps to make a shopping bag lined with her chicken feed bags.  She likes to re-use things and keep them out of the land fills.  So now I have this nifty and sturdy bag with patchwork on the outside.  

The inside is an empty / recycled chicken feed bag.  It's a durable plastic material that is perfect for a shopping bag.  She laid out 25 of these bags on a table with the chicken feed side out, and we all got to peer inside at the quilting to find the bag we wanted to claim.

* Bev's Apples.  Bev has an apple tree that bears apples that are always ripe and ready by the time Quilt Camp happens.  She always brings bags of apples for the snack table.  I love that she brings a healthy alternative to the sweets on the table.  She said it was a bumper crop this year, and several u=of us will be meeting her later in the week to get more apples. Yum!  She always brings them in these pin striped and bandana bags -- She used to work at Oshkosh B'Gosh, I think and those apple bags are emblematic of that.

* A few people were still doing kits from my mom's stash that I was giving away last year.  Marilyn did a Kansas Troubles Christmas kit with lots of holly. It came out beautifully!  

And then there are the tried and true gadgets and innovations that other quilters are using.

* LED lights for the throat of your sewing machine.   I think I need one of these for each of my machines!  The desk lamps and Ott lamps help, but still don't quite put the light where you need it.  This does the trick!

 

Martelli Round-About Set - 17" Turntable, Cutting Mat & Ironing Pad

* Sheila at the table next to me had a cutting matt on a turntable from Martelli Notions.  It was sturdy and large and worked very well for her tasks.  I have smaller square ones, but it's hard to turn them sometimes.  I might play around with a lazy susan and see if I can make a DIY model. ;-)

* You see new (to me) patterns and color combinations. 

* Pat Saft brought a project using 10-inch squares (layer cake) with a pattern called Angela's Arrows.   I found a similar pattern here, called Anita's Arrowhead.  I want to give this one a try. 

Inspiring Conversations: 

* Sheila was working on a Dream Weaver Quilt that was reminiscent of a Japanese garden with paths that turn at 90 degrees.  She said that's a design element in Japanese Gardens so that the ghosts or bad spirits don't (or can't) follow you when you make the 90 degree turns.  She was using a beautiful line of garden and floral inspired fabrics by Tula (?)  I am looking forward to seeing all the blocks assembled next year.  The pattern came from a book, but I didn't catch the name of it ...

* Sheila also shared one of her favorite quilt artists: Loraine Roy in Canada, who does some amazing free motion embroidery and textile work inspired.  Some of it is inspired by landscapes, some of it is abstract.  It's all pretty neat stuff.  This is an artist I had not heard of before.   

 

In the same vein, I told Sheila about another Canadian artist, Monica Kinner Whalen at My Sweet Prairie, who does some amazing free motion embroidery.  I have one of her postcards that she did of The Northern Lights.  I remember years ago, these little fabric postcards were a wonderful way to explore new techniques and practice free-motion stitching, thread painting, and surface design.  It sounds like Sheila may want to go in this direction, too with her brand new sewing machine.  ;-)

We are both fond of Noriko Endo's impressionist quilts.

 

* Janice's daughter made this gorgeous quilt top for Sleep-in-Heavenly-Peace (a local charity), using a layer cake (again).  The pattern is called Have a Slice by Timeless Treasures.  All those bold batiks pop with the black accents.  It kind of reminds me of the color boards they put up on the tv after the broadcast day. 

Another lovely weekend with Quilting Friends at Lake Lucerne in Neshkoro, WI.

Laura is planning another retreat for all of us in April.  Then we'll have 2 Quilt Camps to look forward to every year.  This will be a welcome addition!  Since my mother's demise, I have not been attending the one in White Lake, so I'm down a few quilt retreats every year these days!

 

Carrie Z. posted a memory on Facebook last week:  Way back in 2010, my mom, Aunt Rosita, and Carrie Z. attended this same retreat.   I can tell by the stonework in the background.    And now Ma and Rosita are gone.  I'm glad they were able to attend that year, but they realized it was a little too far for them to come again, and they found retreats closer to home after that.  

 

They are with us still, just in a different form.