Airstream Quilters

Remarkable - I've discovered a forum that combines two things I love: traveling in our airstream and quilting.  It turns out that there are a fairly large number of people who take quilting projects along when traveling in their airstreams.  It's been lovely to see how people incorporate their quilts into their airstreams, and/or use the sewing skills developed in making quilts to do other things to improve or update their home-away-from home.

Finished Fly Fishing Quilt

Finished and delivered, in time for his birthday, the fly-fishing quilt I was working on for my son.  He liked it, I'm pleased with the end results, and my husband thinks it's the best quilt I've made to date, so here it is:

Watercolor quilt completed

Here is the watercolor quilt, completed.  My favorite of all the quilts I've made to date.  Finishing this one has me fired up to move ahead with finishing various in-progress quilt tops and even more - moving on to new ones that aren't the traditional ones I've made in the past. 

I machine piece and hand-quilt.  I love the hand-quilting aspect of this work.  I also draw my quilting patterns free-hand rather than relying on purchased quilting templates.  I prefer the softer and more unpredictable result of that over either machine quilting or the uniformity of templates.  It reflects more of how I feel about the beauty of the world at large - the recognition of the power or uniqueness rather than marching to another's tune.

Free-form watercolor quilt

I'm working on my first watercolor quilt and have fallen in love with this process.  It is totally like painting with cloth! Once I had the colors arranged as I wanted, the next challenge was to keep the rows and their relationship intact as I moved them from the planning table to the sewing machine and back.  In the past when faced with this, I carefully labeled each square, but this time found a lazy way out that works great.  I place a long piece of time-tape on each row, which keeps the individual pieces in the correct order without leaving any gummy residue or pulling on the threads of the cloth (you could also use blue painters tape, but NOT standard masking tape).  I then label just the far left corner with the row number.  Since I always label on the left, there is no need to indicate which end of the tape is right or left.  The tape can be reused about 3-4 times before it loses enough tackiness to not reliably hold the material. This labeling also makes pressing easy; all even numbered rows are pressed in one direction, all odd number rows pressed in the opposite direction, so the rows go together easily and precisely when I get to that point in the sewing.

So many choices, so little time...

I know that other quilters joke about their UFO's and stash, but do they also feel mildly guilty as do I, that my quilting dreams and goals so constantly outreach the hours in the day and the money in my pocket?

This past winter, due to a flood in my laundry/sewing room, I was finally rewarded (after much sweat and elbow grease) with a newly redecorated room.  My projects and stash are now organized in semi-transparent plastic boxes to let me see at a quick glance what is waiting to be done, rather than having to dig through piles in the closet.  I thought this would be a GOOD thing....but those unfinished project GLARE at me through the boxes, saying "me first", and "why not me", and "Oooh - look what you could do with ME".   Am I an undiagnosed ADD adult, or just a normal quiltaholic?

And now the garden and greenhouse beckon as well, as days grow longer again and the sun warmer.

MANY, many years ago I received the gift of a t-shirt from my cousin, and the phrase on it holds as true for my life now when I am nearing retirement, just as much as it did back then  when my life revolved around children and elderly parents, school activities and work, scouts and sports.

"God put me on earth to accomplish a certain number of things.  Right now, I am so far behind, I will NEVER die!"