A Little More of Quilt Camp

Did I mention that I had a nice time at quilt camp?  I think I may have had a better time this year than last actually.

My aunt Irene and I shared a room.  The building our rooms were in has a huge room with a big wood-burning stove in it and that's where all sewing was done.  The stove was most definitely NOT needed, though I'm sure that in cooler months, it might be appreciated greatly.  It was quite warm, I lie, it was hot.  Far hotter than last year.  There is no air conditioning there.  It cools off wonderfully at night so of course, windows were opened up as soon as the outside air was cooler than indoors or if there was a breeze.  They were left open all night too until it started warming in the mornings, which was fairy early.  During the day, we had numerous fans going and that helped some.  One of the hottest days was registering around 84 inside.  The bunk rooms were more shaded so stayed quite comfortable even during the day.

 

 

Sleeping quarters ... only the sheet was necessary!

This year, we were in a room that was just slightly larger, and had two sets of bunk beds rather than two twin beds.  I  liked this better, as it was easier to toss extra stuff onto the upper bunk than it was to stuff it under the lower one. 

Each room has a window.  The windows look out to the parking area.

There are no bathrooms in the individual rooms, rather there is a women's room and a men's room which the latter is designated "women" by a paper sign taped over "men".  Each has but one toilet, and one shower, and two sinks.  Another set is on the upper floor.  With just 14 of us this year, there never seemed to be any waiting time for toilets or showers.

Ann

As my aunt and I have a cousin who lives near Sisters, we arranged to play hooky from camp and go have dinner with her on Thursday night.  We had a wonderful time chatting and catching up with all things from the past year.

A spinach salad that had bacon-wrapped prawns, oh yeah, yum!

 We ate at a Mexican restaurant, out on the patio.  It was nice and the food was mighty good.  When we got back to camp we asked how that night's dinner was.  The camp has a new cook this year, and I'll just say that the regulars who have been going to quilt camp for its entire eight years, were far more happy with the meals prepared under the direction of the previous cook!  Upon hearing what the meal was, we were very glad to have eaten in Sisters.  Apparently, the main parts of the meal were cooked cabbage, potatoes, and chili.  Interesting combination.  Sharing the camp at that time was a Latino youth group, and a couple other very small groups, so perhaps the cook was trying to please their tastes?  For breakfast the following morning we had tamales along with a few other things.  I can't say as I've had tamales for breakfast before, but hey, it was good, and it may become a breakfast staple, or not.  All groups eat in the 'mess hall' at the same times.  The youth group left Saturday morning, and the meals after that improved tremendously.  We were treated with a very yummy tiramisu for dessert Saturday night.

 My aunt Irene started this quilt last year.  In all the years (decades) she's been quilting, she had never done triangles before, and she struggled with it a bit and after q.c. last year, she set it aside, but this year, she plugged on and finished it, and was pleased with it.  She's not a perfectionist, and will often be heard remarking about imperfections something to the effect of "If it can't be seen from atop a galloping horse, it's good enough.".  She has every right to be proud of her accomplishment with first-ever triangles!

 This is the other top that she finished at camp this year.  Quite lovely!  The following few pictures are those of some of the other ladies' projects.  It was quite a treat to see each lady working diligently on her project and then seeing the results on the show and share evening.

I believe she said this was her first quilt and it might have been started at last year's camp - but I could be wrong.  It's very nice!

This is for this lady's son.  I think she said it was for his high school graduation, but that was two or more years ago.

I like the scrappy simplicity of this one especially.

In addition to the 'Stairstepper' project I showed in yesterday's post, I also worked on my Sister's Choice blocks finishing the final 40 of 72 blocks.

Some of the first Sister's Choice blocks completed in 2013.

I also started a new project, again having cut most of the pieces while still at home a couple months ago.  It has a gazillion quarter square triangles and I finished on the initial test block while at quilt camp.  While in Sisters on that Thursday waiting for our cousin to get off work, we stopped in at The Stitchin' Post and I found a nifty tool that I wasn't even aware existed.  I'll try to post about it tomorrow, or somewhere in the near future along with a photo of the single block done for this project ;)

Oh, and as it was SO unbearably hot this year, both my aunt and I opted to forego the show in Sisters, and stayed back at camp contentedly sewing, and trying to keep cool!  There's always next year, right?

Stash Report – Week 29, 2014

Hooray!! I have some fabric being counted as out of my stash this week.  It was actually out last week, but since I was still winding down from quilt camp, I didn't get a post in, so it's here now. 

Used This Week: 3.5 yards 
Used Year to Date: 3.5 yards  
Added This Week: 0 yards  
Added Year to Date: 0 yards  
Net Used for 2014: -35.10 yards                  
Linking @ Patchwork Times

I had purchased this project as a kit in December 2009.  It's called 'Stairstepper' by Pressed For Time Quiltworks and is a bargello design.  All fabric except the backing and batting was included so I take no credit for the coordination of the fabrics.

While still at home down south, I had prepped all the fabric that came with the kit and cut the strips and other specific sized pieces.  At quilt camp, those strips were sewn together and then cut further and then those segments were sewn in a specific manner incorporating the other pieces I'd cut earlier.  It went together quickly and easily, and best of all, there were no seams to match!  I haven't had that ease in awhile!  

I'm not sure why I waited so long to do this little quilt (42 x 63); perhaps I thought it looked more time-consuming from the pattern picture, or maybe from the designer's instructions than it truly was.  Total time to make this to the flimsy stage was 14 hours including prepping the fabric, pre-cutting, and working in an environment of sweet gabbing women (read: distractions).  Included also was the time taken to have to unsew a few pieces because, when using fat quarters, they don't all measure 18"x22", therefore, sometimes you don't get out of them what the instructions want you to cut.  One of the fabrics was apparently just that much less which equaled nearly 1/4" too narrow in cutting them after the strips were sewn.  Not to worry, there was some fabric left that I could cut the needed three rectangular pieces from and all was good.