Quilt – TooBusyForWork

Quartzsite then Havasu then Quartzsite

I am sorry my links didn’t work in the last post. Here they are for another try. Click on the highlighted link, then click again on the small text link. First, the Greater Quartzsite Ukulele Orchestra: “Under the Boardwalk” 29 January 2026
https://youtu.be/KjdSw8vy4N4

And what the Desert Bar looks like on a random Saturday. https://youtu.be/6OTLGvKubn8

Now on to new stuff. We were so busy with everyone visiting that we took it easy for a few days. I tried a new ukulele jam group on Sunday, 1 February, but it wasn’t quite my thing. Very churchy with praise music I didn’t know. It was nice to be able to do more than just listen though I probably won’t repeat it. One Tuesday, 3 February, we took a ride with the SunRiders that was just a half day ride. We wandered around to the Quartzsite letters, a big guzzler we hadn’t seen before, and we noted a number of military-related locations from WWII. It was nice to have a relaxing ride instead of full-speed ahead!

We then headed to an Anasazi Chapter of the FRVA rally in Benson, AZ on Wednesday, 4 February going to Gila Bend the first night. The rally began on Thursday. It was really busy, but enjoyable. One of the highlights was a visit to the Mescal Movie Site. They made a lot of old Westerns there, and it is a smaller version of Old Tucson movie set. Not in great shape, but it is now being run by a non-profit with volunteer docents who give you a great tour. They are trying to keep it from further decay plus improving it where they can.

The “hotel” was in the best shape because it was brick on a real foundation

We headed back to Quartzsite on Sunday morning early. I wanted to get back to Quartzsite to join another ukulele virtual group. This one is run by a guy in Melbourne, Australia! It is a 3:00pm MST on Sunday in the US but 9:00am on Monday in Australia. Nice group, and I am definitely going to continue with them.

On Tuesday, 10 February we drove to Phoenix to visit Costco for a hearing aid test for Kevin. Turns out that even though he has significant high frequency hearing loss, it isn’t bad enough for a hearing aid to really help. Good to hear that from a professional who was paid to sell hearing aids! We also went to the Guitar Center to look for a ukulele for Kevin. I have been having so much fun, he decided he needed to get one too. They had a very limited selection, and we didn’t end up buying one there. But he was able to try the difference between a tenor and a concert, and he decided the larger tenor worked best for him. We eventually found a barely used one in Quartzsite at a good price, so he has joined my new obsession. He is still working on getting his fingers limbered up though.

On Thursday, 12 February, we took a tough ride with the SunRiders. It was labeled “moderate, 3/5” and it probably was for wider rigs than ours. For our little 50” it was difficult. Then again, this is why you can safely ride harder trails when you are with a group; if something happens, you have a set of experienced folks who can get you out of trouble. One spot we visited is called the “Movie Set.” This isn’t a real movie set, but is a tourist spot built by the nearby town of Bouse.

https://youtu.be/tTjurF7sscA

I also liked this one looking at the volcanic cores
https://youtu.be/NTfKzsSRU8Q

On Sunday, 15 Feb, we went to Lake Havasu for a SewCation with their quilt guild (I’m a member). Had a fun time as usual. I finally finished my 2025 Kona Block of the Month with the last two blocks, sashing, cornerstones and borders. Originally I was going to add another piano key boarder, but this thing is big enough already!

I had so many of the Kona charm squares left! I cut a bunch of triangle blocks for another donation a quilt, and I started sewing the piano keys I cut into strips for the binding of the BOM. This is going to be a massive lap quilt for Kevin. He always says he is cold, and the other quilts are too small. He will be able to wrap up in this one pretty well!

We are now back in Quartzsite in a wind strong enough to keep us settled inside the MH. Minnie seems to be quite happy to cuddle on my lap. One last video of the laziest playing by a pair of cats. Silly kids. It’s a long one, so if cat videos aren’t your thing, feel free to skip it.

Lazy cats
https://youtu.be/ApOV–KTu0E

Looking back three months

Yup, it has been three months since I last posted. I am not really depressed, but it seems like the things I am doing just aren’t the things I normally write about. Today I looked back and realized that I probably should document some, so here is a very top level summary.

First is sewing. I have been doing more sewing than I have in the past. Of course I have been doing masks, probably another 150 since September. Most of them went to local schools. I have also semi-joined a local quilt guild that does a lot of donation quilting. I say “semi-joined” in that I went to one meeting, but I haven’t paid dues yet. They aren’t meeting right now, even virtually, so I will wait until they do to officially join. I have enjoyed quilting 6 quilts for them on my Sweet 16 though. It gives me a lot of practice, and it gets them done. Like most quilt groups, they have a lot more people who piece tops than those who quilt the completed quilts. The ones they gave to me, someone unknown to them, have mostly been among the ugliest quilts I have seen. Totally random patches of various sizes of old fabric, but they will keep someone nice and warm. These are twin bed sized quilts, and for 4 of them I just did a simple meander. One I practiced doing pebbles on, and another one got some ruler work. I didn’t take any pictures though.

I also did some non-quilting work too: three Hogwarts robes for some of the grandkids. I used a lovely poly/cotton gabardine, and they turned out wonderfully.

For quilting of my own, there have been a bunch of baby and children’s quilts. The first two were cut completely with my Accuquilt system. I got the alphabet dies for my birthday, and I think they do a great job on children’s quilts.

For a young girl getting a surprise cancer diagnosis

I made one for me – a Riley Blake National Parks panel with a wool batting. I will keep this in the motorhome.

Another for my daughter to give as a shower gift. I am quite proud of this one. All those triangles were cut with an Accuquilt 4 1/4” equilateral triangle die. I could not have done it without the die! Trying to keep the bias and non-bias edges straight would have been impossible, but the die cuts notches on the bias edges to use for matching to the next piece. Very nice!

“Fox and Friends” or, as I prefer it, “Foxy Friends”

Daughter and I like this one so much we bought the fabric to do another one in the spring.

Of course all sewists need to do something for Christmas presents, so I did microwave bowl cozies. I made a few, then decided a new cutting die would make it much easier. I ordered from Blue Wren, an Australian company who has dies that fit my Accuquilt. It took just over 3 weeks to get it from Australia, and I went to town. Thirty total cozies. This is most of them. A few had already been packed up.

And what else have I sewn? I actually did some machine embroidery too! Lake Volney is where one son has his cabin, so he wanted two beach towels with the name on them.

I also bought a new (old) sewing machine! I have been wanting a vintage Bernina for a long time. I could use it as my travel machine for the motorhome and as a backup for my beloved Bernina 440. I finally found this 830 Record, built in 1974, in great shape with loads of accessories. She is sooo pretty, though she smelled of cigarettes and mustiness. The repair guy who cleaned up her insides and get her oiled up got rid of the vast majority of smoke, and I figure I can eventually cure her of mustiness. I sold the Viking I had been using. I guess I am just a Bernina girl!

A classic mechanical Bernina. The knee lift goes in the bottom right but isn’t shown.

All the standard accessories plus lots of extra feet plus lots and lots of bobbins.

I am probably forgetting something, but this is long enough already. We are planning our trip to Arizona now; more one that later.

Clinton Lake and Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival

We arrived at our wonderful COE campground on Wednesday. Gorgeous place! The sites are big with solid gravel parking for the motorhome and a large spot for parking a car and just hanging out. There is a lot of shade in one corner of our space for sitting, but most of the site is sunny (better place for our satellite antenna). Since we have electricity and water at the campsite we don’t need shade to keep cool, so Kevin decided to leave the shady sites for renters who rally need them. Hardly anybody here when we arrived. but that definitely changed on Friday! There are a few spots left, but not very many. We are lucky enough to have a resident mockingbird that likes to hang around, plus doves, purple martins, some type of woodpecker (heard but not seen), and an assortment of other common birds. The mockingbird is incredible though! Click the link to listen to just a short sample of the songs.

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Thursday I went to the KCRQF. It was about an hour away, but the drive was easy. I wandered through the vendor mall, looking at the goodies. I ended up with only a few things – a lightweight thread stand for traveling, a stencil for marking 1” squares on my quilt tops, and a lovely piece of pre-fused appliqué of birch trees plus a piece of fabric (dark blue with stars) to use as a background. All I will need to do is heat press the appliqué to the fabric, then do some thread paining on the birches. It will make a lovely wall hanging.

I took an intermediate free motion quilting class Thursday afternoon. There wasn’t a lot of instruction, but she had lovely samples to inspire us plus stencils, books, and rulers to experiment with. I didn’t play with the rulers because I do that at home, but I did try a number of stencils, concentrating on getting an even stitch. It was even harder to do because were using Babylock sewing machines provided by the festival.

Trying to do free motion orange peels on a gridded background. Result was only so-so

Lovely little bird from a stencil. Top is an experiment using Press and Seal. Lesson learned: don’t do that!

I also experimented some with feathers, a very traditional quilting pattern I have never been able to master. I won’t say I have it mastered now, but they are much, much improved! Diane Kimber, a friend and quilter in Salt Lake City, had given me some pointers. I hadn’t tried her technique, but I had thought about it, and it worked pretty well for me.

Feathers randomly tied to the end of a daisy

Friday I took a class in machine appliqué, but I accidentally left all my samples in class! It was a wonderful class though. She had a kit prepared with samples to use for practicing multiple techniques. We tried using fusible interfacing sewn to the fabric then turned to provide a smooth edge for the appliqué, using water soluble stabilizer with rubber cement to provide a turned edge, and two types of fusible raw edge appliqué. We also experimented with stitch types which was very informative. I am definitely going to try some of the techniques. My favorite stitch combo was a pretty short and narrow blanket stitch. It would be almost invisible in the color of the appliqué, especially with a 50 or 60 weight thread. This class used Viking machines, again provided by the festival.

While the classes were very good, I was not a fan of the show administration. Turns out they would have given my class spot away if I hadn’t checked in at a specific desk, but no one told me that ahead of time. Strike 1. Then when I did check in at 1:15 before going to the vendor mall, they didn’t have the class lists for my 3:00 class! I had to come back at 2:30. Strike 2. Then they changed the time of my Friday class without telling anyone in the class, including the teacher! Strike 3. Some of the desk staff couldn’t believe we were notified, but I showed them on their own website the time and also the confirmation email I was sent. Even though the class was only slipped by 30 minutes, it put the class finishing at the same time as the last shuttle to the parking lot. In addition there was some evening entertainment that conflicted. Probably half the class had to leave at 6:00. I won’t be back. I have a real issue with poor organization, and this was dreadful in a large professional show like this. Yes, they had big names -Ricky Tims, Leah Day, Angela Waters, many others – but the frustrations weren’t worth it. I will go back to the big AQS shows that are run smoothly.

Since it would be so late when I got out, Kevin picked up ribs, beans, and apple crisp at Joe’s Kansas City BBQ. After all, you have to eat BBQ in KC! The ribs were absolutely fantastic.

Note my empty plate!