I’m not sure if “travel-sewing” is a thing, but it should be if it’s not. This past week has been a wonderful week of visiting quilt shops AND sewing while traveling around the U.S.
As we’ve been making our way towards Iowa to take our motorhome to HWH for a check up (the manufacturer that made the hydraulic systems in the coach), I’ve enjoyed stopping at quilt shops that are near to us when we unhook the truck from the motorhome. Last week was Colorado Springs. This week we unhooked in St. Joseph, Missouri, about 45 minutes away from Hamilton. Which is home of Missouri Star Quilt Company. Fabric, come to mama!!!
When I first decided to try quilting, it was because I wanted to make a graduation quilt for my daughter. Just one quilt, and then I’d be done and move on to some other project. (This is where all the other quilter’s start chuckling) I decided I should probably make a “test quilt” first, just to be sure I knew what I was doing. So I hopped onto Google, typed in a search on quilting and ran across Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company and their YouTube tutorials. Jenny made quilting look so quick and easy. I ordered a layer cake, followed her MSQC You Tube | Double Slice Layer Cake Tutorial, and made my first quilt. I also became completely obsessed with quilting, and I thank (Mister blames) Jenny Doan and Missouri Star Quilt Company for bringing this craft into my life.
When we were making our travel plans Brad said we would be passing almost right by MSQC. I asked if we could stop. He said not only would we stop, we would stay in the area for two days to rest from traveling and to give me plenty of time to visit the shop. I made sure to bring my first quilt with us, in the hopes that I would see Jenny Doan and ask if she would take a picture with me and the first quilt. As I roamed the shop, I was disappointed that I could not see, or hear, her. I texted Brad that she wasn’t there, complete with sad emoticon. Immediately after sending it I turned a corner and there was Jenny! I stuttered over my request for a picture, but she replied with a “Sure!!” I was on cloud nine!! I also managed to grab some goodies while I was there!
While we were camped in St. Joseph, I set up my sewing machine in the dinette. I told Sarah, of Georgia Girl Quilts, that I wanted to resume working on our F Word blocks over the summer. So the first thing I did was grab the box with those fabrics and get to work. I completed the Whirlwind block and the Bat Wings block. After the trip to MSQC, I came home and made my 2014 Sugar Block Club Month 7 block. I didn’t expect to get any sewing done this week, but when I realized we would be hooked up to electric for two days I wasn’t going to let that time pass without sewing!
This week’s To-Do list:
- Work on SBC 2014 8th block, if hooked up
- Continue EQ7 lessons
- Two more F Word blocks, if hooked up
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Stitch ALL The Things 
So neat! We have a motorhome and I was just considering sewing while I’m traveling. Our trips have mostly been short, but my husband will be retiring soon so we will being traveling further. Mostly, I’ve just sewn hand-sewn items on my camping trips.
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I am having a blast sewing while we’re traveling. Last year I focused on cross-stitch, and the year before was hexies (I still have a box of them packed away at the house somewhere).
I would highly recommend the Needle Travel app if you have a smart phone. It gives you a list of all needlework, quilting, embroidery, cross-stitch, yarn, spinning, and weaving shops within a 100 mile radius of your location. The app even found quilt shops that weren’t in my 2012-2014 Quilters Travel Companion book. I’ve also noticed a Needle Travel book in several shops that I’ve visited, so there is a printed version available as well. I should mention that the only downside to the app that I have found is that it won’t let you look further ahead than 100 miles to plan better. It shows that it is supposed to have that functionality, as it allows a zip-code search, but it doesn’t work on my device. Perhaps it is a device issue, but given some reviews I think it’s a glitch within the app itself.
I hope you have a lot of fun when you get to your travel-sewing!
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All the blocks are —> awesome! ❤️ Your Instagram posts too
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Thank you!!! I’ve been having a little too much fun, as you can see! I am getting ready to settle a bit, and am looking forward to being in Oregon soon!
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You had me chuckling several times in this post! Love love love your quilting story! And how very cool that you got to meet and take a picture with Jenny. You got a nice haul from there too! … And, lovely sewing btw!
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Meeting Jenny has been the highlight of my trip! She’s just as friendly and charming in real life as she is on her videos! They have so many goodies in their shop, it’s amazing that I only walked out with what I did (and even that was a lot, in my opinion!). I’m not sure that I’ll be by there again, but I certainly hope so. It was a wonderful experience!
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