50 ways to keep a quilter happy while on vacation 26, 25, 24, 23

Welcome back. I hope you’re having a fabulous summer. I’d love to hear some of your quilt themed activities. Drop us a note and we’ll fit them in this series of posts. Who knew there were so many great things to do? I’ve been counting down the 50 ways to keep a quilter happy while on vacation…here goes four more!

More and more quilt stores are acquiring long arm quilting machines to rent to customers. I’ve also seen some pop up locations where a dealer will rent a conference room, bring in a couple of machines and voila – long arms for rent. If you’ve made a quilt and want to get it completely done before you go home – check out the local quilt store in your area to see if they have a machine that you can rent. You will likely have to take a lesson before being allowed to use the machine.

I made this quilt top while I was in PEI and just happened to locate a long arm that I could quilt it on (thanks Robin!!). Came home with a quilt that just needed to have the binding hand stitched in place.

This is my PEI memory quilt. I bought all the novelty print fabric at the local quilt stores. Cut the squares, sewed it together, use PEI plaid for the backing and after it was quilted, even got the binding sewn on by machine. I ran out of time to get the hand stitching done!

A quilt from start to finish in less than one month while on vacation? That’s a first for me!

Want something a little less intimidating to do on vacation? Download the latest QUILTsocial magazine to your tablet. This is a quarterly magazine that is free for the downloading. Catch up on all the latest news and information from QUILTsocial.com.

I’m learning to read magazines on a tablet. Like anything else, it’s scary at first, but I love “flipping” those pages and the more I read the electronic versions, the more I get comfortable with the concept.

The best part – there’s no need to find storage for them. Now I love that!

I had heard about barn quilts, but had never seen one so when I was in Saskatchewan three years ago and saw this one, I was pretty excited.

I didn’t have time to stop that day, but a  few inquiries later, I met Susan who has since become a dear friend. Susan prepared the quilt block and her husband Cam and son Rob affixed the quilt block to the shed.

The quilt block has become a local landmark and is located north of Rosetown, Saskatchewan on Highway 4.

There is an extensive trail of barn quilts in Southern Ontario. This is a great way to spend an afternoon and visit some great quilt stores on the same trip.

If you do a search on the internet, there are many trails in the US as well.

If there wasn’t a barn or out building available to put the block on, a stand alone sign was created. On a recent road trip, we were so excited to discover the blocks along the various trails.

Not sure where to find the barn trail quilt blocks? No worries – you can check out the web site or get a copy of the booklet which has all the blocks listed, complete with addresses that you can plug into the GPS.

Barn Quilt Trail

And if that isn’t enough, you can make your own quilt from the blocks along the trails. Don’t want to figure out each block pattern?… There is a booklet that I picked up at My Sewing Nook in Caledonia, Ontario with enough blocks to make a full sized quilt.

Today’s quilt store is called One Stitch, Two Stitch and is located in Littleton, New Hampshire. As I said – I took the scenic route home!

This was a fabulous shop and I found a few goodies. I didn’t get to spend a lot of time as the shop is right in town and I needed some American coin which I did not have for the parking meter. I know – better planning, but I was not intending to come home through the US.

Some pretty exciting things to keep the quilter and their families happy this summer. Don’t forget to send us your most memorable quilting experience. We’d love to post your experiences. Join me Friday for more of the 50 ways to keep a quilter happy while on vacation series! Have a great day! Ciao!