Camp Margaret

My family gathered earlier this month to celebrate my parents' 60th anniversary. We had a wonderful time and I enjoyed playing in the surf with my brother's grandson and my niece. Toward the end of the week, brother-in-law Bob, niece Diane and I went to Mare's Bears, a quilt shop in Lewes, Delaware. Bob wanted a simple quilt for their guest bed and was thinking about getting some red fabric. After exploring all of the fabric (and there's loads of fabric there), he selected some blue fabric.
Diane came home with me for a week at Camp Margaret full of sewing, quilting and other fun things. We started with the blue fabric as all Bob wanted was one fabric on top and one on the bottom. I loaded a practice piece of fabric on the longarm so Diane could get the feel of the machine. Once she was comfortable (or at least not quite so nervous), we loaded the blue fabrics and she was ready to quilt. Diane is nestled in the blue quilt after completing the quilting. The most difficult thing was hand sewing the binding as the backing fabric is so dark it was hard to see the thread.

The next quilt we worked on was a 25th Anniversary Quilt for her parents. I've been meaning to try the Strip Tubing process all summer and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. I also thought it would be relatively quick and easy since you start out sewing strips of fabric. Well...that part was quick and easy. Then came the cutting into squares and sewing those squares back together. In the photo above, Diane is working on the layout. She got all of the blocks laid out to her satisfaction and then began sewing the blocks together.

This was really her first time working with quilt blocks. She has made a quillow, pillowcases, and tote bags before but this was her first pieced quilt. I was the chief in charge of pressing and she did all of the sewing on this quilt. I'm just so impressed with her work. Look at the block below - the points are wonderful and not cut off! I have trouble with points but she got the hang of it and did beautiful work.

Once the quilt was together, she selected a pantograph and proceeded to quilt it. She managed to get this quilted in an afternoon - pretty good for a queen sized quilt. Good thing, too, as we still had to bind it before she headed home.

We shared the binding, sitting in two chairs next to each other. Finally, the binding complete, Diane relaxes with both of the quilts she completed. We're already planning for next year's Camp Margaret.

Here's a final look at the completed quilt. Fits my bed beautifully. I just couldn't talk her out of taking it home with her.

In the midst of the sewing, we found time to do some other things - like spending a day at Conner Prairie and visiting the Farmer's Market on Saturday. We also managed to eat at Zaharako's twice, including an ice cream dessert both times. It was a wonderful week and I'm looking forward to having her with me next summer for another week of quilting.

Cheers!

Margaret