Questions for Quilters

[Reader1]

Quilters - Have you ever worked on piecing quilts from your RV? We are planning some long trips and I am thinking about taking my sewing machine, little iron & ironing pad, cutting mat & rotary cutter, etc. I thought I would cut fabric for a quilt before leaving home, and just trim from the RV. I wouldn't sandwich the quilt nor do any quilting, but think I could piece on those days when the weather stops us from hiking and biking or when DH has to work.
Also, what challenges have you faced, and other ideas about what I should take. Thanks ahead for the help.

[JRscooby]

JAC1982 wrote:


The fabric hoard of quilters is no joke. I just spent a Saturday helping my mom organize her sewing room. So.Much.Fabric. But all that fabric came in handy when it came to making masks to give away. I appreciated her skills as a recipient of said free masks in any color I wanted.

Yes! Cousin, a medical pro, called wife for masks for their office. She did not want elastic straps, because wanted to use steam to disinfect. I cut sheet of that metal I can't say or spell for nose pieces. And made lots of the fabric strip she used for straps.

[JAC1982]

K Charles wrote:

Cloud Dancer wrote:
My wife became more and more serious about quilting. This was just one of the reasons we quit fulltiming (in our 40 ft Dutch Star motorhome). AND NOW, she needs a BIGGER brick house (not kidding).

My mother (93) has been quilting her whole life. She lives alone and likes to keep busy. She has made and given away over 1400 masks so far and it looks like she will never run out of cloth. She said she did run out of copper wire and had to buy some, she has material enough to last for years.

The fabric hoard of quilters is no joke. I just spent a Saturday helping my mom organize her sewing room. So.Much.Fabric. But all that fabric came in handy when it came to making masks to give away. I appreciated her skills as a recipient of said free masks in any color I wanted.

[Veebyes]

We have done Paducah, a couple of times, Hamilton & I believe if there is one, we have qualified for an award for visiting a quilt shop in every state of the continental plus Alaska as well as every province of Canada.

She will be working on her 'shopped all counties' award next.

[Reader1]

I read these last night while DH was bow hunting and tent camping with our son, son-in-law, and grandson. Temp was 18 degrees - When they left I reminded them of the scene in Men In Black where Will Smith asks, "When was your last CT scan?? You guys made me laugh right out loud. I "may" share these with DH, I may not because the minute we walk into a quilt shop the whining begins and he suddenly thinks we have to go to a restaurant because he is suddenly hungry. There are some restaurant suggestions here, that would be great, but showing those to him may shorten his starvation ritual to less than a minute!! Thanks for the laughter, we need all the laughing we can get.

[JRscooby]

Quilt shops can be dangerous for men. Stopped at a shop in KY. Men sitting under awnings of class As. I was already afraid, because I don't think many honest people in that state.
Have heard Hamilton Mo has a storefront just for waiting room.
The worse was in Ark. Huge shop, has a nice living room type area. One employee acted like it was her job to make sure men had coffee and soft drinks so we did not realize how long we where there. My wife had finished, was standing behind me. Our host was talking about deer hunting, said she would always eat what she shot, but really wanted a rack. I had to say I thought she was adequate. Only one person did not laugh, and on the way out to pickup she started in on me. "Wait a minute! This area voted for both Clinton and Trump. Sexual harassment must be acceptable here"
Swelling went down in a couple of days..

[JimBollman]

My wife is a big quilter but only brings her Singer Weather Weight if we are going to be in one spot for a few days for one of my events she is not interested in. Then she brings mostly precut materials for lap quilts or other smaller projects. We travel in a 19' B so not a lot of extra room on most trips. Most of our trips are road trip and never stay in one place for more than a night. We do have an agreement, we stop at any quilt shops she sees, either as we go by or on her iPad she wants as we travel and all car museums or other interesting spots I find. We can usually find enough space for the fabric and other things she buys, but mostly she just wants to look and feel fabric as often as possible. The best fabric shops have a husband corner with good chairs, coffee and free WiFi. We have done Paducah, KY, I luckily have a car friend in Paducah, so I dropped her off and told her to call when she was done with the museum and exploring downtown and I went spent the day with my friend.

[Wadcutter]

Reader1 wrote:

Wadcutter wrote:
Being a quilter no doubt you've heard of this. But in case you or others following this thread have not heard of it click here National Quilt Museum Paducah KY

Yes. We plan a trip in Sept-Oct from Ohio to Florida around the Gulf into Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri head into Kentucky. I showed DH the Nat'l Quilt Museum and that is a stop on the trip. He wasn't pleased, but is "willing". I am sure there will be whining, and complaining about wanting to leave to eat. I will just remind him of so many times in DC at the Air and Space Museum, which I have no interest in at all, and it will be fine.

He won't be the only one in there whining and crying. There were several of us in the whining and crying section when we were there.
For a great pork chop afterwards take the drive to Patti's 1800 Settlement. They have a 2" pork chop but unless you're really hungry or want left overs then the 1" is plenty big. It's their signature menu. Excellent. Need to make reservations.
For really good BBQ try Knoth's BBQ in Grand Rivers. We just stumbled on to the place and decided to give it a try. Just a small restaurant. Try their cole slaw. Creamy style with a bit of honey mustard.

[GizmosMom]

I enjoy doing small sewing and quilting projects. I only do handwork and don't take my sewing machine when we travel. There is a large Facebook group called "RV Quilters" that I follow. Lots of info in there if anyone is interested

[Veebyes]

My DW has been getting to be a pretty serious quilter for a few years now. She has everything that she needs onboard the 5er. The sewing machine is not as fancy as the one at home but it does the job. Everything else is on a smaller scale than what is at home. On nice days when she needs space she will work on the picnic table.

She peruses over planned trips on the laptop, not so much to see where we are going, but to look for quilt shops along the way.

Everyone in the family knows what they are getting for Christmas each year. Something quilted.

[DCS7]

You have the right idea about prepping before you go. I use one of those folding camp tables to sew on in the RV, and I use it outside when it’s nice. The picnic table is great to spread out on. And, depending on the campground the clubhouse can be used as well for a little more room. I bring scraps to work on smaller projects too, which would be great on short stopovers

[K_Charles]

Cloud Dancer wrote:
My wife became more and more serious about quilting. This was just one of the reasons we quit fulltiming (in our 40 ft Dutch Star motorhome). AND NOW, she needs a BIGGER brick house (not kidding).

My mother (93) has been quilting her whole life. She lives alone and likes to keep busy. She has made and given away over 1400 masks so far and it looks like she will never run out of cloth. She said she did run out of copper wire and had to buy some, she has material enough to last for years.

[ken56]

Cloud Dancer wrote:
My wife became more and more serious about quilting. This was just one of the reasons we quit fulltiming (in our 40 ft Dutch Star motorhome). AND NOW, she needs a BIGGER brick house (not kidding).

I totally understand where you're coming from. My wife has enough fabric to supply a nice sized quit shop. My wife has a dedicated sewing machine in the trailer along with another fabric stash that's in the under bed storage. She has no unique issues sewing on the road....she just can't explode all over the trailer like she can at home.

[JRscooby]

LOL; Wife asked if she could take a sewing machine. Even gave me a Singer featherweight for my birthday. (saw me looking one over while she was in a shop. When asked I said it was cute. Later, when she gave one to me I said I had seen a lot of cute things in tight jeans that never came home with me)
We have set up a little carry-on sized bag that holds her small electronic, or the featherweight, the small iron and pad, modified short heavy duty extension cord, cutting mat and all the other stuff she takes when going to a retreat. Packing this bag when we go camping is a piece of chicken. But we have a popup trailer. For her to sew, we need to take 2 folding tables, a chair, a tarp to set up on so we can clean up all the threads and scraps she cuts off, and sometimes a tent. If we plan to stay someplace for a week or more, I deal with it.
Most trips, the compromise is we travel a day, then camp a day. (She might bring a quilt that needs binding put on) The next day we tour quilt/fabric stores. Camp a day, then a travel day. The shop/camp sometimes get mixed. Hot weather, camp mornings, shop afternoon. If (if? no when) she finds a pattern and fabric she will sometimes put mat and rulers on picnic table. If she gets much stuff, we might have a issue keeping it clean and dry for the rest of trip we stop at a post office, mail it home.
The compromise

[Cloud_Dancer]

My wife became more and more serious about quilting. This was just one of the reasons we quit fulltiming (in our 40 ft Dutch Star motorhome). AND NOW, she needs a BIGGER brick house (not kidding).