"Let's Go Camping"- Quilt Along Adventures

In 2018 I joined Pat Sloan's quilt-along "Let's Go Camping".  I had just come across some cool camping prints, I was enjoying our family's camping experiences so was in the right mindset for the focus, and I figured it would be a bit of a quilting challenge for me.

When I finished the final stitch on the quilt top yesterday and laid out the top in all its glory, I decided to forgive myself for finishing it so long after the quilt-along's 2018 deadline.

This journey started in January 2018.  The best part of committing to a quilt along was that it forced me out of my comfort zone.  I tried new blocks I would never have chosen otherwise, and I definitely learned some new quilting skills.  It also got me thinking about time management with quilting projects.

This was the first block for the quilt.  Pat Sloan was kind and started us off with a pretty easy block pattern.  My regret with this block is that the top section of the center camping fabric cut into part of the image, but it obviously didn't bother me enough to go back and change it.

Here are some of the blocks that followed, in no particular order.  I actually did really well in meeting the monthly deadline of completing a block a month until July hit.  I was in school prep mode and didn't quite finish the block that month.  Then August, September, October...well, any teachers out there understand the crazy busy life of a teacher during first semester.

But, I realized, as I was looking through photos to add these pictures, that I had a whole lot of other quilting activities documented during this time.  I think I gravitated towards projects that didn't really require much thinking for quilting therapy.  Who knows, but I did go off the rails with the challenge.

With the blocks that followed that first one, the half-square triangle challenge appeared.  I think nearly every block included them from that point on.  Pat Sloan added a tutorial at the end of each pattern, and I discovered a very valuable technique:  how to square up the block.  Pretty darn obvious now, but suddenly all those previous projects I'd worked on without squaring up the half-square triangles whose seams then wouldn't quite match up made so much sense!

Pat also included a tutorial on how to fussy cut the fabric so it would be on point.  Also new to me.

I am not much for fussy cutting because of how much fabric ends up wasted (see my previous post on my Lucy Boston POTC blocks and you will see that I avoid the fussy cut).

However, with this project, it was fun to pick out what felt like the best image on the fabric to showcase in the block.

Of course, there was a cute little doggy by my side throughout this crafty journey.

I already mentioned the bonus of the challenge in pushing me to try out blocks I wouldn't otherwise choose.  The tree of life block is one I have seen in so many photos of generational quilts.  I never thought about trying it because the colors always seemed so bland that it just didn't appeal to me, so it was fun to put a bit of a modern twist on the block.

I love how the fussy cuts with the deer give the block a bit more of a forest feel.

I think these were two of my favorite blocks.  I completed the final three blocks in the past two days when I was in full on get-r-done mode.  These two went pretty smoothly, so I had some not-so-instant gratification after jumping back into the project.

But this block...oh my.  AGGRAVATION.  I blame the technical difficulties on my decision to deviate from Pat Sloan's pattern.  Hers put the camping fabric in the outer border.  I had the bright idea to put it in the center.  Fussy cutting chaos.  I should have taken a picture of how many half-square triangles I had to replace because my fussy cuts weren't running in the right direction...a couple of sideways trees occurred.  I also made some errors in cutting.  By this point, I was weary, and I didn't abide by the quilting rule to measure twice and cut once.  My husband had been out of town, and I was so determined to have this quilt top finished before he returned.

Another challenge was in determining the best background fabric.  That was tough!

It helped to look at the completed quilts that other folks in the challenge had posted to Pat Sloan's blog to get a sense of how the background choices could change the look of the quilt so dramatically.

 Finally, the end was in sight.  Our kitchen table was a chaotic pile of fabric and scraps and table top ironing board and cutting board and pin cushions and etc. etc.  This is actually a rather neat pile of the chaos.  I didn't snap a photo of the discard pile of scraps and failed pieces!

But, in the end, success.  My first quilt-along and my first sampler type quilt completed.  I am so, so happy with the final result.  At first I wasn't sure about Pat's instructions to cut so many rectangles for the border, but in the end, I love it.

I am already eyeing Pat Sloan's "Out of This World" quilt along...a crazy thought with school so quickly approaching.  But, at some point, I know I will join another quilt-along journey.  It's a wonderful part of the on-line quilting community...we truly are inundated with so many opportunities to grow our craft.  I love it!

Whatever it takes to quilt on!