Forever Quilting 4 You

Confession time, I made this month’s challenge back in November 2023 with this month in mind. Why did I do that, you might wonder? Well, let me tell you a little story about it.

Late last year in September my sister and I went to a retreat in McCloud CA, a beautiful, small town in northern California. Not only was the retreat in a hotel, but we also stayed in the hotel. It is an old hotel that has been remodeled, but still had its charm from the early 1900s.

At this retreat, my sister and I were the newcomers and the last ones to arrive. We had intended to drive up to McCloud, which is a 4-hour drive from my home, to do a trunk show for the retreat attendees and see if we could get any of them interested in paper piecing. We were planning to drive back home that same day, after the trunk show, but somewhere in the planning stages of the trunk show I found out that there was space for a few more quilters. So, I dragged my sister to the trunk show with me with the intent to stay for the rest of the retreat. It should be noted that I didn’t have to twist her arm; we love our road trips!!!

When we walked into the sewing room (which was bigger than any other retreat sewing room I had ever been in) and found our seats we were surprised by the wonderful handmade gifts that awaited us. We were also given a ticket to the daily drawings. To say that we were a bit surprised to see the gifts and then given a ticket for the daily drawings was an understatement. These gifts were well made, and each day when we arrived at the sewing room, there were more little gifts on our machines. It was like Christmas had come each day that we were there. It was later explained to us that these gifts were left by the “Retreat Fairies!”

Now being the curious person that I am, I just had to ask the gal in charge, Rita, where all these wonderful gifts came from. Rita explained that one of the ladies who was at the retreat, she was in her early 80s and worked all year to make the gifts, but this would be the last year she would be able to make them because it was getting to be too much for her to do.

So, what did I do?? Hmmmm, that’s a no-brainer! I volunteered to make the gifts for next year’s retreat, and I already had a grand prize finished at home that I would be willing to part with. You should have seen the look on Rita’s face when I volunteered. Shocked is putting it mildly.

Oh my! What had I done! I just volunteered to make gifts for everyone at the retreat to give out every day. I am not talking about just one gift a day, but two or three small gifts and three prizes for the daily drawings. This doesn’t sound that bad, right? Well, I have not yet mentioned that thirty people will be attending this retreat, a 4-day retreat. So, let’s do the math – there will be at least 12 “daily drawing” prizes, 60 to 90 small gifts for every day, and one grand prize! Oh my!!!

I bet you think I am crazy, and I am! I’m crazy in love with making little things out of scraps and finding ways to get rid of the fabrics and supplies that I’ve collected over the years (ok, decades). I like to think about it as “making golden treasures out of the things people throw away!” This is where this month’s challenge comes in. I had plenty of fabric left over from my first year as an Island Batik Ambassador and like I’ve said before, I love scraps. But these fabrics were more than a little bit of scraps, so they would be perfect for some of the small gifts I was going to make.

With my batiks in hand, I started looking for fun things to make, things that I had never made before and some of my stand-bys that I always make, none of which have been seen by the ladies at the upcoming retreat. I ran across some wonderful ideas online and found the perfect one to make for this month’s challenge. It dawned on me that everyone at the retreat will have traveled to McCloud, and my guess is that they probably travel to other retreats as well, so a luggage tag would be perfect!

I was so excited to get started sewing, but then my sister asked, “What will you use to make the straps that attach the tags to the luggage?” “Fabric,” I said! To which she replied “I don’t think that will be strong enough to withstand the abuse at the airport. Remember those Samsung commercials showing gorillas tossing around, kicking and jumping on suitcases? Well… not much has changed over the years!”

Now what was I going to do? I used a lifeline and posted on the Island Batik Facebook page asking the rest of the Ambassadors if they had any of the woven ribbon that Island Batik uses to wrap around the bundles of fabrics we get. To my surprise I was not the only one who saved them. The majority of the Ambassadors were more than willing to help, all they wanted was to know how much I needed. I figured that I would need roughly 9 yards, and lo and behold! I got all I needed from one very generous Ambassador! Thank you, Connie Kaufman! You are a life saver!!

Now to start the process of making thirty luggage tags. Did I have thirty different pieces of fabric? You bet I did! Did I have vinyl and stabilizer? Why, yes indeed! Did I have matching thread (that’s funny!!!)? Not on your life! I’m not one who cares much about matching thread, but I knew where I could get it. I called a friend and asked if she would be willing to trade me thread for fabric; you know she said yes, and boy did I get a bargain. I got every color of the rainbow and more!

I found a template for luggage tags online and copied it onto the stabilizer using my printer, then cut out each one as straight as I could. I then cut out the vinyl that another friend had given to me when she cleaned out her sewing room. It was a bit wrinkled, so I put it under my laptop for a few days. As the laptop got warm so did the vinyl and it flattened out nicely. And lastly, I cut out all the fabrics. Wow! Now that was a job! And a very time consuming one at that! But I remembered that I was making “golden treasures out of the things people throw away,” but in this case using my leftover Island Batik fabrics from 2023 and loving every minute of it!

Prototype in the making.

With everything cut out it was time to start the assembly process. I first made one complete luggage tag to see if I could do it and if I needed to improve anything. My prototype was “a go,” so I sorted the fabrics by color in order to keep the thread changes to a minimum, and then started gluing… yes, I said gluing. I’m a firm believer that inexpensive dollar store glue is a necessary item in my sewing toolbox of notions. I folded, I glued, and I pressed ‘til the cows came home. It is amazing how well glue works and how many glue sticks I used; my guess would be about seven or eight large sticks. I was covered in glue, the iron was covered in glue, and the pressing mat was too! It was quite a sticky situation.

All glued together.

With everything securely glued and ready to go, it was time to sew everything in place. But wait! What about the woven ribbon from Island Batik? I cut fabrics matching the luggage tags, about half an inch wider than the ribbon, glued the fabric edges under, and then glued the fabric to the ribbon and pressed it well (now you know how the glue got on everything). And the last step, to the machine I went, to sew the edges for extra reinforcement. The tags turned out great, if I do say so myself! I love glue!!!

Putting the strap together.

Even now, after making so many things for the retreat, I look around and I can’t even tell that I used any of my scraps of fabric! I still have way too much fabric. And don’t forget the box of fabrics and notions I received in January 2024 from Island Batik for this year’s challenges. Guess I‘ll have to volunteer for another retreat to help a fellow quilter and to see if I can use up all the fabrics in my stash. I don’t think that will happen, but I’m going to try my best to do so.

Finished prototype.

All 30 luggage tags complete and ready to deliver to Rita Traxler.

Stop by my local shop, Swifty Stitches in Carmichael, Ca. for all you Island Batik fabric needs.

So, what did I learn this month?

I thought I ran out of glue sticks and was incredibly sad. But guess what, I didn’t. Woo-hoo!

Making small projects, even if it is well over four hundred items, appears to NOT make a dent in a fabric stash.

I worked on the little gifts for the retreat for at least two months and never wanted to quit.

Having friends who are willing to help with silly adventures like this one is the absolute best!

Thank you to my sister Pam (sister 2.0) for living through my excitement while sewing, Pam Hodges for the vinyl, Pamm Reed for the thread, Connie Kaufman for the Island Batik ribbon and most importantly #Island Batik for the wonderful free fabric that will make so many quilters happy.

Until next time, what is on your sewing table?

Victoria aka Tori

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