Do I have enough? Just one more?

I recently listened to an American Patchwork and Quilting podcast about how patchworkers travel, and it got me thinking. In the podcast they talked about buying fabric, at your destination, that reflects the destination, about taking sewing with you to do in the car, plane and at the destination and about planning your holiday around quilt shops.

Ahh travel, a thing of the past thanks to COVID but I am hopeful to be able to travel again next year even if only within Australia.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog I have made several quilts about holiday destinations I have been to but there is still a problem I ponder each time I am getting ready to go on holiday, “how much sewing should I take or need?” The last thing I want to happen is to run out of sewing and find myself on a 6 hour train journey and no sewing.

Is the calculation 1 block per day or per week or 1 per plane trip or 1 per train trip. I know what you are saying “you can never have too much so just prep more”. But there is the issue of packing it and keeping it organised when you are packing and unpacking when traveling.

So what do I do? Firstly the calculation very much depends on what sort of a holiday you are going on, but I would usually prep at least one block per day and 2 to 4 for the travel to and from. When we Australian’s travel overseas we are usually on the plane for many hours.

When it comes to packing and keeping it all organised, I have a secret weapon, Jen Kingswell’s Block Wrap, https://www.jenkingwelldesigns.com/jens-block-wrap . It has room to lay out 6 blocks, keeps them tidy and ready to be sewn. As you finish a block take if out and lay out the next block therefore you always have 6 blocks at the ready.  The rest of my block pieces I keep in letter size envelopes, well labelled and held together with a sturdy bulldog clip. Needles, tiny cutter and pins are all in a small needle wallet. I then put all these into a well labelled packing cell, neat, tidy and very easy to find in the suitcase.

I have photos of me sewing in all sorts of holiday destination eg Machu Picchu, Antarctica, Uluru. I have had to go into the hotel laundry to iron my block while staff watched on and I have finger pressed many a block until I could access an iron. It has all been fun and I think of all those experiences and places when I look at the blocks.  

I hope this has given you some ideas for your next trip.

Here’s to travel and prepping our sewing and packing it lovingly ready for the big day, departure day.

Happy sewing wherever you are

Margaret