Travel quilting..Help, I need advice.
 

I'm getting ready for a trip. How do I decide what projects to take along with me? I'll be away for about six months.
This has been an issue for me for years and I just can't sort it out. Every time we arrive at the other house, I get inspired to work on something back at the main house. Yesterday, I started picking out recent favorites to work on and putting the patterns in a binder. Next thing I know the binder is already half full. This morning I've got another pile, and I haven't even gotten to the fabric sorting yet. Seems like I'm trying to outsmart my fickle creative brain, how do you even do that? I've watched Ruth, The Traveling Quilter, for how she plans things, but no clues there, she just seems to instinctively get ideas on the fly to fill in between planned projects. And she has the fabric in one of her totes!! What?? If I keep on like this, we'll be renting a box trailer to lug my fabric back and forth and I still won't have that one thing I left behind.
You know what? It's like the addict for whom a teaspoon is too much and an ocean is not enough.

Or maybe Ruth does have a huge trailer her hubby is towing along, she's just not telling. Ha!

Instead of putting patterns in a binder find the fabrics needed and group them together in bags or boxes. Then take however many you think you will have time for. Add a couple extras. I would mix bigger projects with smaller ones to fill in

Oh, I love that idea. Making your own quilt/project kits in bags/boxes and then just pack as many as you think you can get done or will hold your interest. You can always leave room for trips to a local quilt store to pick up things you forgot or run out of....coordinating fabric, thread, bobbins, etc. and then maybe pick up a new project along the way - just for fun. Enjoy your travels!

Great idea!

I agree with bringing kits to work on, whether they're purchased or made up from your stash.

My travel from home has never been six months….many times…six weeks…..and yes I kit up blocks for a certain pattern and work with what I have. I cannot imagine stressing out about what I might have left at home….but each of us have traveled a different road, and I hope you can figure out what will give you peace in your travels.

I always think about what I have in the other home. Then what activities do I participate in during the summer. I try to think about how many quilts do I really have time to make and the ones I want to make. Then I package up kits and pick out the threads, rulers, rotary cutters, etc.

One of the ladies who goes south for the winter usually cuts out some quilts for the time she's away. Of course, she doesn't have her longarm, so she only makes the tops.

Are you planning to make tops or make completed quilts? In that case, you will need patterns, cutters, cutting boards, sewing machines, basting spray (or whatever you use for basting), etc, etc, etc. Making completed quilts takes a lot of "stuff". Whether you go by car or by plane, you can only take so much (unless you ship the excess).

I don't know about you, but it takes me at least a month to complete a quilt. That would mean I could only take 6 projects.I would choose which ones that interested me the most and kit them up in bags.

You make a decision and live with it. You never have a perfect outcome. There is usually/sometimes a "wish I'd done it differently". You can't make a perfect decision for the future, as you don't know what the circumstances will be. You can't know what you will want to do four months from now. You can only make a decision based on what you know now.

bkay

Are there quilt shops or places to buy supplies where you are going? If so, leave room for an impulse buy.

I travel too, but in a 5th wheel, not to another house to stay. The first year I made up two kits but didn't cut enough of one fabric to finish one so had to buy a couple of green fat quarters. And then I finished both projects and didn't have any happy space sewing to do. (Yes, we can shop, but I'm not a shopper or stash builder, therein lies madness in my mind)
Last year I prepped 4 project boxes and finished them so yes, I stopped at a Nevada shop and bought enough fabric to do the Heartfelt sampler quilt, lots of small blocks so that got me home and well into winter.

This year we'll be gone 2 months shortly, and another 4 this fall. I think I have 7 project boxes plus a box of neutral stings and a roll of cash register tape :) I'm working on a seris of 40" square double sided quilts for our loft rail.
And in all honestey, because we are all friends here... when I get floppy brained I stand in front of my grandmothers hall mirror and shout "What are you, Eight Years Old?"

and when not sewing, we see the sights of the areas, we generally stay 4-7 days in each spot so plenty of time for everything.