How about applique. Put all your background squares with the pieces that go on each one in a separate ziplock. Have each block ready to applique (center markings, pins, thread,needles,small scissors) Thread numerous needles and place in a small pin cushion in a ziplock. Then you can applique in the car too. We have a place in west Texas and one in Arkansas..lots of road time. I applique and make yo yos all the way there and back. I was amazed how much I could do.
D in TX

Hi, Yolanda.
My name is Deonn and I am a quiltaholic. If it's an addiction, I don't want to be cured!!

Anything is possible. Years ago I lived in Oregon and was taking a jewelry class at the college and was in a weaving guild where we did weaving and spinning. Meet a couple who were going to school and doing everything I did and they lived in the forest in a tent. When the forest service found them, they packed up and moved on somewhere else. Where there is desire, it happens!

Anything is possible. Years ago I lived in Oregon and was taking a jewelry class at the college and was in a weaving guild where we did weaving and spinning. Meet a couple who were going to school and doing everything I did and they lived in the forest in a tent. When the forest service found them, they packed up and moved on somewhere else. Where there is desire, it happens!

That's a good question. I know because I bought one of them to take camping! You will not be happy with it; at least I wasn't. Being older and wiser (I hope), I would now look for a hand-crank to take camping. I love the quiet of campgrounds with no electricity and no generators allowed, but a handcrank will silently give beautiful stitches. Have fun.

I know of a group of quilters whose families have cabins up in the mountains. They don't take battery operated sewing machines, but they all have treadle machines that they carry up there and sew.

You could machine sew a whole bunch of applique pieces with fusible ala Eleanor Burns, and then while away you could do the turning and hand sew them down. Although a battery run iron to fuse them would be good, a wooden pressing stick and a few pins would probably be okay. There is a Baltimore Album thread on here currently that might be inspiring.

Crochet is worth learning, too, because you can stay busy for hours with one hook and a ball of thread. (Is it heresy to advocate it here?)

I just had a funny idea: Can anyone explain why a skilled sewing machine repair person couldn't add a hand crank to just about any machine? They all make stitches when you turn the wheel, right? A crank is just an axle with a knob that rotates. How hard could it be? Just wondering.

There is NO CURE for this addiction! I even have a tee-shirt with an old Pfaff sewing machine on it that says this.

Years ago in the 70's we used to work Gun Shows. My job was primarily slave work, setting up, taking down, packing, unpacking--you get the idea. So I sat and hand-pieced blocks all day while my husband did all the B.S.ing and by the end of the show season I had a queen size quilt all ready to put together.