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A few weeks ago I was skimming through FaceBook and found a fascinating video about the quilt collection of filmmaker Ken Burns being exhibited through the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, NE (click here to watch the video). It was so interesting I shared it on my page. I then discovered that the video was 2 years old and his quilts were currently at their last venue: the Peoria Riverfront Museum in Illinois.

The day after I shared the video my friend Kathy texted me to see if I’d like to make the trip to Peoria with her. So… this past Friday I drove down to her home in Spring Grove, IL and together we began our journey to Peoria. Here we are with the delightful gnome garden she recently created:

On Saturday morning we visited two quilt shops:

After making our purchases and a delicious lunch, we made it to the museum. In the video I remember Ken Burns saying that he makes his films for others, but he collects quilts for himself. He was finally persuaded to share some of his collection and what a blessing it was to be able to see them.

Many of his quotes were posted near the quilts and his insights were fascinating.

Another of his quotes (I’m paraphrasing) stated that they didn’t need to be perfect, and he didn’t need to know their history for him to love them ~ and I agree 😊. The first quilt I saw was a red and white Oak Leaf and Reel.

It reminded me of one in my collection. Mine is not in as good of condition as the one above, but I do love it.

I’m not able to share all of the quilts, but I’d like to include a few more of my favorites, with my comments in the captions:

I saved this next one for last because it has a story. Last week at our ThreadBenders meeting Carol Butzke brought one of her antique quilts. She said it was from Pennsylvania, but other than that she didn’t have much information. It dated to c1910.

The reason she brought it was that she had recently been to the Ken Burns exhibit and she was sure it is a sister quilt to one in the collection:

Carol is a quilt historian and appraiser, so she knows her stuff ~ and she was really excited about the probable connection between these two amazing pieces. The colors in the stripes have a bit of variation, but everything else is virtually identical. WOW! I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to see them both in one week!

On the way home we made one more quilt shop stop at the Quilt Corner in Morton, IL.

Each shop had its own personality and was worth a visit. Then it was back to Wisconsin. It was a fun time with a dear friend, and it was filled with so much inspiration. Thanks Kathy!

If you want to see the Ken Burns collection, do it soon. The quilts will be going home to him after June 5th.

Last week I posted photos of the confetti landscape class I took with Sally Manke. By the end of class I was quite pleased with my project. It began with this photo,

a layer of backing fabric, thin cotton batt, confetti, and fabric strips. After three hours it looked like this:

The problem was that class was over and we had to transport this very schnibbly unfinished piece home. I covered it with tulle, per Sally’s instructions, and pinned a lot but I wish I’d pinned more. I also wish I’d listened to the teacher. She advised we bring large cardboard rectangles to enclose it and transport it flat. I cheated and after pinning it well, rolled it around a tube. By the time I unrolled it many of the confetti pieces had migrated to areas where they didn’t belong (sometimes teachers make the worst students – ugh!). So I attempted to lift the tulle and that didn’t work as well as I’d hoped (Mary Alice’s comment last week was correct, but I read it too late). In the end I did enough rearranging to be acceptable.

When I finally got to the quilting process, which holds the confetti in place under the tulle, there were fewer poppies than I’d originally planned, but I was happy enough with my first effort.

Next it was time to square the piece up for binding. I always square my quilts up through all three layers, and then add the binding. In this case I had a new problem. There were oodles of confetti bits waiting to be freed to flutter around my studio when the edge was cut away.

So I took a marker and drew the lines where I wanted the edge of my quilt to be, crossing the lines at the corners.

Then I sewed the binding on along the marked lines, mitering the corners as I went.

Once the binding was on I rotary cut along the marked lines (being very careful not to cut the binding).

The quilt was removed from the excess backing and batt, and taken outside so the schnibbles could be shaken free.

The binding was stitched to the back and my landscape was complete!

It was a good learning piece and I’m looking forward to making more! Especially if I don’t have to transport future pieces prior to quilting. Thanks to Sally for a great class – I highly recommend her classes!

Last week there was just too much to share about our trip to Paducah for one post, so I hope you’ll indulge me a bit longer. I did mention that you’d be able to see all the winners online and, if you haven’t yet, simply click here.

Bonnie Browning recently posted this drone photograph of the shoreline of Paducah. I was so pleased to see my “stomping grounds” in one photo. I’ve added points of interest so you can see that the show and other points of interest are truly walking distance from each other (if one is so inclined 😊).

Everything is quite close together and we can enjoy the beauty of the river too. What a wonderful photograph – thanks Bonnie!

After viewing the quilts and doing some vendor shopping (and purchasing some things I really need 😁), I also attended a few classes and lectures.

I mentioned that Karen Stone sat at our table at the Awards Presentation and went up on stage to receive two awards. Cathy and I were thrilled to be taking her all day class the next day. It was all about curved appliqué with men’s necktie fabric (or similar slippery stuff).

Years ago I stayed with a sweet quilter who shared with me a bag full of silk fabrics she’d bought at a local necktie factory. I’d previously used some of them in my Oak Leaf and Swirl quilt (click here for that post), but I had plenty leftover.

I was anxious to play with these gorgeous fabrics once again. Plus, I was looking forward to learning new tips for working with them. Cathy and I had a wonderful time in class and learned a lot. Karen is a fun, knowledgeable and excellent teacher!

The other workshop I took was with Sally Manke. I love teachers who are having fun and excited about their techniques. Both Karen and Sally fit this description. This class was on Confetti landscapes.

Her samples were great and making confetti was a playful, messy rotary cutting experience.

We began by choosing a photo for inspiration. Sally told me this one was taken on a walk near her home.

We chose fabrics, “wizzy-whacked” them into teeny-tiny pieces, and sprinkled them onto layered backing and batting.

I’d never done anything like this before and I was amazed at how much fun it was (especially with all of Sally’s helpful instruction). Once the base landscape was done, trees were added:

And then the foreground flora:

As class came to an end we covered our pieces with black tulle, pinned through all the layers, and took them home to quilt. I was very pleased and I look forward to getting it quilted.

Cathy and I both attended Susan Carlson’s lecture about her amazing animal quilts which were on display at the show. It was such fun to learn how she made all her pieces. Especially her 20 foot long Crocodile!

All 3 of us attended Heidi Profetty‘s lecture, and found her technique for mosaic quilts fascinating.

As we enjoyed her quilts and the process she uses to make them, we had no idea that we would become fast friends. Here’s the story: at the end of the show on Saturday Cathy and I helped to take down and roll all the wall quilts that needed to be mailed in tubes. Heidi’s flight home to Massachusetts had been canceled, so she volunteered to help with the rolling. She accepted our invitation to join us for dinner and then we had a wonderful “gab-fest” in our kitchen studio afterwards. We found all three of us had so much in common and I’m very grateful for this new friendship!

I feel so blessed to have been able to attend the last 31 AQS Spring Quilt Shows and hope to continue for a long time to come. The quilts and activities were all wonderful, but being with quilters was the best part.

It’s been 3 long years since I’ve been in Paducah ~ but I’m happy to report that the AQS quilt show was back and better than ever! This year my friend Cathy joined me for the first time.

We drove through Illinois and made some fun stops in Amish country. We settled into our second floor “condo” and set up our studio in the kitchen… it’s a tradition!

On Monday it was time to help hang the quilts. Over the years our job was to make the wall quilts look their absolute best. This year we also had the fun of pinning the miniature quilts into the cases.

Wow! They were beyond amazing! Just look at the size of the logs in this pineapple quilt!

We must have done it well because we were exhausted by the end of the day. Then the fun of the show began. Linda flew up to be with us on Tuesday. She had the nerve to move to Florida a year ago – so it was really fun to spend some quality time with her!

Linda has roomed with me on this trip before and the 3 of us make a great team. However – Cathy took so many classes, we never got a photo of all of us together 😔. Separately I made it to Etcetera Coffee House for bubble tea with both of them.

The first night Linda was with us we went to the Awards Presentation. There were yummy snacks in a lovely venue. Susan Cleveland did a great job of announcing all the winners and it was fun to see the ones who were there go up on the stage and receive their award.

One of the quilters at our table had a quilt in the show. Lori said she made it to go on her bed, not a wall. And I was excited to see it in the show.

Two other women joined us right before the ceremony began and both of them were ribbon winners. In fact, Karen Stone won two ribbons and Cathy and I were in her class the next day. I’ll be posting about my classes next week.

After the ceremony we attended the “Sneak Preview” of the quilts for two hours and it was overwhelming and inspiring.

To me the quilts are the best part of the show (with apologies to all you “vendors first” quilters out there 🤣), so I’d like to share some of my favorite ones with you. You can see all the ribbon winners on the AQS website, and some of my faves were among them, but some were not and I hope you’ll enjoy the variety of the ones I chose (and believe me ~ I could have included so many more!).

We’ll start with the best of show quilt: Crazy for Ewe by Janet Stone.

As I examined this quilt front and back I was confused because the quilting didn’t match. This was the center elongated rectangle filled with the alphabet, from the back:

and here it is from the front:

Where’d the alphabet go?!? Fortunately the maker was there and she explained that the front of the quilt was made with blank red “boxes” wherever a block was supposed to go. She quilted and bound each block separately and appliquéd them into the red boxes which had previously been quilted from the back, and thus a frame was created around them. Amazing!

The best wall quilt was equally fascinating in a completely different way. Just look at the depth the maker acheived by using the appropriate value of fabrics in this stunning pictorial quilt!

As I share more of the quilts I hope you get a feel for the variety and skill level each required. I can’t imagine judging a show like this. The following award winning quilt in the modern category stopped me in my tracks.

My friend Sharon and I made a quilt with almost the identical design for the National Quilt Museum’s New Quilts From an Old Favorite contest in 2009. It was part of the touring exhibit and won numerous other awards. What a hoot to see it done as a modern quilt in this year’s show (Do note our center block is 3/4″ finished 😁).

Here are the rest, in no particular order (and note that I tried to include the tag in each so you can read the name and maker – but in a few, I was so excited I missed it):

There were challenge exhibits, and lectures, and bicycle taxi rides too this week, but I think they’ll have to tumble over into next week’s blog. I’m so grateful for another wonderful week in Paducah!

Can you guess where I’m posting from?

Yup! We just drove over the “flying geese” bridge to arrive in Paducah for the 2022 show. After 3 years I’m finally here again and very excited. Stay tuned for next week’s post to read all about it 😊.

And now for this week’s topic:

The pandemic pushed me into a semi-retirement ~ and I’m thrilled to be coming out of it! Thanks to all the guilds who have recently booked lectures and workshops with me! My quilts and I are happy to start traveling again.

I’m also missing my regular classes at WCTC, and I’ve decided to head in a bit of a different direction by offering some classes really local. I’ve actually begun teaching in a lovely “Stamping Studio” in Watertown, WI. I realize many of you do not live close enough to take advantage of these classes, but I hope you will enjoy reading about my new adventure in this week’s post.

Lyssa recently opened Song of My Heart Studio to teach paper crafting. She holds classes in scrapbooking and card making and is very excited about hosting workshops in other mediums in her studio. Click here to visit her blog. I love that she is in an old downtown building filled with character and, even though her front door isn’t flamboyant:

the inside is bright, welcoming and inspiring. She has many of her cards for sale ~ and they are amazing (so I’ve decided to buy from her and keep on quilting instead of learning a new addiction 😊).

There’s room for 8 quilters with machines. The lighting is good and I’ll have extra cutting tables and pressing surfaces set up. I will be holding sew days as well as project and technique classes.

I’m calling this adventure: Stitching Together. I’ll be hosting Open Sew afternoons, as well as quilting classes. The first 2 classes I’ll be offering are my Beyond Meandering free motion quilting class

and a Striped Pinwheel Topper.

To read more about the studio and all the class details, please click here!

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I need to add one more topic to this week’s post because of its time sensitive nature. The Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts currently has an exhibit of quilts from Quilt Nihon in Japan. Mike and I went to see it this past week and it was amazing. It runs through the end of April, so I’m including this for anyone who still can make it to the museum ~ and for anyone who can’t, but would like to get a mini virtual tour. They were all worthy of sharing, but here are just a few of my favorites, with a few close-up photos because the detail is truly amazing!

They were jaw-dropping and even Mike was impressed!

I’ve written recently on the generosity of quilters and this week’s topic is another wonderful continuation of that theme.

Every so often someone lets me know that one of my posts was an inspiration to them and shows me the results. What a blessing this is to me. This time the quilter who greatly encouraged me is Tomi Fay. If her name sounds familiar it’s because she’s inspired a number of posts over the years. My favorite was the one about the Seminole Indians. She shared the history she knew of the Seminole women, the story of her grandfather trading with them, and even found an original doll online which now lives with me. Click here to read that post!

Here’s Tomi’s most recent email:

“You started this! My nephew and his wife are missionaries and I’ve been very involved in supporting their work for 20 years. Each month I tally the donations and so deeply appreciate the support of so many. A couple years ago I decided to thank those people, and I knit little hearts and mailed them out for Valentine’s. This year I was casting about for something to mail out to Brian’s supporters to express my appreciation. 

Do you know where this is going? I saw your blog post about the hearts with the photo. That’s perfect! The photo idea wasn’t useful for this, but the hearts are wonderful! So I dug through my  fabric collection and pulled out all sorts of pieces that would be fun to make into hearts. I made enough to send to Brian’s supporters, along with a hand-written note.“

“But it was too much fun to stop! So I made more. During COVID spring 2020 I felt the Holy Spirit show me that a number of women in our church were truly alone, constrained to their homes. For a number of weeks I made meals and delivered them every Wednesday. If the person wanted me to come in, I did. I just wanted them to know they were not forgotten. Then last Valentine’s I put together treats for the women in my church and neighborhood who are not blessed with a man in their lives – most are widows. This year I did the same again. You can see I made an assortment of muffins, and tied a heart to the top of the box. 

In all I made 77 hearts. It was so much fun! Thank you for a terrific idea!

My blessings, Tomi Fay Forbes”

I’m so grateful for all the dear believers, like Tomi Fay’s nephew and his wife, who give up the comfort of a “normal” life to help those in need and share the Gospel. I feel these missionaries are so deserving of our prayers and support. But not everyone is meant to go on the mission field. We can all do things to bless others. And those who live alone are a special group who do need encouraging. Small things like hearts and muffins can be a big deal to those who are struggling. Thank you Tomi Fay!

If you’ve been inspired to give hearts to encourage others as Tomi Fay has done, you can find the tutorial on the pocket hearts by clicking here! And here are the small hearts she inspired me to make. I haven’t yet decided where I will gift them, but it was a joy to make them ~ and I actually used up a few bright and cheerful scraps from my fishbowl (to read a post about my fishbowl full of scraps click here).

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Happy Resurrection Sunday!

“My life was a purposeless puzzle, until I met Christ at the foot of His cross, and now I’m Puzzled No More!

Salvation – the most wonderful gift!

This post is dedicated to everyone who helped with the “Quilts for Ukraine” effort. At the end of last week Eileen and I stopped by our drop spots and collected up the very tall stacks of quilts. Last Saturday we got together to pack them up for their long trip. They were each beautiful and special.

What fun it was to unfold each one! We decided to roll them up, sleeping bag style, so we could get as many as possible into each box.

Eileen used up her ribbon collection (striving to match the color 😊) to secure the rolls.

And in a few hours they were rolled

and ready for bagging and boxing:

On Tuesday Eileen’s husband and son loaded the truck, and we headed into Milwaukee to meet up with Judy and her team to add our treasures to their trailer-ful of quilts.

After comparing notes the total number of quilts donated was over 170! Thanks to Judy for spearheading this effort and all of her hard work! Eileen and I prayed for Judy and her crew to have safe travels to Chicago, and for the quilts to each reach the person the Lord knows most needs it.

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you to all who participated. What a blessing to be able to be a small measure of help to many who are suffering so much.

Before I get to today’s topic I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated quilts and money for the Ukraine project. We are in the process of packing them up and getting them to Judy. Please be sure to read next week’s blog post for all the details 😃

And now for this week’s post:

My dear friend Sue inspired this week’s topic. She sent me the following comment in an email last week:

“I was at the Mukwonago show on Saturday and once again heard some comments like, “This quilt is gorgeous, why wouldn’t it have gotten a ribbon?”.  I’ve had the privilege of observing some quilt judging and know that there are several factors that must be considered.

I’m hoping that you would consider doing your blog on the subject some time.  I think people would find it interesting and informative.”

Thanks Sue!

Please know that the following is all simply my opinion, but I hope you find it helpful.

I learned to quilt in 1987, when we were living in Sun Prairie, WI. My first quilt was a machine pieced and hand-quilted lap quilt that has been loved a lot, and is quite threadbare now. I was so excited with my finished quilt that I entered it in the Sun Prairie quilt show ~ a very long time ago.

It didn’t win a ribbon, but so many people got to see it and I was thrilled. I still feel that one of the best reasons for quilt shows is to allow others to see our work. Ribbons and awards are nice, but I love viewing all the quilts in the show – not just the prize winners.

As I continued to quilt, I continued to want to share my work and as a result, I have entered many shows. Sometimes I get a ribbon and many times I don’t. To give you an idea of how many shows I’ve entered, these are the ribbons I’ve collected for the quilts that got the approval of a judge 😊:

Please don’t be overly impressed ~ I’ve been collecting them for 3 decades 😁. I especially treasure the ones with hand made tops!

So, why do some quilts get ribbons, and other wonderful quilts don’t? The overly simple answer for most shows is ~ it depends on the other quilts in that category. The first category I judged in Mukwonago last week had 34 bed sized quilts in it. I was told to award 4 ribbons per category: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and honorable mention. That means a lot of great quilts didn’t get a ribbon. The next category I judged had 2 quilts in it. Think about that! A quilt in that category will get a ribbon, but non-ribbon winners in the other categories may be much more complex with better workmanship. Then they hang next to each other in the show and everyone scratches their head, wondering what the judges were thinking.

I must admit I do struggle with this as a judge. I looked at so many quilts last week that were visually delightful, and in which the maker did each aspect of the construction well, but there were other quilters in the category who had done a bit better. When this happens I try to make positive judges comments on the form and, if I don’t see anything that needs improvement, I leave that box blank. That in itself is a form of winning.

I still believe that everyone who enters a quilt in a show is a winner because others can enjoy their work!

Please know that judging quilt shows is the most difficult thing I do in my quilting life. I think most judges feel this way because we strive to base our decisions on the quilt’s merit and not on our own personal opinion. I don’t take the job lightly and I have to try not to agonize over my decisions afterwards, nor let them keep me awake that night.

I have a story to go with that thought. Years ago I judged a local show near West Bend, WI. I was the only judge and there were over 200 quilts. That was a long day. What made it even more of a challenge was that Carol Butzke, a certified judge, amazing quilter, and dear friend, was in that guild. She was a quilt holder that day ~ and I was judging the show with her watching!!! She was very gracious, but I must admit it was a bit intimidating. Well, after lunch a person from their local newspaper came in to take photos and write up a story. Carol sent me a copy for my scrapbook.

At 7am the Tuesday after the show my phone rang and a quilter woke me up to ask me why she didn’t get a ribbon. There’s definitely pressure when judging! Yet I love to see the quilts and if I didn’t really enjoy it ~ I wouldn’t do it 😊.

Here’s another perspective. Each judge, no matter how hard they try to make the best choice, has their own opinions on fabric, color, workmanship, etc. I have had numerous quilts win a first place ribbon in one show and win nothing in the next. I remember one time when I’d entered the State Fair with a quilt I’d made for a “Wisconsin Sesquicentennial” challenge in my guild. I went to watch the judging and I was thrilled when my quilt received a 2nd place ribbon. When the Fair started, a few weeks later, there was a much bigger ribbon hanging from my quilt. A team from Wisconsin Quilters, Inc (our State guild that sadly doesn’t exist any longer) went through the show and selected quilts for their own Best of Show ribbons in four categories … and mine won for best wall quilt! That is a very cherished ribbon indeed!

You even see this happening at the bigger shows. A number of times, when I’ve been at the AQS show in Paducah, I’ve come across quilts without ribbons that I’d seen featured in their magazine a few months earlier because they’d won a ribbon in a previous AQS show.

Some shows have tried to overcome this problem by allowing the judges to assign points based on a grading scale and the point values are set for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. In this way many ribbons can be awarded in each category. This is a totally different mindset for the judges, and it has its advantages. Yet it’s not for every show, because more ribbons and prize money is needed to cover all the extra winners.

I hope this gives you a bit of a new perspective concerning the title question in this post. Here’s a little more food for thought:

At smaller quilt shows and fairs there is no jurying process prior to the judging. This means that every quilt that is entered gets in, up to the maximum number accepted. This provides great variety in the overall show, and it’s fun to see.

When a person enters a quilt in a National level quilt show, (AQS, IQA and even the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show are all examples) photos must be submitted ahead of time and only those deemed “the best” are accepted into the show for judging. Right from the start the competition is going to be a lot tougher – and oodles of wonderful quilts don’t get ribbons. Often at these shows the comment overheard is “I’m overwhelmed because I could never make any of these quilts, I wish they had some normal quilts in this show”. I kid you not, I’ve heard those exact words many times. You can’t please everyone.

My advice? Don’t make quilts for the sole purpose of winning a ribbon. Make quilts for the joy they bring. Keep on quilting, enter your quilts in shows if that’s something you like to do, and then go and enjoy the show. If you’re not a competitive person ~ go to the shows and ENJOY! At every show I attend I see something that intrigues me and often it gets incorporated in a future quilt. This is a wonderful way to grow in our passion, and improve!

Thanks to all of you who put on quilt shows for us to enjoy. It’s a lot of hard work; a labor of love. And I for one appreciate you all!

PS When the judging was just about finished at last week’s Crazy Quilters show, each of the four judges was invited to choose their personal favorite quilt in the show ~ from those that didn’t have a ribbon already hanging on it. That’s when I chose Mary’s quilt. Please don’t miss the beautiful hand made ribbon topper:

I love that they have us choose from the vast group of un-ribboned quilts. And I’d like to encourage you to do the same the next time you’re at a quilt show. Pick your own viewers choice from the un-ribboned quilts, ask your friends to do the same, then compare notes. It adds some extra fun to the event!