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A few months back I got the idea that it would be fun to go to the AQS show in Branson. I’ve never been there and seeing Branson plus a quilt show struck me as a golden opportunity. I asked Mike if he wanted to go and he responded “no thanks” (ever since he retired from flying all over he doesn’t want to go anywhere – and I get it). So I asked if he’d mind my going with a friend and got a sweet – “no problem”. So I texted Cathy and we made plans. After looking at the map I realized that Hamilton, MO was sort of on the way, so this past week we loaded up the car and headed south.

It was a lovely day for a road trip and we arrived right at 5pm.

We checked into our lovely Air B&B, just a block off the main street, and went for a walk.

The stores had all just closed, so we took an obligatory selfie, peeked in a bunch of windows, and had a quick dinner at a local shop. We were even privileged to see the biggest spool of thread. I only wish I’d had some thread with me to add to it.

That night we found a puzzle in the B&B and had it together before going to bed. Cathy and I both have puzzling brains.

The next morning we hit the shops of Missouri Star with enthusiasm and oh what fun we had! The fabric was gorgeous and plentiful, and the people were so friendly.

Each of the buildings housed a different type of fabric (solids, kids, batiks, seasonal, etc.) and most of them were connected. Everything was delightfully neat and organized, with oodles of encouraging and funny quilting phrases and signs painted everywhere.

I was so impressed that I had to give Jenny a high five:

We have plenty of purchases to remember her “buy” 😁.

Then it was time for lunch. Mrs. Littles Tea and Toys looked intriguing:

The decor couldn’t have been more charming.

Our soup, sandwiches and all the special extras were served on tiered plates, and every bite was delicious.

After lunch Mrs. Little came out to see how everything was ~ and we told her how much we enjoyed it. I asked her if I could take photos and include them in my blog post about our visit to Hamilton and she was thrilled. So thrilled that she told me to tell all of you that if you travel to Hamilton and visit Mrs. Little’s Tea and Toys, simply mention you heard about her here and she’ll have a little treat for you.

What a wonderful time we had in Hamilton! And that was only the beginning of our trip! Next week come back to hear all about the 100th AQS show and our adventures in Branson.

And if you haven’t been stitching on any quilts recently, remember what it says on the side of a building there:

I think they forgot the word “quilts”, but you get the idea.

Before I jump into Curves, I feel quite sure many of you will want to read a few more quilt stories in a wonderful blog post by Krista Moser. Last week I shared the stories of a few quilts I saw at a recent show (click here for that post). Afterwards I received an email from Karen linking me to an article entitled “Who’s that Girl” (thanks Karen!). In it Krista has photos of some amazing historical quilts and a bit about their makers. Please click here to read the stories in Krista’s post.

And now watch out, there are

This was the “big” challenge theme in our ThreadBenders group this year, and here are the rules:

“Each participant may use any technique they desire to construct a 36″ x 36″ square quilt with abstract curves and NO straight lines. The quilting may include straight lines, and striped fabrics are ok.

Quilt shouldn’t represent an object or scene – strictly abstract.

Any fabrics/colors may be used. Plus – we will each purchase a yard of the same green fabric. This fabric must be used as a 1/2″ finished binding on the front of the quilt. Some of the lime green fabric must be used in the quilt itself also. The amount is up to the artist.“

We had our big reveal meeting recently and the quilts are delightful! I’m so impressed with this group. We are fairly new and most of those who joined 7 years ago were not even sure if they were art quilters. But, with our big win at AQS Grand Rapids last year, we’ve come a long way – and we’re having fun too!

To visit our site and see all the Curves Ahead quilts please click here.

As usual, I’d like to share my quilt, and the journey it took me on. I started by coming up with a color palette ~ Citrus Splash seemed like a good choice considering the binding had to be lime green. So I dug through my stash for oranges and yellows to join the fun.

Next, I did a web search and found an image that was very curvy, and very joyful. I purchased the rights to use the image as my inspiration, and I was off and running:

I simplified a few of the curves and knew I was going to remove a bunch of circles. Then I had the entire pattern printed out at 36″ x 36″.

As I often do, I chose my repliqué technique to do the hard work. I pinned the white background fabric to the back of my pattern and stitched down the center of a few of the heavy black curves to anchor the background to the pattern. Then I placed the wrong side of the appropriate citrus colored fabric in place on the right side of the background, pinned it in place, and straight stitched along both sides of that black area.

Next I flipped it over and trimmed away the excess fabric.

And satin stitched over the raw edges.

That was fun. But how to make all those circles? I certainly wasn’t going to satin stitch around each one. Time to pull out the Scan and Cut™ and fuse some fabric pieces, wrong sides together. My circles ranged from 3/8″ to 3″, and it was a blast playing with this great tool.

Since the circles were backed, it would be pretty simple to stitch them onto a finished base quilt. So I quilted the whole thing in the background with long curving lines. I like to do what I call “airplane” quilting on these types of lines. Please let me explain. I prefer to do long lines like these with a walking foot and feed dogs. The problem is I tend to want to position my hands close to the needle and try to show the machine how to do it. This seldom works well and puckers are the result. Instead I’ve discovered that if I sit back and grasp the quilt out and to the sides, allowing the feed dogs to do what they’re good at, I get much better results.

Once quilted the required green binding went on.

Now, what design would be best for anchoring all 86 circles in place? I made a small sample and tried out an asterisk, a spiral, and a 5 petaled posey. My granddaughter Hanna said the posey made it look like a citrus fruit cut in half. It was also the most fun to stitch (even the 3/8″ ones), so that design won.

I pinned the circles wherever I felt like it, and finally decided when enough was enough.

Once they were stitched in place ~ the quilt was done!

The entire challenge is a delight for the eyes. If you haven’t visited the ThreadBenders site yet, I’ll repeat the link: click here.

Plus… our curvy quilts will be exhibited at the Crazy Quilters Quilt Guild Show on April 1st & 2nd in Mukwonago, WI. For all the details click here!

It’s quilt show season ~ and I want to see them all. So this weekend my friend Cindy and I attended the West Suburban Quilters show at the Expo Center in Waukesha.

Recently I was listening to a sermon that talked about how we are all wired to enjoy a good story, and of course he went on to talk about the greatest story ever told 😁. I couldn’t help but smile when I realized the show’s theme was “Quilts Tell Stories” ~ and they do! This is actually a big part of my lectures and classes. I love to tell stories, especially about my quilts. I enjoy hearing the stories of quilts made by others too. So… I hope you’ll enjoy my sharing a few of my favorite quilts from this recent show and some of their stories too.

One of the first quilts I saw hanging was a variation of the One Block Wonder! How exciting, since I’ve been really into this “wonder”ful technique recently (my last 3 blogposts were about them you know). I’ll start my virtual show with Patty Martin’s “Sunflower Kaleidoscope”.

I was captivated! How did she get the the house and the flowers to all flow together so well? Then I met up with her and I couldn’t wait to ask her all about it. Her secret (well it’s not really a secret 😊)? She cut her repeats from identical panels. The original panel was of a home under a blue sky, surrounded by flowers. This is a portion of that original panel:

She purchased 7 panels and cut her identical strips and triangles from 6 of them. Then she cut entire portions of that last panel and merged it with her pieced hexagon blocks. In this block you can see entire sunflowers and a pieced one, which I outlined in red (there are some half hexagons too):

Here are the daisies in the panel, and half of a pieced daisy block:

She laughingly told me that she was having a hard time getting it all to work until she got a design wall. Oh yeah ~ that’s essential for this type of work. Plus, Patty has a great eye for placing the blocks. She says she already has the panels purchased for her next quilt. I can’t wait to see it!

As I continued to wander around the show there were lovely pieced quilts like Leftovers by Lucy Herman. This quilt’s story is that these blocks were the ones she didn’t like from a previous quilt. She was surprised how great it turned out. The variety of values add so much interest.

There were wool applique quilts like Woodland Creatures by Darlene Savatsky:

And a Mariner’s Compass my friend MaryJo started in one of my classes and finished it for the show.

Wash Day is a sweet Row-by-Row quilt made by Ann Walker.

Lolita Lukach shared her story about her quilt ~ Christmas Memories. She said the photos were of past Christmases from 1945 to about 2010. Many of her family’s special events took place in December such as weddings, graduations, etc.

She did an amazing job of putting it all together. Here’s a detail shot:

Mary Margaret Wacker’s quilt “Nine Kids in Pajamas and One Na-Kid” really made me laugh … when I finally got it!

The “Na-Kid” one is the goat who’s PJs are hanging on the line 🤣.

What Lies Beneath is a modern quilt by Judy Valentino. She states that the design was hand drawn in a class, enlarged and then created in fabric.

Mary Clare Schuller was gifted bright birthday blocks which she decided to make into a large table runner, and then quilt in black because she was feeling confident and bold. She used Lori Kennedy’s Peony quilting pattern. WOW!

I ran into my friend Gloria Volland at the show and she told me the background for her quilt “Happy Tomorrows With Sunflowers” was inspired by the Gradations workshop I taught for her guild. I couldn’t wait to find it and when I did I wasn’t disappointed.

Gloria also had a lovely exhibit of quilts she made from her hand embroidered Christmas blocks.

They were each hand embroidered and hand quilted!

I have to include a quick photo of some of our ThreadBender challenge quilts. It’s always fun to have our art quilts exhibited.

And of course Cindy and I had to support the great vendors and the guild boutique.

Then we had a delicious lunch in Waukesha. Our day together was made complete by a visit to Sew Much More since Cindy is new to the area and had never been there before. What a fun day!

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I started this post with photos of a One Block Wonder quilt and I’d like to end it with photographs some of my readers sent me in response to my previous posts. They are so interesting and I’m sure you’ll enjoy seeing them too!

Barbara wrote to me:

“I thought I would share my one block wonder quilt with you.  I have done other stack and whack quilts but only one like this. My before fabric was pretty wild!!  I took a class from you several years ago in Bismarck, ND.”

It was so nice to here from her, and here’s her fabric and her quilt:

Shellie also sent me a photograph of her One Block Wonder quilt with this note:

“Back about 2014 or so, I made a one block wonder, using Maxine’s book.  I made it in a class at a now-defunct quilt shop in Chanhassen, Minnesota (west of Minneapolis).  I found it quite exhausting, working with 84 sets of 6 triangles, each with 3 different possible combinations.  I could only do so many a day.  But I was pleased with how it came out.”

This technique certainly has inspired some beautiful quilts!

I had a wonderful time arranging the triangles from last week’s post into hexagons. Each block could be arranged 3 different ways. So there were a lot of decisions to be made. Here are the options for just one set of triangles.

I chose the third one, but they were all interesting.

Once the blocks were made I began to lay them out. At this point I want to share a personal opinion with you. I’ve seen many One Block Wonder quilts and find them fascinating, but there’s a part of me that thinks placing all those lovely blocks right up against one another can take away from the beauty of each block.

I started to arrange my blocks and just couldn’t get into it.

Then I remembered seeing hexagon blocks set with additional contrasting 60 degree triangles between them. I did a quick internet search, but couldn’t find what I was looking for, so I decided to choose a coordinating yet contrasting fabric and cut lots more triangles. I sewed them to opposite sides of each hexagon turning them into diamonds.

And arranged them on the design wall at our last retreat.

WOW! This resulted in each hexagon turning into a six pointed star. I loved it! The separation made the pattern in each block stand out. To sew them together I spaced out the diagonal rows,

added filler triangles to the ends of the strips, and sewed them all together. I was pleased with the results.

I found some buttery yellow minkie at Sandy Creek Quilts in Lodi while on our retreat, and decided to put it on the back. I layered it all with a thin, 80 cotton/20 poly blend batt, quilted everything through the centers of the diamonds ~ and then folded the backing to the front to create a very soft binding.

Thanks to Ruth for showing us how to make these delightful blocks. Stay tuned for photos of baby girl Walters receiving her quilt sometime soon.

And one more thing!

I didn’t do much quilting or teaching during our move and “reconstruction”. Recently I’ve had two people ask me if I ever teach beginner classes. They were both from Watertown, and one was a high school student. Ooh! I love getting people addicted to quilting! Yesterday I stitched together a fun-for-beginners pinwheel table runner. Then I contacted Lyssa at the Watertown shop where I’ve been teaching ~ and here are the details:

Beginning Quilting Class ~ Pinwheel Table Runner

In this 3 hour long class students will learn the basics of rotary cutting and stitching accurate seams, while piecing a lovely three block runner. A future “finishing” class will be scheduled to learn the basics of layering a quilt sandwich, quilting the layers together and binding the edges.

I love to encourage everyone to learn to quilt, but I’m offering a special price to teenagers in hopes of getting the next generation to fall in love with quilting too!

When: Saturday, April 1, 2023 from 9 – noon (no fooling 😊)

Cost: $20 per adult, teenagers half price! Pay in class, but you must sign up with an email to or text to (262)719-5018.

Supply lists will be sent at time of sign up. If you don’t have a sewing machine or rotary cutting equipment, I would be happy to let you use mine, but you must let me know that at time of sign up.

For all the information about the shop and it’s location click here!

Last week I shared Ruth’s One Block Wonder quilts from our December Sew Day. At our January Sew Day we all brought fun fabrics to try it for ourselves. Ruth began by showing us how to cut six identical strips from the fabric, then we cross~cut these strips into triangles. That’s when the real fun began!

Eileen picked a lovely poinsettia print and got a little one~on~one instruction from Ruth:

Her fabric made fascinating blocks and we all enjoyed offering our opinions as she laid them out.

As she put the triangles together it became apparent that this fabric caused the resulting hexagons to look like they had a lot more piecing in them then they did.

And here are some of her blocks:

I layered my 6 large strips of the fabric, cut 3 1/2″ strips, and then crosscut piles of triangles:

Don’t you just love the variety!

We had a great time deciding which way to lay out our blocks and everyone got into it, including the teacher.

A few of us started stitching that day, but we didn’t get very far. I got to work on mine at retreat and will share the results next week. I can’t wait to see what my friends are doing with theirs. Stay tuned for all the fun!

Before I jump into this week’s topic, I wanted to share a link. The Winter Quilt Show I wrote about in last week’s post was a “Viewer’s Choice” show. The winners have been posted on the museum’s site. Please go to: https://www.wiquiltmuseum.com/quilt-contest-winter-quilt-show and scroll to the bottom to read all about them.

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And now for this week’s topic:

Our Fiberistas group had a sew day in December and our newest member brought along some fun show and tell. Ruth loves to make One Block Wonder quilts based on the book by Maxine Rosenthal. 

I’ve made many “Stack and Whack” style quilts over the years, and even came up with my own way of making a block I call Spin Star.

It’s such fun to see all the different blocks that come from one multicolored print! I typically look for a large print with a swirly feel, as in the border fabric above. Another example is this fabric designed by Jane Sassaman:

It worked great! To make my spin star blocks I needed to find 8 repeats in the fabric, so I could cut 8 identical triangles:

Then the fun comes in laying out the triangles to see the different patterns that result. If I put the green corner in the center I get this:

but if the yellow goes central it’s a completely different look:

The hard part is deciding which is the best. And each stack of these triangles could make two different blocks. Too much fun! It’s especially delightful to teach this class because everyone gets to see the amazing variety of blocks the others make.

My technique makes “swiss cheese” out of the fabric, but the blocks make it all worthwhile.

The One Block Wonder variation of Stack and Whack Ruth shared uses strips of the fabric repeat and doesn’t result in “holey” fabric. It makes a much busier quilt because the hexagons all butt up to one another. It’s a different, yet exciting look.

Ruth showed us the back of her quilt which was made from her original chosen fabric.

This is a print I wouldn’t have thought of using in a Spin Star because the pattern repeat is quite large with a lot of open space. Ruth said it still worked for the One Block pattern – and then she showed us! She said she ended up with a large number of hexagonal, kaleidoscope type blocks, but she found the variety of color and design was overwhelming in one large quilt. She chose to divide them into three smaller quilts. The first contained the more multi-colored, busier blocks:

She then chose to put the blue/white blocks in quilt number two.

And the last quilt used the greenish blocks. This one’s my favorite.

I think the large amount of white background in her original fabric calmed down the busy-ness of her quilts and made them so interesting. Her choice of fabrics for the “borders” in each was spot on. Great job Ruth!

We were all intrigued and asked her to show us how it’s done. She did just that at our January Sew Day, but you’ll have to wait until next week to see how that went.

Have you made a Stack and Whack style quilt you’d like to share? Please email me photos!

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And one more thing!

Nancy sent me a photo of a quilt she recently completed with this note:

“Attached is a picture of a quilt I recently finished, “From the Farm:  Ken’s Story”, which was inspired by a quilt I saw at the 2022 Quilt Show in Madison and then featured on one of your blogs a couple of months ago.  Making this quilt was quite an “adventure” but definitely worth it.  More importantly, the recipient really loves it.  Definitely worth all the effort.“

Great job Nancy! Thanks for sending the photo!

Last week I shared the Fabulous exhibit of Fad quilts at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Art. This week I attended their Winter Quilt Show and I had a wonderful time. It was such a joy to connect with so many quilters ~ many dear friends and some new ones. In the past I’ve shared some of my favorite parts of shows I attend and the response is always positive, so here I go again. I wish I could share all of the quilts with you, but space is limited, so I hope you’ll enjoy seeing a few of my favorites in no particular order.

As I wandered through the show I noticed a number of themes that some of the quilts fell into (this was all in my head, but I think you’ll see it too). Like asymmetrical quilts. “Solar Flare” by Karen Franks fit this theme:

as did “Evening Star” by Diane Galarneau:

I also enjoyed many other quilts in the modern category, like this grouping of small works:

I was amazed at the number of makers who worked with many, many pieces in their quilts. “Anemone” by Judy Goldammer was made with paper foundation piecing.

I had the opportunity to meet Judy and was tickled when she told me that she keeps trying to make small quilts, but they always end up being bedsized. She said she actually doesn’t have much wall space and rotates her quilts on the beds.

Another, more traditional quilt with many pieces was “All Squared Up” by Sharon Meyer:

This is a very large quilt and I didn’t measure them, but I think the blocks are 3″ square! Sharon exchanged them with a group of friends, and then came up with this exciting setting and border. WOW!

As I continued to snap photos of quilts with lots of pieces I found this amazing hand appliquéd piece which was based on a civil war era quilt.

When I read the sign I discovered it was made by Sharon Meyer ~ the same quilter who made the square in a square quilt above! Her piecing is as great as her appliqué. Sharon called this quilt “Grapes and Cheddar/Wine and Cheese”, and there are 1620 circles on the quilt. That would definitely place her in my “many pieces” category.

And speaking of talent in both piecing and appliqué ~ Ellie DeLia’s quilt “Sewing Lesson” also fits my category:

Just look at all those half square triangles!

The next quilt fit the museum’s theme of being part of a Fabulous Fad ~ Lori Weaver made “Feed Sack Frenzy” from the feed sacks she’d collected for over 40 years.

Lori wrote that she was unsuccessful in “using up” her feed sacks 😄.

I always love to see quilts in the Youth category. We need to raise up and encourage the next generation of quilters, and Lindsey Kroening did a great job with her quilt “So Much Space”:

I can’t resist sharing just a few more that made me smile… like Kathy Foster’s quilt “America’s Heartland”. What an interesting setting for her octagonal blocks.

And my friend Cathy Borneman’s quilt “Ant’titude”.

What fun! Speaking of fun ~ I just had to enter my Rainbow Bibs in the miscellaneous Fiber Art category. I love the way they were hung.

And the quilts in the show’s challenge “Hearts All Around” were delightful!

There were quite a few new vendors this year, and the variety and amount of inspiration did a bit of damage to my pocketbook.

Sew Smart was one of the vendors, and I don’t remember visiting them before. They have shops in Wausau and Rhinelander. Mary owns the Wausau shop and she taught me something I hadn’t heard of before. I was admiring the lovely quilts in her booth ~ which I thought were pieced with panels,

when I overheard her telling 2 other quilters that they weren’t pieced quilts, but they were actually “digital panels”. As we looked closer we discovered that these “wholecloth quilts” were entire tops printed with the panels the shop had for sale, and they looked as if they were already pieced into a quilt. Mary said the fabric manufacturers offer them to shop owners to save them from having to make so many store samples! Here’s a close up:

I think you can see that they are layered and quilted with a simple all over meander. These pieces are not available for resale. She had one that was quilted on the seam lines and it was very hard to tell it hadn’t been pieced (I didn’t get a photo, so you’ll have to trust me 😊). What a clever idea. Thank you Mary for allowing me to share these photos and information. I think I need to make a trip to Wausau to visit Sew Smart. Mary said they have a new educational area. Who knows ~ maybe I’ll get to teach there sometime in the future.

Oh, speaking of teaching, I was so pleased to share my Friendship/Autograph quilts in an afternoon lecture. What a blessing to be a part of the show!

It was a wonderful day. Thank you to EVERYONE who had a quilt in the show ~ for giving us so much inspiration! Thanks also to the museum and all their spectacular staff and volunteers.

I can’t resist sharing this photo I took of our deck when I returned home after retreat last week:

Fortunately the roads were good for the ride home and Mike had our driveway cleared. I love snow and I think it’s beautiful, but not everyone agrees with me (especially my husband).

The snow was followed by frigid cold, but by yesterday it had warmed up and the sunshine was glorious. So Mike and I enjoyed a ride to the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts in Cedarburg to drop off the quilts I’d entered in next week’s Winter Quilt Show.

It’s sponsored by the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts and promises to be a lot of fun. For all the details click here!

I’ll be presenting my lecture, “Friendship Quilts ~ Then and Now” at 2:30 that day. There will be other lectures, quilts, vendors, and so much more. You won’t want to miss it!

After dropping off the quilts I was anxious to see the new exhibit that just opened at the museum ~ Fabulous Fads:

Being a vintage quilt collector myself I couldn’t wait to see the quilts from the collections of both the museum, and my dear friend Carol Butzke. And this exhibit did not disappoint!

I’d like to share a few of my favorites for those of you who live far from Wisconsin to enjoy, and in hopes that all of you who live locally will put a visit to the museum on your calendar.

The first quilt I laid eyes on was a delightful Sunbonnet Sue:

I acquired a Sue quilt quite a few years ago and I shared it’s story in my blog at that time.

Please click here to read that post.

From there I was enthralled with a group of crazy quilts. This one was particularly interesting:

I found the sashing and posts used to frame the crazy quilt blocks to be unusual and visually pleasing.

There was also a crazy quilt there that included Stevengraphs. Years ago I purchased a lovely crazy quilt and was told by Carol that an embroidered portion of my quilt was a Stevengraph.

I’d never heard of such a thing. I did some research and shared it in a post about them in 2016 (click here to read that post). The museum had an exhibit about them that same year. These are a few from the current show:

There were lovely Baltimore Album quilts:

and charm quilts (quilts that have only 1 piece of every fabric):

I don’t have a vintage charm quilt in my collection, but I have made a quilt with two pieces of each fabric that I call “Almost Charming” 🤣.

The fun part about this quilt is the way I’ve discovered for sorting scraps by value. Click here to read the post I did about that technique.

I saved what I think is the best for last ~ Friendship Quilts (or Signature quilts if you prefer). The museum exhibit had some wonderful examples and I learned a few things while enjoying them. This first one is made as an Oak Leaf and Reel pattern.

Signatures and inspirational verses were written in the spaces around the center of the reel.

Here’s a portion of the sign that accompanied the quilt:

I love this pattern and have even made an innovative version of it I call Oak Leaf and Swirl. It was made for the National Quilt Museum’s New Quilts From an Old Favorite contest.

My antique version is from the 1800s, and it’s not in very good condition, but I still love it:

Neither of my quilts contain signatures. The signatures in the museum piece were so interesting. I especially loved the spiritual verses.

Another wonderful friendship quilt in the gallery was made from a pattern called Rolling Pinwheel. I think it looks similar to the Mariners Compass pattern, and it too contained signatures.

The signage explained that signatures on some quilts were made by scriveners. I thought this information was fascinating:

The signatures on this album quilt were done by a scrivener also.

Thanks to Carol and the Museum for sharing these wonderful quilts with us.

At the beginning of the post I mentioned that I will be doing a free lecture at the Winter Quilt Show and I can’t resist sharing once again that it’s entitled “Friendship Quilts Then and Now”!

It contains many vintage and some more recent Signature quilts, along with their stories, and I do hope you’ll consider joining me.

The Wisconsin Quilt Museum and the Winter Quilt Show are such treasures, and we are so blessed to have them nearby.

Let me leave you with a detail of one more of the friendship quilts on display in Cedarburg. This quilt really made me smile.