Blog

Nine years ago my neighbor Di and I worked out a barter. I taught her how to make a Lone Star quilt and she built my website. She also got me into blogging!

Well, last Fall she informed me that my website was due for an update and we worked out a new barter. I posted about this when the barter began, and you can read about it by clicking here.

The quilt top is done and I’m thrilled to have brought it to completion. This is one of the blocks the quilt is made from:

and here’s the king sized quilt top ready for Aunt Susie’s Long Arm Quilting!

Jenny didn’t want a pillow tuck, so the border doesn’t go around the top of the quilt. The pieced center just fits her king sized bed and the plain cream colored border/final pieced border drop off the quilt sides. It’s a very bright and cheerful quilt.

Any guesses how many pieces are in it?

1796!!! I think that’s a record for me. What’s the most number of pieces you’ve put in a quilt?

The other half of the barter is coming to fruition this weekend! Di has uploaded my new website and I think it is lovely! Please go to: https://www.chrisquilts.net/ to visit my homepage,

and feel free to navigate around a bit (i.e. click on whatever looks interesting) to see all that it has to offer.

Today Di is completing the uploading of the blog. I think you’re going to like the new format. It’s visually crisp and clean, and should be easy to use. But please be patient if a link doesn’t work – or something doesn’t look quite right yet – we’re still in the final stages of the upload.

Thank you Di, for all your knowledge and hard work. It’s really appreciated.

It certainly is fun to have friends with different talents to share. Have you done a barter with your quilting skills that you’d like to share? If so, please send me an email about it: clkquilt@gmail.com.

I met Margaret 8 years ago when she joined my church family. She is an amazing woman. She was born deaf, but was able to have her hearing in one ear restored to 80% of normal when she was 9. She has a number of other disabilities, but she hasn’t let them keep her down. She is one of the most encouraging people I know, and her love for God and sharing His word is huge. She is a blessing to me.

So when she decided to move to Mt. Pleasant, WI to be nearer to her adopted family, we were all saddened to have her move away, but grateful for the new adventure she has ahead of her.

Last week our mutual friend Ann was planning a Sunday School lesson focusing on how much Margaret means to all of us. She asked if I had a small quilt or table runner we could give her to go along with the lesson. My first thought was “why didn’t I think of that?” My second “I need to make her a lap quilt to snuggle up in when she wants to feel the love from her Calvary family”. So, I dug through my UFO bin and found a stack of “25 patch” blocks I’d collected in an exchange at Patched Lives Quilt Guild.

I squared them up and sewed them together. It was a joy and they went together effortlessly. Then I made the quilt sandwich and had fun free motion quilting spirals in the dark squares,

leaving the light squares for signatures! I signed first and here’s what I wrote:

Everyone in class signed it and this week we had more of Margaret’s church family autograph her friendship quilt as she said here good-byes.

We had a wonderful Mother’s Day brunch and took the opportunity to have a picture taken of our Sunday School class. I’m blessed to have all of these wonderful sisters in Christ in my life.

Dear Margaret, May God bless you in your new home. We are all so glad to call you our friend!

---

Just a short message to quilters in southeastern Wisconsin

I have been teaching at Waukesha County Technical College for over 23 years, and it’s been a wonderful ride. Recently the college announced they will be discontinuing the adult enrichment classes. These include Quilting, Sewing, Reupholstery, Drapery, Clock Repair, and many more.

I feel it is sad that these classes, which are really important to the retired members of our community, will disappear. 

SEW – WHAT CAN YOU DO???

Well, the college will be having a hearing concerning these classes this Tuesday, May 14th at 5pm, at the Richard Anderson Center on the Pewaukee Campus. In the past these types of decisions have been overturned if the outcry from the community is big enough.

PLEASE CONSIDER SHOWING UP! You don’t have to say anything, but we’re hoping for a huge crowd to show support for our classes. So, bring your friends and be there :-). Thank you!

Last week I shared a link to the top winning quilts at the Spring Paducah show. Since then AQS has posted photos of all the winning quilts on their blog: http://www.aqsblog.com/2019-spring-paducah-winning-quilts.

In the 30 years I’ve been attending Spring Quilt Week in Paducah, I have been continually amazed by the number and quality of quilts made by Japanese quilters who have entered the show. This year was no exception.

There were 55 quilts made by Japanese artists this year. As I went through the show I took photos of just a few of my favorites:

Amazing – and this is just a sampling. The artistry and workmanship are incredible! I can only imagine what the quilts must be like at the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival – but I won’t be imagining for long.

As I’ve mentioned before – I will be leading a tour to the largest quilt show in the world this coming January! We now have the complete brochure available.

and you’re welcome to open a printable pdf by clicking here!

While in Paducah I helped out Judy, the woman who is planning my trip, by working in the booth she shared with Carol of KimonoMomo Japanese Textiles.

Carol is a delight. She not only sells Japanese Textiles and supplies, but she has a wonderful blog: https://theardentthread.com/, she travels to lecture and teach, and she’s on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kimonomomoshop/.

I decided to purchase a Sashiko kit from her and did my first motif:

I think I’m hooked.

For all the information about my upcoming adventure please go to: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s5kd471hhrpow6c/Textile%20Tour%20to%20Japan%202020%20-%20Chris.pdf?dl=0

If you have any questions, please contact me at: clkquilt@gmail.com.

We helped to hang the quilts on Monday. As always, the plethora of quilts was awe-inspiring. To see photos of the top winners click here!

I usually look for one quilt where I either say “I wish I’d made that” or “wow – I could never do that”, and sometimes both. There were many that grabbed me this year, but the one that stopped me in my tracks was called Celtic Migration. Here it is from a distance and it is lovely, but wait till you see the close-up!

All of the flying geese were 1/4″ x 1/2″ and there were a lot of them!

The National Quilt Museum is always a “must do” at Quilt Week and this year was especially delightful – they had the Best of Show quilts from the last 35 years. The first time I went to Paducah was in 1989 and the winning quilt was Corona II – Solar Eclipse by Caryl Bryer Fallert. It set the quilt world on it’s ear because it was machine quilted. I was new to quilting and I LOVED it.

It’s still one of my favorite quilts!

I was thrilled to be a part of the Museum’s Oak Leaf and Reel contest this year. It’s an honor and a privilege to have a quilt hanging in the museum. My entry is entitled “Oak Leaf and Swirl”. I’ll share more about it in a future blog post.

This year’s contest contained a great collection of art quilts and they were all put into a book available at the NQM gift shop. To see the top 5 winners in the challenge click here. The artists were invited to a “Meet and Greet” on Friday and they had a very good turn out. What a talented group – I’m humbled to be a part of it.

I had a lovely surprise while walking through the opposite gallery. There was an exhibit of quilts recently acquired by the museum and as I came around a corner I exclaimed (to myself) “That’s Roberta’s peacock!”

My friend, Roberta Williams, was an extremely talented woman in so many ways. She has been gone for a number of years, and I believe this quilt was her crowning achievement. I’m so pleased that her family was able to have it selected for the museum’s collection.

One other very exciting opportunity presented itself to me at the museum. A few month’s ago Bonnie Browning, the executive show director for AQS, contacted me to ask if I’d like to be interviewed by the Tri-State Christian Television network because they were looking to do a program about Christian quilters. Praise the Lord! I was thrilled. I brought a few of my quilts and it was a delightful experience. Thanks to Amanda and Kelsie! They said they’d let me know when the program is complete and I’ll be sure to share it on my blog.

Another unique opportunity this week was to spend a little time with my friend Judy Berry. She is the travel planner who has invited me to lead a quilting tour to the International Great Quilt Festival in Tokyo, Japan, this January. She had a booth to advertise the trip and I helped out a bit.

To read all about our upcoming adventure please go to: https://www.chrisquilts.net/trips/. There were many Japanese quilts in the AQS contest and I’ll be including some of them in next week’s post.

In conclusion I need to thank my dear friend Eileen for accompanying me on this wonderful adventure. We laughed, we shopped, we studied God’s word, we took classes, we hung quilts and we rolled them up for shipping home. It was truly a joy-filled week!

As I type we’re on the way home. They got 3″ of snow back home in Wisconsin yesterday, but it’s supposed to reach 50 degrees today so we’re hoping it’s already melted.

This was my 30th year in a row to be a part of Spring Quilt Week in Paducah. I am truly blessed!!!

It’s Easter Sunday and my friend Eileen and I are packing up to drive to Paducah for the Spring quilt show. We will be celebrating the Resurrection of our Savior together on the drive down (we hang the show tomorrow :-)), and are ok with this arrangement since we consider every day a day to celebrate what Jesus did for us!

But I couldn’t leave you without a Sunday post, so here goes:

A few months ago I posted about a very talented machine quilter named Doreen (you may read about her at: https://chrisquilts.net/blog/?p=10656)

While reading her blog I was intrigued by a tool she recommended. Then I began a project that required a very accurate grid to be marked on my fabric – and it was time for a fun new purchase!

It’s not a typical quilter’s tool, but it certainly is handy. It’s called a laser level, and it’s very easy to use.

When you turn it on it sends out 2 perpendicular beams of light. Here’s how I used it to mark my quilt:

This delightful tool made quick work of marking my quilt. It is also helpful in squaring up a quilt for binding.

The project I’m working on here is something I’m quite excited about. This is the base quilt for some really fun blocks. I’m making it for a challenge, so I can’t show you the rest yet. But I think you’ll find it interesting – so stay tuned!

Wishing you and your family a blessed Resurrection Sunday!

Last week I posted about my friend Sonja and her delightful new lecture. The response was great and when she emailed me concerning all of the guilds who have contacted her, she included information about her latest “big” work, made for Christ Church Whitefish Bay. It is so fascinating that I felt I must do a Sonja: part 2 post.

This is the description of her work in her own words:

“This representation of the Good Shepherd was modeled on images of icon paintings.

It rests within the confines of icon art where objects are generally grouped in ones, threes, and sevens with a relatively flat perspective.  Notice there is only one person holding one lamb.  There are three sheep and three trees on the right side, the bush-like tree on the left holds seven clusters of foliage and the sky holds three clouds.  In addition to symbolic numbers, colors for the Good Shepherd are often restricted to red with gold trim for the garment and blue for the shawl.  The Button Trees on the right are simply a flight of fancy when creativity took leave of my senses. The hanging was created under the direction of the Holy Spirit based on many long talks, cajoling, and spirited debates.

This piece of art was made with sun resistant outdoor furniture fabrics.  Some fabrics were covered with nylon netting to add variety of color. Extensive free-hand quilting was used to add detail and texture.  The bee in the lower-left flower symbolizes the Good Shepherd’s powers of rejuvenation, nourishment, and perseverance and honors the bees in my hives.

It took me 10 months to design and create which included 200 hours of work.  The materials were $1000 dollars because I used Sunbrella fabric at a cost of about $50.00 per yard.”

I was so taken with her skill for creating 3 dimensional portions, while working with a fabric that is not typical for quilts.

Well done Sonja!

Last month my friend Sonja was the speaker at my guild.

She is a quilter/fiber artist and I’ve admired her work and her creativity for years. When she decided to put together a lecture, I asked the program committee at Patched Lives to sign her up right away.

Her lecture was entitled Your Creative Mind – and it was a hoot!

She is talented, inspiring and a lot of fun.

I especially loved the grandmothers flower garden quilt she’s been hand piecing for years.

She’d taken the papers out of the back and can’t decide which side she likes better.

I think the back is great. Here’s a close-up:

She has a wonderful perspective on quilting and life. If you’d like to have Sonja share her creativity with your group, email me and I’ll send you her contact information.

I did a post a year ago about the different look that can be achieved by simply changing the value placement of the fabrics in a quilt pattern. In it I shared quilts made by 2 friends using the Bear’s Paw pattern. To read that post, please go to: https://chrisquilts.net/blog/?p=9428

This week I want to expand on this topic. Way back in 1997 my friend Carolyn took a class I was teaching called Almost Charming. The students brought in the 6″ squares we’d been exchanging in our guild, we sorted them by value, then stitched them into half square triangles, and pieced them into Friendship Star blocks. Since a charm quilt has only one piece of each fabric, and this pattern has two, it isn’t a true charm quilt – so it’s Almost Charming!

I did a post about this quilt way back in 2012. You may want to visit it because it contained my favorite technique for sorting fabrics by value: https://chrisquilts.net/blog/?p=2535

So – back to Carolyn. During class she asked me if she could make the stars white, because stars are not black. I hadn’t thought of that when I made my quilt, but she had a great point. We talked through how to change the placement and she went to work. Over the years she would bring up the quilt and how she really wanted to get it done, and in 2009 she finally did. Then she said she’d send me a pic. Well, it only took another 10 years for the photo to arrive (we both laughed about it)! – and her quilt is lovely!

Isn’t it interesting how different the pattern looks when the values are rearranged? I presented a lecture to Carolyn’s guild a few weeks ago and we both brought our quilts to compare them. It was great fun. Thanks Carolyn!

Around this same time I decided I wanted to share a block making technique with my Open Lab class, and the sample quilt I needed was my granddaughter Sommer’s baby quilt. She’s not a baby anymore. In fact, she just celebrated her 7th birthday!

But she was happy to let me borrow her quilt and I was struck by what a great positive/negative design it contained. So I threw it on the floor and grabbed my camera. By the time I snapped the picture, her little brother Trey had photo-bombed the quilt.

It took a bit of persuading, but he finally rolled off, and I got a shot of just the quilt. You’ll notice it contains both positive and negative blocks and the juxtaposition adds excitement to the whole piece:

In case you’re having a hard time seeing the basic blocks, here they are:

This block is a fun one to make oodles of – and then play around with placement. If you’d like to play a bit yourself – I found a printable tutorial for making the Mary’s Triangles blocks at: http://qacdg.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Block-6in-Marys-Triangles.pdf

I did a post about this back in 2012, when Sommer was born. It has information on how to lay out blocks with a strong diagonal and you can read about it at: https://chrisquilts.net/blog/?p=2303

I know this post contained lots of links. I hope you don’t mind, I just love to share techniques and inspiration. Have you made a Mary’s triangle quilt? Have you made a quilt that included positive/negative effects? I’d love to see pictures. Please email me at !