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The most recent small challenge in our ThreadBenders group was another fun one. Each participant was handed a magazine from the library where we meet, and asked to create a piece of fiber art inspired by page 20. I’ve done this type of challenge before and loved the creativity that resulted (to see those quilts click here). We could be inspired by anything on the page: a photo, a color scheme, a word, a ???

The magazine I was handed was MKE Lifestyle. It has a lovely photo of the Milwaukee Art Museum on the cover:

And this is page 20:

I must admit, I wasn’t very excited. I haven’t been a parent of young kids for quite a while. So I set it aside for a few months and then ~ as summer came to an end ~ the idea struck! It was a wonderful summer and was chock full of fun with family, and especially grandchildren. We flew to Washington for Hanna’s graduation in June. Then Hanna and Will came here for a visit in July. These were wonderful days with our grand “kiddos” ~ playing in water, riding around in golf carts at a wildlife zoo, boating at the cottage, celebrating my parents 90th and 93rd birthdays, and still others just enjoying time together.

Perhaps a bucket needed to be tipped over on my quilt with all the memories flowing out! So I gathered my favorite photographs, printed them on fabric, and trimmed them up.

Then I took a photo of a bucket in the grass,

 and laid it all out.

This was going to work! All I needed to do was a bit of repliqué to make the bucket, and the rest would be easy. I always tell the students in my Repliqué classes that it’s a great technique to have in your toolbox for instances such as this. I traced the lines of the bucket to the back of the paper, pinned it in place on my background fabric, and began to Repliqué.

Next the photographs were stitched in place, and it was time to layer, quilt, and bind.

I think memory quilts are some of the most fun ones to make!

Would you like to see what the rest of the ThreadBenders came up with? Click here ~ and ENJOY!

As 2024 comes to a close (and boy did it go fast!!!), I spent some time thinking about all the wonderful quilting fun I’ve been blessed to enjoy this year. I started with a delightful trip to Florida to visit my friend Linda,

and make houses with her guild (I’m very excited to be going back for another class and lecture this January 😊).

During the year I spent time helping kids sew.

and I went on some great adventures, like Paducah:

and the Birmingham Festival of Quilts, with a tour of England and Wales:

We were blessed to be at the graduation of our oldest grandchild, and watch Hanna unwrap her quilt.

I participated in some very interesting challenges ~ like the cigar box I turned into a clock.

I also enjoyed a Murder Mystery Quilt adventure. Here’s the year’s worth of blocks which I tossed on the floor as I anxiously waited for the instructions on how to put them all together. I couldn’t imagine what it would look like.

The final instructions came over a week ago, and my quilt top is now complete, but I’m going to save that photo for a future post because I think you’ll find the story for the layout quite interesting!

I have two more finished projects to share. This is the embroidery piece I worked on while Hanna and I were in Hawaii together last December. I found the frame in a thrift shop and finished it up this month in time to gift it to Hanna for Christmas.

And for my final quilt of the year ~ I of course have a story 😁:

Last Summer a friend from church approached me with a request. Her mom fought a very difficult battle with cancer over a year ago. Chelley and her mom were very close. She explained that her mom had made quilts for all of her grandchildren but the youngest. While she was going through chemo she began making blocks for Isabelle’s quilt, but she wasn’t able to finish the quilt. I think you can guess the rest ~ I agreed to make that quilt.

The next time I saw Chelley at church she had a bag with 6 appliquéd blocks, some purple fabric, and batting. I knew they were Sunbonnet Sue, but I hadn’t seen this variation before. It seemed quite unique. I’ve never actually made a “Sue” quilt, but I do own an antique one (a portion of it is featured at the top of this post).

At my next retreat I put the blocks on the design wall and asked for ideas from friends on what to do with them.

Can you see what I mean when I call the blocks unique? The skirts were very large and wide; many of the fabrics blended in with the background; and everyone agreed each image looked more like a woman’s dress with a full bodice than a Sunbonnet Sue. I remember seeing similar patterns in which a portion of a dresden plate block made the skirt for Sue. So I did an internet search, and didn’t find any blocks that looked like the ones above. These were the closest:

So what to do? I wanted to keep it simple, so I decided to hand embroider some details and outlining. I think it improved things.

After they were all embroidered and sashed in the purple, it was time to do some quilting.

In the meantime Chelley moved to North Carolina. I recently shipped it to her, and I hope to have photos of Isabelle and her quilt to share some time soon.

Sew, that sums up a wonderful year of stitching fun. I am so very blessed, and I’m anxiously looking forward to what 2025 will bring. God’s blessings on each one of you!

Before Mike and I were married (in 1976) I began to collect things for my hope chest (do they still do that?) I wasn’t into quilting, but I was into painting ceramic items purchased at “Accents Unlimited”. I made a lamp, wall decor, and dozens of ornaments for our future Christmas tree. These are just a few of those:

They’ve held up well over the years. As time went on we added to our collection until we’ve reached the point that just about every branch on the tree is adorned with an ornament. And we love having the grandkids help us decorate the tree and rehearse the old stories. They were here along with my parents this past weekend for our annual cookie baking day. Everyone pitched in! Mom made the dough for our traditional spritz cookies, and Trey wanted to learn how to use the press. He did a great job.

The kids helped me cut out the gingerbread cookies, and everyone helped to decorate – even the grandpas!

It was a wonderful day!

So if you look at our tree you’ll see that it certainly doesn’t look like the fancy ones on display in the high end stores. The variety of ornaments in our collection is huge, and the kids wanted to put them all up. I’m sure many of you have ornaments that have stories too. The ones at the bottom of this post were made by our kids/grandkids. Here are some others:

You might remember a previous post about heart ornaments I made with photos of kids and grandkids. Click here if you want to read that post with instructions on how to make them.

Back in the 80s, after my Grandpa died my Grandma Ardis started going to a senior center. She made many ornaments while there, and I love that they cause me to pause and think about her 😊.

Please note the adorable ice skating couple in the upper left.

Some others were gifts from friends.

I made a lot of ornaments too. I painted a bunch of the santa spoons (lower left) years ago, and they still make me smile. And I made oodles of the “Dairy Christmas” cows back in the 80s. They were a big hit in craft fairs.

Mike’s mom gave us a number of his favorite childhood ornaments for our first Christmas. Can you tell he was into aviation even then?!?

When he first hung the pine cone I made a face and said “that’s not very Christmassy”. He responded “This is José. He used to have arms and legs, and I like him!” That was that. Now we have a tradition. Every year I complain about putting José on the tree while Mike, the kids, and grandkids tell me they love him – and laugh and laugh.

There are many ornaments from our various travels.

And of course – there are the special ones about the true gift of Christmas – Jesus!

I have to share just one more photograph. I finished the Christmas quilt I started at our early December retreat! You may remember that I purchased the tree fabric at Liberty’s in London. The things in front of it have a story too: the painted sled was made by my great Uncle Everett, and painted by his wife, Aunt Hazel. The teddy bear was made from Mike’s mom’s fur coat. When I found the toy rocking horse at a thrift store I knew I had to put them all together.

Wishing you the very merriest Christmas!

I decided to give myself a little pre-Christmas gift, and purchased a ticket for the “Paula Nadelstern: Kaleidoscopes and Quilts Tour with the Artist” at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts yesterday! I’ve admired her quilts for years, and I knew the moment I walked in the door that this was a great decision 😊. A small group was gathered around a snowflake quilt in the entryway, and Paula was chatting with them about it – before the tour even started! Just seeing that quilt up close was worth the trip. Then hearing what she learned about snowflakes in order to make it was very special.

It was hanging next to Paula’s first quilt. She said she was inspired to make it by a beautiful Liberty fabric back in the 80s. That is where her journey into rearranging portions of intricate fabrics into kaleidoscopes began.

This is the description of her exhibit:

I was lucky enough to find a seat before she began, and was fascinated to learn that she lives on the same block where she grew up in the Bronx. She currently lives in a two bedroom apartment on the ninth floor, and that’s where she creates her amazing quilts.

Paula said that she was grateful to have started out working in a series (since she was passionate about kaleidoscopes), because each quilt led her to a “what if?” that led her to the next quilt. She also shared that she is left handed and her labels are all tracings of her hand.

Soon she was moving from quilt to quilt with the group happily following after her. At this point I have to apologize. I was so overwhelmed by the intricacy and beauty of each piece that I forgot to take photos of the tags, and so I don’t have the names of the quilts to go with them. Sorry.

This one was inspired by a tree grate around a tree in New York city. She pointed out that the artisan who made the grate chose to make each of the circles surrounding the center different from each other, so she did too. Beautiful! And I love that Cedarburg has tree grates on it’s main street also.

This piece she designed while looking out of her ninth floor window in Spring. She could see the tops of the trees, with the color specks of the tulips below peeking through.

Paula also shared information about kaleidoscopes, and how the mirrors work inside of them. She said that many are based on 3 mirrors which give 45 degree triangle designs, thus many of her designs do too. But some use 4 mirrors which yield a rectangular pattern. This is one of those:

I think this was my favorite, and it was the one that the colors in my photograph don’t do justice to.

It’s actually behind Paula a few photos back and the brightness is much more accurate there. What intrigued me was the way the light centers in each kaleidoscope glow. And the detail knocked my socks off.

The matchstick quilting on some of her pieces surprised me. It worked so well.

The quilt behind Paula here has two mandalas, one much brighter than the other.

That’s because the one on the left was pieced with the fabrics “right sides together”, the usual way (and please note that she positions her fabric so well – it’s difficult to see the seams!).

And the one on the right was pieced with the same fabrics “wrong sides together” (which she said was incredibly difficult to do because it was “wrong” 😂).

Wow! And I have to share just one more. In this quilt she skipped the intricate piecing in some of the wedges in order to create linear designs.

Isn’t that striking! What a great “what if”. Here’s a detail shot that shows the “un-pieced” wedges:

The entire experience was wonderful. Paula’s quilts will be at the museum until the beginning of March – and I highly recommend seeing them all. But that’s not all. After soaking up the effects of Paula’s phenomenal piecing and designs. I headed over to the other side of the gallery to take in the fiber art of Shin-hee Chin in her exhibit entitled “Rootedness”. Her skill at stitching yarns, threads and other fibers to the top of her quilts provides the most amazing texture.

Chin makes geometric designs,

as well as landscapes. This was my favorite, with a detail to follow.

But I like this one almost as much.

The tiny light leaves are made with “eyelash” trim. How extremely creative!

I really hope many of you get the chance to visit the museum sometime soon. All of the pieces are so much better in person.

I think I’m on creative overload ~ and so grateful for our wonderful museum!

Earlier this year I was invited to tour a new retreat house in Janesville, Wisconsin. After my tour I knew I wanted to spend some time there. A short retreat in the beginning of December sounded like the perfect way to get some things done before the holiday season got busy. A few friends agreed, and last week we had a lovely time at the Bradford House.

All the rooms were spacious, from the dining room:

to the four bedrooms (each with colorful quilts on the beds):

and the sewing areas too (this is just one of the two adjoining rooms):

We enjoyed talking, laughing, eating,

and we got a lot of projects done too!

I acomplished hours of satin stitching on a challenge quilt that’s due after the first of the year. I’m not ready to share it yet, but I’m pleased with the progress I made. My second project used a fabric I bought while on our trip to England and Wales. A friend told me to buy a piece of Christmas fabric at Liberty because whatever I made from it would bring back wonderful memories of the trip each year when I put out my holiday decorations. I decided a simple 9-patch and snowball quilt would be a good way to show off this special tree fabric. Susan suggested adding some blues, and this is the snowball block that resulted:

I made as many 9″ blocks as the fabric would yield with a fun “slap back triangle” technique. I sewed an extra seam while attaching the squares that made the triangles so I’d have some bonus half square triangle blocks. I’m sure many of you have enjoyed this process, but if you want to know how it’s done, please click here for a post I did on it a few years back.

Next I made the 9 patch blocks. During this process I stitched two strips together incorrectly, and I was very happy to try the “new” ripping technique Marie showed me. Many of you probably have used this one for years, but it was new to me, and I got very excited about how quickly it ripped long strips of mis-stitching. You simply take out a few of the first stitches, place the long prong of the ripper inside the seam, with the small ball prong along the outside, hold the strips together with your left hand and push the ripper through the stitches!

It makes a lovely “popping” noise as it slides along quickly unsewing. Sometimes the little things can bring us joy 😊.

As I put the blocks up on the design wall my friends noticed that I unintentionally dressed to match my quilt – and took a quick photo:

The bonus half-square triangle blocks from the snowball corners ended up creating a delightful pieced border.

By the time the retreat was over, my borders were on. I’m looking forward to getting it quilted and hung in time for our Christmas celebrations.

Quilting with good friends is such a blessing. Thanks to Marie, Susan, Cathy and Mary for a wonderful time! And if you’d like to learn more about the Bradford House, please click here to visit their facebook page.

I’ve purchased a number of pieces of hand marbled fabric over the years. One of my favorites was a fat quarter dyed by Debbie Huff, which I used in a quilt I entitled Crossings II ~ Water and the Spirit.

The fabric was so beautiful that I simply quilted it on the lines of the marbling with invisible thread, finished it in four sections, and beaded them back together as a part of my Crossings series. A few strings of beads adorn the upper left corner and finish it nicely. It’s one of my favorites, so much so that it hangs in my studio.

Another piece I purchased years ago made a lovely cover for my Bible (click here for a post about the making if it).

I do admire beautiful marbling. In fact I bought a silk top at the IQA show in Houston back in the 90s, and I wear it often. The marbling still looks great after many washings.

While at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham I watched a fabric marbling demo. Craig did a great job and helped me make this small sample. He dropped the paint and let me do some of the swirls.

I decided their beginner kit was something I needed to bring back and play with at a future Fiberistas sew day. I tried it out at home on the 4″ x 6″ pieces of fabric included in the kit. The results weren’t stellar, but they weren’t bad either for a first attempt.

I brought the supplies, along with some muslin pieces I’d soaked in alum, to our next sew day and we had fun playing.

So we decided to play more at our next get together – but on larger pieces. I didn’t take any photos at our second attempt, and I think it was because our results were not all that good. Especially for Lori and me. I began with muslin soaked in alum, and the paint patterns on the float liquid looked beautiful, but when I rinsed the fabric afterwards most of the paint washed away and I was left with some rather pale fabric.

What happened? The colors turned out so much better on the fabric from the kit. Ruth loaned me a few pieces of the fabric she’d brought and the color was better (thanks Ruth).

I emailed her and she said it was unbleached muslin treated in the same way mine was. Hmm. I decided to pull out some of my Kona “prepared for dye” fabric (the expensive stuff), and I soaked it in alum for 2 days. I was determined to make prettier large pieces! I set up everything in the kitchen and began in earnest.

The paint on the marbling medium was beautiful – as usual!

And it looked good when the fabric dropped on top. The paint really seemed to soak in well this time.

I decided to let it sit without rinsing for a while after pulling it off the marbling medium.

And when I did rinse, dry, and iron it, I still was disappointed with the lack of brightness:

Perhaps I just haven’t tried the right muslin yet. I’m not sure what to do to improve things, so I think I’ll continue to buy hand dyed and marbled fabric from people who are good at making it. I now have an even greater appreciation for the skill it takes to do this well.

Have you had success with marbling fabric? Any suggestions? Any photos you’d like to share?

Two years ago, at my annual eye appointment, I was told I had the start of cataracts. My vision deteriorated quite quickly after that, requiring three prescription changes in under two years. At the last visit I was told that my cataracts were very fast growing – and it was time for surgery. What a blessing that turned out to be! I was able to have my astigmatism corrected via laser, and then have trifocal lenses put in place in both eyes. I can read, work on the computer, and see distance without glasses for the first time since I was nine years old! Amazing!

That being said, nothing is perfect. It’s a small thing, but to read I need to have bright light now. Enter Emma. A month ago I brought home my new Janome. I named her after my great grandmother (click here for that post) and we’ve been getting along famously. I realized right away that she needed to have tattoos like all her friends (decals really). That was an easy fix – and I think she looks stunning.

In the above photo please notice the bar that says “Janome” on the upper left. This is actually a light that slides back flush with the machine, and then slides out to put light right where it’s needed. This is especially helpful since my eyes need more light now to line up blocks for piecing before I put them under the needle.

In the past I’ve used a generic clamp magnifier to see detail work. It was a bit cumbersome. Emma to the rescue again. She has her own easy to attach magnifier:

that swings out of the way when it’s not needed.

And there’s one more feature I didn’t think I’d use much. I was wrong. Attached to the right of the very large foot pedal is a smaller one ~ and it works the automatic cutter on the machine ~ hands free. Brilliant!

I’m finding more things I like about her every day. Today’s stitching adventure was to make the final blocks in the Murder Mystery Quilt. I really love the apricot batik fabric, and these strips of blocks were once again very interesting.

Next month we won’t get any new blocks to make ~ instead we’ll learn how they all fit together. I’m looking forward to it!

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And one more thing! I was cleaning out some drawers and found a “what is it?” item. It’s made of black shiny plastic. One side has a piece of paper covering a thin, gray, spongey adhesive disc. Any ideas???

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FYI ~ the watercolor eyes at the top of this post were painted by my niece, Kaitlin Walsh. She does amazing anatomical art. I did a post about her a few years ago, and you can click here to read that post. If you’d like to read more about her, please visit her website: https://www.lyonroadart.com/. She also has a facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=lyon%20road%20art. Kaitlin has many fascinating items available for sale. If someone on your Christmas list is interested in anatomical art ~ framed prints, mugs, coasters, puzzles, etc. ~ I know you’ll find her site a blessing.

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions for combining batting scraps into usable pieces in last week’s post. This week’s post is another topic that you might want to respond to at the end. I love how we can learn from each other.

Do you have a design wall? They really are invaluable! The ones I’ve used for years are 7′ x 4′ styrofoam insulation boards, covered with gray fabric (they started as 8′ boards and I had to cut them down to fit in my studio). I don’t have them covered in flannel, since flannel attracts threads and I want things to look neat when I photograph quilts on them. The down side is I have to pin things in place. It’s a choice that works for me. My walls are covered with a charcoal gray polyester fabric I found on a clearance rack at JoAnns. Here they are in front of my quilt “storage box” (click here for a post about my “magic box”).

Tall Pines retreat has a number of flannel backed tablecloths, hanging on the walls flannel side out, to be used as design walls. I think this is a great idea for quilters with limited space because it can be hung in front of a closet (or other similar area) from just a few nails at the top, and taken down when not needed. Some quilters put grommets in the tablecloths to reinforce the hanging spots. Here’s my project hanging from one of the tablecloths at Tall Pines.

While I was working on it, my friend Deb began putting her One Block Wonder blocks up on another tablecloth design wall.

It was going well, but when she realized she wasn’t going to get it sewn together before the retreat ended she was a bit disappointed. It would have been a big effort to take all the hexagons down, and then replace them on her wall at home. So, we came up with a better solution! She rolled the pieces up inside the tablecloth to take them home,

and then replaced the retreat center’s cloth with a new one. So here’s the lesson learned:

If you plan to work on a quilt at a retreat, and you’ll need a big chunk of time to figure out block placement, take your own flannel backed tablecloth so you’re ready to transport it home easily if needed!!!

What does your design wall look like? Any suggestions you’d like to share?