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I’m so excited about our upcoming trip to the Birmingham Quilt Show in England. We leave this week!!! As you may remember, I’m not one of the “leaders” of this trip, I’m just one of the lucky travelers, but Kristi was kind enough to invite me to come up with a small project to add to the fun (she knows I love to do that sort of thing). So I began noodling on what the group might like to do.

In a previous post I told you about my Liberty fabric from the 80s (click here to read that post).

I chose to use the smaller pieces that didn’t become part of my tote bag in a pre-trip friendship block exchange. This was the signature block we’ll be exchanging (the participants didn’t need to use fabric from Liberty):

And four of these squares make a fun “pinwheel” block:

These blocks come together with sashing between them to make a modern looking basket weave design:

I sent the instructions to Kristi, and she emailed them out prior to the trip. Anyone who wanted to participate could make the needed number of blocks, sign each one, and bring them along to exchange. After the trip they can then be made into a table runner, tote, small wallhanging, or ???.

I’ve done numerous friendship block exchanges in the past and here are photos of just a few of the resulting projects:

A table runner from our Baltic Cruise:

A tote bag from a riverboat cruise in France:

And an Irish lap quilt:

It will be fun to see what these blocks become. I love using my friendship quilts and reflecting back on fun trips and dear friends. I actually have a lecture all about my collection of signature/friendship quilts I call Friendship Quilts Then and Now. If your guild would find that interesting, please click here for all the information.

While I’m away I’ll still be posting by scheduling some “topics of the week” I’ve already written, and I think you’ll enjoy them. Hopefully I’ll figure out how to do it 😊. Please understand if it doesn’t go well, and you don’t hear from me for 2 weeks. I’m looking forward to writing the “post-Birmingham” posts I’ll share upon my return!

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Also…

A friend recently wrote to me asking for information about laundering a vintage quilt. A few years ago I did a post about my method for washing any quilt.

If this is something that interests you, please click here.

I love a good challenge or two. The project in this week’s post pulls together two challenges in a weird and interesting way. I hope you enjoy reading about it. Here’s the story:

Last summer my friend and fellow Fiberista Kay, helped with a moving sale for her mother-in-law. While shopping I was intrigued by a tower of vintage cigar boxes. After the sale I asked if they had all sold, and when she said “no”, I asked her to bring them to our next meeting (these are just a few of them).

Years ago at a quilt show in Oshkosh, I roomed with another teacher who does amazing bead work. At that time she was embellishing cigar boxes ~ and I was in awe. Lisa Binkley is an amazing beader and quilter. Here is the top of just one of her boxes:

She is into many other fiber adventures now and you can follow her on Facebook by clicking here.

So why not turn a cigar box into a piece of fiber art with fabric, quilting, or ??? I challenged the group, and they said they’d take the challenge, but wanted time – so it’s not due until November.

Then it was decided that the next small challenge in my other fiber art group, ThreadBenders, would be called “Repurpose”, and was defined as: “repurpose something non-quilting to make a piece of fiber art”. This one was due in June.

I’d been wanting a clock above my sewing machine, and had purchased a small “clock works” for that purpose. A cigar box was certainly “something non-quilting”, but could it be made into a clock? And what about all those old watches I’d set aside when mom and I were making her jewelry trees. Hmm…

A traditional mariners compass has 16 points. During the pandemic I figured out how to fold a circle in a way that allowed me to draft a compass with 12 points like a clock (to read the post about my tree skirt click here) Hmm…

So I drafted one small enough to fit in the box,

stitched it up in pretty fabrics, made a false back to allow for the clock works, and adorned the box with the broken watches. It fit perfectly above the window!

And now I know when it’s time to take a break while stitching. I even did a bit of beading on a piece of wool felt and glued it to the outside of the box, even though that will seldom be seen 🙂. The lid had broken off of the pocket watch hanging on the inside of the clock (with it’s gears showing). So I used the peyote stitch I learned when making cuff bracelets back in 2013 to attach it to the piece of wool, and glued it to the front of the box.

The lid had begun to fall off, so the finishing touch was to glue a piece of fabric in place as a sort of “hinge”.

What fun to repurpose something old to be something useful! I can’t wait to see what the other Fiberistas do with their cigar boxes.

After teaching for a delightful group of quilters at the Quilters Plus guild in Glenwood, IL this past week, I needed to drive back to the motel where I was staying in Indiana before heading home the next day. My new friend Sandy told me to take a different route there because of traffic at that time of day. She sent me by way of a quilt shop which was supposed to have closed before I got there, but the lights were on because they were holding a class. Hooray!

I’ve been in many quilt shops and had started to believe that racks and racks of bolts were the only way to set things up. But Bee Quilting changed that. It is a VERY UNIQUE quilt shop in Munster, Indiana.

As I entered I found quilted mats on the floor.

I loved that they were displayed where they were meant to be, but that wasn’t really unique. There were loads of notions, books and patterns all around.

And that’s as it should “bee” 🐝. So what was so different? The fabric display! Instead of having row after row of bolts ~ a square of each of the fabrics they carried was hung from a ring on the wall!

Then I met Meghann, who co-owns the shop with her mom. I asked where the idea came from and she gave her mom complete credit. She said their customers like it because they can lay out fabric for their projects in a way that gives them a better feel for how the fabrics will work together, rather than stacking bolts.

Plus, it’s a lot easier to carry things around! Truly a unique idea!

The bolts are stacked in a very orderly fashion in the back, away from the customers, and once a quilter has found the fabrics they want, Megan can go back and pull just what is needed for cutting. This leaves plenty of display room in the shop for other things.

I wish I’d had a project in mind to choose fabrics for ~ I’d like to put this concept to work. But alas, I’m a 3 1/2 hour drive from Bee Sewing. In case you’re wondering where Munster is, simply find Lake Michigan on a map and look down to the very bottom tip.

To visit their website click here.

Maybe it’s on your way to somewhere ~ like the AQS show in Grand Rapids that’s coming up. If you make it to the show, don’t miss the Ultimate Guild Challenge competition – the ThreadBenders “Progressions” quilts will be there (click here to read about them, and here to read about how I made mine)!

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And one more thing…

My friend Sue commented to last week’s post about diagonally seaming a quilt back. She included a recommendation that I wanted to share, in case you missed her comment. Here it is:

“With the availability of 108″ fabric (which by the way MUST BE WASHED BECAUSE IT SHRINKS, WITHOUT FAIL!!!) method Number One using two layers of fabric probably isn’t as useful as it once was. Unless you have 42” fabric you really, really want to use.
Method Number Two, however, can be particularly useful, particularly for smaller quilts.
Sue from Aunt Susie’s Machine Quilting”

So, remember to wash your large quilt backings!!!

Thanks Sue!

The first big vacation my husband and I took together after the kids were born was to England in 1989. Dad and Mom watched the kids and we had a wonderful time. I was a beginning quilter and really had my heart set on shopping for fabric at the Liberty store in London. It did not disappoint. The store itself was beautiful and the fabrics were lovely. When I finally decided on my favorite and asked for a meter to be cut, Mike responded with “We didn’t come all this way for 1 meter, what else do you like?” So I happily left with 3 meters of lovely cotton in a purple bag. Every so often I’d take them out and pet them, then put them away. They were “too special to use”. Over the years I’ve collected some additional small pieces of Liberty fabric too (and they all went in the purple bag).

So now I’m signed up for a trip to the Birmingham quilt show and I decided it was time to finally use my “Liberty” to make a tote bag (so I won’t feel guilty buying more 😊). I chose a favorite pattern and added a few fabrics to the three original larger pieces in the bag (the remaining small pieces will be used in a pre-trip project ~ watch for them in a future post).

Years ago I was gifted a tote bag that I’ve used many times. I loved it so much I bought the pattern, and was delighted to discover that is was written by my friend Linda Marcou! It was time to pull it out and use it for my Liberty tote.

I needed to start by making a quilt 37 1/2″ square.

The burgundy color piece of liberty would make the perfect lining, but it was only 36″ x 40″. Could I use my friend Lori’s trick from a post a few weeks ago (click here to read that post)? I gave it a good press:

Cut the diagonal:

Slid the halves in place:

and discovered the answer was “no”. My original piece was too small. But Lori had mentioned that a diagonal strip could be added to make it a bit bigger.

After figuring this out my friend Sue, of Aunt Susie’s Longarm Quilting here in Watertown, just happened to send me the instructions she uses for diagonal seaming the back of a quilt. They are originally from John Flynn. This may make some of you go cross-eyed, but I’m putting it in this post for those who find it helpful ~ AND for me to refer back to when I can’t find these instructions elsewhere 🤣. If this isn’t for you, please just scroll down to read about finishing the tote at the next ***.

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At first read I was a bit confused. Then I reread the part on the diagram in the upper left that said it was two layers of the backing fabric, both facing up. OK ~ but how much backing fabric do I need to do this? As I pondered this question I received a second email from Sue with the answer, and here it is:

John’s method for diagonally piecing a quilt back from one piece of fabric is the most efficient way to make the back whenever the width of the quilt back is 1 1/2 times (or less) the width of the fabric you want to use. For example, if the width of your back fabric is 44″, use John’s method whenever the width you want your back to be is 66″ or less. If you are using fabric that’s 60″ wide, use John’s method whenever you want your quilt back to be 90″ or less.

John has come up with a formula to figure out how much fabric you’ll need to diagonally piece the back. It looks like scary math at first, but if you simply plug in your own numbers (and use a calculator 😁) it’s really quite easy. Here’s the formula:

and here’s the example that will help to make it all clear:

We want to know how much 44″ wide backing fabric to buy, so WF will be 44″, and LF will be the answer to our equation.

Let’s say your quilt top equals 48″ x 60″, and you want your quilt back to be 51″ x 66″.

In the formula LQ = 66″ and WQ = 51″

When all the numbers are plugged in for this example the equation looks like this:

At this point I grab the calculator and find that 66 x 7 = 462. The fraction on the lower right means 462 needs to be divided by 37. I grab the calculator again and find that 462 divided by 37 = 12 1/2.

The last step is to add: 66″ + 12 1/2″ = 78 1/2″. I’d round up to 80″. This is just under 2 1/3 yards, so I’d purchase 2 1/2 yards just to be safe 😊.

Thanks so much Sue, I think many of us will find this helpful.

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It was too late for me to use this formula for my current project, so I added a 6″ strip to the triangles and the lining was ready.

I layered it with a piece of batting, and stitched strips on “quilt-as-you-go” for the outside of the tote.

Once the quilt was quilted and bound

it was stitched into a tube,

the straps were added, the entire piece was folded, fronts sides together, and stitched along the sides.

When I chose the layout for the outside of the tote I had envisioned the outside looking like the photo above, with the burgundy on the inside of the bag. When the “tricky” sewing and folding was done, I was surprised to find the inside of the bag looking like the previous photo, and the burgundy fabric was lining the side pockets.

The outside of the tote ended up quite different from what I’d imagined, but I love it!

Now it’s ready to be packed for our adventure in Great Britain!

Before I jump into this week’s topic, I wanted to share some information. One of the participants in our upcoming trip to England, Wales, and The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, has had to cancel. Is there anyone interested in joining us on our adventure July 31-August 11? If so, contact our coordinator Kristi at or call 262-786-6763 for more information.

And now for this week’s post!

Last year I began working on a kit I’d purchased at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in Madison. Isabelle’s designs are whimsical and very original. I couldn’t resist taking one home.

I began stitching on it with Hanna when we went to Hawaii last December. We worked on our projects in our cabin at night.

Last week I attended a “stitch day” at my friend Kathy’s home, and I finished it!

Now to find the perfect frame!

I really love Isabelle’s designs and hope she’s vending at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show again this year so I can purchase a few more of her lovely kits. I recently discovered her Facebook page. If you’d like to visit it you can search for: Atelier D’Isabelle.

Maybe I’ll see you in her booth in September!

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And… I just have to post a few photos students have recently shared with me of class projects they’ve finished/used!

Louise took my Mariners Compass class a while ago and didn’t have a plan for the compass she made Then she participated in a Round Robin challenge and decided to make her compass the center block. Here’s the quilt.

She was thrilled – and rightfully so!!!

A few days later I received an email from Diane who took my Architectural Repliqué class in Florida last winter. Each student makes a small sample house block in that class to learn the technique, once done they’re ready to dive into the project of their dreams. Each time I teach this class I make a sample block along with the students. Back in 2015 I did a post on all the blocks I’d made over the years (click here for that post), and I’ve made more since then!

Usually students keep their blocks as samples, but sometimes they become something more. Diane used hers as a label on the back of a wedding quilt!

What a wonderful idea! Thanks for sharing the photo Diane! These quilts make my teacher’s heart so happy 😊.

Should quilters have to mend? They should if the cover on the pontoon boat is getting old and in need of repair! When we put the boat in the lake this past May, there were seven areas that needed patching – ugh. Fortunately my old Bernina is quite portable. We ran an extension cord from the boat house and the “fun” began.

After a few inches of stitching I broke a needle. I called a yarn shop in the nearby town of Horicon. They didn’t sell sewing machines needles, but the owner said she would run home and see if she had any! I love small town America! Mike and I made the short trip to Horicon to get the needles from this dear woman, and we grabbed lunch at a brat stand (as in bratwurst) too, before we headed back to the cottage to try again.

The cover was heavy and stiff, and the tears were in the middle of it (of course).

I thanked Mike for taking photos and then suggested he put the phone down and “help”! With both of us rolling the cover under the arm of the machine, and quite a bit of pushing and pulling, we got ‘er done! The stitching isn’t pretty, but I think it will hold.

The weather was beautiful, and I have a sense of accomplishment, but I can’t wait to get back to quilting in my studio.

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And one more thing…

My friend Sue recently emailed to ask how to search for a topic on my blog. If you’ve struggled with this too, this information should help:

When on a computer make sure you are on the main blog page by clicking on “blog” in the menu at the top. The “search” box should appear on the upper right.

If you’re on phone or tablet, do the same thing to assure you’re on the main blog page (here’s a screenshot from my phone):

then scroll all the way to the bottom of that page. This will take a while (usually through about 8 previous posts), but at the end a “search” box will appear (here’s another screenshot):

I wish the WordPress site I use for my blog would make this easier, but it is what it is 😊.

Our granddaughter Hanna just graduated from High School. She’s planning to go to the University of Washington, Seattle. Their colors are purple and gold, and their mascot is the Huskies. So grandma decided Hanna needed a new quilt!

Rather than purchase licensed material online, I decided to enlarge the school’s logo and repliqué it as a block for the center of the quilt.

One of the challenges with doing this is finding a way to enlarge a photo in order to make a pattern. Going to a copy shop involves driving and cash, and I’ve found what I think is a better way ~ if you have Microsoft Excel on your computer, and a printer. I did a post about this years ago, and I think it’s time for a refresher. You don’t need to memorize these steps, you can simply search for “the Big Picture” on my blog whenever you need them ~ that’s what I do 😁.

Open Microsoft Excel, and open a Blank Workbook.

In the “File” menu at the top of the screen select “Page Set Up”, and then “Margins”. Set the footer and header to “0”, and set the margins to .5 on all four sides. Select “OK”.

In the “View” menu at the top of the screen select “Zoom”, and change the magnification to 25%. Then select “OK”.

In the “Insert” menu at the top select “Picture”, select “Place Over Cells”, select “From File” and then find the drawing or photo you want to enlarge from your computer. Click on it and then select “Insert”.

Your photo/drawing will now be in the upper left corner of the Excel document. Click on it to select it, and then place your cursor on the bottom right corner of the square and drag the image to the desired size.

Each rectangle in the Excel program represents an 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet of paper and when you press “print” ~ it does…. and all the sheets that print can be taped together to make your enlarged image.

Once the logo was printed and taped together, I grabbed a ruler and traced the lines through to the back so my pattern would be reversed for repliqué. Then it was pinned to the wrong side of my background fabric.

I was pleased with the way it turned out. Repliqué is such a handy tool to have in my “toolbox”.

Next I needed to choose a pieced pattern for the rest of the quilt. I really liked the charity quilt Ruth made (shared in a previous post). So I found the Missouri Star video on how to make it with a jelly roll, and started stitching blocks.

I didn’t use a jelly roll, and since my fabric palette only contained 4 fabrics, the blocks were not as “interesting” as Ruth’s. Then, when I laid them out as above, I realized I had placed the white fabric in such a way that the quilt would be covered with “X” blocks. Ugh.

So I did a bit of rearranging and discovered I could make “M” blocks 🤪.

And upside down “M” blocks make “W” blocks!!!

This was going to work! With the logo block in the midst of the “W”s and a few borders added, it was ready to quilt ~ and take to Washington to be a part of Hanna’s graduation celebration!

We had a lovely time with Hanna, Will and all the family. It was such a blessing to celebrate her graduation with her.

And…

She loved her quilt!

I have a variety of things to share with you this week, and the first came to me in an email from a friend. I’ve known Glennes for a long time, but haven’t seen her since a class in 2013. What a joy to receive this email and the photos:

“Hi Chris, I just wanted to share pictures of the three quilt projects I have now finished from your May 18 & 19, 2013 workshop at Ladies Of Lakes Guild in Minocqua. After New Years Day this year, I decided it was time to pull out the bagged beginnings of the projects which I had saved. What a fun way to spend the 2024 winter days, and to get familiar with my new Bernina 790 Plus machine. First: After finishing the top, I opened up the fabric which I planned to use as the backing only to find the parallelism I had made during the workshop…..I now have two completed wall hangings!

Second:  Mariner’s Compass. I always want to make “flying geese” and incorporate them with the compass. I may have gotten carried away but love the results.   

I also made two ‘barn quilts’ using your method which are on display on our barn. Thanks for the  inspiration,   Glennes”

WOW!!! Thanks so much Glennes ~ your quilts are amazing!

Now, the rest of this week’s post came about because of a blog issue. My website and blog were constructed using wordpress.com back in 2010. A while ago I started getting a banner at the top of the “dashboard” on my site saying that I’ve used up a lot of space and I need to clean things up. I guess sharing a blog post a week for 14 years would take up quite a bit of space. So I started going through my posts from the beginning and deleting the ones I no longer think are necessary. It’s been a slow, but entertaining process.

In one of those early posts I linked my readers to a truly mesmerizing video of dancing quilt blocks. I felt it was worth sharing again.

To see it for yourself click here. You won’t be disappointed!

Then I read an ancient post with an idea from my past that I actually had mentioned to my friends while on my last retreat. I didn’t remember the details precisely, but I think its is as good an idea now as it was then. I called it “Post Tripping”, and here it is from 2011:

“It took me most of Monday and Tuesday last week to unpack all the stuff I had taken to Paducah this year, do some laundry and catch up on mail, etc.. At that point I was left with the pile of new stuff I bought at the AQS show. It got me to thinking about quilters and shopping. I’m not sure if this will sound familiar, but there have been many years when I start packing for my annual pilgrimage to Paducah and unearth the complete, and untouched, pile of stuff I had bought there the previous year (a bit embarrassing to admit to, but I bet I’m not alone :-).

This is rather guilt inducing and I truly dislike feeling guilty, so I’ve come up with a plan. Actually, my friend Laura and I brainstormed this idea 2 summers ago when we attended the Milwaukee Bead and Button Show. We walked out embracing our treasures and decided we couldn’t go back the next year unless we did something with at least 3 of our purchases! It ended up being a good challenge and we both were up to it. We used our 3 items in a short amount of time and felt quite virtuous.

So, here’s a photo of my Paducah 2011 “had to haves”:

You might notice a bit of fabric. Who can resist? There’s a few books and a bunch of embellishments, along with 1 tool I’ve already used. I’ll tell you about it in a future post.

I believe this type of personal challenge will help you to not only alleviate the guilt, but inspire you to use that great stuff. One additional recommendation is to assimilate the stuff you don’t use into the stash so you avoid finding those pesky piles next year.

And that’s it. So……………What do you think? It can apply to quilting trips, or shop hops, or???

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And here’s one more idea from the past that many of you might find helpful. A few times each year I have someone contact me to ask me if I know of anyone who’d like an old quilting frame. I usually don’t have much advice for them since old frames are not in demand at this time. Well, a friend of mine shared what she did with hers in a post from 2013.

“I met my friend, Eileen Rozumialski, when she signed up for our Sew We Go trip to Ireland. She was a fairly new quilter at that time and a delight to get to know. She has recently retired and shared a story with me about her new quilting studio. It was a story and an idea I think you will enjoy.

I often run into quilters who have inherited quilting frames from a relative. They usually are not sure what to do with them. I now have a suggestion and here’s Eileen’s tale in her own words and pictures:

“You might remember I mentioned some time ago having my grandmother’s quilting frame.  I would guess it must be 100 years old.  We finally figured out how to mount it on the wall so I could use it for displaying quilts.  3 of the boards are up and currently holding a quilt my great Aunt Ida hand pieced and quilted around 1940 using flour sacks and the maternity tops my mother wore while carrying my brother and myself.  I was actully unaware of them until my Mother passed some years ago and the quilts were found folded up and “stuffed” in pillowcases!  I learned she (my mother) had always been afraid to use the quilts as they were so precious to her.  Am hoping with hanging some of the creases will disappear.  As you can see on the picture the friend who figured out how to hang the frame figured out new pegs so I can raise or lower the horizontal piece.  We then used the 4th board in my new work studio (also in my basement).  I am thrilled beyond measure to be using the frame (and to now have a studio to sew in).

I know the frames were left unused in the rafters of a garage for probably 50 or 60 years before I figured out what to do with them and had a place to do it!  They were a piece of my family history I wasn’t ready to throw out and am so glad now I hadn’t.”

I’m so pleased Eileen cherishes all these pieces of her family history and thank her for allowing me to share them with you. Has anyone else found a new use for an old quilting frame?”

These old posts are new again! I think there are some great ideas covered here. I hope you do too…

and I’ve deleted enough old posts that the problem banner has disappeared from my site, so I can continue blogging for another 14 years 🤣.