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Way back in February a new member of our Fiberistas group showed us how to make One Block Wonder quilts. Ruth has made some wonderful OBW quilts and we all had a blast (to see the post about our stack and whacking playdate click here).

Eileen brought two different fabrics to cut up that day and recently she sent me a photograph of one of her finished quilts:

She cut bigger triangles than the rest of the group and I think her blocks are stunning. I especially like the way she “floated” the blocks on the background. Would you like to see the fabric she used to make this quilt? Here’s the strip she put on the back:

Yup ~ chickens! Who knew?

Lori said she bought her original fabric because it was on sale and she thought it would make a good quilt back. I would never have thought of it as something that would work in a “stack and whack” style quilt.

Wow, was I wrong!

Fascinating! Lori decided the hexagons looked awful when placed next to one another because they were all quite busy, so she chose to put the “spacer” triangles between the blocks like I did (click here for that post), and it made all the difference. The lime piped binding finishes it perfectly.

Barb used a butterfly fabric:

And ended up making three smaller quilts. Here’s one of them:

Because Barb’s fabric had only small amounts of background and an even distribution of colorful areas, her blocks didn’t have as much variety, but the quilts are lovely.

Ruth knew from the start that her chosen fabric had the same “issues” Barb’s did:

The result was a lot of similar blocks. Her daughter wanted a bed sized quilt, so Ruth made some additional 3D cube blocks and mixed them in with all of her original blocks. Then she added some really fun piecing in the borders. The resulting quilt is sew much fun.

I love that she included a strip of her original fabric along the pillow tuck at the top.

And, just to refresh your memory, here’s the crib quilt I made for my great-niece:

We all were very pleased with our finished quilts, and I was very impressed that they all were finished in less than six months. Way to go Fiberistas!

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And I can’t resist one last “Autumn at our house” photo! We have an area above the closet in our front entry hall that is a challenge to decorate. I put snowmen up there at Christmas, and my Top Stitch Umbrella graces this area in the Spring, but what to do for Fall? Well ~ Mike and I found a child sized table and chairs at a lovely shop near Whitewater, WI, and I decided those chairs would be a great resting place for a pair of scarecrows 😁!

I purchased clothes at a resale shop, filled them with leftover batting, and then had Sommer and Trey draw faces on muslin. The sign was Trey’s idea (don’t you love the way 8 year olds think?)

I enjoy having them watch us every time we walk through the front hall!

It’s the start of our October “Sisters of the Cloth retreat”. The trees are just past their peak of color and the rain is dripping on the pond. Yet it is beautiful ~ and stitching with dear friends is such a blessing!

By the time I arrived April was busy piecing.

She’d already laid out many strips of “Cabins Under the Ohio Skies” blocks. She bought the kit a few years ago for their king sized bed.

And by Saturday the borders were on! Stunning!

Jo brought show and tell ~ a green and white quilt she just competed. She’ll have it on display at Primitive Gathering’s “Red, Green and White” quilt show in Larsen, WI. The show runs November 16 – December 22.

Sandy’s show and tell was a large pillow she made for their family room. It’s filled with a pillow she’s had since a teen that was wearing out. She put a zipper in the cover just in case she wants to take a trip down memory lane.

Mary Jo arrived about 3 minutes after I did and we both were set up and sewing quite quickly. She is working on a quilt for her son.

Mary made two delightful shirts on her new serger.

Cathy is working on a quilt for her bed ~ and making it up as she goes along. Wow.

Laura was good at shopping (aren’t we all?).

She also pieced some lovely blocks and three delightful sheep (here and at the top of this post):

I’m excited about my retreat project. A few weeks ago my daughter-in-law handed me some fabrics and said. “Remember Brad’s quilt from when he was a kid?” I said I did (this is the quilt on his bed when he was around 8).

As a matter of fact, I’ve borrowed it a few times when I’ve taught classes on the bricks and mortar pattern, but I’d never seen it out at their home. Betsy continued: “We love it and fight over it on the couch each night”. How wonderful! I get it. The back is flannel and it’s been washed a lot ~ so it’s super snuggly.

Then she asked: “Would you make us another in these colors?” I was thrilled. Now I know what to make them for Christmas. So, when I began packing for retreat I pulled a bunch of scraps in black and tan to go with hers. Then I looked at the pattern and decided gold would work in the mortar (red on Brad’s quilt), but it really needed another color for the center and cornerstones to show (the blues). I texted Betsy while saying to myself “I hope she picks green”. And… she picked green 😊. Now I had my palette.

I started in cutting bricks right away and had the top done Saturday morning:

It’s ready to quilt ~ on my Sweet 16 at home.

No retreat is complete without giggles and excitement, and we had both this time! The excitement began before I arrived on Thursday. April got up and started the water in the shower to wait for the water to get warm. At one point she redirected the water to the shower head and inadvertently bumped it, causing the magnetic connection that held the head in place to disconnect… and it became a water spewing snake. The head bounced off the tub, the wall, April, and all the while she was trying to catch it. In the end both April and the entire bathroom were sopping wet!!! I wish I’d been there. It must have been exciting.

Fortunately she was kind enough to pose so we can truly appreciate her adventure 🤣:

The following morning Sandy and Cathy were the first ones down in the sewing room. As Sandy sat down she saw something run along the wall and thought we had mice. As she got closer she realized it was a chipmunk. Yes, a chipmunk! Being the quick witted, swift moving quilters that they are, Sandy ran and closed the door to the rest of the house while Cathy opened the door to the outside. They did a magnificent job of herding that little critter back out to his home and family. Whew!

Since they didn’t take the time to snap a photo, they agreed to pose for us:

Please don’t worry. No animals were harmed in the making of this blog post. Rather, I found some wool in the scrap bag and fashioned our new mascot from it. Meet Chippy:

Oh, I forgot to mention that the warmish rain from Thursday gave way to temps in the 30s and 40s. Guess winter is making it’s way into Wisconsin. But we were warm, cozy and very blessed to be together for another wonderful retreat. Time to head home 😊.

Last week I wrote about a quilt I backed with Minky, in which I turned the back to the front to make a self-binding. Sandy is a newer blog reader and asked for more information on this technique. I’ve used it many times and the first time was on a quilt for my granddaughter Rainee, who was 3 at the time ~ and she’s now 11. My how time flies. I wrote a post on it at that time and you can click here for the step-by-step tutorial. Thanks for asking Sandy!

And now for the story of my most recent quilt:

The son of our dear friends, Randy and Donna, died in a tragic accident in 2020. Stephen was deeply loved by his family and this was a very difficult time. In a conversation with his mom a year or so after his death, she asked if I’d ever made a quilt from clothing. I told her I’d made many t-shirt quilts, and some of those were memorial quilts, but I’d be happy to make whatever they’d like. Quite a bit of time passed and one day I got a text saying she “was ready”. We agreed on a time to meet and then she texted me “I don’t know why this is so hard for me”. My response was “I do. I can’t even imagine how hard this must be.”

We met for lunch and had a lovely conversation. Then the subject turned to Stephen’s quilt. She said to just do whatever I wanted with the bag of clothes she’d brought. I asked her many questions and I could see discussing it was difficult for her. So I said I’d come up with a few options and share them with her. I went home and spread out the contents of the bag. Stephen was an honored marine veteran, and an avid hunter. His clothes reflected that.

The color palette was pretty much set, but what would I do with that orange hunting vest? Just wait and see 😊! I chose a simple 8″ block, and began to cut and piece. Quite a bit of stabilizing of the stretchy fabrics was need. And, as far as the orange, I cut it into 1″ bias strips and pressed them in half to be sewn into some of the seams.

Also included in the bag was an 8″ x 10″ photo of Stephen’s beloved cat Toki.

I cleaned up the photo in Affinity Photo, lightened the background, and printed Toki on fabric. Then I completed 9 blocks and laid them out together:

At this point I sent a photo of the project to Donna with a bunch of questions: Do you like the blocks? Is a small wallhanging good, or would you like it larger? Would you like a lap quilt to snuggle with?

She responded with “it’s fine. We’ll leave it to your descretion”. This was a learning moment for me. I realized these decisions were uncomfortable for them and they wanted the quilt, but they didn’t really know what they wanted. I was overwhelming them with questions and needed to be more aware of the signals these dear people were sending.

So I decided to make the wallhanging a little larger, add narrow borders, quilt it, bind it, and embellish with the extra items she’d included in the bag. One of the extra items was a pair of mittens from his childhood. They were too big to appliqué to the quilt, so I traced around one, shrunk the pattern down, and cut two from one of the mittens. The scale was much better.

I then added a simple label to the back.

Once it was completed I put it in a gift bag and handed it to Donna the next time I saw her. I told her to look at it when they were ready. I then asked her if we could meet up and have a conversation about what questions were appropriate and any advice she had for me if I have the opportunity to do this again for someone else. She agreed. Later that day I received a text that said “I can’t tell you how much I love the quilt! We’ll talk about it soon. THANK YOU!”

The Bible says that “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord; for those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). I’ve seen this work in Randy and Donna’s life. While mourning for Stephen they attended a Grief Share program. I have another friend who runs one of these programs through her church in Oconomowoc, and it has been a blessing to so many who are suffering. As part of their healing, Randy and Donna have started a Grief Share group of their own here in Watertown. It’s a ten week program which they repeat throughout the year. They are reaching so many with healing. God has used their grief to bless many, many others; and as a result Randy and Donna are growing and being blessed! Praise the Lord!

If you or someone you know is trying to cope with the loss of a loved one, I highly recommend searching out a Grief Share group in your area. Click here for the Grief Share site!

Before I get to this week’s story, I have a correction to last week’s post. In it I had a link to the Magna-dots I use for blade changing. The link was incorrect. Click here for Cynthia’s site.

And now for this week’s “topic of the week”!

It’s wedding time again! This time we celebrated the marriage of a niece on Mike’s side of the family, and I wanted to do what I traditionally do ~ make Rachel and Cory a snuggle quilt. I wasn’t sure what they would like so I dug through my UFO bins once again and found a top I’d made from two jelly rolls: one with warm colors and the other with cool. I’ve always loved the pattern and colors of this quilt top.

I decided the quilt needed to be longer, and not quite so wide, so I took off two strips, evened off the top and bottom and sewed the extra strips in place. I didn’t take a photo at that time, but through the magic of Photoshop, this is what it was supposed to look like:

I then took this top to my last retreat, along with a cute paw print fabric (they love dogs and cats).

I stitched the borders on and put it back in my bag to be layered and quilted at home. Prior to the wedding I took it out and decided to photograph it before layering it. This was a humbling experience.

This is not a bad photo of a quilt top. This is a photo of a bad quilt top. I added the borders without actually squaring up the top! I should know better ~ right? The right side of the top is over 1″ shorter than the left. I’ve said it before “when I think I’m hot stuff, the Lord humbles me”.

So why am I showing it to you? Because I found a fix that worked. I think the original problem was caused by all the strips being cut on the bias. This could work to my advantage because blocking a quilt top works best when there are a lot of biases. It was worth a try. This is something I’ve done in the past and I hope the review is helpful.

There was carpeting in the studio at my other house, but in this house I had to hike upstairs to the spare bedroom. I laid out old towels, and grabbed some old quilting pins (saved for this type of project) and a few large rulers.

The quilt was smoothed out on the towels and misted with water to dampen. Starting in one corner I laid my largest square ruler 1/4″ in from the edges. I then “piggybacked” 2 long rulers against the edges of the square (the rulers are outlined in red and blue so they are easier to see).

Then I tugged and pinned the top into the carpet and pad, along the edges of the rulers.

Because the cotton fibers were damp they were easy to maneuver where I wanted them. I continued around the quilt top until it was square. Wow – It looked much better, and when I measured it I was pleased. This type of blocking can also be done on a design wall, if you have one you can pin into that’s big enough.

I let it dry overnight and when the pins came out ~ it stayed right where I wanted it. If it hadn’t stayed put, I would have re-dampened, re-pinned, and then gently pressed over the entire quilt with a damp press cloth and a hot iron, to encourage it a bit more firmly 😊.

So it was time to layer the quilt sandwich for quilting. I chose a soft, gray minky™ for the back and a thin 80/20 batt (I like the results better when I combine a thin batt with a minky™ back). Some of you may remember that I often say “quilting the quilt should be as much fun as making the top”, so I asked myself “what quilting design would be fun today?” And as usual I answered “spirals”. I decided to use orange thread and quilt in the warm colored stripes.

Isn’t minky™ gorgeous on the back?

I turned the gray backing to the front as a binding and it was done!

The wedding was lovely,

and I can’t wait to get a photo of the happy couple with their new quilt! Stay tuned!

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And here’s my Autumn photo of the week:

It finally feels like Fall! It’s my favorite season and I love visiting the pumpkin farm and setting out the Autumn decorations. I hope you won’t mind my sharing a photo each week 😊, like this one of Autumn on our deck:

And now for “Scrubbie Quilts”: As a little background information for my piece ~ our big challenge this year will be a triptych: three finished quilts hung together from one sleeve. There’s more to that challenge to be shared in a future post, but this idea inspired me to try a triptych on a smaller scale ~ and incorporate the scrubbie.

But not all. Choosing which scrubbie was the easy part ~ what to do with it wasn’t quite so easy.

I began by selecting some of my rust dyed fabric (click here for that post) and a lovely blue fabric that went well with it. I cut out three rectangles of gradated size, and decided to fuse strips of the opposite fabric in a pleasing arrangement using the “Parallelisms” technique from my book Where Do I Start With Fiber Art? (click here to read about my book)

Nice, but it needed more. Would contrasting “diamonds” work?

Yes! Now what to do with the scrubbie? I tried pulling strands of the copper metal out and braiding them, but that was not fun or easy. Then I unrolled the scrubbie and was enthralled by the weaving of the strands. Perhaps I could flatten it (a fete in itself) and capture a piece inside each “diamond”:

Ooh – that worked! I actually had to make each diamond separately ~ from background, scrubbie and “frame” ~ then square that unit up and appliqué it to the main background with a blind hem stitch.

I soon discovered using rust dyed fabric and metal mesh (which all tend to be be hard on blades, thread and needles), proved to be difficult. After squaring up each diamond with my rotary cutter ~ the blade was shot (it was time to change it anyways). I don’t mind that task any more because I use Magna-Dots™:

For my step-by-step blade changing post with the wooden Magna-Dots™ please click here. The link to order magna dots has changed since that post. Click here for Cynthia’s site.

Once the blade was changed and the “diamonds” were in place, it was time to determine how to quilt each panel. I like to cover the piece with Glad Press and Seal™ and experiment with different designs by drawing with washable markers.

Once those decisions were made, I layered the sandwiches with a thin batt and pinned with straight pins because each panel was small.

As I stitched my chosen design I had to deal with a few issues due to quilting through the rust. I persevered and my three quilts were finished. It was time for binding. Simple seemed best, so I bound them all with a narrow blue binding and I’m very pleased with the results.

Any thoughts on what I should name it?

I recently showed this quilt to Sommer and Trey. I explained that the quilts got progressively smaller, and the number of skinny strips changed too. Then Trey said “yeah, and the strips got smaller in multiples of three”. Sometimes 8 years olds can really amaze us 😁!

And, to see all the amazing ThreadBender’s Scrubbie Quilts, click here! Thanks ThreadBenders, for another fun learning experience.

Did you see the image at the top of this post? It looks like quilts are so popular even the Crane sisters are heading to the door 🤣!

Each year after the Madison show I like to do an overview of all the fun. This year my friend Julie is in the midst of chemo and told me that she was really looking forward to this post, since she can’t attend the show. What a blessing that I can share a bit of it with those of you who aren’t able to attend!

It was a wonderful time to catch up with friends, restock the stash, add new techniques to the toolbox, and BE INSPIRED!!!

I arrived a day early to help hang the ThreadBenders Travel Poster quilts in a special exhibit.

But before I get to our special exhibit ~ I can’t wait to share some news about the AQS show in Grand Rapids that took place this past week. Last year our Travel Poster’s won second place in the Ultimate Guild Challenge competition, and we just found out our current group of challenge quilts ~ Curves Ahead ~ won second place this year!!! Congratulations ThreadBenders!!!

So here are the Travel Posters in Madison:

I just love the artistic banner members of the group made to hang with our quilts (and it was fun to hang them with the ribbon).

During the show I was thrilled to have the opportunity to teach two workshops on my repliqué techniques from my latest book,

and all three of my Silhouettes and Shadows lectures appeared to go over quite well.

In my class on Thursday I noticed a man sitting at the machine in the far left corner. I went over to introduce myself to David and got to meet his sister Barb!

I don’t remember having a brother/sister team in a class before. The next day there was a man sitting in that exact same chair. What a delightful coincidence to meet Wayne and his sister Mary!

I am so blessed to be able to teach and have many, many wonderful students. Saturday morning was free on my schedule and I couldn’t resist taking a class about doodling on quilts with Ruth Ann Berry. She owns a shop in Fife, MI called the Quilter’s Clinic and she specializes in 3D quilt patterns of her own design (I’ll share what I learned in class in a future post).

When I wasn’t teaching or taking a class I was able to see the show. I’ve said it before and I’m sticking with it: the vendors are wonderful and I’m so grateful for all they make available to us at the show. But, as soon as I get through the doors, I head for the quilts. Oh my! The quilts in this show just keep getting better and better!

The ribbon winning quilts did not disappoint, but I love them all. So here’s a quilt parade of some of the quilts that may not have won ribbons, but they made me smile:

The Hayward Wisconsin quilt guild is a great group that my friend Cathy belongs to. She entered their group quilt in the show for the guild and it was fun for all to see. Cathy’s block is the huge muskie statue that resides in Hayward (3 down, 2 to the right).

After enjoying that quilt I came upon Stella and couldn’t resist adding her to my favorites (she’s actually a sturgeon, not a muskie, but I’m kind of into fish art lately):

I’m often drawn to asymmetry and I felt the unexpected borders really made this quilt attractive:

The Quilt of 60 Quilts had a calendar theme and the small quilts were hand cross stitched:

They were so lovely I couldn’t resist a detail shot:

This led me to notice quilts that fit a seasonal theme. Ranae’s Quilt had a Spring like feel to me. I loved the simple pattern, and bright colors:

The color and graphics of Indian Summer are striking ~ and fit my seasonal theme:

From there I found a Winter quilt. Doesn’t this pattern look beautiful in Christmas fabrics?

DNA Helix is a quilt based on the double helix design in every strand of dna in our bodies. Isn’t God’s imagination beautiful?!? Who knew it would make such an amazing bed quilt?! And it’s all paper pieced – WOW!

Fussy cutting can yeild some amazing results. When I first looked at this quilt I marveled at all the appliquéd circles. Then I looked closer and discovered the black and white dots were all printed on their fabrics ~ and fussy cut to fit perfectly (there are colorful fussy cut dots too). Amazing!

My first quilt was a sampler quilt, and I’m always attracted to them. So 365 Day Challenge really grabbed me.

Next I came upon 365 Little Blocks – Wow!

As I read the sign I realized it was made by a friend whom I’ve traveled with. Then, a few quilts farther down the aisle, I bumped into Eileen. What fun to hear about her quilt and catch up!

I was delighted to also find a whimsical sampler of fabrics. Sue had quite a collection of cow fabrics!

And the quilting added to the fun:

I’m not only attracted to samplers, but I have a soft spot in my heart for patriotic quilts too. This one contained both. The sampler blocks are in the blue field of our flag:

And here’s another patriotic quilt that was made from a veteran’s uniforms. Such a wonderful tribute!

I’ve recently been into One Block Wonder quilts and Bathtime is one that was made from 7 repeats of the same panel. It, and the next few quilts, were all ribbon winners. I know I said I wanted to share some of the non-ribbon quilts, but these spoke to me and I just had to share them too.

The 3 Dimensionality of One-Two Punch blew me away. It fit so well with my lecture about shadows. The “threaded borders“ are wonderful too!

The next quilt I actually chose as my viewer’s choice. It’s a small quilt, but the detail is amazing. I had the great opportunity to hear it’s story from Ann herself. I’m hoping to interview her and let you in on some of the details of the making of this quilt – in her own words – in a future post.

I began this parade of quilts by stating that they made me smile, so I want to end with the one that made me laugh out loud ~ My Favorite Murder! Please read the entire story 😁.

I wish I could have shown all the quilts, but space is limited and you can see more on the Great Wisconsin Quilt show’s website (click here) or Facebook page (click here).

I’ve just returned from an exciting and very inspiring weekend at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in Madison. I have so much I want to share about the show, but not enough time to have it ready to post today. So… I’ll save it for next week and instead share the story of a recent adventure.

A few weeks ago I posted about having some of my work in an art exhibit at our local library. The information was at the end of my “Photographing Quilts” post and you can read it by clicking here!

At the conclusion of the exhibit an artist’s reception was held. A number of my quilting friends dropped by, along with my daughter-in-law and the kids. What fun! I enjoyed meeting some of the other artists. There was quite a variety of artistic mediums on display, but the artist whose work I found most intriguing is Ed Kasper. He’s a stone carver, and he even offers classes!

I’ve always been fascinated by carvings of any kind. How does a person take a piece of stone or wood, and know what to cut away to bring out the object hidden inside? I met Ed while he was looking at my Czech Aurora quilt.

He began asking me questions about it, and he was very interested in my inspiration and technique (to read about the making of this quilt please click here). I then began to ask him about his work. It was an wonderful conversation.

Towards the end of the reception I found Ed looking at the quilt again and he asked me if I ever sell my work. Now that’s a question! I was so honored to be asked. Over the years I’ve sold a few pieces, but typically I keep them because they all have stories that are dear to me, and I love to share them with others in my classes and lectures.

Then I got to thinking ~ I have a lot of quilts! Perhaps it would be nice to have one of my quilts enjoyed by someone who would appreciate it too. So I set a price and emailed Ed. He agreed 😊. We scheduled a time to meet, and then my mind started racing.

Back in 2006 a woman from Canada wanted to purchase my Repliqué Quilts book, and I couldn’t figure out how to accept payment since I didn’t do PayPal at that time. We decided to do an exchange and it ended up being a great experience. I blogged about the exchange way back in 2010 and repeated the story in 2020 (if you’d like to read about it click here). In essence I shipped my book to Ann in Canada and she sent me two books from her area. It was a delightful exchange!

So would Ed be willing to trade art? I emailed him and he was pleased with the idea! Since Mike and I live on the Rock River I was especially interested in his fish, and Ed agreed to trade his beautiful prize winning rendition of a bluegill for my button inspired quilt.

I asked him to tell me the story and he told me he caught this fish and decided to use it as a model for a piece of art. So he froze it! He would then take it out of the freezer to trace it onto the stone and guide him to carve the details accurately. Amazing! I remember my friend Wendy telling me that her mom would do this with birds she found for her wonderful sketches and paintings.

After I brought my treasure home Mike was admiring it and asked questions I hadn’t thought of. So I emailed Ed once again and here are the answers in his own words:

“The bluegill is a Brazilian soapstone, the brown is driftwood and the dark base is a harder soapstone, like countertop material or flooring. That stone came from Brazil as well.  I am happy that you like the piece, it is a beautiful stone and my goal is always not to detract from God’s handiwork. I hung your piece in my art room so that it will continue to inspire me and challenge my own creativity.” 

I love that he desires his work to honor God. I was so pleased that he also agreed to pose with me for this post:

I have my latest art acquisition on the buffet in the dining room. What a joy!

Have you ever traded a quilt for something other than cash? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

Now I’m off to begin going through all the photos of this weekend’s adventure. Stay tuned.

PS Ed, if you’re reading this, your quilt did win a ribbon at a national quilt show 😊!

I have a wonderful sister-in-law named Mary Sue. Many of you have heard me talk about her before because she’s THE ONE who talked me into taking a quilting class in 1987 and then never finished her first quilt. I couldn’t have chosen a better wife for my brother ~ or sister for me 😁. And I can’t thank her enough for getting me into quilting.

Well, after a successful career in physical therapy she has retired, and this past week we celebrated her big event. The problem was, what to gift her for this special occasion? I finally decided something homemade was the answer, and I chose a Christmas table runner top I’d stitched together a few years ago and have always loved.

As usual, I came up with this great idea the day before the party. So I quickly layered the quilt sandwich and had fun quilting the lovely “stack and whack” stars. I haven’t done a faux piped binding recently so I had to look up the tutorial on my own blog (click here to read it for yourself). The trick is to cut the binding fabric strips at 1 3/8″ and the piping strips at 1 5/8″. This always seemed a bit odd to me, but it makes sense because the majority of the piping strip ends up inside the binding. The photos on my previous post were a bit dark, so here are some new ones:

The two strips are sewn together with the seam pressed towards the binding strip (green on my piece)

Then the strip is pressed in half, wrong sides together, so only a narrow strip of the piping shows.

The binding is sewn onto the back of the quilt with the binding strip against the quilt, piping side up, and using a 1/4″ seam allowance. It is then folded to the front of the quilt and stitched in the ditch, using a color thread to match the piping.

It’s really quite simple and the results are great! I think she liked it 😊!

Congratulations Mary Sue!

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Just a reminder!

I hope you’re planning to attend the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison this week. I’ll be presenting my newest lecture ~ Silhouettes and Shadows ~ each afternoon.

I just noticed that the photo for my morning class was cropped on their website in such a way that it makes no sense. So, here it is with the class description:

Fall Into Repliqué: Learn an entire toolbox worth of techniques for recreating photographs as finished quilt blocks, while making a lovely autumn wall hanging. Three variations of Chris’ technique from her latest book will be covered, plus two block finishing techniques. Class concludes with a simple way to connect small quilts modularly. 

I’d love to have you join me, so if you haven’t signed up yet please click here! Advance registration ends Tuesday!