This week’s post includes a story that I hope you’ll find interesting ~ and it definitely has a quilting connection 😊:

My church supports many missionary families throughout the world and this past Christmas our pastor invited members to “adopt” one of these families. This simply meant we would send them notes of encouragement, birthday cards, etc. The family we chose lives in Hong Kong and is made up of dad, mom and two little girls. I enjoy sending them monthly letters with stories about my family, our dog (the girls love that) and my quilting. After sending them my first few letters I received an email from mom (Susie) asking if I’d ever read the picture book Pieces by Anna Grossnickle Hines.

She said she’d taken it out at their library in Hong Kong and the girls loved the pictures and the poems. Then she realized it was all about quilts, and she knew she had to tell me. I made a mental note to go to my library, but then forgot (the story of my life lately).

This dear family recently came back home to Wisconsin for a visit ~ and we all got to meet. We invited them over for lunch and a swim during the week my grandkids were visiting from Washington State.

Susie asked me what the girls should call me and Mike and I responded, as we usually do with kids at church, “we’d love to be called Grandpa Mike and Grandma Chris”. It’s such fun to have additional grandkids!

We were captivated by their stories of life in Hong Kong and it was a wonderful visit. One of my favorite parts of the afternoon was when Susie gave me a copy of Anna’s book ~ what a treasure!

After they left I thumbed through it and landed on a beautiful page with poems entitled Silhouettes and Shadows. That’s the name of the new lecture I’ll be presenting at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in September. What a coincidence! These are Anna’s quilts and poems from that part of the book

I had to sit down and read the entire book right then and there. Anna’s poetry is amazing, and at the end of the book she includes 3 pages about the stories behind the quilts. Anna had written the poetry about the seasons and nature over many years. She came to a point where she thought the poems would be lovely with quilts as the background in a book, and decided to learn to quilt to bring this lovely book to life. Her mother is a quilter and encourager, and a wonderful part of the story. I was amazed at Anna’s skill not only as a poet, but as a quilter too! I think Pieces is a must read for every quilter, and all the children in their lives.

After reading it I couldn’t wait to visit Anna’s website and I discovered I’ve read some of her books to my grandchildren! Anna’s website is as delightful as her books (click here to visit her site), and at the end of her story about the writing of Pieces (click here for that link) there was a photo of the printers who were printing her book in… Hong Kong!

Another coincidence! I knew I had to write Anna to ask permission to feature her work in a blog post, and this was her response:

“Hello Chris,

What a sweet story! I am always delighted to hear that one of my books has touched another heart, and you’ve given me news of several being touched. How fun that you had read some of my other books to your grandchildren! 

You certainly have my permission to share any images from my books or website. I’m sorry it isn’t in better shape, but since I’m retired, and the software with which I created it no longer functions, I no longer maintain it. Still, if a few more people find something to enjoy in my work, that is good news. 

All best to you and to Susie and her family, Anna”

I do hope you’ll read all about her books on her website, and I highly recommend purchasing a copy of Pieces for yourself.

I began blogging in 2010 and one of my early posts was on this very topic (click here to read that post). I’ve changed my technique a bit since then, but the basics remain the same. This won’t be a lesson for professionals, but I hope it will be helpful for many of you who want to enter your work in juried shows, or just want to keep a record of the quilts you make. If your latest project is full size or larger, and you’re not entering it in a show, you may want to simply photograph it on the bed.

For smaller quilts these are tips that hopefully will be helpful:

*Most of us use our phones as our cameras now (quite a change from 2010), and they have built in the “magic” that keeps photos clear without the steadying help of a tripod ~ amazing! But it is still important to hold your phone/camera as still as possible.

*Set your camera for the highest quality because you can always make a photo smaller, but you can’t enlarge it without losing quality.

*Choose a plain background ~ charcoal gray is the best in order to keep the colors true, as in the fabric covering my design wall (this photo is from that original post and it’s a bit fuzzy because the file was too small – duh).

Recently I’ve found I like to lay small quilts on the ground for photographing. The concrete outside or the flooring in my studio are both neutral.

But note the difference the color of the background makes. The gray concrete photo was taken in the shade on a bright, sunny day. While the indoor photo was taken with my new “daylight” fixtures. The gray of the concrete gives me truer color. the warmer flooring color causes my quilt to look a bit yellower.

So what will happen if I take the photo on the concrete in full sun?

The photo has a slight yellow cast, but still looks good. So sometimes direct sunlight is OK.

Another way I use sunlight to my advantage is when I want my quilting to show, especially when taking detail shots to enter in competition. Laying the quilt on the ground, with the sun at an angle (morning or late afternoon) can help accomplish this.

*Keeping the quilt framed square in the photo is another important skill. This requires holding the phone/camera so that the spacing is equal all the way around. The following photo is a good example. Note the edges of the quilt are parallel to the edges of the photo all the way around. This photo can now be cropped to make all the spaces the same size.

It is easy to have the phone/camera rotated a bit, and the result is uneven background spaces:

More often the problem is that the phone/camera is not parallel to the piece being photographed. This results in what’s called keystoning:

And can be fixed by simply holding the front of the phone/camera parallel to the quilt. The image on the left is incorrect, while the one on the right will result in a good photo.

So what is the point? The easiest way I’ve found to get good photos of small quilts is to lay them outside on concrete in a shady area on a sunny day, and hold the camera/phone square and parallel to the quilt.

This can work for larger quilts too – if you can climb a ladder or get on a deck above the quilt so that the photo is taken straight down. Hanging a large quilt from a railing or deck has worked for me too, even though the background is usually busy, and it’s harder to get the lighting correct.

*And one last comment. Watch that your arm or body are not causing shadows across the quilt, especially when taking photos indoors. Be careful not to have the light directly over the quilt or shadows are almost unavoidable. I find it helpful to place the quilt on the floor between two ceiling lights in my studio. That way I get even lighting and no shadowing.

I hope you find this helpful. None of these things is difficult, but they can make a big difference.

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And one more thing…

The Watertown Arts Council is holding a show at our public library. Local artists will have work on display from August 10-17, and I’m pleased to be a part of it. As people enter the main door from the parking lot they’ll be greeted by Lady Liberty:

I have a number of other pieces on display, along with artists who work in a variety of mediums. There will be a reception on Thursday, August 17th from 5-7. Please stop by if you’re in the area.

Back in April I posted about a Dresden plate quilt I’d begun quilting, but I wasn’t sure what designs to use in the background (click here to read that post). So it was set aside ~ and then I met my friend Sharon for her birthday lunch. She lives in Madison, and I live in Watertown, so we meet at Doyle’s Dogs hot dog stand in Lake Mills every few months to catch up. Sharon taught me to quilt in 1987 and has been a dear friend ever since. She hasn’t been doing much quilting lately because of some arthritis issues. What she does enjoy doing now is drawing ~ and is she good!

At lunch she was showing me her little sketch book. There were so many lovely designs and quite a bit of her own Zen Doodling.

I showed her a photo of my quilt in progress:

And asked if she had any ideas for fun background quilting. She said she would be happy to noodle on it. So I mailed her a bunch of black and white copies and waited.

She didn’t disappoint. We met again a week later and she showed me some of her ideas:

Ooh! That was exciting. Now it was my turn. I love collaborating with my friends!

Do I choose one? Use as is or simplify (she gave me permission)? Combine a few designs?

What do you think???

Results to be revealed in a future post 😊!

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And just a fun extra bit of info:

Last night Mike and I watched an old Fred MacMurray movie and it reminded me of a photo I took on a recent visit to Beaver Dam, WI that I never posted. Here’s the background:

There are 2 newer quilt shops in Beaver Dam and on my first visit to them in 2022 I was enthralled by a mosaic of Nancy Zieman made from ceramic squares painted by people who live there (click here for that post).

On a recent return visit I discovered that 2 more mosaics had been added to the wall, and one was of Fred MacMurray who lived there as a child.

Aren’t those mosaics amazing! And who knew Fred had a quilting connection?!? 😁

Before I get to my topic of the week, I have to take a moment to emote over the wealth of talent and information exhibited in the readers of my blog. A few weeks ago I included requests from ladies who had written to me and the response to both was wonderful.

Yvonne found a retreat center, and she thanks you for all the suggestions.

The response to Cara’s plea for making a quilt from wrestling singlets was overwhelming. There were five offers to help from quilters experienced in working with difficult fabrics, and one of them actually lives near Cara in Carson City, Nevada! I’m not sure how it will all come out, but I’ve asked her to share the story 😊. What a wonderful, sharing group you are!

And now for this week’s post:

This past week Lori, Susan and I went on an adventure to the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts.

Their current exhibit is spectacular! It’s called Chiku-Chiku and contains the work of Japanese fiber artist Akiko Ike. Her story is fascinating:

Ike further explains Chiku Chiku:

She not only uses a thick cotton thread, but she uses it doubled. This is a close up of two pieces of fabric being overlapped and patched together with her chiku chiku stitches:

When I was in Japan I learned about shibori dyeing, and even did a bit of it (click here for that post). We also learned a lot about indigo dyeing (that post can be found here). This piece, made from a variety of indigo shibori fabrics, also contains bright red patches stitched on in the boro style.

So what is Boro? You probably won’t be surprised that I have a post about my own personal adventure mending with a Boro type technique (click here to read all about it). While on my trip to Japan I purchased a small scrap of authentic boro that was made into a pin, which I wore while at the museum ~ and snuck into this photo:

Ike stitches on garments as well as larger pieces of fabric.

She creates small pieces too. We were delighted by these squares attached to a cord that were hung and laid all over the gallery.

with the extras piled in a corner ~ WOW!

The museum staff did an amazing job of displaying all of her wonderful work. The huge fish in her Koinobori collection were surrounded by her squares.

I had not heard of Koinobori before. Have you?

They are beautiful!

Some of her work was subtle:

Other pieces were colorful and geometric:

and all were filled with her wonderful stitching, even the diapers (yes – diapers) which were strung together and hanging from the ceiling:

Many or her pieces had patches sewn on the top, but some had the patches behind.

Ike had pieces made from ombre type fabrics.

We were very intrigued by this similar work that was stitched on a cheesecloth-like fabric.

It was verrrrry sheer and we wondered what it would have been used for. After chatting we surmised that perhaps panels like this would have been hung as room dividers in Japan. Any thoughts?

I think one of the most interesting aspects of her work was the way she changed her thread color to make the background look as if it had changed color too! Just look at the orange area in the crane piece below. The orange looks like it changes, but does it???

Another term I learned was:

And here’s an example:

The density of stitches on the next hanging blew me away:

As did the entire exhibit. Ike will be teaching a class at the museum and her quilts will be on display through August 27th. I highly recommend a visit!

The museum will also be hosting a virtual auction August 3-7. Click here to visit their website for information on all the happenings there.

The gift shop is filled with wonderful items too. In fact, I was blessed to be able to purchase the last of Ike’s hand made chiku chiku scissors cases, with the scissors.

I treasure it.

This past week I was on another retreat, but with a new group of quilters (I’m so blessed)! It’s a great story. Over the years that I taught at WCTC I had a group of wonderful ladies that took my Open Lab class over and over again. They enjoyed each other and really grew in their skills. When the school decided to discontinue adult continuing ed we were all disappointed. We wanted to stay together as a group, but then the pandemic hit. When life began getting back to normal we started gathering in our backyards and garages (with proper social distancing). That went on for a while, but we all decided that even though we like show and telling our projects, we’d rather sew together. Sew…

I contacted my friend Laure Reuters, who owns Tall Pines Retreat, and 9 of us had a wonderful time sewing, eating, shopping, laughing and just loving being together.

On the third day we decided we needed a better name than the Open Lab quilters, and we came up with the Fabric-ators!

It was such fun stitching together in the lovely studio!

Here’s some of our group brainstorming quilting designs with Susan:

And here’s her finished quilt:

While working on her Hugs and Kisses quilt,

Eileen also helped Judy to make a Twister quilt, since she’d made one previously.

The first step is to sew a layer cake together:

And then to cut out the “Twister” blocks with a special ruler. These new blocks are then sewn together and a happy quilt results:

I worked on a number of projects, some needing binding, others borders, but then I started one I’m really loving. I bought the fabrics a few years ago at Patched Works in Elm Grove, WI. It was a line with a lovely woven plaid, and I couldn’t decide which color to purchase so I bought all four. They were just sitting in a pile when I found a modern pattern at Blue Bar Quilts in Madison.

It all came together as I packed for retreat, but I really wasn’t sure the plaids were a good fit for this pattern.

The second day of retreat we shop hopped to Windswept quilts in Big Bend, and I found a navy batik for the background squares. What fun to discover they all played well together.

And here’s the top I went home with:

I can’t wait to figure out how I’m going to quilt it.

I’m so grateful for good quilting friends and the times we can spend together!

The theme for the challenge at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show this year is Back in 1973. That was 50 years ago! Whoa! That really makes me feel old.

I loved the 70’s. I loved the colorful fun clothing, and I made many of my own clothes. I even made a quilt from the leftover fabrics, on the sewing machine my parents gave me for high school graduation. I drove a Chevy Chevelle (a gift from my parents for my 18th birthday), and dated my high school sweetheart, whom I’d eventually marry. I also was one of those weird kids who loved school, especially home economics and geometry. I was on the pom pon squad and loved going to all the games. Can you tell I “loved” the 70’s. I have so many wonderful memories and I knew I wanted to participate in this challenge, but how do I put that all into a quilt??? Perhaps in silhouette???

I’m not good at free hand drawing, but I’m great at surfing the internet for images of what I need and tracing the parts I want. This technique resulted in a girl of the 70’s (me?), the car, big flowers, the W (for Wauwatosa West), and pom pons:

If I was going to silhouette these images I’d need a background that would accent, but not takeaway. Hmm. There are loads of tie-dye fabrics available, but that didn’t seem personal enough. Then an idea struck. Remember how I said I’d made a quilt from all the leftover clothing fabrics? Well, it’s still on our bed, and I’ve even posted about the ugly thing. To read about a repair I did to it in 2018 click here.

Perhaps I should take a photo of a portion of it and have it printed on a yard of fabric via spoonflower.com. And that was just what I did. It turned out great (all the ugliness was in tact 🤣)!

I layered a piece of black/teal fabric on top of it, placed my full size, reversed pattern on the back, and stitched on the lines ala repliqué (what else?). Then I trimmed away everything that wasn’t a silhouette.

Next I satin stitched all the edges and it was time to quilt. But what to use for the backing?

While I was working on the quilt my parents came over for dinner and I showed them my work in progress. Mom and I had fun remembering what each of the fabrics had been made into. Afterwards Mike suggested I write those memories on the fabric. It was too late to add it to the front of the quilt, but I could have another piece printed for the back ~ and I could add the notes via computer before sending it off to be printed! It worked great. I have to brag up Spoonflower. These one of a kind prints were less than $18/yard. It was so worth it!

Time to layer everything together and start quilting. I quilted around each image and along the piecing lines of the squares in the background.

It was fun quilting “the girl” with flowers in her boots,

fish net stockings,

and lots of swirls:

And here’s the finished quilt.

The night it was completed I asked Mike what he thought I should name it. We threw around a bunch of ideas and then one of us mentioned songs ~ and we both burst out laughing. On our first date a song came on the radio that Mike “dedicated” to me: Betcha By Golly Wow by the Stylistics. It was the perfect fit 🤣!

I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun making a quilt. Watch for Betcha By Golly Wow in Madison in September!

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Oh – I just found out that I will be presenting my lecture ~ Silhouettes and Shadows ~ at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in September.

It will include the technique I used for this quilt, along with many other techniques. I’ll also be teaching my new workshop ~ Fall Into Repliqué ~ from my book Modular Memory Quilts:

Registration for the show has begun and you can click here to sign up!

When I first began teaching at the technical colleges in both Watertown and Waukesha, I felt the need to put together a class that taught many different types of appliqué. My project ended up having a four season theme and, praise the Lord, I was able to teach it many times.

These techniques included: hand needle turned applique, hand turned edge around freezer paper, blanket stitch (by hand and machine), faced, fused satin stitched, curved vines and 3D ~ just to name a few.

I think you can tell by the fabrics that we’re talking the 1990s here 😊. Well, I received this email from Karin a while back:

“Hello, Chris!

You may laugh when you read this Email, but I thought I would ask anyway.  Years ago, I took your “Seasonal Applique Sampler” class at WCTC and got about 90% of it done before putting it away for reasons I no longer remember.  Now that I’m retired, I’m working my way through various unfinished projects and am having a blast.  However, I seem to be missing a page of instructions for the sampler quilt.  That quilt has two applique borders – one is a bow in one corner and a bird, flower, and leaves in another corner.  The bow pieces were cut out and pinned to the border before I put it away.  And the bird and flowers were pinned to the other corner.  However, I can’t find anything that shows the layout for the bird, flowers, stem and leaves.  The instructions I have include only one tiny picture of the completed quilt and I can’t see how to place the stems and leaves.  Would you still happen to have anything that might help me?  

Hope you get a kick out of this blast from the past!  Thanks.”

I did find it a “blast from the past”, and I really had to dig to find my sampler at the bottom of my shelf full of finished (almost) quilts. I discovered that I’d hand quilted 90% of the quilt, but the borders still needed to be done ~ and the needle and thread were still in the quilt 🤣. I snapped a quick photo and sent it back to Karin. This was her response:

“Your photo is extremely helpful. I’ve attached a photo of where I left off and you can see I was close to having finished this. I even found the already cut stems and outer flange and border pieces. Will send you the final photo when it’s done. Thanks so much for your help”

This helped me to realize that the quilts at the bottom of my stack need to be brought to the surface and enjoyed on the wall (or bed). I often keep hanging my favorites. Especially since I have so many more quilts now than I did then. Do any of you have a Seasonal Appliqué Sampler quilt in your pile of finished or unfinished projects? Perhaps Karin will inspire us all to finish those that need finishing and to enjoy those treasures that haven’t been brought out recently! Thanks Karin. Can’t wait to see your finished Sampler!

And the story continues:

Black, White and Bright

I wrote up the preceding post months ago, and never sent it out. More recently I received this email from Lorraine:

“Hi Chris,
Look what I bought at Granny’s Attic at the last It’s a Stitch Quilt Show!!  It’s the pieces to a Black White and Bright quilt. According to the paperwork included in the bag this quilt was started at a class you taught on 1/18/13 at WCTC’s Waukesha Campus.  There are 9 completed blocks: 4 with plain borders and 5 with flying geese borders. I also have a stack of leftover black and white prints. My plan is to make 11 more blocks to create a wheelchair quilt to donate to a nearby hospital.
Be patient … it may take awhile … but I will send you a picture when it is finished.“

This was my response:

Dear Lorraine, I love it! Thanks so much for sharing this with me. I often say in my vintage quilt lectures that the reason old blocks are found in boxes at rummage sales is because they don’t fit together. I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to be the case with your blocks. They’re kind of funky and perhaps just weren’t the original stitchers thing. I’m so glad you got them. I’ll attach a photo of my top. At this point mine isn’t completed either because I don’t have a bed it will fit on and… it’s lighter and smaller than a finished quilt so it fits better in my suitcase when I take it to lectures. At least that’s my excuse LOL.

I’m sure your quilt will brighten someone’s days. God bless your generous heart 😊.

And I included this photo of my quilt top:

I haven’t heard back from Karen or Lorraine, but perhaps this post will spur them on to finish these fun projects.

Maybe I need to go through my UFO bin and finish something that’s just waiting to be brought out! Hmm. Now that I think about it ~ I actually did just that in April. I shared the story a few weeks ago of the quilt I made for Kyle and Carly’s wedding (click here to read that post). It’s such a good feeling to give life to an unfinished project!

Is this inspiring any of you to do a little digging and get back to work on a forgotten treasure? Do you have a “Seasonal Appliqué Sampler” or “Black White and Bright” in your bin? If you do, please send before and after pics!