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I want to send a big welcome to everyone who signed on to join my blog at the show, and thanks to all of you who have been loyal blog readers for a while.

It’s that time of year again. The big quilt show in Madison was a huge success and I was so grateful to be a part of it! My preparations were a bit of challenge this time because I presented 3 workshops and 4 lectures. The students were wonderful and it all was so much fun!

My friend Lori and I arrived the day before to get settled into our hotel in preparation for the event. The Clarian has been taken over by the Spark by Hilton ~ and the new design on the building looks quite quilterly. What a nice welcome.

The next morning I looked out the window to see a familiar site in Wisconsin ~ a group of people tailgating. What wasn’t typical was they were waiting for a quilt show, not a ball game. Too funny!

I taught my Paintstick Applique class all three mornings (I’m planning to do a post on that next week), and my new “Problem Solving Tips, Tools and Techniques” lecture in the afternoons. I snapped a pic of the afternoon crowd on Thursday. What a happy, good looking group!

The only down side to teaching so much is that my time at the show is limited. But I did make the most of it and, of course, I hit the quilts first (my favorite part). As many of you know, I like to share some of my favorite quilts here. The ones I choose don’t need to have ribbons, they just need to “speak” to me in some way (I wish I could show you them all!). The ones that grab me often have something unique about them that draws me in, like the use of gradations (one of my favorite subjects), or a view from a different perspective. I hope you’ll enjoy my selections.

Jean Hansen chose a pattern to show off one of her favorite panels for “Happenstance Gone Rural”, and she did a wonderful job of placing her blocks so that the flow from color to color and light to dark value frame the panel beautifully.

I’ve often admired Edyta Sitar’s pattern “Eldon”. Susan Nixon’s version, “Searching for Why” was made during her battle with cancer, and she did did it especially well. What a pretty quilt!

Mary Rapp made “Purple in the Past Tense” from vintage hankies and linens. Lovely!

Rob Stoll taught a class entitled “Skill Builder” in which he had students make common blocks in different ways. His use of blacks and whites made for a very interesting quilt.

“Norah’s Carousel” was made by Diane Casto Tennant for her granddaughter. It features Norah’s favorite animals. Isn’t the gradation fabric in the background a great choice?

“Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” is Sara Stoltman’s original design using appliqué pieces from a kit. I love how the vines curve around in a spiral.

Another original design quilt was made by Katie Henrich and is entitled “Flight of Wonder”. It was inspired by a photograph of Katie’s boys, and every aspect is so well done! The quilting is especially fascinating.

Every year I’m impressed by Ann Crowl Meyer’s work, and I love it when I can talk to her about it. Her quilt this year, “Swiss Spring”, was also inspired by a photo. She uses fused, raw edge appliqué techniques, and her perspective, colors, detail, and workmanship are spectacular.

I’ve admired Linda Fleschner’s work for years, and “Crucible” is not only extremely creative – but it’s orange (I love orange)!

Another very creative quilt is “Into the Wind” by Michelle Bartholomew. She captured the movements of a quilt in the wind in a static piece. Amazing!

Sandra Kohls’ attention to detail is always stunning, and her work in “Jen’s Garden” is a delightful example of it.

Just look at the fussy cutting in this detail shot, and every one of the 2800 pieces is hand stitched!

“Stars in the Windows” by Bill Hoernke was made from a pattern using a beautiful kaleidoscope print fabric. I was fascinated by the way each window crops a star in a different way, creating an intriguing effect.

Nina Schipp made “Strawberry Swirl With Vines” from a pattern and then added her own borders with appliqués and scalloped edges. Delightful!

I’ve admired many tumbling block quilts over the years. At this show I found “In the Image of God” by Jane van den Berg to be a very clever variation. In her own words “Every baby is a gift of life created in the image of God. The letters on the blocks spell BABY BRUMELS CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD”

And here are a few of the blocks close up. Sew sweet – and her handwork is lovely!

This week’s parting photo is one I couldn’t resist taking at the end of the day. Especially when I realized the tired quilter on the bench is a friend of mine (who shall remain anonymous 🤣).

More fun at the show to come in next week’s post!

I returned home from the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in Madison last night and it was the best show yet (in my opinion). I can’t wait to share some of the fun I had there, but that post is going to take a while to put together. So I hope you’ll enjoy my jacket story in the meantime.

But before I get to it, I can’t resist throwing in a little teaser ~ quilted clothing was a hot topic at the show! There was a garment competition this year and a fashion show of those garments (which I missed because I was teaching 😞). I enjoyed looking at all the garments hanging in the exhibit, and I especially loved seeing garments worn by those attending the show. My favorite was Caroline’s. She was walking along with her daughter Emma when I stopped to compliment her, and she happily agreed to let me take a photo. That’s when I realized Emma was wearing a designer dress! Aren’t they delightful!?!

And now for the jacket story …

A few weeks ago I wrote about a thrift store find that cried out for a mariner’s compass to adorn it’s back (click here for that post). Drafting and stitching that compass only took an afternoon because it was small and had just 8 points.

The next step was to appliqué it onto the jacket which is made of a polyester fabric that feels like suede. Because the compass was so small, there would be a lot of bulk in turning the seam allowance to the back all the way around like I often do with larger compasses.

Perhaps reverse appliqué would work better. The technique from Sharon Schamber’s book “Pieceliqué” is one of my favorites. So I planned where to place the oval on the back of the jacket, made a freezer paper template, and cut the hole!!! (I comforted myself by saying it only cost $8 at the thrift store).

The seam allowance was clipped every 1/4″, then I lightly applied liquid starch to it.

And pressed it over the paper template.

Once the hole was made it was fun to place the compass behind it’s frame, and stitch it in place using invisible thread and a very narrow zig-zag (1 width/1 length). I was pleased.

Next I transferred the rest of the design, which was inspired by the front of the jacket, to the back with a removable marker, and appliquéd a few ultrasuede paisleys in place.

I did some of the rest of the embellishing by machine.

And beaded by hand.

It was an enjoyable project, and I’m thrilled to have an outfit to wear when I present my Mariners Compass lecture and workshop (or anywhere else I want to wear it 😁).

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And one more thing…

Our granddaughter Hanna will soon be heading off for her sophomore year of college. While Facetiming recently she told me that she and a friend were trying to think of something to do that wouldn’t cost much. Hanna loves to do counted cross stitch, and you may remember that she’s done a bit of quilting with me. Well, they decided to decorate sweatshirts. They had to go to the craft store and purchase fat eighths of fabric, and then Hanna showed Harley how to hand stitch them to the shirts in a design she saw on Pinterest. She said she wished she knew how to turn under the edges of her appliqués because they were fraying, but she was happy with the results. I asked her to take a few pictures and here’s what she sent.

Next time she’s here we’re going to do some turned edge appliqué together!

Thanks to everyone who sent me photos of their food quilts. I hope you enjoy the quilts and their stories!

Margit and many of her quilts have been featured in my blog previously – and it’s always a delight to share her creativity! Here’s her response to “Food Quilts”:

“In 2018 the Mavericks (chapter of AZ Quilters Guild) had a challenge and exhibition ‘Calories don’t count’. I am attaching my quilt ‘Fruits on a yellow Plate’ (30″w, 34″h). It was a fun show with many creative entries.”

Karen sent a photo of a table topper she recently made out of some fun fruit and veggie fabrics!

A few days later Lorraine sent this photo of placemats she made with similar colorful fabrics. What fun!

Judy sent me this photo of her very pretty runner, also made from fabrics printed with fresh produce images.

Next I received the following message and photos from Susan:

“I loved your post re: food quilts.  As I perused my photo list of the quilts that I’ve made, I found a few food related quilts to share with you.  I have five grandchildren, and when each child turned 12, they received a more teen-themed quilt from me.  My oldest grandson liked potato chips, so I made Snack Attack, a canning jar quilt with 25 different snacks.  I’ve enclosed a photo of the finished quilt.  I’m happy to say that he still uses it today, 10 years later.  Another snack themed quilt is in my future plans, as I had enough leftover fabric to make another entire quilt. His younger brother (by two years) is an M&Ms boy, so what better theme for his 12^th birthday quilt is M&Ms?  I’ve attached a photo of that quilt.  I used cotton prints on the front, and an M&Ms flannel print on the back.  I have a great photo of the joy on his face when he first opened the gift box and saw it!  He loved it 8 years ago and still does today.  For myself, I made the attached utensil table topper. Now I think it is time for a snack!”

After receiving the photos I asked Susan if she would share the photo of Corey with his quilt.

She added a comment with the pic:

“Here is a photo of my grandson with his quilt, which was named M&M Good.  I forgot…I also gave him a bag of M&Ms with it!   It is fun to look back and see how small he was then.  Today, he is a young man of 20 and is over 6 ft tall!”

Thanks for the memories and the smiles Susan!

Tomi Fay didn’t send me a photo of a food quilt, but she did send a photo. Here’s what she says about it:

“I don’t have jars of food, but I did make a baby quilt of jars of bugs for a baby shower. And notice that I found backing fabric with jars of fireflies! The jars are appliqued, then I quilted following the lines of the jars and adding lines for the lids”. 

Delightful! It got me to thinking: “creepy crawlies on a baby quilt?” ~ sure, I’ve done that too! This is my great niece Roan and her Very Busy Spider quilt (she’s 5 now – click here to read that quilt’s story)

And here’s a question from Tomi Fay:

“Last week Greg and I were north of Oshkosh driving south on 41. Going south, we crossed Lake Butte des Morts and saw a huge building on the east side of the highway that said “Quilt Shop” in letters proportional to the building. I’m searching online and can’t find any such business in that location.”  

Now we’re both wondering what’s there. Does anyone know?

I’d like to start this post by thanking everyone for their kind words and prayers about last week’s post. Mom and Dad are still doing quite well, and I’m grateful for the encouragement from everyone. I loved reading the comments! Thanks so much!

And now for today’s post ~

We live on a lovely road that feels very rural, but it’s right along the edge of town. As I was driving a few mornings ago I noticed a produce stand. I didn’t have time to stop, but it got me thinking about food quilts.

I’ve seen some fun ones over the years, and the one that came to mind first was made by my friend Lori. She made it for a baking themed challenge at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show. Her quilt didn’t contain any foods, but it is delightfully food related. And it was a winner in the challenge! She calls it Tools of the Trade.

I think it’s very clever. This got me to pondering whether or not I’d ever made a food quilt. After a bit of noodling I remembered I had! It was a quilt I made for an “Anything Goes” challenge I participated in with the Milwaukee Art Quilters way back in 2010. Here’s the quilt:

Yup ~ that’s the shape of it. It has the most unique outer edge of any quilt I’ve ever made. It started as three hexagon blocks made in a workshop years ago. The teacher realized 2 hours into class that her pattern was drafted incorrectly and the blocks didn’t fit together. So she packed up and went home, and we were all left with the blocks. I decided they were the perfect fodder for the challenge and I put them in a paper bag to pass along to another guild member. That’s when the fun began. This is one of those blocks.

Isn’t it hard to believe those blocks turned into an ice cream sundae? But anything can happen in an Anything Goes challenge! To read the whole story please click here!
I then realized that my most recent quilt contained fruit ~ the Fruits of the Spirit!

On the topic of fruit ~ I was reminded of a quilt I made using my collection of cherry fabrics (Kirsch is German for cherries). It wasn’t made as a food quilt, but there sure are a lot of cherries in it.

So I have made a few food quilts. Then, while doing a bit of web surfing about food quilts, I was reminded that the National Quilt Museum’s current challenge is entitled:

How fitting. Perhaps we should all start making food quilts to enter in that contest! Click here for the details.

Have you made a food quilt? If you have I’m challenging you to send me a photo of it. I can’t wait to see what you send. I think this could lead to a fun sequel post. Please send images to .

PS The canning jar shelf quilt pictured at the top of this image was made by Elaine. I found her blog while doing an online search, and thought her quilt was delightful. Click here to visit her site!

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And one more thing! I’m very excited to share that the ThreadBenders Achromatic challenge won second place in the AQS Grand Rapids Ultimate Guild Challenge competition this past week!!! To see all of the Grand Rapid’s winners click here (you’ll have to scroll a ways to get to the Guild Challenge quilts 😊). I’m so grateful to be a part of this talented group!

 

 

This photo was taken on Mother’s Day with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law.

Then in May Mom went into the hospital because of a fall. She has had trouble with her heart and blood pressure for years, and has been in and out of the hospital. So we thought this was just another in her long list of hospital stays. But it wasn’t. This one lasted longer, and Mom’s organs started acting more and more like they were almost 91 years old (which they are). After 20 days in the hospital (with a brief 3 day reprieve in the middle), it was decided she needed more care and we moved her to Shorehaven in Oconomowoc. It was only a few days later that we had to call hospice in. During this time Mom and Dad decided he should move into assisted living at Shorehaven to be near her. Big changes!

My Mom and Dad have always been my biggest encouragers, especially when it came to quilting (next to Mike of course). So when they moved into Shorehaven they wanted their kids, grandkids and great grandkids to go through their condo and take some items to remember them by. And that’s what we did. Then we would visit them and tell of the wonderful treasures we’d found. It made them so happy. What a blessing!

Without hesitation I chose Mom’s cookbook.

The spine is held together with mailing tape and it holds so many memories. My Grandmother gave it to Mom at her bridal shower, and Mom recorded it on the inside cover of the book, along with a few other notes.

Mom also wrote some of her Mother’s favorite recipes inside the covers.

What a blessing! And Mom was delighted that it was my first choice. On subsequent trips through their condo, I was reminded of how supportive they were of my quilting addiction. They had quilts hanging in every room. In the front door area:

In the living room (along with some of my niece Kaitlin’s anatomical art):

Above the dining room table (along with a beautiful painting by my Aunt Hazel):

In the bedroom there were two (and yes, the roses are another piece by Aunt Hazel):

There were even 2 quilts hanging above the bathtub! The one on the left is special because Mom made it. When I first learned to quilt I decided to take a class on free form appliqué. I talked her into taking it with me and, to my knowledge, it’s the only quilt she ever made.

When Betsy and Sommer (my DIL and granddaughter) went on their treasure hunt, they chose a few things I’d made. These wall quilts were hanging in the closet, ready to be swapped out with the seasonal ones that were up.

And this afghan was one I made years before I got into quilting. I first crocheted the afghan, then I cross-stitched the butterflies on it. I made two like this ~ one for my parents and one for Mike’s. That was the end of my crocheting infatuation. I was so pleased Sommer liked it.

As we set up Mom’s room at Shorehaven I had to include a few quilts there from their condo. The Oconomowoc quilt was made for a challenge held at the Ben Franklin store, and it has started many good conversations with the dear people taking care of Mom (they have all been wonderful!).

And of course Mom needed a quilt to snuggle under on her bed. Here she is with Mike and the Lone Star quilt I made them many years ago.

A few days after we got Mom settled in her room, Dad moved into his apartment. When he was president of the Wisconsin SAR, I commemorated the time he served with a quilt ~ and that had to be the first one hung in his living room.

On his bed is a pieced quilt and above it the Lake Sinisssippi quilt ~ with the family photos on the back facing out 😊.

They’ve acquired quite a collection over the years.

Just a few months ago my parents were living in their own condo, preparing their own meals, paying their bills, and doing all the normal things of life ~ while in their 90s! Things can change so quickly. The photograph at the top of this post was from May. This one is from June in Mom’s room at Shorehaven when our grandkids from Washington, Hanna and Will, were here.

They had a wonderful time with their great grandparents, and we are all grateful for every moment we have together! The amazing thing is that when Mom went on hospice they took her off of ALL the medications she was taking, and put her on morphine and one other for anxiety. She had a week of being “loopy”, and then she started feeling better. This past month she’s been breathing better, participating in activities and telling everyone about her love for her Savior ~ and where she is going! The nurses and staff, along with all of us, are amazed!

This past Wednesday Mom and Dad took a walk down to see Lac Labelle with Kurt and Mary.

In the afternoon Shorehaven had a “camping” event that Sommer and Trey were happy to attend with me. It was a joyful time!

We thought she was leaving us for heaven in the beginning of July, but we are truly blessed to be enjoying Mom and Dad still. Each day is a gift! Praise the Lord!

Kim recently emailed me and asked for suggestions on how to thread beading needles. Some quilting and beading needles have very small eyes, and threading them can be a daunting task, but I’ve found a few tips that are helpful. Actually, needle threading in general can be a pain, especially as we mature 😊. There are oodles of needle threaders on the market.

I also purchased a few to give as gifts at the Birmingham Quilt Festival last year.

I have a box I inherited from my great grandmother Melvina with her needle threader inside. She wrote her nickname ~ “Mallie” on the outside of the box. What a treasure!

But the tiny eyed needles seldom work in these, and require other options. Here are the tips I sent to Kim:

• I need very bright light first of all. And a clamp on/hands free magnifying glass is helpful.

• Cut the end of the thread at an angle to help keep it from fraying.

• When needles are made the eye is “punched”, so if you can’t get the thread through one side, turn the needle around so that the thread is going through the way the hole was made.

• It often works to wet the eye of the needle, not the thread. This usually helps to grab the thread (but not always – don’t ask me why)

• Lastly, hold the thread tightly between your thumb and forefinger so that just the tip of the thread is showing, then place the eye of the needle over it instead of pushing the thread through the eye.

And remember the adage “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” (and recut the tip of thread as often as you need to).

 

As most of you know ~ I love the Mariners Compass pattern. I’ve had a lot of fun with it over the years because my drafting technique enables me (and everyone else) to make compasses in an endless variety of shapes and sizes. Here are just a few:

They also can be used in non-quilted projects like clocks and umbrellas 😁:

My workshop starts with drafting a round compass, and then I encourage students to try other shapes. In a class at WCTC back in 2013 my friend Karen stitched one of those round compasses. During show and tell at a recent meeting of the Fabricators (my group of friends from Open Lab at WCTC), Karen said she had something to show me. Then she unfolded the quilt she started way back then! Beautiful!! I was thrilled!!!

She put the compass on the background with a corded piping technique (click here for a blog topic about it), and the narrow gold border is a flange. Karen has a longarm and wasn’t sure how to quilt around these areas ~ so she just quilted over them and it worked well!

On a related note, I received an email from Brenda a few weeks ago inviting me to teach for the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show this coming March 😊. We began discussing which workshops would best fit their show. Brenda mentioned that many members of their guild have been asking for garment classes, and she was wondering if I could teach compasses on garments. I told her that my 6 hour compass class works best in it’s current form because the students need that time to learn the basics. That’s when she mentioned how nice it would be if I had a garment with a compass on it, so students could see even more versatility. Hmm…

Life has been too crazy lately to take on a full jacket project, but what if I embellished a thrift store find? Mike and I decided to take a morning off and do a bit of thrifting, and I was thrilled with what I found.

The designs on the front would be great inspiration for the back.

I felt a 16 pointed oval compass would be too much – but 8 points would be fun!

Now to make the time to draft and stitch it! Stay tuned 😊.

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I decided to end this post with a pretty photograph. My friend Judy hosted our recent Fabricators gathering in her beautiful Victorian home in Waukesha. Not only were her home and gardens lovely, but just look at the treats she made for us:

Very pretty ~ and yummy too. Thanks Judy!

As I’ve mentioned previously, my parents are in their 90s and recently moved into senior living. Mike and I are in the process of going through their condo and getting it ready to sell. Over the years my parents have “collected” many of my quilts. Whenever one struck their fancy I was happy to gift it to them and Mom and Dad found places for each item. While moving them, some of the quilts went to be in their new living quarters, some went to family members, but there were quite a few wallhangings that no one claimed ~ and I can’t keep them all. So I decided it would be wise to donate them to the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Art‘s upcoming fundraiser auction.

They are accepting donations until January 30th, so we needed to make a trip to Cedarburg. It was a great opportunity to explore their current exhibit: “Wit/Whim” and it was delightful!

As we entered the doors we were intrigued by some interesting knit pieces by Yr Johannsdottir. I’d forgotten to take photos of the quilts I was donating and decided to pull up a few chairs and spread out my quilts between two pieces of her work ~ the sweater with a face named ULLA, and the tree of snakes (sorry I don’t know the actual name, as I forgot to photograph the sign).The rest of the pieces on the chairs are those I donated to the auction (the one that looks all white is a hand quilted wholecloth).

Once I filled out the forms and handed over the quilts, Mike and I were very interested in seeing the rest of the exhibit. As we walked through the doors I was drawn to an amazing tree growing in the corner of the gallery! It’s entitled “From Gardens Where We Feel Secure”.

It was such an imaginative combination of knitting, crocheting, found objects, lights, mirrors, and more. I walked beneath it and couldn’t resist snapping a pic of the branches above.

Here’s the sign – and don’t miss the last paragraph. What fun!

The rest of the exhibit was just as intriguing. Here are a few more of my favorite pieces. I apologize for not taking a photo of the sign for this piece. It is fascinating.

This one is named “25,000 Moments”

These “Wiggle Quilts” really intrigued me because I’ve played with a similar idea in some of my quilts.

Sew … Luke started with two quilts: one an antique, and the other one he made from salvaged textiles. He then cut an identical shape from each and swapped them into the opposite quilt. I’ve made a number of quilts in my “Quilt-Slash-Create” series in a similar fashion.

This is part of a post I wrote about it:

A number of years ago I read an article about cutting identical portions out of two quilts, and swapping them. This intrigued me, so I decided to try it. I had been given a bag of leftover pieced squares in an art quilt challenge. I decided to piece them into a small square quilt. I then cut a piece of a beautiful hand-dyed fabric the same size. I layered both pieces separately, and quilted them identically. Once they were squared up, I stacked them and rotary cut a circle through both quilts. After separating the quilts, I swapped out the circles and zig-zagged them into their new “home”. That was fun, so I stacked them and made another cut. This continued until it felt done, and I was quite pleased with the results!

I wonder if that article I read back then was about Luke’s work. I actually taught a class on this technique at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in Madison a few years ago. Here’s one more set of quilts from that series.

I’ll warn you, it can be addicting.

Oh no ~ I went down a rabbit hole and wandered away from my original topic 😁! Sorry.

In conclusion, if you want to see the “Wit/Whim” exhibit at the museum, you’ll need to move quickly because it only runs through August 10th. And if you want to support the museum through their online auction it will be open from 12pm on Thursday, August 21st through 2pm on Monday, August 25th. I’ll post a reminder as the time gets closer.