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!

Once I had the felted background for my “cell” completed (to read the previous post about felting a cell click here), it was time to gather up my beads ~ and do a bit of shopping to add to my collection (and I even begged for some from friends 😊).

It was then I realized I needed to separate the areas of the background with embroidery and braided yarns. I actually really enjoyed doing this.

There were two yellow orbs in the photo that appeared very 3D. How to do that? Crocheting would work, but that’s not my cup of tea. It is however my Mom’s specialty. So I headed over to visit my parents armed with the yellow variegated perle cotton Mom had used to make our daughter, Heather, a dress for her first birthday (she’s now 42).

That thread was just the right color.

Mom is a super crocheter. You may remember a post about the snowpeople ornaments she made us for Christmas two years ago (you can read that post by clicking here). We cherish the baby afghans she’s crocheted for all the babies in the family, and she’s made Star Wars figures for all of her great-grandchildren too. The link for a post about them is in that same snowpeople post.

Mom was happy to teach me to crochet my orbs, and it was such a blessing to watch her hands do so well what she’s loved doing for years.

I was very pleased with the results and cut a gray wool dryer ball into slices for the crochet work to surround. Then I appliquéd it all in place and began to do some beading. In this image the actual photo of the cell is on the left and my “work in progress” is on the right:

And it continued until we moved a year ago 😁.

It hasn’t changed much from these photos, but now that we’re almost done with the updating and renovating of our new home, and since I visited that great bead shop in Portage, I’m inspired to get back at it.

I Know my rendition of that image won’t be as beautiful as God’s handiwork in creating the amazing cells in our bodies, but I’m hopeful it will bring Him glory!

Stay tuned for updates 😁!

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Last week I went to a wonderful bead store and it reminded me that last year I began a beading project I hadn’t posted about yet. It’s a “work in progress”, but I thought you might find the journey so far interesting:

Quite a while ago I saw a post on Facebook that amazed me. I included a screenshot at the bottom of my post that week and here it is again (the commentary at the beginning was part of the Facebook post):

Isn’t this just screaming to be beaded??? I actually wrote Harvard University and obtained permission to make a piece of beaded fiber art based on this amazing photo. I can’t imagine how anyone could think that something this tiny and complex could happen by chance. God’s imagination is infinite!

Well, shortly thereafter I took a class in wet wool felting (click here to read that post) and decided that would be a great background for my version of the beaded cell. I’d already collected a variety of wool roving, and I had the needed tools. Wet felting is messy, so I made a pattern, gathered my roving

and a piece of black wool batting for the base, and headed out to the driveway.

I laid the batting out on a towel with plastic underneath, and the different color areas were marked off with a black yarn.

Then the fun of choosing colors and placement began:

Once I had all the batting covered, soap was mixed with very hot water and sprinkled over everything.

Then the wool was rolled up in the towel and I began to roll it back and forth.

You would be amazed how much rolling it takes to felt wool together. Boy, were my arms tired and sore! But I persevered and was pleased with the results.

It had shrunk up a bit and some areas had migrated, but overall I “felt” it would work (bad pun, I know).

I let it dry and decided it was time to gather up beads and embellishments. I began the beading and I think I’ll save that for next week’s post. Stay tuned!

It’s retreat time again. The gangs together and we’re having a great time. We set up the “sweatshop” right away (LOL); And started stitching, talking, laughing and catching up.

On Friday we quilted in the morning and then headed to our usual first stop – Sandy Creek Quilts in Lodi. After making our purchases it was time for lunch at Fitz’s, and for our group photo of ~ the Sisters of the Cloth (we now have a name 😊).

Next we visited two shops in Portage, WI. Cathy and Jo stumbled upon the Welcome Home Sewing Center during our last retreat, and the rest of us were anxious to check it out.

I can see why it’s called a sewing center, but in my opinion it’s really more of a very nice quilt shop ~ complete with fabric, notions, and a beautiful tin ceiling.

Diane is the owner

along with her husband Tony, who is the sewing machine technician.

They have bolts and bolts of fabric to check out!

Then it was time to go down their lovely blue stairway to visit the classroom and the bargain basement fabrics.

I highly recommend a visit! It’s not far from Milwaukee or Madison and I’m positive it’s worth the trip.

Next ~ two blocks down the main street we found a bead shop.

It is hands down the most amazing bead shop I’ve been in.

I’m in the midst of a beading project now. I’ll be posting about it soon. This visit made me want to get back at it. But I wasn’t prepared for beading at this retreat, so it was back to Cattail to play with the projects we brought along, and our new purchases.

My project for the retreat is a lap quilt I’m making for my cousin’s daughter’s wedding in August. A few months ago my cousin Lisa sent me this swatch with Kyle and Carly’s color choices.

I chose some fabrics for their quilt while at Missouri Star in March, but wasn’t sure what to do with them. When I got home I needed to rummage through one of my UFO bins for a different project, and stumbled upon a disappearing nine-patch class sample.

I’ve always loved this piece. It leans a little more towards the blues than the seafoam greens in their pallette, but the cream and rust color fabric I’d bought in Hamilton looked great with it. I decided it was so lovely I had to put it in Kyle and Carly’s quilt. I figured it’s just a snuggle quilt, so the colors don’t have to match their living room exactly.

While in Paducah I pieced the new fabrics into blocks to add top and bottom, and turn my UFO into a rectangle. I then purchased a yard of Cherrywood hand-dyed fabric for the borders, and I was very happy with the top.

I layered it with Minky™, took it to retreat to quilt, and Thursday I started quilting the center with concentric diamonds.

After continuing the quilting lines from the center into the border, I decided to turn the back to the front to make a binding, and sewed it down with a serpentine stitch.

And I got ‘r done!

The Minky™ along the edge tends to make it a bit wavy, but it’s delightful to snuggle under and ~ with a lap quilt ~ that really is the point. I hope they’ll like it.

It was another wonderful retreat. Can’t wait to return to Cattail in October!

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And, since I’m sharing retreat projects, I can’t resist including a photo of my nephew’s little girl, Breen. I worked on her quilt at our winter retreat (click here to read a post about the quilt), and presented it to her on Easter. Her mom, Alex, just sent me this photograph and note:

“I can’t tell you how much we love this quilt. It is stunning. We use it every day. Lately Breen seems to be mesmerized by the design – it’s perfect for a baby! Thank you so much!”

What a joy it is to be able to share our gift of quilting with the people we love!

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PS Thanks Cathy, for making each of us a Sisters of the Cloth pin cushion. They look so cute lined up at the top of this post!

It’s small challenge reveal time again in the ThreadBenders art quilt group. We have a number of these challenges each year to inspire us to try new things, and this time it was really fun to see what came of it.

The rules: The quilt must be made up of at least 25% paper. There needed to be some quilting through the layers and the size: a maximum of 24″ in both directions, or an item that would fit inside a 24″ cube.

All the pieces are posted on our group site. Click here to see the collection. And here’s the story of my quilt:

It began in Japan. A number of us arrived in Tokyo a few days early for our Pieceful Travels tour in January 2020. Cindy arranged for us to take a paper making class at a shop/studio in Tokyo. It was a blast!

And we each walked away with our own piece of handmade paper:

I discovered that paper making was not something I was good at, but I did buy a beautiful piece of paper in their shop, and that was my inspiration for this challenge. I saw a woodland scene in it and so I cut the paper in half, stuck a piece of Press and Seal™ on it, and started sketching some trees and a path over the piece on the right. I like to use a “wipe off marker” so I can adjust the design until I’m happy with it.

Next, I used my final sketch to make trees and a path with fusible web and fabrics. The path is a gradation fabric that added to the depth of the piece.

Once the “woods” was constructed I realized the path needed life, so I found a clip art couple, resized them, and added a bit of romance by fusing them on in fabric too.

I layered everything with a piece of black wool felt and a backing fabric, put it in a hand quilting frame, and stitched it together along the trees and the path with a “big stitch” (long quilting stitches). The quilt then told me embroidered flowers were needed; some close and some further away (I always listen to my quilts).

To finish I decided I wanted to tear the paper away and expose some of the felt around the edges. This required me to tuck a bit of fusible web between the paper and felt all the way around to seal the edges. The outline was quilted and then I was able to tear the excess paper away.

Finished!

I’m very pleased with the results and found working with paper in a quilt can be a lot of fun!

I hope you will visit the ThreadBenders site to see all of the fun works!

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And one more thing…

Back in April I introduced you to my friend Julie (click here to visit that post). I shared about all of her wonderful talents, but sadly I had to end the post with the news that she had recently been diagnosed with cancer. She’s in the midst of chemo now and is facing it with her usual positive attitude. We’ve stayed in touch and pray together regularly. She tells me that she looks forward to my blog posts and, after reading last week’s post about my jewelry wreath, she sent me a photo of a jewelry tree she’d created years ago.

Julie said it holds many memories of her sister and others who’s jewelry she’d inherited. She also said she had plenty of jewelry left for another tree. I think it’s beautiful!

And by the way ~ Julie was in that paper making class with me in Japan. She’s the one in the upper left of the photo at the top of this post. Thanks for sharing your jewelry tree Julie!

This story is destined to continue since last week’s post inspired my mom to go through her jewelry again and she found even more pieces she’s ready to have made into something. Stay tuned!

I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to present my Tradition With a Twist lecture twice in the past month. In it I get to share a number of my antique quilts along with my own quilts which are an original variation of the traditional patterns. It is a joy to share my quilts and their stories and I’ve made a jacket to go along with the lecture that contains arcs that never became a double wedding ring quilt.

At both lectures I was asked about the jewelry I’m wearing. I’d respond with this story: When my mother-in-law passed away in 2013 I inherited her costume jewelry. There were many lovely pieces and these pins and earrings were among them. The earrings are clip (and so I usually am happy to remove them after the lecture ~ how did we ever wear them for any length of time?), and even though I thought they were very pretty, they weren’t in a style I wore often. But when the jacket was done I knew they were the extra touch this outfit needed.

As I shared my story with these ladies I would also tell them that many of the pieces I inherited, along with jewelry from my mom and grandmothers, became part of a jewelry wreath I made the same year Mike’s mom passed away. As I described the wreath these dear woman all responded by telling me they weren’t on my blog back then and they’d like to read about it.

So here’s that post from 2013. It isn’t about quilting, but there are “pins” involved, and I hope you’ll enjoy it!

JEWELRY WREATH

When my mother-in-law passed away this past January, I inherited a jewelry box filled with costume pieces not claimed by any other relatives. There were many clip earrings and a lot of things I would never wear, but I couldn’t part with because they were mom’s, and some pieces were from her mother and grandmother!

A friend said she was collecting costume jewelry at rummage sales in the hopes of making a wreath. I found that idea very appealing and did a quick Pinterest search for jewelry wreaths. A few pictures came up and the one that grabbled me was done in mainly white, gold and silver. So, I called my mom and asked if she had any old jewelry she would be willing to part with. She had pieces of her own, plus jewelry from both of my grandmothers, my great-grandmothers and a great aunt!

Next I went through my own jewelry box and unearthed charm bracelets from years ago. I hadn’t worn them for years, so into the wreath pile they went. I then raided Mike’s jewelry box and found the ID bracelet I gave him when we were dating, and both our class rings. He also had many tie tacks, award pins collected over his flight career, and a few treasures that had belonged to his father.

I was excited. At JoAnn’s I found a straw wreath, thin florist’s pins, and a couple of spools of wide satin ribbon. I wired a hanging loop to the back, wrapped the wreath in ribbon (and a bit of leftover lace) and let the fun begin! Are you ready to see it :-)???

The locket hanging at top, center belonged to Mike’s great-grandmother. It is rather chunky and ornate, and we were assured by a jeweler that it’s value was only sentimental. Still, it makes a lovely focal point. Here are a few close ups of the rest of the wreath:

The zebra pin in the next photo was my maternal grandmother’s. I remember being allowed to wear it on special occasions when I was a child.

Mike’s father had been a naval aviator and the tie bar below was his.

Some of my memory charms dangle over Mike’s volunteer firefighter badge on the right side of the wreath.

A variety of pearl necklaces and chains are wrapped liberally around the wreath.

This project was a joy and resulted in an heirloom my family will hopefully treasure for generations.

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So that was the post. I really thought I’d only hang the wreath at Christmastime, but I love to look at it and have found it a permanent home in our bedroom. So many memories! Do any of you have projects where you’ve rescued family treasures? Please send photos!

After meeting Claudia in the Finkel building in Paducah (I introduced you to her in last week’s post), I continued down the vendor aisle and met Kari. She owns a shop and custom quilting business in Anna, Ohio (click here to visit her site).

We started talking and as I looked around her shop I came upon a crazy green featherweight. I love featherweights and I love green. It was gorgeous!

I asked her if she had it custom painted and here’s her story (I’m paraphrasing):

Kari found this machine for sale on the internet and fell in love with the color, but she knew she really didn’t need another featherweight, so she passed it by. But she kept thinking about it, and thinking about it, and she even told a good friend about her obsession with the green machine. Her friend told her to just buy it because she obviously wanted it. Kari put it off a while longer and finally decided she had to have it, only to discover it had been sold. She was so disappointed ~ until her friend stopped by and handed it to her 😁. Now that’s a GOOD quilting friend!

After hearing her story I asked her about the beautiful designs on her featherweight, and she told me her machine had tattoos. They are actually decorative decals that Kari carried in her booth ~ and I knew I had to have them! She had a number of different patterns, but the one she’d chosen was my favorite too. I bought a pack and couldn’t wait to tattoo my own machine. Kari reminded me to check out her van in the back parking lot when I left and it was worth hunting down.

As I began to unpack after our return from Quilt Week, I found the tattoos and dropped everything. They are removable but not reusable, and they went on easily. You may remember I decided to name my machines after my grandmothers, (Mike’s and mine) because my friend Cathy suggested it on our trip to the UP of Michigan. So Aletta was first:

She looked as beautiful as I’d hoped. Then Ardis was next:

Delightful! At this point I could tell that Irma was feeling left out, and she had the largest areas to fill. So it was her turn:

Doesn’t she look just like one of those designer machines? How can a person have this much fun for under $30. But wait, Selma went all the way to Paducah with me. I couldn’t leave her out.

At this point I thought I was done, and I had one small tattoo left. Hmm. I looked across the room and saw my HQ Sweet 16. She didn’t have a name or a designer touch. So I christened her Melvina after the only great-grandmother I’d known, and she got the last pretty piece. It may be small, but whenever I look up at the screen I smile. (I think she may be winking at me)

Now all my girls match!

I didn’t find the decorative decals (tattoos) on Kari’s site, but she recently posted on her Facebook page about them and I’m sure you could get them if you got on her page.

The maker of the tattoos is Urban Elementz and you can click here to find the tattoos on their site.

If you decide to tattoo your machine please send me a photo ~ and the story!

If we take a right turn out our front door at the place where we stay in Paducah, we are looking at a very old and very pink building.

Finkel’s Fair Store opened in 1918 and was one of the biggest retail stores for its time in downtown Paducah. The store closed in 1990, and was a house of God for the “Free Spirit Biker Church” until they outgrew the building. For an interesting history of the building click here. 

It’s a great place to find vendors during Quilt Week. Early in the week I met Darlene and I shared a bit about her and her wool business in last week’s post. The day I met her I ran out of time to visit all the vendors, and so I went back to the Finkel building on our last full day at the show to check out the rest of the booths, and I was so glad I did! As I walked past the windows I spied a quilt with a cross pattern and I knew I needed to check out that booth.

This time I entered through the door on the right and was happy to see the only dogwoods in Paducah.

Like Wisconsin, Kentucky had an unusual heat wave in April and everything bloomed early. We did see some dogwoods in bloom in central Illinois on the way down – but that is not the usual.

I met Claudia Lash in the first booth to the right. Her quilts were bright and fun, and we had no idea how much we have in common – just wait!

As we began to talk I noticed the stitches on the fish quilt in front of me.

When I asked her about it she said that it was a really fun pattern because the cut-aways from one fish become the motifs on the next. Once all the fish are fused together, the fancy machine stitches make them beautiful! She has patterns and videos and you won’t want to miss a visit to her site. Click here to visit Presto Avenue Designs. She said she’ll be vending at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in September and I encouraged her to apply to teach too.

Then I began to really look at her quilts and I stopped “dead in my tracks” when I saw her birdhouse quilt.

It was made in pieces and put back together with beads. I turned and said “I do the same technique and I call it Crossings”. I explained why I call it that and then remarked how amazing it is when two people get the same idea. We decided we both have the same crazy type of brian. That’s when her husband said: “Ecclesiasties 1:9 “There is nothing new under the sun””. We laughed. Then she told me the cross quilt in the outside window was hers. What a blessing!

I continued to look around the booth while we talked and was stopped a second time by her “Family Quilt”. She made individual finished small quilts and connected them to make her version of what I call a “Modular Memory Quilt“!!!

Claudia used beads for her connections, while I use a different technique, but the idea is the same again! Talk about having similar brains! Her unique twist is that the fabric frames around each actual photograph is a loose flange the the photo slips into. Thus they can be changed in a different way from my block rearranging technique. We are creative sisters!

Again – I highly recommend you check out her site for all her patterns and tutorials. Her blog is very informative and her husband even shares his musing on her blog as Grampy Lash. I enjoyed many of his posts. My favorite was about his father. Please click here to read it.

Next week I’ll introduce you to another great vendor in the Finkle building, Kari, who got me to like tattoos! Stay tuned.

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As I was writing up this post I received an email from Beth Helfter, the teacher of the Flying Frankies class. She asked her students to sign up for emails from her ~ and I did. The one she just sent was so good, and I can’t find it online to link you to it, so I’ll post a portion of it here because I found it a very encouraging perspective on the condition of quilting in America today 😊. Thanks to Beth for the following (I bolded some portions for emphasis):

Thank you for allowing me to share my knowledge and enthusiam while always sharing yours right back.

Unfortunately, my high from these two events was short lived, as only hours after I got home from Paducah the cancellation of Vermont Quilt Festival was announced. As it was my next regional show on my calendar, the sudden closure left a gap in both my schedule and in my 2023 estimated income, both of which are not fun. I have no inside knowledge of the reasons the show was cancelled. I’m as sad as everyone else. But allow me to speak to something I think we all need to consider, as whenever something like this happens I hear a lot of “Well, younger people aren’t quilting anymore,” and “Quilting is dying off,” and “Shows can’t draw crowds because there aren’t as many quilters as there used to be.” Most guilds I visit someone at some point says apologetically (when there is no need to apologize) “Well, we are an older crowd.” I am no expert, but as someone who meets a ton of quilters every year as my actual job, guess what? Every guild is “an older crowd” (like 60s, people, which is the new 37) and ALWAYS HAS BEEN. Quilting itself is alive and well and to be perfectly honest, the guilds I visit and my classes look exactly the same in average age and skill sets as they did when I first started traveling and teaching almost 20 years ago. Why? Because think about it – How many people do you know who may have dabbled earlier but took up quilting in earnest when they retired and had time? I can probably name 10 I know personally right off the top of my head, and about a thousand more I’ve had in class over the years. Why? Because now they have the time and energy and resources they may not have had earlier. And they are the ones jumping into guilds, making the average guild member age hover in the early to mid 60s, twenty years ago and now and probably twenty and fifty years from now too. This is not to say we don’t have plenty of younger people quilting, because we do. Honestly, there are TONS of younger designers out there now who are blowing up Instagram and TikTok and are as enthusiastic as the other generations. There are 28 year olds and 82 year olds in most guilds. There are 28 year olds in classes at shows and 82 year olds right alongside them. As people age out of the average due to various reasons, new ones are aging in. The plethora of Barbaras and Marys and Donnas I would see in class 15 years ago are now Kathys and Lindas, and you know pretty soon it will be Kristens and Jennifers. It’s the circle of life, even in quilting. Sure, there are factors that make some of the shows end. But do we really believe it’s because we don’t have quilters anymore? I personally don’t think so. There may be lots of reasons shows struggle, but lack of quilters? Hard to imagine from my view of the industry.