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Each year we know we’ve arrived in Quilt City USA when we cross over the “flying geese bridge” above, and what a wonderful trip it’s been!

Cathy, Cindy and I left Watertown last Sunday morning and had a lovely sunny, ride to Paducah (I’m posting this while riding in the car on our way back to Wisconsin). We moved into our second floor on Market Square and set up the machines.

On Monday we had a great time hanging the wall quilts and pinning the miniature quilts into their cases. It is such a joy to be able to see these amazing pieces up close (this is a photo of the miniature display during the show).

Monday evening Linda flew in from Florida and the gang was together. We had some free time on Tuesday and decided to have lunch at Patti’s Settlement in the Land Between the Lakes. It was a lovely half hour drive from Paducah and the food was delicious.

The local quilters were hosting a quilt show that started Wednesday, but they let us in a day early and we were thrilled.

They had many lovely quilts:

and some nice vendors too!

I thought you might enjoy a few of my favorites from the show. I apologize for not having the names of the makers, but the signage wasn’t yet pinned to the quilts. I’ve always loved the seven sisters block:

And these tall ships set in a Baltimore Album style quilt were lovely.

I was able to peek at the label on this one and it was called Rosie’s Week’s Work by June Culvey. What a lovely set for these embroidered and appliquéd dish towel Sunbonnet Sues.

The birds and flowers in circles around the quilts and the yo-yos in the star blocks were wonderful. Don’t you just love the use of 30s fabrics and gingham?

We were so happy to have happened upon this delightful show and the equally delightful women who were hanging it.

That night we attended the Awards Banquet to kick off the AQS show and it was great fun.

The first day of the show I was pleased to see a collection of my friend Klaudeen Hansen’s quilts, hung in a tribute exhibit.

To see photos of the winning quilts you can visit the AQS Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/AQSonline/. As usual, I like to share a few of my favorites, some of which were not prize winners, yet they spoke to me. Here they are in no particular order.

Declaration of Independence – Voices of Freedom by Nancy Prince and Terri Taylor is a large wall quilt. Each of the men’s garments were made separately and then added to the quilt. It was stunning.

Cherry Blossom was a bed sized quilt and it featured 640 different dolls with amazing detail.

Fascinating!

I found two the large wall quilts made with One Block Wonder blocks. I’ve been quite interested in this pattern lately and love to discover the interesting ways their makers put the blocks together. In the one I made for my great-niece (featured at the end of last week’s post), I added triangles to separated the hexagons and make them shine. In Hidden Stars, Anne Marcello added diamonds and triangles in fun and interesting ways.

And Judy Beskow made a lovely field of flowers with her hexagons in Bluebonnet Splendor

Oh My Stars by Karen Hampton has a bit of a OBW look, but is made from a different pattern and a lot of stripes. I really liked the color palette.

Lullaby in 3/4 Time by Barbara Clem is a lovely hand quilted appliqué quilt,

and her quilting pattern fit the appliqué beautifully!

I seem to be drawn to more traditional patterns this year. DeVine Stars by Megan Largas had a traditional feel, even though the setting for the piecing and appliqué was rather non-traditional.

Then there were the wall quilts. Summer Solstice in Antarctica really tickled me. I loved Joan Peirner’s use of ombré fabric, along with the stitched rays and whimsical penguins.

Karen Lambden’s Spiral Vortex was so 3D. I was intrigued by her placement of all the circles, even in the borders.

Stars in the Garden by Marilyn Larson and Barb Simons was another traditional pattern ~ with an amazing “Threaded Border”.

The tree and checkerboard in Early Morning Mist by Betty Deemer were an extremely effective frame for this lovely scene. I was surprised to read that it was a panel.

There were so many more quilts I’d love to share, but this post is getting a little long. Next week’s post will be about classes, vendors and more. What a blessing it was to be able to be in Paducah with good friends once again!

Many years ago I made a quilt for the New Quilts From an Old Favorite contest at the National Quilt Museum that was based on the traditional Dresden Plate pattern.

I decided it would be fun to fussy cut the petals in each plate from a single beautiful batik fabric and fuse them to a hand-dyed black background. The spaces between the petals made the plates look like stained glass windows and thus the name ~ Dresden Plate Glass Window!

Whenever I make a quilt like this I try to challenge myself to try new things. So… this quilt was made from just 2 different fabrics: the black hand-dyed background and a very colorful batik that I fussy cut to get the colorways in each plate. The background was heavily free-motion quilted with neon threads to achieve the variety of color in the background squares. It was a lot of fun to make!

Her samples were delightful, and I just knew I needed to try this tool out for myself. Click here to visit Jerriann’s site and see her quilts, tools, videos, and patterns.

I purchased her templates, after having a delightful conversation with her husband who let me pick a “Bible verse of the day” from the a basket he had sitting next to him. I took the templates with me to our June retreat, along with a lovely gradation fabric and a pretty floral that seemed to go well with it. While there I made a bunch of plates, with the windows cut out and the edges pressed under. I loved the process. The templates are clear and make it easy to fussy cut whatever you want to place in the windows of the plate’s “petals”. They are then glued in place with Elmer’s school glue. It’s a great technique.

Once the plates were made I laid them out on the same gradation fabric. And all too soon the retreat was over.

I really loved the project, but when I got home it all ended up buried in a pile. I unearthed it when I unpacked my studio this past January. It was the perfect time because I was able to take them to our most recent retreat, choose a lovely placement, and stitch them to the background.

Then I was stumped. The Dresden plates were stitched in place, but what should go in the center of the plates? In the photo there are holes in each plates center. I didn’t have any more of the white floral fabric. I thought I might try machine embroidering circles with designs similar to the floral, but nothing I placed in the centers looked right. So I took it to a ThreadBenders meeting and got some great input. The centers showing in the photo was the background peeking through each plate. So my friends suggested I cut the fabric away from behind the plates and make the centers from those fabrics. It worked!

Then it was time to layer my quilt sandwich. It was here I realized that all the windows were still only held in place by glue ~ YIKES! So I pin basted the sandwich well:

And started quilting down the blue fabric around each window.

I really want to quilt the background in an exciting way, but I havn’t figured that out yet. Any suggestions?

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Also, we were blessed to be together with my Dad’s side of the family for Easter and we got to meet Kevin and Alex’s new daughter Breen. Here’s a photo of the family with Breen’s quilt. Her sister Roan is wearing the bucket hat I made to match the quilt 😊.

Children are such a blessing! As is all family!

I met Julie when we traveled together to Japan in the beginning of 2020. We all had a wonderful time, but on our last day Julie received a call that her husband was in the midst of a serious health problem. She was obviously distraught and we prayed together. Everyone made it home safely, and her husband Rick has completely recovered ~ praise the Lord!

Since then Julie has taken a few of my classes, and we’ve kept in touch. A few weeks ago she invited me over for lunch and to help her brainstorm a graduation quilt for her grandson. We had a lovely day and I finally got to meet Rick. Their home is fascinating. It’s a large, older stone home on Big Cedar Lake, with many rooms, nooks and crannies. She said it was in bad shape when they purchased it, but they have made it a beautiful and comfortable retreat. A perfect showcase for her amazing crafts. Julie is an artist and a true crafts-woman, as well as a collector of lovely things. Not only is she a quilter and a collector of quilts, but she has many other fields of interest as well. I really enjoyed my tour. She had quilts everywhere. Even on the floor!

As soon as I saw it I jumped into “quilt protector” mode, and started to try to persuade her to pick it up. She kindly told me that she didn’t have much wall space, and they were her quilts to enjoy however she likes. I had to agree, and I must admit it did look lovely there. (please be kind with your comments 😊).

There were many bedrooms and all with Julie’s handmade quilts. She told me her sons played many sports growing up and she spent a lot of time at practices and games, so she started hand appliqueing stars ~ and three quilts resulted. Here are two:

She had other quilts of her own making and some lovely antique pieces also:

Each one had a story. And you know how much I love stories!

Julie is also an accomplished rug braider,

as well as a wool rug hooker. In this room the quilt was quilted as a whole cloth quilt with evergreen trees, and then she designed the rugs to match on either side of the bed.

Then we headed up past the teddy bear on the stairs.

Her original designs amazed me more and more as I went from room to room. This is her version of their lake:

And this one is of children playing in it:

My favorite quilt was on her bed. I think the central mariners compass had something to do with it.

It looked lovely with the rug she made of their home to celebrate their 50th anniversary, sailboat and all:

As we came back downstairs I discovered she even makes totes out of bird seed bags. What a wealth of creativity!

At this point in the tour we had lunch and… she’s also a wonderful cook 😊. Rick joined us and we shared good food and great conversation.

Now came the best part ~ a visit to her studio downstairs. Julie also makes Nantucket baskets like the ones on the shelf at the top of this blog post. She has many others hanging from the rafters.

Now it was time for Julie to bring out some t-shirts and fabrics she wanted to use in her grandson’s quilt ~ and we began to brainstorm. Decisions were made, notes were jotted down, and time flew. All of a sudden it was time for me to head back home. What a delightful day!

I hope I helped her and I know she inspired me.

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I now need to add “the rest of the story”

That was a few weeks ago and I was so looking forward to sharing this wonderful story with all of you. Then I got an email from Julie recently saying she had a health issue that showed up suddenly in the time since I was there. The diagnosis is cancer and she is quite uncomfortable.

In Japan I was praying for her husband’s health. This time I’ve been praying with her, and for her, for her own health, ~ and for Rick too. I know Julie is the type of person who has made the most of every day of her life, and her positive attitude will get her through these difficult times. I am so grateful to have the privilege of praying for my dear friend and, if you are a person of prayer, would you please pray for my dear friend too? She’s already had surgery and is waiting for test results as she recuperates. It’s a very invasive type of cancer, so we’re all praying she won’t have to have chemo and radiation.

God bless you Julie. Many are praying with you!

It is with a heavy heart that I share that my dear friend and mentor, Klaudeen Hansen, passed away this past week after a courageous battle with cancer. She was a teacher and encourager to many, and a great blessing to me in my quilting career. Her ready smile and enthusiasm brought joy to everyone around her ~ and her love for quilts had a great impact on the quilting world for many, many years.

I learned to quilt in 1987. We were living in Sun Prairie and my sister-in-law, Mary Sue, talked me into taking a quilting class at Madison Area Technical College. Our teacher was another dear friend ~ Sharon Grieve Grinyer. Sharon had been a student of Klaudeen’s. She told me that prior to taking a class with Klaudeen:

“I had made a couple of quilts – “learn as you go”. Klaudeen honed my skills, answered my questions, showed me resources. She was generous with her knowledge and her time. She advocated for me with MATC which led to my 20 year quilt teaching career, Plus membership in both AQS and Prairie Heritage Quilters.”

Because of her connection with Klaudeen, Sharon was part of the group that traveled to Paducah every year to help AQS put on their wonderful show. So that’s how I got to be involved with the Prairie Heritage Quilt Show in Sun Prairie, and part of the team in Paducah.

When I began teaching, Klaudeen was always happy to give me advice and… she often shared my name with guilds who would then hire me to teach for them. As you can tell ~ she is very special to me, and being around her made me want to be better at my craft. I think it’s safe to say that I wouldn’t be where I am in my quilting career without her. This will be a bittersweet trip to Paducah this year as I will be the only remaining Prairie Heritage Quilter present to help hang the show.

I did a tribute to Klaudeen in my blog in 2014, as we celebrated the Prairie Heritage Quilter’s 40th show. I was going to link you to that post, but as I reread it I decided it would be a fitting tribute to repost it here in its entirety:

The Queen of Quilting!

I learned to quilt while living in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and I was blessed to immediately become a part of a group called the Prairie Heritage Quilters. This group puts on a quilt show in Sun Prairie every Spring and it has the distinction of being the longest running show, headed by the same person, for 40 years! The leader of this group of quilt lovers is Klaudeen Hansen, and I’m very pleased to be able to say she’s a friend of mine. At this year’s show there was a special room filled with memorabilia from the past 40 quilt shows. It was in this room that we had the above photograph taken of the current Prairie Heritage Quilters group. A Madison area art quilter, Marlene, made the crown Klaudeen is wearing, and dubbed her the Queen of Quilting.

Klaudeen has been a positive influence in my quilting career and I thought it would be a good idea to do a tribute to her as this week’s blog post.

Klaudeen started teaching sewing for Madison Area Technical College in the early 70’s. Somehow that transitioned into teaching quilting for them as well. We’re quite sure she was the first quilting teacher MATC had.

The Prairie Heritage Quilt Show started basically as a show and tell display in 1974, so all of her students could see what the others were creating.  The first year or two this was held at St. Chad’s church.  It moved to St Albert’s as it grew and was held in the lower level. The first contest was in 1977 and it had 66 entries. The show moved upstairs and included vendors in 1979. This is a picture of some of the original members in their quilt aprons at a show in the early 80’s (Klaudeen is second from the right).

The show has always been on a Monday, and then it grew to add Tuesday (they couldn’t start on Sunday because the show was held in the sanctuary of the church and thus, the quilts had to be hung on Sunday afternoon). These are unusual days of the week for a quilt show, but it’s worked well in Sun Prairie. Our group would have to move out all the chairs (assisted by some husbands, sons and brothers) and move in the quilt racks. Then the hanging of the quilts would begin.

Over the years the show has become very popular. There was a time 11 tour buses brought quilters to the show in one day! and … one year a TV show called PM Magazine (like a local entertainment tonight) filmed their show from our show! Quilted ribbon toppers were first created by Arlene Statz in 1983, and were hand quilted by her! We believe we were the first show to ever make them, if not the first anywhere, definitely the first in our area.

I joined the group in the late 80’s and this photograph was the first one I have of the group (I’m bottom row center, next to Klaudeen).

In going through my photos, I came across a quilt I entered in the show in the early 90’s, called “The Sidewalks of Sun Prairie”. It was the first quilt I made using my Repliqué technique and it won 2 of Arlene’s ribbons! A First in wallhangings, and a special Originality ribbon too.

Klaudeen (and the Prairie Heritage Quilters) have also been a big part of the American Quilters Society’s history (AQS). She met Bill and Meredith Schroeder in Bell Buckle, Tennessee at the National Quilting Association Show, over 30 years ago. The Schroeders owned a publishing company that published Collector Books. They decided quilting was an up and coming past-time and wanted to put on a show, but weren’t sure how to go about it.  They were introduced to Klaudeen and she helped write the rules for the AQS show. She also hand typed the show book for them for years! Quilts were entered by slides, full size and detail, those were logged by Klaudeen to be sure they were entered in the right category, etc.. Then two slide projectors were set up side by side, in Sun Prairie, to view the quilt entries. Klaudeen and the Prairie Heritage Quilters juried the AQS show for the first several years. They also made the Viewer’s choice boxes (still in use at the Paducah show) and hung the quilts at the AQS show as well (we still help with the hanging of the show every year).

The dogwood ribbon toppers for the AQS show have been hand made by the Prairie Heritage Quilters all these years. Klaudeen’s daughter Janell is an active part of the PHQ and was the ribbon maker one year. She, along with Jean Sessions (one of the original members and our unofficial historian), shared information and pictures for this post with me. The above topper was made by Jean. Judging of the AQS show was Klaudeen’s responsibility. She does not judge the show in Paducah, but is the one to convey the expectations to the judging staff.

Klaudeen is also the editor of the AQS Quilt Art Engagement Calendar. These wonderful desk style calendars have a beautiful quilt featured next to each week of the year, and – each year at the Paducah show an Autograph party is held at which many of the quilt makers are invited to attend so that purchasers of the calendars can have the pages autographed. It’s a fun, free event to attend at the show!

Thus ends my previous post 😊.

I also thought it would be good to include this portion of Klaudeen’s obituary to give you some additional insight into this lovely woman:

Klaudeen’s passion and profession was in the quilt world.  She was a nationally recognized quilt show judge, teacher, and editor.  She kept track of the quilt shows she judged and the classes she taught in notebooks.  There were over 23,000 students and over 34,000 quilts she judged in just about every state in the U.S.  Klaudeen had a very special way of teaching her quilt patterns so every level of quilter was comfortable in her class atmosphere. 

One of her proudest accomplishments was starting the annual Sun Prairie Quilt Show that ran for 45 years.  She loved that the quilt makers were able to share their quilts with others.  Her time with the American Quilter’s Society in Paducah, KY was the highlight of her career.  Klaudeen was an intricate part of the creation and planning of the Paducah Quilt Show as well as the Great Wisconsin Quilt show in Madison, WI. She was honored when asked to create a quilt to be hung at the American Embassy in Oslo, Norway during the Olympics.  Klaudeen was a sweet, smart, and fun woman loved and missed by so many.

Bonnie Browning of the American Quilters Society wrote a tribute to Klaudeen on their blog. You can click here to read it.

Klaudeen was the editor of the AQS Quilt Art Engagement Calendar since it was first published in 1985. The 2024 calendar is the last one edited by Klaudeen and AQS will host its annual Quilt Art Autograph Party during AQS QuiltWeek as a tribute to Klaudeen. I was so happy to hear that her daughter Janell will be there. It will be held from 3:00–5:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 27, 2023 at the show. Maybe I’ll see you there!

May God comfort and bless Janell and all of Klaudeen’s family and friends as they mourn the loss of our dear friend.

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Wishing you all a blessed Resurrection Sunday!

We had a drizzly ride from Hamilton to Branson, but the scenery was still lovely. This was my first time visiting this fascinating city and when we arrived it felt like we were on one of the many attractions/rides. The city is built atop many hills and the roads through town often resembled a roller coaster 🤣.

I took these next photos for my grandkids, but if you’ve never been to Branson, I think you may find some of them entertaining. Like the Aquarium:

And the wax museum:

And of course you’d expect to find the Titanic here:

It seems there was something bigger than life around every corner.

This quilt show was billed as the 100th American Quilters Society show and it did not disappoint. Cathy and I were anxious to take a class with Judith Baker Montano, so we did that the first morning ~ even before we saw the quilts!

Her hand-stitched landscapes are amazing, and her class was delightful.

Crazy quilting is more of Cathy’s passion than mine, but I loved hearing Judith’s stories and learning her techniques.

After class I couldn’t wait to get to the competition quilts (my favorite part of every show), and I was overwhelmed by the creativity and quality of the entire exhibit.

Photos of the winners are available on the AQS site and blog, each one was deserving of the ribbons awarded their makers and I know you’ll enjoy seeing them all by clicking here. I think all of the quilts were winners just by getting into the show – and we were winners because we got to see them 😊. As usual I’d like to share a few of my favorites.

The “Best Traditional Design” winner was nice from a distance,

but amazing and rather untraditional up close (those are 1″ squares!). It was very 3D, and it “blew my mind”. This quilt was truly “Beyond Reason”:

I have friends who are really into selvedges, and this was a very innovative variation by Mayleen Vinson:

The next quilt was my favorite of the large quilts and it didn’t have a ribbon. I loved everything about the design from a distance,

and it was just as spectacular up close. The border is what I call a threaded border – just contrasting stitching!

To take the threaded borders to another level ~ this is a wholecloth threaded quilt! Every portion of the design is thread!

The bright circles were all stitched in contrasting thread before layering and quilting, and then the quilt was quilted. The circles looked as if they were stuffed (trapunto) and I don’t know if this is the case, or if two layers of batting were used (wool on top) to achieve the effect. No matter which, the results were striking.

I have always admired Cynthia England’s quilts, and I think this may be my favorite to date:

The previous quilts were all in the large quilt categories. Then we went into the wall quilts and this pictorial quilt was my favorite. I’ve been working a lot with shadows lately and Isabel Munoz, from Spain, did a phenomenal job of using value to get amazing shadows.

The next quilt came all the way from Italy. Don’t you just love Ulla’s water?

AQS also featured a number of great exhibits and challenges like this one:

It was such fun to try to guess the song each note conveys, and it was a crowd pleaser. Wish I’d thought of it 😊 ~ I’d love to have participated by making a note, but we had a fun time trying to guess each one.

The “Light the World” challenge from SAQA was very intriguing. Here are a few of my favorites:

The entire show was a feast for the eyes. We were over~stimulated, over~inspired, and hungry. The vendors would need to wait until the next day so we could try out Paula Dean’s restaurant in the mall across the street. It was yummy!

We headed back to the hotel very well fed and ready to do a bit of sewing (yes, we brought Lucy and Irma, our sewing machines, along).

The next morning we spent some time supporting the wonderful vendors.

Then we walked over to the outdoor mall next to the river and were blessed to arrive just in time for the fountains to dance in rhythm to our national anthem. It was beautiful ~ and everyone in the crowd was singing along with their hands over their hearts. It brought tears to my eyes.

We realized the next day that all over Branson at noon, our National anthem is played ~ what a blessing!

After a delicious lunch of pizza at the Mellow Marshmallow, we drove to the Sights and Sounds Theater to experience Queen Esther.

It was one of the most moving performances I’ve ever seen. Cathy and I enjoyed it very much.

We had one full, and very rainy day left in Branson, and decided to spend it thrift shopping. Branson has oodles of thrift and antique stores. It was so much fun.

That night Mike warned me that they were predicting massive snowfall overnight in Wisconsin. We headed out Saturday morning not knowing what to expect, and what we got was sunshine the whole way. The Arch in St. Louis was beautiful.

And by the time we got to Wisconsin the roads were clear and a lot of the 7″ that fell earlier had already melted. A great ending to a wonderful trip. Thanks Cathy!

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And speaking of shows and exhibits. This weekend was the Crazy Quilters Show in Mukwonago, WI. I was honored to be one of the judges of the show. There were so many wonderful quilts and the decisions weren’t easy. Once all the quilts were hung each judge was asked to pick a favorite. I narrowed it down to two. And the ribbon went to 2,307 Logs in My Cabin by Joan Ledanski:

I’m a green and orange girl, so the colors grabbed me, but I must admit ~ I love everything about this quilt. Wish I’d made it 😁. Congratulations Joan!

I also want to share my second choice because it will make you smile:

Cats was made by my friend Dorothy Livernash, but I didn’t know that until I’d made my decision and was allowed to peek at the label on the back, along with this silly kitty:

The Crazy Quilters also invited our ThreadBender group to display our Curves Ahead quilts. It was the first time they’ve hung together and I think they looked great!

And one last photo! My dear friend Wendy at Sew Much More in Waukesha, asked if we’d like to exhibit our prizewinning Travel Poster quilts in the classroom at the store. Of course we said yes.

If you’re in the store, please stop by and see them for yourself.

What a quilt-filled March I’ve had! Can’t wait for April ~ Paducah here I come!

A few months back I got the idea that it would be fun to go to the AQS show in Branson. I’ve never been there and seeing Branson plus a quilt show struck me as a golden opportunity. I asked Mike if he wanted to go and he responded “no thanks” (ever since he retired from flying all over he doesn’t want to go anywhere – and I get it). So I asked if he’d mind my going with a friend and got a sweet – “no problem”. So I texted Cathy and we made plans. After looking at the map I realized that Hamilton, MO was sort of on the way, so this past week we loaded up the car and headed south.

It was a lovely day for a road trip and we arrived right at 5pm.

We checked into our lovely Air B&B, just a block off the main street, and went for a walk.

The stores had all just closed, so we took an obligatory selfie, peeked in a bunch of windows, and had a quick dinner at a local shop. We were even privileged to see the biggest spool of thread. I only wish I’d had some thread with me to add to it.

That night we found a puzzle in the B&B and had it together before going to bed. Cathy and I both have puzzling brains.

The next morning we hit the shops of Missouri Star with enthusiasm and oh what fun we had! The fabric was gorgeous and plentiful, and the people were so friendly.

Each of the buildings housed a different type of fabric (solids, kids, batiks, seasonal, etc.) and most of them were connected. Everything was delightfully neat and organized, with oodles of encouraging and funny quilting phrases and signs painted everywhere.

I was so impressed that I had to give Jenny a high five:

We have plenty of purchases to remember her “buy” 😁.

Then it was time for lunch. Mrs. Littles Tea and Toys looked intriguing:

The decor couldn’t have been more charming.

Our soup, sandwiches and all the special extras were served on tiered plates, and every bite was delicious.

After lunch Mrs. Little came out to see how everything was ~ and we told her how much we enjoyed it. I asked her if I could take photos and include them in my blog post about our visit to Hamilton and she was thrilled. So thrilled that she told me to tell all of you that if you travel to Hamilton and visit Mrs. Little’s Tea and Toys, simply mention you heard about her here and she’ll have a little treat for you.

What a wonderful time we had in Hamilton! And that was only the beginning of our trip! Next week come back to hear all about the 100th AQS show and our adventures in Branson.

And if you haven’t been stitching on any quilts recently, remember what it says on the side of a building there:

I think they forgot the word “quilts”, but you get the idea.

This was the “big” challenge theme in our ThreadBenders group this year, and here are the rules:

“Each participant may use any technique they desire to construct a 36″ x 36″ square quilt with abstract curves and NO straight lines. The quilting may include straight lines, and striped fabrics are ok.

Quilt shouldn’t represent an object or scene – strictly abstract.

Any fabrics/colors may be used. Plus – we will each purchase a yard of the same green fabric. This fabric must be used as a 1/2″ finished binding on the front of the quilt. Some of the lime green fabric must be used in the quilt itself also. The amount is up to the artist.“

We had our big reveal meeting recently and the quilts are delightful! I’m so impressed with this group. We are fairly new and most of those who joined 7 years ago were not even sure if they were art quilters. But, with our big win at AQS Grand Rapids last year, we’ve come a long way – and we’re having fun too!

To visit our site and see all the Curves Ahead quilts please click here.

As usual, I’d like to share my quilt, and the journey it took me on. I started by coming up with a color palette ~ Citrus Splash seemed like a good choice considering the binding had to be lime green. So I dug through my stash for oranges and yellows to join the fun.

Next, I did a web search and found an image that was very curvy, and very joyful. I purchased the rights to use the image as my inspiration, and I was off and running:

I simplified a few of the curves and knew I was going to remove a bunch of circles. Then I had the entire pattern printed out at 36″ x 36″.

As I often do, I chose my repliqué technique to do the hard work. I pinned the white background fabric to the back of my pattern and stitched down the center of a few of the heavy black curves to anchor the background to the pattern. Then I placed the wrong side of the appropriate citrus colored fabric in place on the right side of the background, pinned it in place, and straight stitched along both sides of that black area.

Next I flipped it over and trimmed away the excess fabric.

And satin stitched over the raw edges.

That was fun. But how to make all those circles? I certainly wasn’t going to satin stitch around each one. Time to pull out the Scan and Cut™ and fuse some fabric pieces, wrong sides together. My circles ranged from 3/8″ to 3″, and it was a blast playing with this great tool.

Since the circles were backed, it would be pretty simple to stitch them onto a finished base quilt. So I quilted the whole thing in the background with long curving lines. I like to do what I call “airplane” quilting on these types of lines. Please let me explain. I prefer to do long lines like these with a walking foot and feed dogs. The problem is I tend to want to position my hands close to the needle and try to show the machine how to do it. This seldom works well and puckers are the result. Instead I’ve discovered that if I sit back and grasp the quilt out and to the sides, allowing the feed dogs to do what they’re good at, I get much better results.

Once quilted the required green binding went on.

Now, what design would be best for anchoring all 86 circles in place? I made a small sample and tried out an asterisk, a spiral, and a 5 petaled posey. My granddaughter Hanna said the posey made it look like a citrus fruit cut in half. It was also the most fun to stitch (even the 3/8″ ones), so that design won.

I pinned the circles wherever I felt like it, and finally decided when enough was enough.

Once they were stitched in place ~ the quilt was done!

The entire challenge is a delight for the eyes. If you haven’t visited the ThreadBenders site yet, I’ll repeat the link: click here.

Plus… our curvy quilts will be exhibited at the Crazy Quilters Quilt Guild Show on April 1st & 2nd in Mukwonago, WI. For all the details click here!

I had a wonderful time arranging the triangles from last week’s post into hexagons. Each block could be arranged 3 different ways. So there were a lot of decisions to be made. Here are the options for just one set of triangles.

I chose the third one, but they were all interesting.

Once the blocks were made I began to lay them out. At this point I want to share a personal opinion with you. I’ve seen many One Block Wonder quilts and find them fascinating, but there’s a part of me that thinks placing all those lovely blocks right up against one another can take away from the beauty of each block.

I started to arrange my blocks and just couldn’t get into it.

Then I remembered seeing hexagon blocks set with additional contrasting 60 degree triangles between them. I did a quick internet search, but couldn’t find what I was looking for, so I decided to choose a coordinating yet contrasting fabric and cut lots more triangles. I sewed them to opposite sides of each hexagon turning them into diamonds.

And arranged them on the design wall at our last retreat.

WOW! This resulted in each hexagon turning into a six pointed star. I loved it! The separation made the pattern in each block stand out. To sew them together I spaced out the diagonal rows,

added filler triangles to the ends of the strips, and sewed them all together. I was pleased with the results.

I found some buttery yellow minkie at Sandy Creek Quilts in Lodi while on our retreat, and decided to put it on the back. I layered it all with a thin, 80 cotton/20 poly blend batt, quilted everything through the centers of the diamonds ~ and then folded the backing to the front to create a very soft binding.

Thanks to Ruth for showing us how to make these delightful blocks. Stay tuned for photos of baby girl Walters receiving her quilt sometime soon.