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“Congratulations on the publication of your new book!  I’m wondering if
you might be able to do a guild lecture possibly followed by a  workshop
featuring your intriguing new twist on building memories with quilt
blocks?”

A workshop on the techniques in my book ~ what a great idea! So I’ve been noodling on it and here’s what I’ve come up with:

In my Seminole Sampler workshop I supply kits for making a number of different Seminole borders that the students can keep with their handouts for inspiration and direction in future quilts. No UFO – just more tools in the quilting technique toolbox! It’s been very popular.

So should this workshop be kitted? Should it be samples as in the class above? Or should the students make a project to hang on the wall? The workshop is being held in October and, after quite a bit of noodling, I decided a small project with an Autumn theme would be nice. The students would make two 8″ x 11″ blocks in order to learn a number of techniques, and then I’d demonstrate some helpful finishing techniques so they could see the project through to completion and hang it on the wall. But if that’s not their thing, they can simply slip the samples into a page protector to save for future reference. Here’s the project:

The techniques learned will be Repliqué, raw edged Repliqué, shadow Repliqué, and 2 finishing methods, along with my simple way of “block connecting”. With each of those techniques learned a quilter can re-create any photo as a quilt block!

I decided not to kit the class because the supply list is quite small and I thought students might want to choose their own Autumn fabrics. I invited 3 friends to take a “guinea pig” class and see how it would work in a 3 hour workshop format – and it worked great! I’m looking forward to teaching it in Janesville next month! If your guild would be interested in having me come and share my Modular Memory Quilts, or any of my offerings, please visit the classes page of my website by clicking here! Then email me at: .

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Also, I love it when I receive emails with photos that were sent in response to one of my blog posts. Crystal sent me this response to last week’s post about Karen and Lynn’s jeans quilt:

“Hello Chris, After reading this week’s piece about one lady’s quilt made from her husband’s old work jeans and t-shirts I thought you might like to see a quilt that I made from my husband’s old flannel shirts in 2018. My overall design is a simple one.  The back is fabric I bought that represents my husband’s lifelong fishing hobby. I used wool batting to make it winter cozy. The long arm quilting was done by Anne Books.  The bonus was that I got eight to ten buttons from each shirt that I of course saved!”

I’m sure her husband loves it! And she ended up with buttons too! Thanks Crystal 😊!

Ken is a man with a loving family who worked as an industrial service plumber during his career. Over the years his wife, Karen, mended his jeans and overalls and, about 4 years ago, that pile of mending gave her an idea. She and her daughter Lynn decided it would be fun to make him a quilt from his old clothes (she smiled when she told me that it would be more fun than mending them). So here’s the story:

I met Lynn “virtually” last year when I was recording a Zoom lecture for PBS. Lynn is a video production specialist and I was blessed to work with her. This year PBS recorded my lecture at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in Madison last week, and I was able to work with Lynn again.

We got to talking and she told me she was a quilter and had a quilt in the show. Then she told me a bit about her quilt, and her parents, and I could tell this was a blog post story waiting to be shared.

After my class that day I went searching through the quilt exhibit and found Lynn’s quilt.

I emailed Lynn and asked if I could meet up with her and her mom and get the rest of the story. When we got together there was a crowd at the quilt. The viewers were excited to talk to Karen and Lynn and have their questions answered.

Then we sat down and chatted and that’s when Karen told me about the jeans. She and Lynn decided their quilt would be a secret and they got together and went through Ken’s clothes. They told me he is a man who never wastes anything, so they determined he would be happiest if the entire quilt was made from reused fabric. So, once they cut up the parts of his garments that would make the best blocks, they cut strips from his gray work shirts to use for the sashing between the blocks.

Karen gathered all the materials and did most of the cutting and some of the pressing.  She also did some hand sewing, such as on the Miller patch. They collaborated on the design and choice of which fabrics went where. Lynn was the sewer who put the blocks together. The story goes that Karen thought it would be nice to use Ken’s t-shirts for the back, but Lynn wasn’t sure a two sided quilt would be something she wanted to attempt. The t-shirt idea eventually won out and Lynn was relieved that it went together as well as it did.

In the end the only part of the quilt that had to be purchased new was the interfacing for the t-shirts.

They presented it to Ken and he loved it (how could he not 😊!)

Thanks to these two dear women for sharing their quilt and it’s story!

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And I just have to add a little bit to my previous post about buttons (click here to read that post). I enjoyed reading all the comments. Someone said their grandchildren enjoyed playing and counting her buttons. Why didn’t I think of that? The next time Sommer and Trey are over I may find out exactly how many I have 😁.

My friend Patti sent me a few pictures of her buttons with this comment:

“Like Lorraine, I have loved buttons since I was a child. My husband Ed made this “roof” for me to fit a doll house which a friend had started and abandoned. Another friend drinks Starbucks drinks and she saved the bottles for me. They fit the “floors” of the doll house perfectly.”

She continued with another email:

“Ed made this container for me. It fits exactly six of my button bottles at once so I can take them anywhere. Friends come and select buttons for their projects, I bring buttons to meetings when someone has requested a specific color or type and these are immediately put into a finished project/new home.
Buttons bring things together and make things beautiful.”

Notice the delightful details:

Thanks Patti, for sharing your collection, and the smiles!

Quite a while ago Lorraine responded to my post about my thimble collection (click here for that post) with a collection of her own and I just realized I never shared it with you. This is what she sent to me:

“Your thimbles are beautiful and I loved the historical information you included in your post. Although I do not have a thimble collection I do have another sewing related collection: BUTTONS!  I have been collecting buttons for over 50 years. As you will notice in the pictures, if you have a button collection you must also begin collecting jars! These jars are scattered throughout our house, mostly in the guest room and my quilt studio. I have more jars but I thought this would give you an idea of the size of my collection. 

I have over 120,000 buttons. How do I know this?  I am a retired elementary teacher and in order to help my 2nd and 3rd grade students understand the concept of a BIG number I would haul several of these jars to school every year and have my math students count them. After it took 25 kids, five 45-minute periods to count about 100,000 buttons they understood that was a LOT of buttons. But imagine a million buttons! They would have to count 10 times as many jars! 

My love of buttons began when I was a kid and my mom let me play with her coffee can of buttons cut off of clothes before cutting up the fabric to make rag rugs or scrap quilts. When I learned to sew in high school I would rummage through the can and select buttons to sew onto my newly made clothes. After I left home to attend college I realized I had to start my own collection. That was back when you could buy a shoebox full of buttons for $1.00. Now you are lucky to buy a small baby food jar for under $4.00. Recently I only add to my collection when someone is downsizing or emptying the home of a loved one and they bring me the buttons they find stashed away in a closet somewhere.

I enjoy going through my newly acquired buttons and have been amazed at the variety of materials used to produce them: horn, bone, walnut shells, coconut shells, rubber, fabric, seashells, glass, celluloid, cork, a variety of metals, vegetable ivory, wood, leather, china and, of course, plastic. They come in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes and some are truly tiny masterpieces.

PS. Sorry I rambled on but once I start talking about buttons (or quilting) I just can’t stop.“ 

I love the PS ~ and I get it! The following photo is of Lorraine’s largest and smallest buttons 😁:

What a fascinating collection and story. I’m so grateful to Lorraine for sharing it!

I too have a button collection, although I never planned on collecting them. It seems whenever a family member or friend downsizes or passes away ~ I get her buttons.

The ones from my grandmother are in the lovely antique covered dish she kept them in.

Years ago my mom and I were going through the things my dad kept after retiring from his dental practice. One of the items was a wooden case with drawers for keeping sample teeth for dentures. I could sort my buttons by color and give each group it’s own drawer. This has worked well for me for years.

I also had a bunch of buttons still on their original cards/packaging and those have found their way into a small wooden box.

and here are a few of my favorites:

As I was going through my collection I thought about a quilt I made with buttons for my second book, Snuggle and Learn Quilts for Kids. It’s called Counting on Buttons and it gave me the opportunity to sew some really cute buttons onto a quilt (they’re attached well – with strong beading thread!)

When I designed this quilt I decided that my grandkids would learn cursive 😊.

I don’t have as many buttons as Loraine, but I do love them!

Do you have a special way to store your buttons? Do you have a favorite you’d like to share?

Last week I posted about the upcoming quilt show in Madison (click here for that post). In a comment to that post Marilyn asked if any of the show will be online for non-local quilt enthusiasts. I wrote to Deanna at Nancy Zieman productions and here is her response:

“This year’s Great Wisconsin Quilt Show will primarily be an in-person event, held Sept. 8-10 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. We are planning to record several short videos from the event on Thursday and Saturday, featuring interviews with quilting celebrities, presenters, vendors, and quilt contest award-winners. These live videos will be shared on our Facebook page, YouTube and on the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show website.

In addition to these live updates, the PBS Wisconsin team will record four one-hour educational lectures at the event. We plan to share these presentations via social media in the months following the event.

We will also photograph all of the award-winning quilts in this year’s Quilt Contest exhibit and create an online photo gallery that will be available on the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show website in late Sept.

Additionally, The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show community convenes throughout the year on Facebook and Instagram, celebrating the work of our quilters and participating in online-exclusive challenges. Follow us on social media to be part of the year-round fun!“

Thanks for the information Deanna!

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And… speaking of quilt shows… I have some exciting news about a show I recently had a quilt exhibited in!

Over the years I’ve had quite a few quilts in the Ultimate Guild Challenge portion of the AQS Quilt Show when it was held in Nashville, Knoxville, and Grand Rapids ~ praise the Lord! That was when I had the privilege of participating in challenges with the Milwaukee Art Quilters (click here to visit their site). We won many awards together ~ it’s a very talented group!

Six years ago some friends and I started a new fiber art group called the ThreadBenders. We have a lot of members who joined as “newbie” art quilters, and it’s been fun to hold challenges and see what everyone comes up with. ThreadBenders began holding challenges from the start, and have had them accepted into the Ultilmate Guild Challenge competition at AQS each year. This year our “big” challenge ~ Vintage Travel Posters ~ won a red ribbon!!!

To see a close up of each of our Vintage Travel Posters, plus photos of many of our previous challenges, please go to our ThreadBender’s site by clicking here!

AQS posted photos of all the winning quilts in the Grand Rapids Show online. I’m always interested in all of the quilts in a quilt show, ribbon winners and non-ribbon winners alike, and I understand that AQS can’t post the entire show online. So I have to settle for a view of the winners ~ and this show did not disappoint! It was especially fun to see the other Ultimate Guild Challenge quilts. You can see the quilts too by clicking here.

To add icing to the cake, two of our members were at the show and were interviewed by Bonnie Browning.

You can watch that YouTube video with Connie and Cindy by clicking here! The tidbit of information I found particularly interesting in this video was that there were 16 groups of challenge quilts accepted into the competition – so second place is quite a coup. Good work ladies! I’m so grateful to be a part of this inspiring group and I can’t wait to see what we come up with next 😊.

My friend Susan shared a great technique with us at a recent ThreadBenders meeting. It’s from a website named Sugaridoo 😁. I had never heard of it before, but I think Irene’s quilts are bright and fun – and she has some very creative ideas.

In the video on Irene’s site I learned a great new way to make a block with an odd triangle

using an intriguing tool made from cardstock (or any cardboard you have on hand)!

It can be used for any odd triangle you find in a pattern or make up in your own designs. Are you intrigued? Would you like to know how it works? Well, to see Irene’s excellent video demonstration click here!

It’s brilliant. I couldn’t wait to try it. And here are my results:

I made my tool, and cut out a square of fabric, and the triangle I wanted to add to it. I laid the triangle in place, right sides up, and aligned the 1/4″ line on the tool with the long edge of the triangle.

I put my fingers on the tool,

then folded back the triangle over the tool. Next I moved my fingers to the open areas on the tool,

so the seam allowance on the triangle was held in place, and the tool could be removed.

Now it was easy to flip the seam allowance out from under the fold I’d made.

and pin it in place.

l sewed the triangle on with a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Flipped, pressed,

And squared up the block.

What a clever idea. I wish I’d thought of it (although I’m not sure my brain could have come up with it 😊).

So many patterns include templates for this type of odd shaped block, but now we know an easier way. Thanks Irene! Please click here to visit her site and see all of her great ideas.

We’re making progress on the new home and just a few days ago I woke up and thought “I’m not in someone else’s house wondering when I’ll get to go home… but this is home now”. It only took a month!

There’s still so much to do, but God is providing in wonderful ways. The man from church, who is a finish carpenter in the off hours from his full time job, is such a blessing. Every door in our home needs some sort of repair and he is very skilled at this type of work. Once the doors are done he’ll start on my studio. I’ve been dreaming about it and this past week I began arranging and rearranging all the boxes there in preparation for the closets and shelves. I drafted it all out with graph paper first, then I used tape to mark where I want what on the floor and walls. The closet wall will have a tall area (on the right) for hanging items and my box of long stuff. The rest will be shelves for my bins.

The adjacent wall will be my “corrals”. When I had the studio built on Ceasar Road I originally planned to have an area next to the counter for my movable cutting table. Before the counter went in I realized that the table would inevitably get piled with stuff ~ as all flat surfaces do ~ so I decided to have the counter raised and make a corral to cover the table (far left in this “old studio” photo).

It worked great, and I was very good about folding the table up and putting it away after each use so it never got buried under stuff. The doors to the right of the table in the photo above were another “corral” for my rolling carts of fabric ~ and I will need that space again, so here’s the taped off area in studio #2:

My magic box will be at the end of the closet wall (it’s leaning up behind the design walls on the left).

And I actually can sew now, because I moved many boxes into another room so I have room for me … and John to work!

It’s not pretty, but it is functional. I’m so very blessed.

The first thing I made in my new sewing area was a pillowcase for my new friend, Elliahna. Elliahna is a young woman who attends the teen ministry at my church, and she is a huge blessing to us! Here’s the story:

A few weeks ago I asked her what she was doing this summer. She said she had been working 3 jobs, but she was recently let go from one because she couldn’t give them full time hours. The job was for a painter and she was sad because she loved doing the cutting in portion of painting (something I dread). She said she enjoyed the challenge of painting straight lines, and along edges, without tape. Can you guess where this is leading? I told her we had a house full of rooms that needed painting and asked her if she would be interested in working for us. She was thrilled. Mike was a little concerned about her abilities, but we decided “it’s just paint” and asked Elli to show us what she could do in the powder room. The first day she painted 2 coats ~ in 2 bathrooms ~ and she did an amazing job! She has a wonderful work ethic, and a steady hand.

The next time she came back she painted the master bedroom.

At this point I showed her my studio full of boxes. She was immediately drawn to my fabric carts and asked if I could make her a pillowcase. She said she loved earthtones and chose an ombré fabric for the body of the case.

I can’t wait to give it to her when she comes on Tuesday to paint the den. Please stay tuned for more studio and painting updates.

A friend from church contacted me and said she was making a family tree and was wondering if I knew of a place she could find fabric with large cardinals printed on it. Erma is one of those wonderful women who organize meals and events at church behind the scenes without wanting any attention placed on herself. She truly does it for the glory of God, and has many amazing gifts. As it turns out sewing and quilting are not among her many gifts 😊. Erma is not a quilter, she doesn’t even have a sewing machine. So she found a queen size sheet and gathered fabric and clothing from thrift stores to use in her family tree. She put most of the “appliqués” on with fabric glue (she didn’t even use the term appliqué), and hand stitched others. The fabrics were definitely not quilter’s cottons. When I first saw it there were only a few leaves on the tree which was perched upon her lovely grass. I was amazed at how much she’d accomplished by just making it up as she went along. I wish I’d taken a photo of it at that point, but I didn’t think to ~ so here’s a photo of it finished:

My first thought was “how is she going to layer and quilt this with her lack of sewing knowledge. The answer was easy ~ she wasn’t! She wanted to simply make it on the sheet and hang it at the family reunion. I decided I would help and encourage in any way I could. She wanted to add cardinals to represent the family members who had passed away. They needed to be 5” tall and I was pretty sure she’d have a hard time finding fabric with cardinals that size ~ so I offered to repliqué them for her. It was just such an honor to be a part of this sweet project.

She cut the leaves from a variety of green garments she found rummaging and wrote the names and birthdates of each family member on their leaf with fabric marker before glueing them in place.

It was completed in time for the reunion. Erma hung it in a prominent place and family members had their photograph taken with the tree (this is not Erma, but a member of the Weakley family).

I didn’t find out the tree had been completed until after the reunion, and that’s when I asked Erma if I could feature it in my blog. Here is her response:

“You are more than welcome to share. With such a large family and so many generations I just thought a visual picture would help the young ones see they are a part of a group. So many people in so many directions but related all because 2 people grew in love.”

Thanks Erma! Your family tree is delightful and I’m sure it was a blessing to many!

Moving has really cut into my quilting time! I have cleared a path and can actually turn on my sewing machine, but finding the supplies I need for anything is a challenge. Because I knew this would be the case I planned ahead for our current small project in ThreadBenders.

When we exhibit our work at shows and galleries we make signage to go with the exhibit. We always need to have a way to identify our group and Connie came up with a great idea! All of us wanted to participate, so each member chose one of the letters in ThreadBenders out of a bag. Since we have 3 more members than letters, we included 3 “quilters choice” blank blocks. The challenge? To make each letter as a 6″ finished quilt. Any technique, any fabric, any finish. I got “h”.

The week before I packed up my stash, I picked out a metallic/cotton fabric and decided my block would be a whole cloth. I quilted a cursive “h” and spiraled around it. The letter didn’t show up as well as I had hoped, so I colored it in with a green Shiva paintstick. I had just enough time and energy to sew the binding to the front of my small quilt, and decided hand stitching it to the back would have to wait. But how would I find it to finish it in the new house? I placed it under the presser foot on my machine before packing it up!!! (sometimes I amaze myself 🤣)

The night before our July meeting I was able to find a needle and thread ~ and my block was finished in time for the big reveal:

There were 3 members missing that night, so we’re missing the B, r and one quilter’s choice block. I think the ones we have so far are spectacular (the 2 quilters choice are in the upper right)!

There’s so much variety in color, font, technique… I love it all! We will be able to hang them horizontally, vertically, any way we want to fit the space with each exhibit. What a fun idea! Thanks Connie!

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Also:

Last week 2 dear quilters sent me photos of optical illusion quilts and I thought you’d like to see them too!

Judy said she was at an art gallery recently and saw this quilt. She’s purchased the pattern and can’t wait to make it:

Then Sandy sent me photos of 2 lovely quilts along with this note:

“Here are two optical illusion quilts I have made from the
same pattern.  The red one is a good sized wall hanging and the aqua one
is a miniaturized version.  There is no top or bottom.  They can be hung
lengthwise or widthwise and look great however.  They seem to change as
you walk past them.”

Fascinating! Thanks ladies!

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And one more thing:

A few weeks ago I posted about using weights to control rulers. The link I included for the video didn’t go directly to the specific video on YouTube. Click here for the direct link!