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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!

When Wendy and I led a Sew We Go tour to Italy 10 years ago, it was interesting to note that every time we entered a cathedral the majority of the tourists were looking up and snapping photographs of the arches and windows, but every quilter was looking down and photographing the beautiful floors. Obviously ~ this was for their quilt design possibilities 😊. Here are a few I took in Sienna:

And this one was in the Vatican museum:

Recently AQS spotlighted patterns by Christopher Florence. His patterns have been very popular for quite a few years because he gives great instructions for piecing optical illusions. To order his patterns click here! One of them really grabbed me (this image is from the AQS site):

Do you see the similarity to the previous photo? Even the colors are similar.

When I began making my Modular Memory Quilts (which is the topic of my latest book – click here to order a copy of your own), I looked through all my pictures of the trip to Italy and chose the one of the floor in the Vatican to be my “Italy block”. I put the photo in photoshop and skewed it into a rectangle.

Then I made the block in fabric.

It was a real struggle to draft and stitch. I wish I’d had Christopher’s instructions. But it is a lovely memory of an amazing trip that hangs with my other travel memory blocks:

I wonder if Mr. Florence has ever been to Italy 😁. It would have been a real coincidence if that tile floor had been in the cathedral in Florence – LOL.

Have you made an optical illusion quilt? I’ve made a few and I’d like to share one of my favorites from many years ago. I call it Vanishing Point:

It was inspired by a class with Katie Pasquini Masopust and was made completely from fabrics in my stash. The high value contrast and pieced lines of perspective are what makes it work, and it is actually an 8 pointed quilt ~ the gray background is the wall behind the quilt.

If you’ve made an optical illusion quilt, I’d love to see a photo. Please email them to me at: .

Sew, we’re in our new home ~ praise the Lord! We’re exhausted, sore, and a bit overwhelmed. Moving is a lot of work ~ especially if you haven’t done it for 18 years and you have TOO much stuff! But we’re here and we have the rest of our lives to make everything “perfect” (because I’m never moving again 😁!)

Our last move was in 2004 and a quilting friend gave me some advice then that was a huge blessing: “wrap the breakables with fabric instead of newspaper or bubble wrap”. It’s an easier way to move your stash, doesn’t waste packing material, and it’s so pretty each time I open another box and look inside.

Then I fold the fabric and stack it while putting the dishes away. We have boxes and stuff everywhere, with little open space at this time, so the fireplace mantel looked like a good spot to put the stacks until I was ready to move them down to the studio.

And speaking of my studio ~ the old one looks so empty and lonely (after a lot of packing):

I spent so many wonderful hours here, and was very blessed to have such a great space. I have a lovey new space in a walk-out room on the basement level of our new home, but it’s just a big room that the previous owners used as a family room.

It looks a bit different now with all my stuff!!! Note my “magic box”, ready to be mounted to the wall on the left. To read about it in a previous post click here.

I’m very excited ~ a dear man (and talented carpenter) from our church has agreed to make it the studio of my dreams! It may take a while, but as long as I can have my machine up and running during the process, I can be patient. I’m very spoiled and very blessed indeed.

Why, you may ask, did we put ourselves through this? Well, we’re not getting any younger, and the old house had 3 levels with the master bedroom on the top, the living room/kitchen in the middle, and the garage/laundry on the lower level. Mike and I are still fine with stairs, but we decided it would be wise to have a home where all the essentials are on one level. This home fits our needs ~ and it’s closer to town!

My studio will be the exception to the “everything on the main level” rule, and hopefully I’ll be ok with stairs for a long time (some things are worth the effort).

It’s a pretty house and flowers grow beautifully on the east facing front porch (which you can see if you look past the ladders ~ we’re still in the process of moving after all).

I know it will all come together with time, but right now I feel like I need a nap 🤣. Actually there’s no time for that. There are more dishes to unwrap and fabric to fold!

Our recent challenge in the Fiberistas was a “do it yourself round robin”. During the pandemic we’d been meeting via Zoom, so it really wasn’t feasible to do a typical round robin border challenge. We decided we could do one if we came up with different border themes each month, BUT we’d work only on our own original blocks. Some of these quilts are now complete and I hope you’ll enjoy reading about my quilt’s border progress.

The Fiberistas have done a lot of hands-on meetings in the past, in which we experiment with different types of fabric manipulation and dying. This is a piece I made in the meeting in which we played with Shiva Paint Sticks™.

I was thinking that I might like to make this challenge quilt a small one. Perhaps the dragonfly in the upper right corner would be a fun center for a wall quilt (who knows what will become of the other motifs on this piece?) So I cut it out on-point and was ready to add my first border ~ which had to include half square triangles. While looking through some of my other meeting technique samples I found a piece of fabric I’d dyed using Sharpie™ markers and alcohol. These 1″ finished triangle blocks bordered the dragonfly nicely.

The next border theme was rather specific, we were to add a double border with 4 patch corners. I decided it would be nice to bring a bit of the green from the dragonfly into the mix.

The next theme was curves. This little guy needed to be put upright again, so adding corners with curves was necessary. I found a lovely black print in my stash that coordinated well without taking away from the center, and black arcs along the edges made a great frame (I added them with my replique techniqué).

Our final group theme was rectangles. My small quilt had gotten quite busy and I didn’t want the next border to take away from the previous work. So I repeated the black print as a wide border with black cornerstones. By stenciling a few more dragonflies in the corner squares

he didn’t seem so lonely. I then couched light green embroidery thread in the seams.

“Quilters Choice” was the last theme. An option was to add one last border of my choice, but I liked it just the way it was, so it was time to quilt it and square it up. Friends of mine were recently talking about a video they watched by Jordan Fabrics where they learned to make rotary cutting easier by putting an actual weight on the ruler to keep it from slipping. I tried it while squaring up this quilt and loved it!

I had Olivia use the weight while she was cutting her fabric too (Olivia was the teenager who’s quilting adventure was shared in a previous post – click here for that post) and it gave her great ruler control. You can find the video and so much more at Jordan Fabric’s website: https://jordanfabrics.com/

Here’s my finished dragonfly quilt, Dragonfly Fun, along with challenge quilts from other Fiberistas!

Isn’t it interesting how different they are, even though the borders had consistent themes?

While visiting Loose Threads Quilt Shop in Milton, WI I found a pattern that intrigued me. I don’t buy patterns very often, because I like to come up with my own designs, but this pattern really tickled me.

My granddaughter Rainee was approaching her 10th birthday and it was time to make her a new quilt. But what colors and fabrics? A great question to ponder in a great quilt shop. I found a purple fabric with colorful bugs that set the palette,

and my search for purple and lime fabrics began. Isn’t it fun to have a project to buy for?!? Then, while in Paducah, I found a lovely light purple solid for the background and spent my stitching time there making her blocks.

When I got home I laid them out and stitched them together.

I chose a bright green, super soft Minky™ for the back and I didn’t use any batting. Then I took it up to our June quilt retreat ~ a great time with great friends ~

and echo quilted around the shapes. When I got home I decided to “write” my label on Rainee’s quilt with my Sweet 16 in the open spaces.

Did you notice I’m actually using my “scissors holster”? The tweezers are in the perfect spot for removing the Press and Seal™ from the stitches (for a post about using Press and Seal™ to mark your quilts click here).

I had planned to turn the Minky from the back to the front as a binding, like I did on the quilt I made her when she was 3 (for my tutorial on that technique click here).

This time I made a pillowcase to match and got it in the mail to our sweet Rainee in time for her birthday!

I’ll send a photo of her with her quilt when I get one (it’s so hard to have grandchildren so far away 😔).

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Also…

Karen emailed me about a charitable project and I’d like to pass it along.

It’s a plea for quilts and blankets to be made for the homeless in our nation that will culminate with an event at the Capitol in December. For all the information go to: https://memorialblanket.org/

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And one more thing~ We’re moving!!!

Mike and I decided it was time to downsize a bit and we’ve left our wonderful home in the woods. We’re excited about our new home which is closer to Watertown.

As I’m cleaning out and packing up I’ve come to the conclusion that I really do have too much stuff. What a blessing it will be to get through it all and settle in. Our new address is N9081 River Road, Watertown, WI 53094.

While visiting a vendor booth in Paducah, Cathy and I came upon a small plastic device that I just had to try!

My favorite scissors to have near the machine while sewing is the Fiskar’s Spring Action Scissors… and there’s a story that goes with this photo:

A few years ago I was having some back pain and my doctor recommended I get an exercise ball. He said that sitting on it while doing tasks would help to strengthen the muscles in my back, and using it while sewing would be good. Well, one afternoon while stitching on the ball I bumped the scissors off the edge of the table, they fell point down right into the ball and ~ I ended up on the floor 🤣!

Since then I’ve attempted to use other scissors that can be attached to the machine with zinger cords, etc., and I just miss my Fiskars. This brings me to the Sew Very Smooth booth at the AQS show in Paducah this year. They had a basket full of colorful blocks

and this ad:

I was intrigued. You can click here for a direct link to their site. To watch a YouTube video about the scissors holsters click here. They are made on a 3D printer and after watching the video I had a friend explain to me what a 3D printer does. If you’re in the dark about them click here to watch a 75 second video.

When I returned home from the show I taped my new holsters in a number of spots on my machines (making sure they wouldn’t be in the way when I put the travel case on), to determine where I’d like them the most, and then actually adhered them in the best spots for me. Here’s one on my Bernina,

and my HQ Sweet 16:

I squeeze them just a bit when inserting them in the holder and the spring holds them securely until I reach for them again. I love, love, love them! Cathy does too 😊!

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After last week’s post I had a great time receiving a number of emails about kids and quilts. Lucy sent me photos of her grandkids learning to sew with grandma’s scraps:

Asher is intently stitching a quilt for his panda Bob.

Granddaughter Clara chose fabrics and stitched

a beach scene with sand, water, flowers and sunshine (very creative)!

The next email I received was from Sandra: “Earlier this spring, my granddaughter Sloane asked if I could make her a Barbie blanket, as I had for her American Girl doll. This grandma had an inspiration and decided Sloane, now eight years old, should know her way around a sewing machine. She was game, and did very well. Here is her photo”:

Sloane looks so intent – I’m sure she’ll make a great quilter.

And here’s a quilt made by Shellie’s granddaughter Vivian. She said the center print is a drawing Vivian did in school, printed on fabric as part of school fundraiser.  She picked out the colors and arranged them by herself.

Don’t you just love seeing young people stitching!?!