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Before I get to today’s topic I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated quilts and money for the Ukraine project. We are in the process of packing them up and getting them to Judy. Please be sure to read next week’s blog post for all the details 😃

And now for this week’s post:

My dear friend Sue inspired this week’s topic. She sent me the following comment in an email last week:

“I was at the Mukwonago show on Saturday and once again heard some comments like, “This quilt is gorgeous, why wouldn’t it have gotten a ribbon?”.  I’ve had the privilege of observing some quilt judging and know that there are several factors that must be considered.

I’m hoping that you would consider doing your blog on the subject some time.  I think people would find it interesting and informative.”

Thanks Sue!

Please know that the following is all simply my opinion, but I hope you find it helpful.

I learned to quilt in 1987, when we were living in Sun Prairie, WI. My first quilt was a machine pieced and hand-quilted lap quilt that has been loved a lot, and is quite threadbare now. I was so excited with my finished quilt that I entered it in the Sun Prairie quilt show ~ a very long time ago.

It didn’t win a ribbon, but so many people got to see it and I was thrilled. I still feel that one of the best reasons for quilt shows is to allow others to see our work. Ribbons and awards are nice, but I love viewing all the quilts in the show – not just the prize winners.

As I continued to quilt, I continued to want to share my work and as a result, I have entered many shows. Sometimes I get a ribbon and many times I don’t. To give you an idea of how many shows I’ve entered, these are the ribbons I’ve collected for the quilts that got the approval of a judge 😊:

Please don’t be overly impressed ~ I’ve been collecting them for 3 decades 😁. I especially treasure the ones with hand made tops!

So, why do some quilts get ribbons, and other wonderful quilts don’t? The overly simple answer for most shows is ~ it depends on the other quilts in that category. The first category I judged in Mukwonago last week had 34 bed sized quilts in it. I was told to award 4 ribbons per category: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and honorable mention. That means a lot of great quilts didn’t get a ribbon. The next category I judged had 2 quilts in it. Think about that! A quilt in that category will get a ribbon, but non-ribbon winners in the other categories may be much more complex with better workmanship. Then they hang next to each other in the show and everyone scratches their head, wondering what the judges were thinking.

I must admit I do struggle with this as a judge. I looked at so many quilts last week that were visually delightful, and in which the maker did each aspect of the construction well, but there were other quilters in the category who had done a bit better. When this happens I try to make positive judges comments on the form and, if I don’t see anything that needs improvement, I leave that box blank. That in itself is a form of winning.

I still believe that everyone who enters a quilt in a show is a winner because others can enjoy their work!

Please know that judging quilt shows is the most difficult thing I do in my quilting life. I think most judges feel this way because we strive to base our decisions on the quilt’s merit and not on our own personal opinion. I don’t take the job lightly and I have to try not to agonize over my decisions afterwards, nor let them keep me awake that night.

I have a story to go with that thought. Years ago I judged a local show near West Bend, WI. I was the only judge and there were over 200 quilts. That was a long day. What made it even more of a challenge was that Carol Butzke, a certified judge, amazing quilter, and dear friend, was in that guild. She was a quilt holder that day ~ and I was judging the show with her watching!!! She was very gracious, but I must admit it was a bit intimidating. Well, after lunch a person from their local newspaper came in to take photos and write up a story. Carol sent me a copy for my scrapbook.

At 7am the Tuesday after the show my phone rang and a quilter woke me up to ask me why she didn’t get a ribbon. There’s definitely pressure when judging! Yet I love to see the quilts and if I didn’t really enjoy it ~ I wouldn’t do it 😊.

Here’s another perspective. Each judge, no matter how hard they try to make the best choice, has their own opinions on fabric, color, workmanship, etc. I have had numerous quilts win a first place ribbon in one show and win nothing in the next. I remember one time when I’d entered the State Fair with a quilt I’d made for a “Wisconsin Sesquicentennial” challenge in my guild. I went to watch the judging and I was thrilled when my quilt received a 2nd place ribbon. When the Fair started, a few weeks later, there was a much bigger ribbon hanging from my quilt. A team from Wisconsin Quilters, Inc (our State guild that sadly doesn’t exist any longer) went through the show and selected quilts for their own Best of Show ribbons in four categories … and mine won for best wall quilt! That is a very cherished ribbon indeed!

You even see this happening at the bigger shows. A number of times, when I’ve been at the AQS show in Paducah, I’ve come across quilts without ribbons that I’d seen featured in their magazine a few months earlier because they’d won a ribbon in a previous AQS show.

Some shows have tried to overcome this problem by allowing the judges to assign points based on a grading scale and the point values are set for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. In this way many ribbons can be awarded in each category. This is a totally different mindset for the judges, and it has its advantages. Yet it’s not for every show, because more ribbons and prize money is needed to cover all the extra winners.

I hope this gives you a bit of a new perspective concerning the title question in this post. Here’s a little more food for thought:

At smaller quilt shows and fairs there is no jurying process prior to the judging. This means that every quilt that is entered gets in, up to the maximum number accepted. This provides great variety in the overall show, and it’s fun to see.

When a person enters a quilt in a National level quilt show, (AQS, IQA and even the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show are all examples) photos must be submitted ahead of time and only those deemed “the best” are accepted into the show for judging. Right from the start the competition is going to be a lot tougher – and oodles of wonderful quilts don’t get ribbons. Often at these shows the comment overheard is “I’m overwhelmed because I could never make any of these quilts, I wish they had some normal quilts in this show”. I kid you not, I’ve heard those exact words many times. You can’t please everyone.

My advice? Don’t make quilts for the sole purpose of winning a ribbon. Make quilts for the joy they bring. Keep on quilting, enter your quilts in shows if that’s something you like to do, and then go and enjoy the show. If you’re not a competitive person ~ go to the shows and ENJOY! At every show I attend I see something that intrigues me and often it gets incorporated in a future quilt. This is a wonderful way to grow in our passion, and improve!

Thanks to all of you who put on quilt shows for us to enjoy. It’s a lot of hard work; a labor of love. And I for one appreciate you all!

PS When the judging was just about finished at last week’s Crazy Quilters show, each of the four judges was invited to choose their personal favorite quilt in the show ~ from those that didn’t have a ribbon already hanging on it. That’s when I chose Mary’s quilt. Please don’t miss the beautiful hand made ribbon topper:

I love that they have us choose from the vast group of un-ribboned quilts. And I’d like to encourage you to do the same the next time you’re at a quilt show. Pick your own viewers choice from the un-ribboned quilts, ask your friends to do the same, then compare notes. It adds some extra fun to the event!

I created the image at the top of this post in Photoshop™ with a free vector (or clipart) of a pirate ship which I downloaded from: https://vectorportal.com/. You’ll see why I’m sharing this information here as you read on 😁.

A while back I was scrolling through Facebook (I’m a looker, but seldom a participant) and was shocked to see this post shared by a friend of mine:

That’s my quilt!!! No really!!! It’s laying over my deck railing! How’d my photo get into this FaceBook ad???

I clicked on the link (which you won’t be able to do in the photo above, since it’s just a screen shot I took with my phone) and searched for “Scrappy Irish Chain”. I discovered that my quilt photograph is not on the site, and someone (I have no idea who – and the Quilt For You site probably doesn’t know either) just used my photo to link to a site with a free Irish Chain pattern. So how did my quilt get in that FaceBook post?

I knew I’d posted about my Irish chain quilt previously, so I had originally uploaded it to my blog. It’s a quilt I designed for the friendship exchange on our tour of Ireland in 2010 (the year I began blogging 😊). This is a photograph of some of our travelers and their quilts from that trip:

A photo of this quilt was originally in a post about autograph quilts from 2012, and you can read all about it by clicking here.

Two years later I used the actual photograph of the quilt over the railing to advertise a class I later taught at WCTC. You can click here for the post in which that photo first appeared, but please be aware ~ those classes were available in 2012 and there are no longer any quilting classes at WCTC 😔.

I do try to be careful to get permission and give credit when I share an image from the internet because it’s the right thing to do. When an image is taken without permission it’s called pirating ~ and now you know why the pirate ship is in the image at the top of this post.

Seeing a photograph of my quilt being used without my permission, made me a little sad. But it really caused me no harm and I learned a valuable lesson – don’t share what isn’t yours without permission ~ and always give credit where credit is due 😁! I’m grateful that God can use things like this to teach me life lessons. I also find that I have lots more to learn 🤣.

I think we can all learn from this! Please be mindful of the rights of others when sharing things on the web and also when sharing quilt patterns.

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And a quick note about a quilt show happening in Wisconsin today (Sunday) in Mukwonago. The Crazy Quilters are holding their show until 4pm on March 27 (short notice – sorry). All the info can be found on their site: https://www.mukwonagocrazyquilters.com/annual-show/

I had the great privilege of being one of the show judges on Friday. I was blown away by all the many amazing quilts. The vendors were set up and looked great also. There’s even an exhibit of ThreadBenders quilts made by the fiber art group I belong to. Here’s just a sample of our exhibit:

As a judge I was given the privilege of putting a judge’s choice ribbon on a quilt at the end of the judging and I chose Hombre Blooms by Mary Raddatz.

There were so many wonderful quilts that I had a difficult time choosing. In the end my passion for gradation fabrics and geometric design led me to Mary’s quilt. I’m not sure if Mary and I have met, and I’d love to hear the story behind the quilt, so if you have any information about it please comment to this post 😊.

I didn’t make it back on Saturday to take any photos of the event to share, but I’m sure it was great!

You may remember my dear friend Olivia and the joy I had as I began to teach her how to quilt ~ way back in December. Olivia and her family are missionaries in Estonia and they were here on furlough. They had plans to visit family in California over Christmas and we had to take a break from her lessons. When Olivia and her family returned to Wisconsin in the end of January, she was very excited to get back to quilting (click here to read part 1 of this story). She had completed all of her blocks before she left for California and in her first class in 2022 she sewed them together,

and added the border. Her enthusiasm is contagious ~ and her quilt top is lovely. She’s decided to back her quilt with fleece.

So her assignment was to make a trip back to the fabric store and choose something that would match her quilt top, since she was planning to turn the back to the front in place of a binding.

That was the plan, but when Olivia arrived with her backing fleece we discovered something weird – the width of the fabric, right off the bolt, was not a consistent 60″.

I’ve never seen this before. The width is 60″ at the top of the photo above, but it shrinks towards the bottom to 56″ ~ and it isn’t wide enough to bring it forward as a binding. So Olivia got to learn how to bind a quilt the traditional way 😊. Have you ever had such a drastic width variance with fleece?

Back to Olivia ~ she pinned the layers together and chose to quilt with a serpentine stitch over all the seams. She spent over an hour quilting and once again she didn’t want to stop when her mom came to pick her up (I really love this girl!)

Due to our conflicting schedules we couldn’t get together again for over 2 weeks. So when we did we knew it would be our last time because Olivia and her family were heading back to Estonia soon 😔. We made the most of it starting with a quick time for cookies and catching up. I asked her about her love for creating art and she showed me photos of some of her work which she had on her phone. She especially loves doing portraits and abstracts. I couldn’t resist sharing a few of her favorite pieces here.

I know both her grandmother and Talya and she captured them beautifully. She is a young women of many talents – and she gives God the glory for all of them!

Back to binding. Olivia sewed it to the quilt, turned it to the back, and machine stitched it in place with her favorite Serpentine stitch.

All before her mom came to take her home. The quilt was done in time for a grand finale photo!

I’m going to miss my dear friend and all the fun stitching and conversations we shared. Rumor has it she will be coming back to Wisconsin to go to school at Maranatha Baptist University here in Watertown. What a joy to have her near. Until then I’m praying God will keep Olivia and her family safe in Estonia, and use them to further the Gospel there.

My bug quilt came together nicely. I finished it with a facing and hung it on my design wall with 5 ladybugs in place. Was it done? I’d made 20 small ladybugs in anticipation of placing them on the quilt. Making them was like eating potato chips, I couldn’t stop myself. Should they infest my quilt? I’d hate to waste them, they’re so cute.

Because of the tippy-ness caused by the shanks on the buttons, I couldn’t get a good visual by just laying them out. I asked for a critique from my friends in the ThreadBenders group and got a number of good suggestions. The best was from Lori who recommended I cut circles from red paper and audition some layouts.

Here it is with just the five larger ladybugs attached:

And here are 3 more options using the paper circles for the ladybugs. #1:

#2:

and #3:

I laid out one using 15 of the little ladies and I thought the quilt looked like it had the measles, so I knew 20 would be way too many.

I took it to my quilt retreat and got a lot of opinions there, along with this crazy photo:

taken by my crazy friends:

I wish I could have waited for all of your input, but it needed to be finished before this post would reach you. I was grateful for everyone’s opinions and, in the end, I got to make the final decision. So what did I decide?

I decided five was enough. I was sad about leaving the smaller ladybugs off. They’ll have to wait for a future project.

I could use your help with one last decision. Coming up with a name is driving me buggy. What should I name it?

Bug Bouquet

Insect~themum (like chrysanthemum)

Blooming Bugs

Bugs in Bloom

Call the Exterminator (that was Mike’s 😊)

I’m open to your suggestions. Please vote for one of the above, or send original titles to me as a comment to this post.

As I continued to work on my “Driven Buggy” quilt, I was excited to use Cathy’s button press to add more bugs, and ladybugs seemed like the obvious choice. I thought about thread painting the bugs onto fabric before making them into buttons, but the buttons were so small. While pondering this I realized I just wanted to make buttons. So I covered a bunch in red fabric, in two different sizes,

and drew the bug’s features with a Sharpie™ marker and white paint. Now that was fun!

I knew where I wanted to place the five larger ladybugs. But these buttons had a shank on them (bottom right in the following photo),

and I didn’t like the way the the shank caused the button to “flop” around on the quilt. In the next photo the ladybug on the right is not sitting flat because of the shank, while the other ones were put on in a rather unorthodox way that I think looked much better.

Here’s what I did to make them lay flat: I determined the center of the spot where I wanted to place the bug and marked it with a pin. I needed to determine the angle of the shank (because I wasn’t consistent when I drew the bugs on the buttons), and I angled the pin in the direction of the shank in preparation for the next step.

Are you ready for the “crazy” part? I placed the tip of my scissors on the center mark on the quilt top, at the angle of the shank, and pushed a small slit through the entire quilt.

Did that make you cringe??? Me too!!! But it worked. I was able to push the shank of the button through the slit

and stitch it securely to the back.

My ladybugs all perched tightly on the quilt and I was very pleased with the results.

I began to place the smaller ladybugs on the quilt and had quite a dilemma deciding where to put them, or if I should use them at all. I think I’ll save that part of the story for next week’s post, and continue this week’s with another covered button story.

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My friend Laurie has taken my classes for years and is a regular follower of my blog. When I posted about the button press, I was delighted to receive this email from her:

“This family picture is from 1972. 

“I  sewed the polyester lime-green outfit I’m wearing and I covered my own buttons.  It also has wide legged pants!“

I was a stay at home Mom at the time with 3 young daughters and our extra money was sparse. So I made my own clothes often, as well as the 3 purple outfits our daughters are wearing in the picture. You will notice that the same purple flower fabric is in each of their outfits. I would buy remnants and work with them so I had enough for all our girls outfits to save money.  People would give me their old big clothes and i would cut them up to make clothes for the girls. Just like Maria in The Sound of Music! Lol!
 They often had matching outfits during those years. I even made my husband, Dave, 3 leisure suits. That is Not one of them that he’s wearing in the picture.

Well, low and behold on a fluke, after I got out of the hospital from Covid in Sept. 2021, one of my daughters went in the basement and found that old outfit from 49 years ago! What a surprise! So I had to fill your request for anyone dealing with covered buttons. I didn’t have a tool like you saw to do them at the time, but my buttons covered well with a Woolworth’s commercial button covering kit!
That outfit is Almost an antique now, But Of course, it doesn’t fit anymore!  that polyester withstood the test of time because it never dies!  We all laughed about this outfit.  I still have it and can’t seem to part with it, yet!

I responded to Laurie’s email commenting that I didn’t know she was such a talented garment seamstress, and asking if I could share her story in a blog post. This was her response:

“Yes, God has given me a talent. I started hand sewing my doll clothes when I was 8 years old without patterns  and then my Mom had me helping her make curtains and do  upholstery. As I got older I followed patterns. 
I am humbled that you want to share my story and pictures. Yes, you can share my story in a future blog. Maybe it’ll bring others to share their stories how God has worked in their lives. He always provides!” 

Thanks Laurie for the story and the pictures!

You may remember a post I did last year about cutting out blue moths with my Scan and Cut™ (click here for that post). I finally put them to use. The ThreadBenders group’s latest challenge is entitled Driven Buggy. Fifty percent of the 36″ square quilt must be covered with a bug, a portion of a bug, or a bunch of bugs. I opted for the latter.

I made a bevy of bugs using fusing and fabric painting. I decided to back them with black wool felt and stitched details into each one before putting it on the quilt in a 3D fashion. To do this I fused them all to a single piece of wool felt and began to stitch.

I added stitching to each one, securing them to the felt well:

Then I cut them out close to the edge.

Next I quilted the background in a large “leafy” design, and started stitching my felt-backed bugs in place in a medallion style bursting out from the center millipede:

Once they were all in position, it was time to embroider legs and antennae.

Then I let myself play with Cathy’s button maker ~ it was time for ladybugs to descend on the quilt ~ but that will have to wait until next week’s post!

Last March I posted about my love for hand-dyed bamboo socks (click here for that post). This post is about a crazy idea I had for socks that get holes too large to mend. Sadly many of my colorful socks have been wearing out this year. Each time a pair reaches that stage I just can’t bear to throw the whole thing in the ragbag, so I cut off the tops. I have quite a collection. Here are just a few.

I asked my friends what to do with them, and did a bit of web searching too, but nothing grabbed me (I’m really not into fingerless gloves).

Recently Mike said that we needed some sort of draft stopper to keep the frigid west wind from blowing under the back door. Hmm…🤔

I decided to zig-zag a bunch of sock tops together.

Then I realized that batting wouldn’t have the weight I needed to keep it in place. Mike to the rescue! He filled a piece of an old garden hose with sand and capped the ends (with leftover caps he found in the shed ~ don’t you love using something you’ve hung on to but didn’t know why?)

The hose was wrapped in leftover batting, and the sock tube was carefully pulled on.

And it works!!!

Hot dog!! Or at least not cold dog when Koda lays in front of the door 🤣.

I may not always post about quilting per se, but this one did involve fiber, stitching, and problem solving. I hope my whacky ideas make you smile once in a while.

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This week I’d also like to share a concluding photo about a quilt I made a few months ago. Our Christmas family get-together was delayed a number of times for a variety of reasons, but I finally got to deliver the quilt I made last Fall to my great nephew Josiah Thomas. Here he is enjoying his new quilt with his parents, Brianne and Scott.

What a cutie! To read my previous post about making his quilt click here!

It is with great excitement that I make this announcement… my newest book is now in print!!!

For years I’d been contemplating making a quilt with blocks representing each of our Sew We Go adventures. The problem was – we kept having more adventures. Plus, I had other trips that I wanted to include.

Once a quilt is done ~ it’s pretty much done. Adding or removing something is not typically an option. Was there a more “fluid” way to make a memory quilt? I discovered the answer was yes, and Modular Memory Quilts was born. It’s not only for travel memories… there are oodles of options, but a travel quilt was my first project, and I found each step of the way was fun.

First, I needed to go through my photographs and distill each trip down into one memorable shot that portrayed the entire trip for me. That was one of the best parts. I so loved reliving each adventure. It wasn’t always easy to narrow it down to one, but with a little perseverance, I was pleased with the results.

Next I needed to determine which technique to use for each photograph. It turns out this book is not just a showcase of my quilts, it’s a journey into the problem solving and step-by-step techniques that will make each block a joy to create and view. I came up with an entire toolbox full of these techniques. Some blocks were pieced, like the flags from the six countries we visited on our Baltic Cruise:

I try to avoid photos with faces because they can be difficult to reproduce in fabric, but when the most memorable part of the trip is the people, photo transfer is an option. This block is of a trip to Florida we made with our two older grandkids and my parents in 2016 (note the Epcot Ball photobombing in the background).

Some photos just screamed to be Repliquéd, like this one of the Mississippi Queen riverboat. Repliqué is the technique from my first book, Repliqué Quilts ~ Picture Perfect Replicas in Machine Appliqué, which has been out of print for years. I recently received the rights to my book’s content and have included much of it in this new book ~ so it’s available in print again!

There are some blocks made with raw edged landscape techniques, such as the one of my son jumping off a waterfall in Maui.

And quite a few blocks were a combination of techniques, like this one with the photo transferred view of Budapest from the raw-edged Repliqué of the Fisherman’s Bastion.

I actually connect the blocks with a combination of simple notions and, when a “quilt” gets too big, it can be rearranged into multiple quilts. This works great for children/grandchildren quilts ~ more can be added as the family grows. And eventually each child can have their own quilt.

I’ve combined sample blocks from classes I’ve taken into a fun MMQ:

I hope you’re getting the idea. There are so many more possibilities even I haven’t thought of. To purchase your own copy of Modular Memory Quilts from my site please go to: https://www.chrisquilts.net/books/ .

I will be presenting a lecture about my new book at the Winter Quilt Show 2022 this coming Saturday, February 12th, at the Washington County Fairgrounds.

For all the information click here! Advance tickets are no longer available online or by phone, but tickets will be available all week at the museum in Cedarburg and at the door.

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And one more thing! My friend Connie let me know that Jinny Beyer is retiring. She has been an inspiration to me and I have used many of her fabrics in my quilts. Everything on her website is 40% off. Click here to check it out.