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That Tree!

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When I was noodling on ideas for the lampshade project in the Top Stitch competition, and doing a repliqué landscape entered my thoughts, a particular tree popped into my brain. I’ve used this tree image in 3 previous quilts and it continues to intrigue me. I wasn’t sure if anyone would recognize it this time, and I was pleased when my dear friend Barb commented to the lampshade post:

“I recognize that beautiful tree. I think that should be your signature tree. All in all I love the shade.
Hugs Barb“

Thanks Barb! (click here for that post)

I came up with the tree image while designing a quilt for an Autumn challenge. I’ve stitched mariners compasses into many different shapes over the years and I’m always looking for unique options (like umbrellas 😊). But could I make maple leaf compasses? And what should the background be? I was able to make the leaves and, while googling trees, I found an image of a hooked rug which ultimately inspired my tree (I tried to find the creator of this beautiful work, but it was one of those images someone had pinned with no credit given).

What resulted was “Which Way Does the Wind Blow?” (click here for a post about this quilt):

By the time this quilt made it into one of my blog posts, I’d already made a second “tree quilt”. This one was called Autumn Dusk, and I used a pointillism fabric to achieve the reflection of a sunset (click here for a post about this quilt):

A few years went by until another competition brought my tree back to mind. In 2018 the National Quilt Museum chose Oak Leaf and Reel as the traditional block quilters were asked to do something innovative with. There was no question that “that tree” needed to be front and center once again. I call it Oak Leaf and Swirl:

This quilt was a joy to make. I loved every minute of it! And it was accepted as one of 18 winning quilts in the competition. For those of you who have joined my blog recently, I actually did three posts about Oak Leaf and Swirl and you can link to them by clicking on link 1, link 2, and link 3:

Many years ago I remember saying that I’d never “work in series”, as that would be boring. Then I’d make a quilt that left me wanting to explore the technique or idea behind it more and… a series was born. When I made my first non-pictorial art quilt, Parallelisms,

I had no idea it was the beginning of something that would end up being a series of over 20 quilts. It also inspired a workshop I’ve taught many times, and a book – “Where Do I Start With Fiber Art” – praise the LORD!

I was wondering where my “signature tree” would appear next? And thinking perhaps a Spring quilt in Spring 😁?!? Well, last week I had a wonderful adventure ~ and “that tree” ended up being a part of it. Stay tuned for next week’s post to find out what happened!

Do you have a theme or image that continues to reappear in your quilting? Please let me know – and send photos!!!

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And one more thing! Mary commented on my vest in last week’s post, asking to see the back. Thanks for asking Mary!

Top Stitch – Day 3

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Before I get to today’s topic, I’d like to welcome all the quilters/sewists who have signed up for my blog after watching my “You Can Quilt as You Go” lecture at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show. Doing that lecture and the question and answer session afterwards was a wonderful experience and, you may not be aware of this, but all of the lectures from the show are available to watch on YouTube. You can find those links on their FaceBook page: https://www.facebook.com/WIQuiltShow/.

And now ~ on with today’s topic! In my past 3 posts I shared the idea behind the Top Stitch competition I was a part of, and a recap of the first 2 days. Click on these links to view those previous posts: Introducing Top Stitch, Day 1 and Day 2.

Here’s the scoop on our final day of this exciting event!

By now we were quite comfortable choosing fabrics at the Bungalow ~ and today’s project was a quilted vest. I caught Jill deciding on her pallette for the day.

Then I hurried to the back room to grab the colorful bolts I was captivated by way back on the day Mike and I visited Judy’s shop. Mine was going to be an artsy vest (surprise, surprise!)

I was grateful to have had a direction in my mind for this project and brought along a pile of yarns and threads for embellishing.

My plan was to create a bunch of long, wobbly “quilts” in all the bright colors. They’re each made from backing, batting and front fabric, envelope style, and then quilted with a line of couched yarn down the center. These pieces are then overlapped and top stitched along the edges. The “Top Stitch”ing connects them to each other in a layout that fits the pattern we were given. Here is the pattern with some of the completed strips laid in place.

I have a background in garment sewing, but I threw most of that knowledge out the window as I made a piece of wearable art that broke many of those rules.

At this point I took a little break to see what my long time friend Jill was doing.

Jill Repp is one of the most talented and driven business women I know. She is the Vice President of sales and marketing for June Tailor, Inc. That’s a great title, but it doesn’t begin to cover all she does for this amazing company based in Richfield, WI. Jill is also in charge of product development and holds 15 US and International patents for the creative tools she has invented.

Over 20 years ago I was introduced to Jill when June Tailor was looking for someone to demonstrate their products at Nancy’s Notions Sewing Expo. I love their products and was thrilled to work with Jill. Over the years we traveled together to Quilt Market and other shows. I learned so much about a completely different side of the quilting world in my association with Jill. I also did a bit of product development for June Tailor and a number of their products are my design. We’ve had a great relationship over the years, but I never actually saw her sew and create. Top Stitch gave me that opportunity and I discovered she is also fun to create with! I love June Tailor products and am so grateful to have had a relationship with Jill all these years.

Sew, as I continued to quilt and embellish the strips, my workspace got a bit disheveled. At one point I looked down to see that Quiltina had been neglected. I actually think she was enjoying being part of the hubbub!

I pulled her out of the pile and continued sewing, and I’m pleased to announce that I actually finished on time! The vests were each unique (again), and reflected the personality of the maker. Today the judges announced a 4 way tie 😊.

I was very pleased that my crazy garment idea worked ~ and I look forward to wearing it to future quilting events!

When all the points were finally tallied the scores were very close. Deanna and Jill tied for first place, while Mary and I tied for second. We all agreed that Top Stitch was a huge success and the real winners are the quilters/sewists who will enjoy watching our crazy creative process and learning about the techniques we used when Top Stitch is made available online. I will let you know as soon as it’s available through C&T Publishing.

As promised I want to share the websites of all of my Top Stitch friends.

Judy Gauthier’s site is https://www.bungalowquilting.com/. Her patterns and frames for the umbrella and lamp projects are available there, along with a lot of fabric!

Mary Hertel’s site is https://madebymarney.com/. Be sure to scroll down and see the back of her vest. Delightful! (and yes, I think she did win Miss Congeniality – scroll farther for that pic)!

Deanna Springer’s Stitch It Sisters can be found on their FaceBook page: https://www.facebook.com/stitchitsisters/ and on their blog: https://nancyzieman.com/blog/stitch-it-sisters/

Jill Repp’s site for June Tailor, Inc is https://www.junetailor.com/. They have oodles of innovative products to drool over.

Thanks for joining me on my Top Stitch adventure. It was a blast, and I am so grateful to have been a part of it. And to have 3 lovely momentos to use/wear, and enjoy!

Top Stitch – Day 2

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Quiltina and I are ready for our second day of Top Stitch ~ Hanging Lampshades!

We started once again at Bungalow Quilts to choose our palette. Then we took the bolts back to the college and jumped right in. I decided to use my Repliqué technique and make my lampshade a winter scene (in contrast to the 86 degrees outside the door), so my fabrics were much more subdued today (note the metal frame rings at the bottom of the image. Judy has these specially made by a man in Arizona for her fun and funky lampshade pattern):

I’d drafted my scene at home and reversed it in preparation for Repliqué:

Once again, in my mind, this was going to be a quick project. And once again, I found I sew much slower than I think I do. The process wasn’t difficult, but there was a lot of stitching, trimming, and tearing away of paper.

and by 4:30 I was nowhere near done.

Instead of dwelling on that here – let me introduce you to my dear friend Deanna.

Deanna Springer was Nancy Zieman’s right hand woman, and now continues Nancy’s legacy as one of the Stitch It Sisters! Deanna and her sisters, Dana and Denise, are part of the Nancy Zieman Production team – and this is what they do:

“Nancy Zieman Productions (Team NZP) is honored to carry on Nancy’s legacy and love of sewing and quilting through sharing Nancy’s time-saving sewing techniques at the Nancy Zieman Productions Blog, developing sewing notions for Clover Needlecraft, Inc., fashion garment patterns for The McCall Pattern Company, fabric collections for Riley Blake Designs, creating quilt patterns for QuiltWoman, and co-managing The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show with PBS Wisconsin.”

Deanna told me Nancy treated her like a little sister and taught her so much. During Top Stitch she often spoke about different techniques she learned from Nancy, but she is definitely a creative talent in her own right. I’ve worked with Deanna at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show every year (the show is next week!!! click here for the show’s site and to sign up for my lecture 😊).

Top Stitch gave me the wonderful opportunity to get to know her better, and what a blessing that was! We had many giggles together over the 3 day event.

This day, when the judges arrived, Mary and Jill were ready for them while Deanna and I were still stitching away. Judy was joined by Professor Rafael Salas. He has a Masters in Fine Arts and teaches at the college. Cindy Joyce is a former sewing teacher at Fox Valley Tech. Each day we would share the story of our creation with them before they deliberated. Afterwards they would give us each a helpful critique and announce that day’s points. Is was a great learning experience. 

In the image below I finally just pinned what I had into the frame, even though it wasn’t where I wanted it to be, (what a blessing we weren’t downgraded for not finishing in the amount of time allotted)

and joined the others to help Deanna “get ‘er done”. What a great group of ladies! We were all cheering for each other!

And here we all are with our lamps!

Mary’s paper pieced design was made to match a quilt in her bedroom. Jill’s was also made to match the decor in a room in her home. Isn’t sewing great?!? We love to do it and we create useful objects! Deanna chose a layer cake of Tula Pink™ fabrics to make her pieced design, and mine was made to hang in our log home 😊.

Since returning home I did finish my lamp and was finally happy with it. I’d planned to do the entire piece with raw-edged repliqué, but the fabric I chose for the deer frayed quite a bit, so my first order of business after unpacking was to unpin the shade from the frame and satin stitch over those raw edges.

Then I figured out a way to put it back into the frame and have the moon look like it extended off the top edge. I was pleased with the result and again… I learned a lot!

I think the tulle shadows were very effective, and one of my favorite parts of the design.

I lost points on my score for day 2 because of a number of things (don’t we always know our own problem areas?), and deservedly so. But there was one comment the judges made that I have to share. I used an ombré/gradation fabric for the sky and placed it so the light area was at the top, near the moon. The judges commented that the lighter portion should have been along the horizon. You probably knew that, but I drove back to the lake house debating this in my mind. The moon was the light source in my design and the lighter area should be near it ~ right?

Once “home” I googled images of “a full moon on snow”, and the judges were right! Then it hit me. The moon only reflects light, so it wouldn’t brighten up anything behind it! There’s so much to learn in this world. I’ll do it right on the next lamp ~ but I’m not going to change this one 😁.

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And one last comment. I’ve written two books on Repliqué, and both are out of print (although I still have “Snuggle and Learn Quilts for Kids” available on my website, in case you’re interested in adding words to your quilts). If you’d like to learn to repliqué photos or drawings you may be excited to know that I’m in the editing stage of my fifth book and all the instructions for my original technique are there, plus step-by-step instructions for adding tulle shadows, and a whole lot more:

Please stay tuned for the grand appearing of book #5!

Top Stitch Competition – Day 1

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After setting up our machines at Ripon College we began the first day of Top Stitch at Bungalow Quilts. Judy’s bungalow is filled with fabric, projects and inspiration!

Samples of her umbrellas and lampshades hang around while bolts full of colorful possibilities are everywhere!

Selections were made and the Top Stitchers couldn’t wait to get to our machines and begin day 1 of the competition.

As these posts continue I’ll introduce you to each of my teammates, one per weekly post. I hope you’ll forgive me, but I’m not going to link you to the sites of these wonderful, talented women until my last Top Stitch post, as they’ve already posted some of the upcoming photos and I’m hoping to keep them a surprise until the end of each week 😃.

This week I’d like you to meet Mary Hertel of Oshkosh. In the following photo Judy is filming a mini-class on how Mary made her hummingbirds and added them to her umbrella panels. Mary is the owner of Made by Marney, a delightful paper piecing pattern business. She is a very creative free-spirit, with loads of talent, and I’m so pleased to call her my friend.

Here’s some insight into Mary from her own blog:

“I’ve had a super creative drive all of my life.  My designs are fueled by my past.  Growing up in a rural farm community gave me a love for nature and animals, as you will see from my designs.  My great love for children’s artwork is also evident in my wonky animals…which no doubt comes from teaching children’s art for thirty-five years.  My motto:  “A Day Can’t Go By Without Creating Something…”

Mary is also very generous and was a real blessing to me as day one was waning. I had decided to add a little zip when drafting the pattern for my compass umbrella by adding a star in it’s center.

I’m very glad I did, but that extra piecing step added quite a bit of time onto the paper piecing process. I discovered I sew much faster in my mind than in real life and… by the time the judges arrived at 4:30 I wasn’t done. Mary offered to sew the lining panels together for me so that I was able to put the top together and pin it into the frame just in time. Thanks so much Mary!

Judy was ready with her video camera (ie. phone) at a moments notice every day. She wanted to record as many tip and technique demos as she could for the Top Stitch video that will be available on C & T Publishing’s Creative Spark in the future (more info to come).

There were moments towards the end where I felt a bit like I was sewing in a “sweat shop” (ha!ha!), because the pressure was on!

All of us “Sewlebrities” are teachers and own our own businesses, so the lunches were a whirl of conversations about marketing, social media, etc. I learned so much!

Judy was one of a panel of three judges and they deliberated quite a while. In the end our scores were very close. The umbrellas were each beautiful, and very different from one another. Our personalities and skills shown through. Mary’s paper piecing was her delightful focus. Jill is second from the right. She has a great eye for coordinating fabrics . She leans towards clean lines and classic designs. It’s hard to see from the photo, but Deanna’s red umbrella has a sheer outer layer with silver bling trapped between the layers. When she moved it “rain” shimmered within her panels.

We were all pleased – and exhausted. After our success with day one we headed home thinking about the next day’s project – hanging lampshades!

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I hated not actually finishing my project, but Judy’s pattern was great and I had it all sewn into the frame shortly after returning home from Top Stitch. I was pleased with the way the mariner’s compass pattern fit into the umbrella shape, and pleasantly surprised that the points all fell where I wanted them to (it was a unique pattern to draft!).

It’s sewn onto the frame now and just needs a coating of waterproofing, according to the pattern, to make it truly functional.

When I showed it to Mike he said he thought actually using it in the rain might soil it, and instead we should display it in the house as a work of art. What do you think?

A Sewing/Quilting Adventure

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Top Stitch? What’s that all about?

I can’t wait to tell you!

A while back I received an exciting email asking if I wanted to participate in a sewing/quilting competition on the order of the Great British Bake Off. Judy said she was in the beginning stages of putting this project together and that it would probably evolve. I enthusiastically said YES!

I’ve taught Open Lab classes for a few decades now. In those classes students bring in their projects and ideas they need help with, and I guide them as they problem solve. Sometimes they want to fix something that’s gone wrong, or find a simpler way, or even design a project from an idea in their head. I love this type of puzzling problem solving, and it felt as if these classes were preparing me for this competition. It didn’t matter what happened – I wanted to be a part of it! As time went on the plan took shape:

  • Instead of making it an elimination competition, it was decided there would be judges giving points each day. This way all participants could be a part of the entire event.
  • Since all the participants were also teachers, the focus was placed on education – not “winning”.
  • Four “sewlebrities” were invited, and the time frame was changed from 5 days to 3 (Praise the LORD – 3 days was exhausting enough!)
  • A project was chosen for each day that hopefully could be made in the allotted time.
  • The participants were given the patterns for the projects ahead of time so we could do a bit of planning. Also, not finishing completely did not result in points taken away – hooray!

Sew – who came up with this brainstorm? Judy Gauthier is the owner of Bungalow Quilts in Ripon Wisconsin.

She is also a quilter’s version of the Everready bunny, a well-spring of creativity, and the author of four books. Her books have been published through C & T Publishing and she is a part of their Creative Spark online educational platform. Here’s the description of Top Stitch in her own words from her blog:

“Top Stitch is a competitive program that incorporates TONS of learning. I will be selecting superstars that can teach you lots of fun and interesting techniques amidst a competition show.

We are filming in Wisconsin first. Of course. We will be moving on to other states with other challenges. The winners will meet at Quilt Market and film the final episode or episodes, as we see fit.

We began our first day at Ripon College. It was me and a whole bunch of “sewlebrities” from Wisconsin. We met for a creative challenge. We will meet for a total of 3 days. In these 3 days we will be making an umbrella, a hanging lampshade and a vest. These sewlebrities are making these projects according to a pattern, but making them their own. They will individualize them however they wish.

As they are performing these tasks, they will be instructing. They will be sharing tips and techniques for sewing, and there’s where the education comes in.”

The plan was to meet at Bungalow Quilts this past Monday morning and choose our fabrics, then head over to Ripon college and begin to sew our umbrellas – finishing around 5!!!

The week before the competition a case of nerves set in. I live an hour and 20 minutes away and I had no idea what the fabric selection would be like. So Mike, Koda and I took a ride up to Ripon. Koda got to meet Judy’s new puppy Duncan, and a good time was had by all.

I loved the fabric selection in the shop and appreciated being able to scope out the perfect choices for all three projects. I spotted a rainbow print called Effervescence by Robert Kaufman that inspired me for the first. The colors were exciting, and I came up with the idea of combining it with a white background to make the umbrella from just two fabrics:

When I got home I began making up my pattern. My plan??? The umbrella pattern had 8 wedges – perfect for a mariners compass! In the past I’ve drafted them into circles, diamonds, triangles, hearts and even maple leaves using my paper folding techniques, but I’d never done an umbrella. Would it work? Well first I needed to get a visual. Using Photoshop I dropped the colors from the fabric into an umbrella shape on my computer and tried a number of placements.

Which one do you like? I’m keeping my choice to myself until next week’s post. Next I drafted the wedges using Judy’s pattern.

The paper piecing pattern pieces were fun to draft and I had it all ready for my trip north the day before the contest began.

While we were visiting the shop Mike was concerned that making the drive back and forth every day for three days, while being mentally and physically tired, could be a bit stressful. So I asked Judy if she’d recommend a motel nearby. Instead she offered to have me stay at her lake home. I of course said yes. What a blessing!

I had this lovely “cabin” all to myself!

It was charming and comfortable – and filled with quilts!

I was close to the action – and the view was spectacular.

Waking up to this the first morning was a joy. And very inspiring.

This adventure was so much fun that I couldn’t contain it all in one post. Next week: Day 1 – Umbrellas!

Aprons 2

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As predicted, last week’s apron post was a popular one, even with the linking error in a number of the emails I sent out. If you read my blog early last Sunday, you may have been confused by being prematurely directed to a post about “Marker Dyeing” and not to the Aprons post. Please click here to read the Aprons post if you missed it (or if you’d like to read the comments 😊).

I enjoyed reading all of the comments and suggestions last week. Shellie asked about Sommer’s apron, and I’m not sure what I did with the pattern, but I did find a simple tutorial for a similar apron on a site called Patchwork Posse. Click here for the instructions.

This past week Sommer and Trey helped me make an apple pie while wearing their aprons (it was Sommer’s idea to put them on 😁).

They’ve grown up just a little since I first made the aprons.

Lorraine sent this message with photos:

“A friend showed me how to make a child’s apron using a kitchen hand towel. I decided to make one for each of  my great-grand nieces. Since I am known for my button collection I made sure that each apron was decorated with buttons. From the looks on their faces, I think the girls liked their aprons!”

And here are Reaghan and Avery wearing their aprons!

Adorable!!! Thanks Lorraine!

Then Eileen texted me with her comment and a pic of the lovely apron she made in Open Lab:

“Read your great blog today on aprons!  Have fond memories of my mom’s and grandmother’s aprons, but unfortunately don’t have any of those and don’t know what ever happened to them. There is something special to me too about aprons…maybe it’s the working in the kitchen together with people we love that elicits the fond feelings. In any event, I did make this apron (photo attached) for my sister’s birthday in April 2018. You helped me with some pattern details with it in Open Lab Quilt Class at WCTC, so you had a hand in its construction too!” 

I remember this apron. It’s so pretty! I’m sure Geneen loved it! Thanks Eileen!

My friend Julie sent me an email about an apron she made:

“Here is my granddaughter Ava with her apron. She loves baking with Grandma Julie.”

It seems baking is a wonderful connection for many grandmas and grandkids! Thanks Julie!

The next email I received was a blast from the past. Laurie’s note brought back some wonderful memories:

“Hello, Chris.  
You visited our West Alabama Quilters Guild in Tuscaloosa in 2011 for a fun weekend workshop and we appreciated you coming all that way.  Here is a snapshot of you and me together as well as one of you with guild members looking on as you demonstrate a technique! 


In 2010 we had put on our local quilt show with “Celebrations” as the theme.  Many of us made and wore our quilted aprons during that show.  It was great fun to make the aprons and more fun to show them off!  Here is a set of photos from that show.

Some of those aproned ladies appear at the top of this post and here’s another one of the fun photos Laurie sent:

What a great idea for quilt show workers! These ladies “do” aprons well!

Laurie continued with a true confession about her apron addiction. It made me smile:


I have gone radical, as my husband says, because I wear one of my many quilted aprons while I do errands in public as the pockets are more convenient than carrying a purse.  I now tend to build my outfits around a good quilted apron – for social events, too!  Aprons are so comfortable and easy to add a splash of color to my outfit. I like this “tabard” style.  I first saw this style in a quilting magazine – In the September 2013 issue of American Quilter magazine – Suzy’s laminated New York Apron

After seeing these photos of her beautiful aprons, I can see why she builds outfits around them:

Thanks so much Laurie. I absolutely remember you – and the wonderful time I had with your guild!

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I can’t resist sharing just one more photo that arrived in my inbox this week, even though it’s not about aprons. I did an online Mariner’s Compass Workshop for the East Iowa Area Quilters a few months ago. Here’s Cindy’s email:

“Hi Chris
I finally finished my 1st Mariners compass!  I love it. Shorter spikes turned out great I think.  Thank you again for the class.  You were very good at making every aspect of the process very clear. I really enjoyed the whole process and keep thinking what if I do this or that.  I know I will do more.
Sew Happy, CIndy”

The overall octagon shape really shows off the varied spike lengths. Great job Cindy! It sounds like you’re hooked on compasses just like me 😊.

Aprons, Quilts & Surprise Parties

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Early last year I did 2 posts about hankies and was overwhelmed with the response. To read those posts click here and then click here). Hankies certainly touch a cord in our hearts.

At the time I thought it would be fun to do an apron post too, since they are both a part of family history for most of us. I began compiling ideas for that post and only recently realized that it never made it as a “topic of the week”. Oh well – better late than never 😊!

I decided to begin this post with the story of an event that took place quite a few years ago. We planned a surprise birthday party for my mom and I thought she would enjoy a display of our family aprons. So I hung them on a clothes line along our loft. I attached tags with the name of the owner to each one.

The apron second from the left in the above photo was made for my mom by her mum when she was married.

The white apron with turquoise trim hanging where the railing begins its descent in the photo below was made by my mom’s mother, my grandma Irma. Mom told me that her mom made many of her own aprons and as I was hanging this one I discovered that it was never worn. In fact, one of the ties was never finished – and my grandma Irma’s needle and thread are still attached to the apron, mid-seam! What a delight to know that my grandmother held that same needle!

The story of this pink and blue one was so special I actually typed it up for the party. It says “Made from hankies by Ginny when she was in 8th grade for her Mom”.

Don’t you love the variety of color and style in just these few aprons? I still wear some of them, but most of the time I don’t take the time. In our era of casual clothes that are easy to wash – I think I’m just too hurried or lazy.

But in recent times aprons have become popular once again. I even made one for my granddaughter Sommer (click here to read that post).

My friend Juleen sent me this photo of a quilt she made for a friend from aprons that represented the months of the year.

Here’s her email:

“I had to do lots of math to make this come out correctly.  If there was a pocket on the apron, I made sure it was included in the block.  You’ll never know how many times I picked up those aprons and put them down before I could figure out what to do.  Karen’s aunt—the gift giver—embroidered the month on each of the waistbands so I made sure to include that in the block.  There were only 2 that didn’t have a month so I embroidered them myself.  The January apron was the worst.  It was made of taffeta with satin ribbon as the waistband with a layer of netting over the taffeta.  The netting was full of glitter pieces so I removed them and then put them back when the quilt was quilted.  That block gave me the most problems until I finally backed the taffeta so it would be more firm.  Once that block was done, I had no problems with the other 11.  Karen and her mom were pleased with the result so I was happy too.”

Thanks for the pic and the story Juleen. I’m sorry it took so long for me to share it 😊.

I’ve seen many hankie quilts, but not many made from aprons. Have you made an apron quilt? Have you made an apron from a new pattern for yourself or someone else?

And now for the rest of the story...

Prior to the party I’d been thinking that my mom would enjoy a big surprise party for her 75th birthday (She’s actually 87 now, so that was a while ago). Mike, Dad, and my brother and his wife, were on board with the idea, so I made up some fun invitations with the heading “Sakes alive Ginny’s 75!”

Well, a few days later mom’s best friend called me with her own little poem. When I answered the phone she said “You’re in a fix, she’s 76! Yikes! It was too late to change everything, and I will never live it down. But you can imagine how surprised she truly was when the garage door went up and everyone yelled surprise on her 76th birthday 😁.

She loved the hanging aprons – and the entire party!

So… do you have an apron story you’d like to share? Please comment, or send photos to me at .

Creating a Lecture for the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show

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I’ve taught for the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show every year since it began (including when it was called the Madison Quilt Expo), and in 2019 both of my lectures sold out. I hate to admit it but that hadn’t happened for years – and it was quite exciting. I was accepted to present that same lecture again in 2020 – and we all know what happened to the Madison show last year.

For 2021 the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show has decided to go virtual once again. I was invited to send in a proposal to create a virtual lecture with PBS, to be offered during this year’s show. I really miss teaching in person, but in this world we need to be flexible. So I proposed my

lecture again – and it was accepted! Praise the LORD!

I constantly marvel at how many other fields of knowledge I need to grasp in order to simply do what I love – teach quilting. Thus it was time for me to jump into something new again.

PBS gave me the option of creating my own video or having them tape me virtually via Zoom. I went for the second option and was given a date to get together with their team and check the lighting, sound, etc.

I set everything up in my studio and all of the tech experts at that Zoom meeting felt it would work. Two days later I picked an appropriate quilt for the backdrop, got dressed up, and logged into the Zoom meeting… only to discover that my home internet connection wasn’t strong enough for a quality production (everyone was surprised that this didn’t show up previously). Since we live in the country and our internet options are few – it was a quandry. After a lengthy discussion, I realized that I needed to haul everything over to my parent’s condo and try again. A new Zoom was scheduled for 2 hours later, and when I called my mom and dad they responded with an enthusiastic “YES”!

I really transformed their living/dining room!

In “show business” I’m learning you have to make do to make it work, even including the stack of encyclopedias under my computer to get it to the perfect height. I borrowed the big black light, top left, from my daughter-in-law, and it needed to be placed directly in front of me, so here’s the set-up from my perspective:

My parents were pleased to play a part in it all, and during the filming they hid out in their respective dens/computer rooms so as not to make me nervous. That’s the funny part of this story! I have lectured in front of live crowds of over 300 quilters without a single butterfly, but that morning my stomach was doing flips. Once I logged in I confessed this to Tina and she told me they were filming in real time. This meant they would not be stopping and starting, and if I messed up I should just continue as I would for an in-person lecture. This was actually comforting to me… and the cameras started to roll.

They wanted me to begin with a few minutes of my introduction to make sure everything was working right. One minute into it, from down the hallway, I heard my dad sneeze 🤧 . I ignored it and continued for a minute or two longer. When I was done with the test, Tina said it all went well but they couldn’t figure out what the “short, unusual” sound was – they were pretty sure it wasn’t on their end. I confessed it was a sneeze and the team laughed as I went down the hall and closed the door.

After that the actual taping went very well and I was relieved that my nervousness disappeared from then on out. Tina and company said it was all good…

and you can learn all about “Quilt-As-You-Go” this September by signing up for my lecture at the virtual show.

All of the information about the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, including how to sign up for the show and classes, can be found by clicking here! And the good news is that all of you who do not live in Wisconsin can “come to the show” too!