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Remembering Hazel

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Ever since I began quilting in 1987 I’ve been amazed at the great blessing quilting friends are. I have so very many quilting friends and am grateful for each and every one.

There are some people who hold an extra special place in our hearts and in my heart there’s a big place for two wonderful sisters – Evelyn Link and Hazel Robinson.

I’ve known Evelyn most of my quilting life, and she is very dear to me. I’ve posted about our adventures together on quite a few occasions. I don’t quite remember the first time I met Hazel, but we too have been fast friends ever since we met.

It’s with a heavy heart that I’m writing this post to remember dear Hazel who recently passed away. She was never without a smile and just loved to make everyone around her smile too. She was an amazing cook and she, along with her husband Eddie, were truly hosts with the most – the most generosity, kindness and fun that is.

In 2010 Hazel (and Evelyn) invited me to Alaska. She and Eddie lived on the Kenai Peninsula half of the year. These dear ladies arranged to have me teach classes for quite a few quilting groups in the area, and requested that I plan a longer stay so they could show me Alaska. What a wonderful time we had! I stayed in the “apartment” above the garage which consisted of Hazel’s quilting studio, a kitchen, bedroom and bath!

They taught me to eat crab legs with scissors and how to track down moose on a 4 wheeler (that was Eddie’s job 😊). I met many delightful quilters and taught classes in a variety of wonderful settings.

One of them was in a fishing lodge on the Kenai River, and I even got to take a boat ride with Ken, the professional fishing guide who was married to the quilter who owned the lodge. Wonderful people! So many good memories! (to read a post I did about that trip click here!)

Evelyn and Hazel joined our Sew We Go adventure to the quilt show in Sisters, OR in 2015 and that’s where the photo of us at the Stitchin Post above was taken. I was with the sisters in Sisters 😁!

Early on in our fun together I noticed Hazel calling Evelyn Sissie (or Sis E). I was so pleased to be a part of their many adventures and was thrilled when they invited me to be an honorary sister – Sis C! And on that note, if you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ve heard the story of the Quilt Sissies. That all started with Quiltina, a quilter’s version of “Flat Stanley”. He’s a cardboard cut out schoolkids take/send all over and then write about his adventures. Well, Wendy Rieves and I lead quilting tours in the US and Europe and, prior to our riverboat cruise in France I mentioned to Wendy that we needed a quilterly version of Flat Stanley to accompany us on our travels. Her fruitful imagination created Quiltina, and she’s been traveling with us ever since.

Evelyn accompanied us on that French cruise and won our trip challenge with a prize of, you guessed it, her very own doll which she named Quiltilly. You may be wondering what this has to do with Hazel. Well, once I was made an honorary sissie, and since Evelyn and I each had our own doll, I just had to make one for Hazel. True to her wonderful sense of humor, she named her Quiltzilla!

A few years after the Alaska trip, Evelyn invited me to stay with her and teach in the Phoenix area. She had moved to Tempe after she retired to be close to Hazel, since that’s where she and Eddie lived when they weren’t in Alaska. So the Sissies had another memorable trip together, and I got to meet so many more delightful quilters (click here for a post about that trip). We also saw Chihuly in the Botanical Gardens, a quilt show in Tucson, and a lovely mission.

Where did we end up together next? Evelyn and Hazel stayed with Wendy and me during Quilt Week in Paducah. What fun we had there! It even included lunch at Grace church with a surprise visit by Quiltman and Bobbin (and our dear friend Nancy too).

Hazel was a talented piecer who loved to make large quilts for her family. She was especially good at the intricate Judy Niemeyer patterns. Evelyn recently sent me this photo of the last quilt Hazel made.

I had a different post planned for this week, but couldn’t think of a better way to remember Hazel then on my blog. Thank you for sharing some memories of a dear lady with me. She will be greatly missed!

Love you, Hazel!

Selvedge Colors

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Have you ever really looked at the edges of the fabric you buy before cutting them up and discarding them? I’m sure you have, and if I asked you what was there the most common answer would probably be: the name of the fabric company and the fabric line. Many of you would also mention the “color dots”.

These dots contain each of the hues (colors) used in that fabric and are another great “palette” to use when choosing colors for a quilt (a topic familiar to all who’ve been reading my blog recently). To read a short and informative post about these dots click here!

Some very innovative quilters have actually made quilts from these tightly woven strips, and I’ve always been intrigued by the ones I’ve seen entered in quilt shows. It’s amazing what you can find on the internet. I searched for “making quilts with selvedges” and found oodles of fun sites. Click here for a great video on this topic from Bryan House Quilts.

At the Butterfly Threads Quilting site I discovered a woman who is wonderfully addicted to making selvedge quilts. She’s made them into baskets, spools, log cabins and more. Click here to be inspired!

That being said, I’ve come to realize that one of the purposes of this week’s post is to find out if there is anyone out there who is as totally unobservant as me!!!

While at retreat with my friend Laura a few months back, she was talking about some fabrics she had purchased with creative color dots – wait, what?

My response: “what are you talking about?” She told me she’d send me a photo of some of these selvedges, and here it is (thanks Laura):

What fun! I especially loved the trucks. So I went through some of my more recent purchases and, much to my surprise, found some delightful edges:

Mushrooms on a Timeless Treasures critter print
Winter motifs on two coordinating Christmas flannels by Maywood Studios
The State of Wisconsin on a shop hop fabric by Primitive Gatherings

And my personal favorite – compasses on a colorful map fabric by Timeless Treasures:

I love it! Who knew these were hiding in my stash? Did you?

Will any of you admit to being as surprised as I was to know about these “creative dots”? Please feel free to comment if you dare 🤣.

Do any of you save selvedges? If so, have you made quilts or other projects with them? I’d love to see photographs of them. Please email them to me at .

Choosing a Color Palette From a Photo

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I did a bit of web surfing and found a great site for picking colors out of a photo. It’s called the Image Color Picker and you can find it at https://image-color.com/. This is the image you’ll see when you go to their site:

It was so easy to use. I simply dragged my photo into the box just above the palm tree pic on the site, and it opened up with the color palette already created.

It “chooses” the colors (hues) that appear in the greatest quantity, so black/brown is “dominant”, but just look at the beautiful palette below that. We can easily go to our stash, or our favorite quilt shop, and pick out fabrics in these colors, knowing they will work well together in a quilt. Here’s another one:

Once again – a beautiful collection of hues for a quilt at the bottom. Since the bright “pops” of color in the photo are in smaller quantities, they don’t show up in the palette, but that doesn’t mean a bit of bright orange or yellow can’t be added!

Wouldn’t this make a great palette for your next Christmas quilt?!?

I must admit, I’m having a lot of fun with this site!!!

And here’s a photo Laurie sent me last week, along with it’s palette:

A beautiful collection of colors from just a single leaf!

So, I decided to look through my quilts and do things a bit backwards to give you an idea of how the colors around us could be used in quilts. This first image is of a bunch of leaves I found clustered together on my deck after a rain (isn’t God’s mastery of color amazing?), and the main colors pulled by the color picker site:

This quilt uses fabrics in this palette, plus a few of the brighter colors in the photo to spice things up 😁.

And here’s a palette taken from a tree in my backyard, followed by another of my favorite Autumn quilts:

I don’t really see much of the violet color from the palette in the photo, but it’s ok to leave out what doesn’t work and add a few of the brights.

This is just a tool to get you started. I hope you have some fun with it!

And, since I’ve been sharing photos, I can’t resist a few of Sommer and Trey jumping in the leaves! It’s been a beautiful Autumn and the leaf pile in our yard was huge!

Color in Nature and Quilts

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During “Safer at Home” my granddaughter’s school did a great job of finishing her second grade year online. At that time Daddy and Mommy let her get her first email account, and mine was the only email address she knew, so we communicated daily. She would send me a “Daily Hi” every morning (this was her idea 😊).

One day she had to gather items of different colors for art class, and send a photo back to the teacher. She sent it to me too:

I responded “Wow, what a great color wheel. Were you supposed to make a color wheel?” She said she was only supposed to pick out objects in all the colors. After she gathered all the pieces Mommy helped her to put it into a color wheel (Betsy is a graphic designer and she’s inspiring a love of art in her kids).

This got me to thinking about all of the amazing colors around us and how they can inspire us in our quilting. I tried to get out for a walk every day during that time and snapped a few pics of the colors of early Spring. I certainly needed a bit of brightness to get through that difficult time!

I recently went through some of my Summer photographs and found a few that inspired me with their colors:

Wild lilies on the edge of our pond (taken from the canoe)
This is my parent’s cottage on Lake Sinissippi. Don’t you just love the red pump and the sun dappled grass?

And now Autumn is in full swing. This is by far my favorite season, and I once read a meme that stated “Autumn is my favorite color”. I agree!

I think what intrigues me the most about these photos is how the colors are so wonderful together – especially in nature. God certainly knows what hues play well with each other! In fact, I recently took this photo

and it reminded me of a quilt I made using these colors a few years ago:

I call it Interchange, and it was made for a “Color Wheel Opposites” challenge. I wanted to see what would happen if I took two opposing colors on the color wheel and laid out squares of the “raspberry” that went from dark at the top to light at the bottom, with squares of “yellow green” that went from dark at the bottom to light at the top. I also challenged myself to only use fabric from my stash. It’s finished with a facing because I thought a border would detract from the intent of the piece, and it’s quilted with “wheels” of intricate stitches. These opposing colors certainly are beautiful together – in nature and fabric 😃!

So how does one translate the colors in a photograph to fabrics in a quilt? Well, join me in next week’s post and I’ll share a few ideas!

If you’ve made a quilt inspired by colors in a picture – please email me photos – I’d love to see how you were inspired!

String Pieced Diamonds

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As promised, I’ve put together some step-by-step instructions for anyone interested in how my most recent project is made.

Full credit goes to my friend Lori Schloesser for this fun pattern. Besides loving the look, it solved one of my scrap dilemmas. Whenever I complete a project, all of the leftover strips and chunks usually end up in a pile because they don’t fit easily into my “neatly” arranged fabric storage. Typically, I eventually try to fold these pieces, according to color, and wedge them in between yardage in the stash. I think of them as “blobs”. With time this proves to be a cluttered, tippy disaster.

For this project I wanted to use a majority of greens, with a good amount of browns. So I pulled all of those awkward “blobs” out of those color areas in the stash. They are gone from it now and I saw an improvement in my fabric carts immediately (and my greens were far messier than the color cart above)!

I also grabbed a few “blobs” from other color areas in my stash that had green in them. Some were mainly red, some orange, some purple, etc. These added contrast and interest to the blocks.

I cut all the “blobs” into strips in a variety of widths, in 1/8″ increments, ranging from 7/8″ to 1 5/8″. The pieces that couldn’t be made into strips of at least 6″ lengths were put in a basket to be used as “corner fillers” (we’ll get to that later).

Then I dug into my fish bowls of scraps/strips for additional pieces that fit my color scheme or would add some pizazz.

Once the strips were cut I put the long ones in a grocery sack on the floor, and anything less than 14″ long went on the table.

The paper bag to the left is where I toss the remainder of a strip after I’ve sewn it onto one of my rectangles.

Next I cut paper foundations at the finished size of my blocks – 5″ x 10″. I began by using up the scrap paper next to my computer and when that ran out I grabbed an old phone book. My king quilt will require 210 blocks.

Each paper pattern needed to have a diagonal line drawn on it and, to make the design come out right, half of them need to go upper left to lower right, and the other half upper right to lower left (reversals)!

To begin a block I reach into the bag full of strips and pull out two without looking 😊, place them right sides together – aligning the right edge, and lay this edge against the diagonal line; leaving at least 1/4″ excess hanging off the paper at the beginning and end of the seam to assure a proper seam allowance.

I like to chain piece about 20 blocks at a time in this way, cut them apart, and press the strips over with a dry iron.

Then I grab a new strip out of the bag and add it to each block, trimming the excess away and tossing the leftover strip in the empty grocery sack, unless the cut-away is less than 14″, then it goes on the table for later use.

Notice how the ends of the strips extend beyond the edge of the paper when pressed flat. Adding the seam allowance in this way is essential.

I continue in this manner until there is a small triangle left to be filled on each side of the strips. This is when I grab the non-strip pieces and “sew and flip” them in place to fill the corners. Sometimes the corner is small enough that one of the wider strips will work, but most often I need to use a chunk from the basket.

When the paper is covered and pressed, I turn the block to the paper side:

and trim the blocks 1/4″ away from the pattern:

rotating the block to square up the other corner. With seam allowance these blocks measure 5 1/2″ x 10 1/2″. And voila – a block is done!

All the trimmings don’t go to waste either.

I use them to fill old pillowcases found at resale shops, sew them shut, and donate them to our local humane society for use as cat beds.

I am actually using up these frustrating leftovers, and I find making the blocks quite addictive. When the blocks are all made, and it’s time to put the top together, I’ll share that part of the journey with you too!

Clues in the Quilts

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Last year the small fiber art group I belong to, the Fiberistas, held a challenge based on a game. It was a lot of fun and I recently realized I never blogged about it. So here we go:

You probably have played the board game Clue™. Kay came up with the idea to challenge each of us to make a quilt based on clues from the game: a room, person, and weapon. Without peaking she chose three clues for each of us, put them into an envelope, and asked us to make a small quilt that would include the clues without giving the answer away too easily.

This is the quilt I made from the clues I recieved:

And here’s a detail image of the quilting:

As I’ve mentioned before, I love puzzles and mysteries, so I had a delightful time thinking about how to execute my 18″ square quilt. The stacked dishes were cut out of a fabric I purchased in Sweden on our Sew We Go to the Baltic Sea cruise in 2014. I fussy cut them out and machine appliquéd them onto a piece of hand-dyed fabric. Then I added clues in the quilting. I enjoyed every step of the process. Can you guess who did it, with what, and where???

Don’t peak until you think you have the answer.

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The answer is in my envelope:

Yes – it was Mr. Green in the Kitchen with the Candlestick!

To see all of the wonderful pieces made for this challenge please visit our Fiberista’s site by clicking here!

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And one more thing:

As many of you know, one of our favorite local “quilt shops” is going out of business. Ben Franklin Crafts in Oconomowoc has had a great fabric department as long as I’ve lived in this area.

The store and the people there have been a wonderful part of my quilting life. Well, they will be closing their doors forever on October 3rd. This was caused by a combination of things, but in the end the pandemic was the last straw. So many losses over the past months! The store announced recently that the mark down is now 50%.

When I first learned of the closing I was very disappointed. I couldn’t bring myself to even go in the doors for weeks. When I learned that they were selling all the fixtures, and Mike and I had been discussing that we needed another book shelf, we decided it was time. We actually bought two shelving units and I am thrilled to now have a little bit of one of my favorite places in my living room to remember them by.

I must admit I have a lot more of their fabric in my stash now too.

Thanks to Terrie, Mary, their staff and customers, for many, many sweet memories!

Fibonacci in Quilting

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I first heard the name Fibonacci years ago at a Milwaukee Art Quilters meeting. Having a degree in Dental Hygiene, art theories and terms were not typically in my vocabulary. But I loved geometry in high school, so this sequence of numbers grabbed me immediately. Let me share a bit of an explanation for those of you who have no idea what I’m writing about.

The Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers in which the next number is attained by adding the previous two numbers:

1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89 …

This series can be used to model or describe an amazing variety of phenomena in mathematics, science, art and nature.

I did a quick walk through my yard and saw Fibonacci numbers everywhere. For example: my coral bell leaves have 5 main veins – and 5 is in the series:

Impatien petals come in 5s too.

Each branch of leaves I counted on my marigolds had 13 leaves.

And all the little clovers had 3 leaves (no 4 leaf clovers to be found):

An ear of corn has 13 rows. I didn’t have one handy to share a photo so, since it’s still corn season (sadly nearing the end of corn season), feel free to count the rows the next time you enjoy one.

And the human body is filled with these numbers: 1 head, mouth and nose; 2 eyes and ears; 5 fingers on each hand, and toes on each foot.

The mathematical ideas the Fibonacci sequence leads to, such as the golden ratio and spirals, are often appreciated for their charm and beauty.

When the Fibonacci series is drafted on a grid a spiral results.

I was thinking it might be interesting to continue the grid above, and then make it into a quilt – using a different fabric for each area of the grid. It could be a fun “modern” crib quilt!?!

This spiral is found many places in nature. The example I’ve seen cited most often is the nautilus:

a pinecone is another example of a Fibonacci spiral:

I marked in the spirals on this image to make them more obvious (and the cool thing is – they actually spiral in both directions!):

And isn’t this vegetable I bought at the farmer’s market a beautiful example of the spiral?

When any two successive fibonacci numbers are taken as a ratio (ie. 34/55), it is very close to the “Golden Ratio” which is approximately 1.61803.

For a better explanation than I can give you of this concept click here 😊.

If you are intrigued by the Fibonacci series and would like to learn more click here. To watch a short, easy to understand video about this fascinating topic click here.

So, what does this have to do with quilting???

Well, these numbers are supposed to be visually pleasing and the Milwaukee Art Quilters often chose their challenge quilt size to fit the Golden Ratio. Both of these challenge quilts were made according to this ratio:

Portals challenge – the Narrow Gate by Chris Lynn Kirsch
Art Deco challenge – Forty Wonderful Years by Chris Lynn Kirsch

Wendy was inspired to begin our collaborative quilt “Welcoming the Son Into Our Garden” by a photograph she’d taken of sunflowers.

The center of sunflowers is always a fibonacci spiral, and her photo was so perfect she decided to simply photo transfer it onto fabric for the quilt.

When I was coming up with a quilting design for my Compass Craze quilt, I decided to use a Fibonacci spiral spinning out from the center of the quilt.

I marked it on the quilt, stitched on the lines, and filled in with tiny spirals.

Here’s a detail for a clearer view of the spiral:

Perhaps if I had free-hand drawn the spiral it would have been just as visually pleasing, but I am very happy with these results.

Have you ever used this series in any of your quilts? Do you think you might try it in the future?

Even if it’s not your thing – I hope you found it interesting. God has made His creation beautiful and orderly, just like we attempt to do with our quilting.

Time to Get Away

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Since I posted about traveling in my mind last week, I’m excited to share that I actually, physically went somewhere this past week!

Last year my friend Laura discovered a beautiful quilt retreat center in Poynette, WI. Early last Spring she planned a weekend retreat for this past weekend and, even though a few of our group had to cancel for various reasons, Laura, April and I are very glad we made the trip!

As I packed up the car my sweet husband made sure all was well for my hour long drive (I loved that it wasn’t very far from home).

I didn’t realize how ready I was for some new surroundings – and time with friends, and Cattail Retreat didn’t disappoint.

The accommodations were very comfortable, and the sewing room was perfect.

With only 3 of us we were able to spread out and get some serious (😁) sewing done.

We took turns making meals, but breakfasts were on our own. I especially loved spending some morning time in the second floor porch.

My first project got it’s start as blocks made by a dear lady in my guild. Carole was a very giving member who passed away last year. Her husband donated much of her quilting stuff to Patched Lives, saying the proceeds were to be used by our charity quilts committee. Many of us purchased fabric and UFOs from her collection, and are finishing them as charity quilts. I bought these beautiful star blocks and pieced them into a lap-sized quilt. A double donation! Once that top was together – on the left – I began a scrap quilt for myself (right):

This scrappy green quilt will eventually be king sized. I was inspired by one made by my friend Lori. The blocks are paper pieced rectangles, and I’m using green scraps, with a few surprises thrown in to add excitement.

I ended up using pages from an old phone book for the foundation, and cut strips of various widths from my scraps.

These blocks are fun, easy, and I’m actually using up some of my bin of scraps! Thanks Lori!

I highly recommend spending time with quilting friends – it is great for our mental health. Click here to learn more about Cattail Retreat.

If you’d rather stay closer to the Milwaukee area, I have two friends who have recently opened wonderful quilt retreat centers.

Mom’s Place

Lou has remade her mother’s home in New Berlin, WI, into a lovely place for quilters to relax, stitch, and spend time together.

Click here to learn more about Mom’s Place!

Tall Pines Retreat

Laure and Hans have renovated this beautiful home in Mukwonago, WI. They’ve made it into the perfect spot for quilters, or any crafters to spend time together doing what they love.

Click here to learn more about Tall Pines Retreat.

No matter where you are, I hope you are finding time to escape into our wonderful world of quilting with friends.

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This is a follow-up email I received from Carol after my post about barn blocks.

“WNCQG sub group did a program in January 2020.  These were very easy.  Precut plywood from Lowes that was primed on all sides and edges.
 (24” x 24”) Then we marked and painted with outdoor paint.  My husband made the frame and I will paint it the same red.
Hope this helps.“

She certainly did a great job! Thanks Carol!