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Our son, Brad, was very active in his High School orchestra. The orchestra teachers connected with a youth orchestra in England and they did exchange trips. Brad was able to travel to England twice, and both times I went along as a chaperone (I couldn’t have my son play his cello in Salisbury Cathedral – and not be there!) On one of these wonderful adventures I had the pleasure of meeting Art and Debby Abe. Their daughter was also in the orchestra and they decided to chaperone the trip too. I discovered that Debby was a quilter, and we’ve run into each other in the quilt world numerous times since that trip.

A few month’s ago I taught at the Ben Franklin retreat (to read that post click here), and Debby was there too. My heart ached for her when she told me what had happened in her life this past year. Then she showed me some pictures that made her story so endearing to me that I asked her if I could share it. Here it is in her own words:

“This is a memory quilt made from my husband’s clothes. Art passed away unexpectedly last April at the age of 60. I created this quilt with the thought it could be used as a picnic blanket, as it is backed with his jeans and pants.

Greetings from snowy Wisconsin (I couldn’t resist including a picture – large pre-Thanksgiving snows are not that common here)!

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Before I get to my new “topic of the week”, I wanted to thank everyone who commented on my “Closet Clean-up” post a few weeks ago. Many of you expressed a concern that recycling the magazines might deprive others of their value. You will be happy to know that someone did claim them and Mike was  kind enough to “dumpster dive”, and put all the loose ones into boxes for me to deliver 🙂 .

Then Judy sent me an email about her own Closet Clean-up adventure which involved a trip to the container store and a clever way of labeling. Here’s what she wrote:

“Chris: I really wanted to tell you how much I admire and am always searching for those  perfect solutions to sewing room organization.  Last year, I was able to move my sewing room into a bigger space thanks to my really awesome husband.  That space came with an enormous walk-in closet!!  I wasn’t sure how to organize my stash, so one trip to The Container Store and voila!!  Men’s shoe boxes from The Container Store are the perfect size for your stash!!  I then bought chalkboard fabric and labeled each box.  They are also the perfect size for projects.  Here’s a picture to share.”

And here’s the picture:

Chalkboard fabric! What a great idea! It looks so much better than my taped on “scrap paper scribblings”, and the labels are easy to change. Thanks Judy!

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And now for my “topic of the week”:

I have a new pair of hand made, fiber art earrings – and I love them!

I receive many compliments every time I wear them. Here is a little about the earrings:

Now, let me tell you about their maker. I met Sharon Rotz when we taught together at a retreat in Central Wisconsin. We hit it off right away and have become good friends. I’ve mentioned Sharon in a number of previous blog posts because we’ve had the chance to exhibit our work together, and I’ve been inspired by her books and techniques. We’ve also collaborated on 4 quilts together: “Tumbles the Cat”,

“Two Friends Monkeying Around”,

“The Rose of Chris and Sharon”,

and “Goyne Round in Circles”.

Sharon is an incredible talent and It’s been a joy to quilt together. Now she’s on to a new adventure with her hand-made jewelry and, like everything else she does, it is incredibly creative and well done. Please visit Sharon’s website: http://www.bysher.net/bysher/Welcome.html  to see her wonderful work.

I highly recommend clicking on her jewelry page, you just may need to own a Sharon Rotz original!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all !!!

 

I’ve been doing more sewing than quilting lately. Sommer’s baby brother is due February 26th, and Betsy is in nursery preparation mode. The color scheme she’s chosen is navy blue, kelly green and brown. She asked me to make the curtains …

bumper pads, and a hanging diaper holder.

I’m continually being amazed by my daughter-in-law’s abilities. She’s a loving wife and mother. She’s done the design work on two of my books. But I never realized what a talented painter she is, until now. Here’s a picture of Sommer with their two doggies, Moseley and Nershi (Sommer is quite an artist herself – and two fisted).

And these are the pictures Betsy painted recently for the baby’s room:

Didn’t she capture them well? The finishing touches on the nursery will be completed this weekend, and I put the final stitches into the baby’s quilt this past week. So, he can come any time now 😀 ! I’ll send pictures once he’s arrived!

Yo Yo update!

I recently received an email and photo from Lorraine about her yo yo project. I just had to share:

“Hi Chris,
A few weeks ago you talked about yo yos on your blog and asked for pictures of our yo yo projects.  Here is my story:

When I bought my first yo yo maker I decided to make a vest.  I spent several evenings making yo yos and after I had a big pile of them I decided I had enough to put the vest together.  I took a vest that fit me well, laid it on the floor and began arranging my pile of yo yos to duplicate the front panels.  My big pile of yo yos did not come close to finishing the front panels!  I had to spend many more evenings making many many more yo yos in order to finish the front panels and then do the back of the vest.  Although it took much longer than I thought and many more yo yos than I anticipated I like the finished project and get lots of compliments when I wear the vest.”

Lorraine, It is lovely! Thanks for sharing!

 

Often I share things in my blog posts that pertain to places and events in southeastern, Wisconsin. I’m well aware that many of you live in other States. While putting together this week’s post about our Baltic cruise challenge, it occurred to me to mention that both of our upcoming Sew We Go adventures are currently priced without airfare. Our travel planner, Kristi, will work with each traveler to find them the best airfare possible and… since we’re not doing a “group flight”, she can help you arrange for flights from wherever you live!!!

(click here for Sisters, Oregon, July 8-13, or here for Europe October 9-19).

And now the quilts!

While on our wonderful cruise of the Baltic Sea, Wendy and I passed out “fat eighths” of a lovely blue/green batik, and asked our travelers, as well as the quilters we met at Kirstin’s Quilt in Roskilde, Denmark, to make something with it.

These were the “rules”:

And these were the fabrics:

The shop owner in Roskilde, our hostess Kirsten, designed a placemat pattern for our group – and even translated it into English for us. It was a very thoughtful gift:

 

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Here is our Virtual Quilt Show!

 

And one more “non-challenge” picture! While in Helsinki we were treated to a visit to Marimekko Fabric. Nancy Hansen found a beautiful polished cotton and made it into a lovely jacket. She wore it to Patched Lives Quilt Guild this past month and it was stunning. She was kind enough to pose for a picture:

Thanks Nancy!

 

A while back I did a post about the painted barn quilt I ordered to hang on our shed (click here to read about it). My dear husband had encouraged me to paint it, but I was more than happy to purchase it from someone who was good at painting. “Give me a sewing machine, not a paint brush” was my motto. Well, not any more.

I live a few miles south of Watertown, WI. Watertown is a small city that lies midway between Milwaukee and Madison. We’ve lived here for 10 years and find it to be a friendly community with a lot of charm.

The Watertown Arts Council “was founded in 1964, and their purpose is to foster and encourage, coordinate, establish, and publish the performance and exhibition of the creative arts in Watertown, and to encourage, develop, strengthen and enrich the cultural life of the area; to further develop a general interest in the natural beauty of the city and to promote an interest in cultural landmarks and work for the preservation and restoration of historic buildings and natural beauty.” One of their projects has been to paint murals on our downtown buildings: That being said, last year they put together a program where they made banners available to anyone interested, asking them to paint both sides for display on Main Street during the Summer. They were great! Some were made by individual artists, a number were made by groups of kids in the elementary schools, there was a lot of variety.

This year they chose to do it again and Kay, one of the members of our small fiber art group, decided we should make a group banner. She got the idea one week before the deadline – and we all said yes! We met for 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon, brainstormed a different design for each side and started doing some painting (I was amazed at how quickly and well this came together – it’s a great group!). During the next week, three of the members took turns doing the rest of the painting – and we got it done before the deadline! The banners were coated for the weather and then hung on lampposts up and down Main Street.

Here are a few of my favorites. This one was made by the students at Douglas Elementary School: And then there is ours – side #1: and side #2: I actually had the privilege of painting a portion of the Mariner’s Compass side and I discovered that painting a quilt is actually fun … and it goes faster than sewing it. I’m quite sure I won’t give up my Baby Lok for a paint brush, but I recommend stepping out of the box every once in a while.

If you’re looking for a nice driving destination, please come and visit our town. On Main Street alone we have family run shoe and furniture stores, two ice cream places (Mullen’s is my favorite), an old fashioned theater where first run movies are $4, and there are many other nice shops and restaurants throughout Watertown.

There are also some nice quilt shops out our way. If you’re coming from Milwaukee, you’ll definitely want to stop at Ben Franklin in Oconomowoc. Their fabric department is actually a large, high quality quilt shop. Plus their craft supplies and gift items are spectacular. Their website is: http://benfranklincraftswi.com/

After spending some time in Watertown, it’s a short drive south on Hwy 26 to Jefferson, where you’ll find a shop called Tea and Textiles at the corner of Hwy 26 and Hwy 18. Barbara has a great selection of fabrics and you’re always welcome to a cup of tea. For more information go to: http://www.yelp.com/biz/tea-and-textiles-jefferson

If you’d rather head north a ways, J & A Stitches, near Juneau is a very unique quilt shop. Take Hwy 26 north and then head west on Hwy 60 a short ways to Welsh Road. You’ll probably have to wait for the geese and peacocks to clear the drive before you can make it up to the farm house/quilt shop. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the adventure. You can find them on the web at:  http://twosistersandaquilt.com/contact/

I learned to quilt while living in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and I was blessed to immediately become a part of a group called the Prairie Heritage Quilters. This group puts on a quilt show in Sun Prairie every Spring and it has the distinction of being the longest running show, headed by the same person for 40 years! The leader of this group of quilt lovers is Klaudeen Hansen, and I’m very pleased to be able to say she’s a friend of mine.At this year’s show there was a special room filled with memorabilia from the past 40 quilt shows. It was in this room that we had a photograph taken of the current Prairie Heritage Quilters group. A Madison area art quilter, Marlene, made the crown Kaudeen is wearing, and dubbed her the Queen of Quilting.

Klaudeen has been a positive influence in my quilting career and I thought it would be a good idea to do a tribute to her as this week’s blog post.

Klaudeen started teaching sewing for Madison Area Technical College in the early 70’s. Somehow that transitioned into teaching quilting for them as well. We’re quite sure she was the first quilting teacher MATC had.

The Prairie Heritage Quilt Show started basically as a show and tell display in 1974, so all of her students could see what the others were creating.  The first year or two this was held at St. Chad’s church.  It moved to St Albert’s as it grew and was held in the lower level. The first contest was in 1977 and it had 66 entries. The show moved upstairs and included vendors in 1979. This is a picture of some of the original members in their quilt aprons at a show in the early 80’s (Klaudeen is on the right).

The show has always been on a Monday, and then it grew to add Tuesday (they couldn’t start on Sunday because the show was held in the sanctuary of the church and thus, the quilts were hung on Sunday afternoon). These are unusual days of the week for a quilt show, but it’s worked well in Sun Prairie. Our group would have to move out all the chairs (assisted by some husbands, sons and brothers) and move in the quilt racks. Then the hanging of the quilts would begin.

Over the years the show has become very popular. There was a time 11 tour buses brought quilters to the show in one day! and … one year a TV show called PM Magazine (like a local entertainment tonight) filmed their show from our show! Quilted ribbon toppers were first created by Arlene Statz in 1983, and were hand quilted by her! We believe we were the first show to ever make them, if not the first anywhere, definitely the first in our area.

I joined the group in the late 80’s and this photograph was the first one I have of the group (I’m bottom row center, next to Klaudeen).

In going through my photos, I came across a quilt I entered in the show in the early 90’s, called “The Sidewalks of Sun Prairie”. It was the first quilt I made using my Repliqué technique and it won 2 of Arlene’s ribbons! A First in wallhangings, and a special Originality ribbon too.

Klaudeen (and the Prairie Heritage Quilters) have also been a big part of the American Quilters Society’s history (AQS). She met Bill and Meredith Schroeder in Bell Buckle, Tennessee at the National Quilting Association Show, over 30 years ago. The Schroeders owned a publishing company that published Collector Books. They decided quilting was an up and coming past-time and wanted to put on a show, but weren’t sure how to go about it.  They were introduced to Klaudeen and she helped write the rules for the AQS show. She also hand typed the show book for them for years! Quilts were entered by slides, full size and detail, those were logged by Klaudeen to be sure they were entered in the right category, etc.. Then two slide projectors were set up side by side, in Sun Prairie, to view the quilt entries. Klaudeen and the Prairie Heritage Quilters juried the AQS show for the first several years. They also made the Viewer’s choice boxes (still in use at the Paducah show) and hung the quilts at the AQS show as well (we still help with the hanging of the show every year).

The dogwood ribbon toppers for the AQS show have been hand made by the Prairie Heritage Quilters all these years. Klaudeen’s daughter Janell is an active part of the PHQ and was the ribbon maker one year. She, along with Jean Sessions (one of the original members and our unofficial historian), shared information and pictures for this post with me. The above topper was made by Jean. Judging of the AQS show was Klaudeen’s responsibility. She does not judge the show in Paducah, but is the one to convey the expectations to the judging staff.

Klaudeen is also the editor of the AQS Quilt Art Engagement Calendar. These wonderful desk style calendars have a beautiful quilt featured next to each week of the year, and – each year at the Paducah show an Autograph party is held at which many of the quilt makers are invited to attend so that purchasers of the calendars can have the pages autographed. It’s a fun, free event to attend at the show!

Klaudeen continues to work every AQS show, along with her husband Merv, and she doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all! Besides her work on the various shows, she is a teacher, lecturer and quilt judge. If your group is looking for a speaker with a wealth of experience and a delightful enthusiasm for our craft, I can garauntee you’ll enjoy Klaudeen. You may contact her at: Klaudeen Hansen, PO Box 253 Sun Prairie, WI 53590;  608-837-2298