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The Toyko Great International Quilt Festival – 2020

February 9, 2020 10 Comments

Tokyo boasts the largest quilt show in the world. The show is held in the Tokyo Dome.

It runs for seven days and attracts over 2 million visitors – of which my group comprised 18.

The crowds entering each morning were ushered in quite efficiently.

This is the English version of the cover of the actual show book and we’re still not sure what the German musicians are doing on it!

In this photo of the show from the stadium seats (where we ate lunch from the concession stands: deep fried chicken-on-a-stick and bugles),

you can see the “white” horizontal lines towards the front . These are row after row of vendors, and they ring all 4 sides of the show.

The areas of color in the center were the show quilts, separated by category, and a variety of special exhibits.

Towards the center there was a huge patchwork ball covered by the work of the famous Japanese quilter Keiko Goke.

Her quilts were fascinating and I recognized a few of them from being in the AQS Paducah quilt shows over the years. This one was in the New Quilts From an Old Favorite – Double Wedding Ring contest back in the early 1990s. What fun to see it again!

There is no way I can share every quilt in the show, so I chose a few of my favorites, in no particular order, they simply tickled my fancy (please be aware that the crowds were huge and the lighting in a baseball stadium leaves a lot to be desired). I’ve included a few comments with each photo:

Embroidered sampler center, surrounded by intricate piecing, and bordered with phenomenal appliqué!

This one was only about 15″ square and completely thread painted!

Are you ready to be amazed. This may look like a 1/2″ hexagon, grandmothers flower garden quilt,

But it’s really a 1/2″ yo-yo quilt!!! They are tacked onto a background with embroidered leaves around the edges.

And those were only a very few. Then we did the vendors. The most popular items by far were purses and the kits to make them. In one of the booths there were machines set up and my friend Marie and I made our own. They took less than an hour even though the teacher spoke very little English. Too much fun!

The woman stitching next to us also made a purse and wanted to be in the photo?

There was a “coffee shop” around the edge of the show where we stopped for a mid-morning snack the first day, and a “tea room” for a break on the second.

The spouted bowl without a top held the hot water which we then poured into the teapot filled with tea. Then we turned over the timer so our tea was brewed to perfection. The snack was jellied red bean curd – not quite as yummy as the chocolate I had imagined I was ordering!

The vendors were filled with fabric, garments, kits, machines, etc., and we could have spent the whole trip there, but there was so much more of Japan to see. Next week I’ll touch on a few of the wonderful sites of Japan we enjoyed.

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This isn’t about Japan, but I thought you might find it interesting, I did a post about a bartar I did with my friend Di back in May. She recently interviewed me for a post on her blog about our collaboration and my journey into blogging. Click here if you’d like to read Di’s post.

Home From Japan

February 2, 2020 5 Comments

I arrived home this past Friday night from a spectacular adventure in Japan.

I’m filled with wonderful memories – and I’m tired. Yesterday I attempted to organize my thoughts and pictures, but we experienced, ate and created so much that it’s going to take me a while to to be able to share it concisely. So here’s a brief overview ?:

There were 18 of us total in our group and our Japanese guide couldn’t have done a better job. It was a delightful group. We all got along well and everyone stayed quite healthy. Praise the Lord!

The Great International Quilt Festival was fantastic, overwhelming and deserving of a post of it’s own.

Tokyo, Mt. Fugi and Kyoto were each different and very special in their own right.

Quiltina and me at the Golden Pavillion Temple, Kyoto

We were amazed at how friendly the people were, how clean and litter-free everything was, and how few vegetables were included in many of their meals (rice, noodles, seafood, fried food and salt were available in abundance).

I did enjoy the meals, and tried it all. They were beautifully presented but I must admit, I was ready for a hamburger when we returned home!

Then there were the classes and fiber art exhibits! We were bombarded with so much inspiration and creativity. These too deserve their own post.

Painting with wax in preparation for Roketsu dyeing

I believe one of the highlights for all of us was to see Vicki Spiering’s quilt in the Quilt Festival. Her snowboarder quilt “Shred the Gnar” was not only accepted into the show – but she won an award!

Their awards are presented in picture frames (to the right of the quilt) instead of the ribbons so popular at our shows. Vicki’s quilt was quite different from any of the other quilts in competition and very worthy of the prize. Congratulations Vicki!

I look forward to sharing more of our adventure soon. Until then, please read on to learn about an art quilt show taking place now!

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The ThreadBenders Fiber Art group (of which I’m a member) currently have an exhibit of their work at the Whitewater Arts Alliance through February 23rd. I was in attendance at our opening reception this afternoon. Quilts from 3 of our challenges are on display as well as a room filled with our own “artists choice” quilts. Here are a few photos from the exhibit:

The details follow! Please plan a visit – you’re sure to enjoy!

Sometimes Quilts are Like Children

January 12, 2020 5 Comments

“I don’t know what to do with you.”

“You’re not behaving the way you should.”

“You’re not turning out according to my plans for you. I don’t want you to become a delinquent (UFO), but this is for your own good (and my sanity)”:

#1 – This quilt has to be put in timeout!

“I loved these fabrics when I picked them out at the quilt shop, but now”:

#2 – They are not playing well together!

“It may be time to revisit #1 and put it in time out, or maybe we could discuss”:

#3 – What can be done to compromise?

“That’s a great question and often the right one to prevent further problems. But if the colors are really fighting I may need to yell”:

#4 – You’re too loud and you’re not listening.

“Perhaps if I hadn’t yelled things would improve, because”:

#5 – When I’m calm the situation usually resolves itself much better.

“When this doesn’t work, I can always go back to #1.” ?

“Of all of these, my favorite analogy is”:

#6 – They cause me to smile and make my heart sing – or even giggle!

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I know you’ve seen that last one recently, but it is a great segue into some photos I received from my recent Snow People Table Topper class at Sew Much More in Waukesha (this quilt is a repeat, but “tis the season” ?).

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I share many techniques, but the unique one is that the “batting” inside the quilt is white fleece, and it peeks through the top fabric to make the faces.

I always ask the students to send me a photo of their finished projects and this time – Sandy did! All the way from Florida!

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In the class I give the students instructions on how to “make faces”, but I leave the actual expressions up to them. In my quilt I hand blanket stitched the noses on, but the mouths were free-motion machine thread painted. Sandy was more comfortable making her faces by hand and they made me smile!

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Quilts, children, and snowmen can certainly make winter – and life – more fun!

A very happy and blessed New Year to you and your family!

Bricks, Mortar & Fish?

January 5, 2020 4 Comments

Last Fall I posted about a fun pattern by Mary Ellen Hopkins entitled Bricks and Mortar (click here to read that post). In it I made a quilt for my nephew and his wife and I promised a photo of them with their wedding quilt and here it is:

Around this same time my friend Debbie was looking for a pattern to make a quilt for her son. Tim is a fisherman for fun and a mason tender by trade. She found some wonderful fishing fabrics for his quilt and when she saw my Bricks and Mortar quilt – she knew she had the right pattern.

She used a panel for the center of the quilt, instead of the center square, and we figured out what size to make it so the bricks would fit. Then she took it to a whole new level because she felt he would notice that the mortar didn’t go all the way around the bricks. It isn’t completely realistic.

I knew that adding mortar around every “round of bricks” would throw off the measurements, so I recommended she grab some graph paper and see how it would work. She figured it out and I was impressed.

Here’s a close up of her bricks with the complete mortar:

It takes a bit more piecing, and the corner blocks have a unique shape, but I think I like it as much if not much if not more than the original pattern. And here’s the quilt top – with just one more border to be added:

I’m sure Tim will love this quilt! Great job Deb! Thanks for letting me share.

Floss Frenzy – Revisited

December 29, 2019 4 Comments

Five years ago I received a very interesting gift – hundreds of skeins of embroidery floss! To read all about it click here!

In trying to figure out what to do with it all, I came up with the idea of having a challenge. To read all about that click here!

The response was great. Would you like to see the results? Then please click here ?!

It was great fun, but after all was said and done – I still had a lot of floss left. So what to do? I decided to contact some of the missionaries my church supports to see if they could use it as an outreach. Three of them responded and floss was delivered to Mexico, Sweden, and Estonia. Melissa in Sweden used it to make friendship bracelets with the young girls she was befriending. I didn’t hear back from the others – until now.

Denise, her husband Matt and their daughter Olivia are missionaries in Tallinn, Estonia,

Tallinn was my favorite stop on our Baltic cruise years ago, but I didn’t connect with Denise at that time. Recently she sent me this email:

“About five years ago you sent me a wonderful gift bag of embroidery floss. It has taken me awhile to do anything with it, although I have longed to ever since receiving it! One of our neighborhood girls is wild about quilling (not quilting), which we often do together at my kitchen table, but I haven’t met anyone with the patience to embroider or quilt. That was a big reason I didn’t pursue it. It never sat well with me that such a gift go unused, however, and this fall I decided Olivia and I would do something together, since she just turned 13. We have spent countless hours learning and doing it, and I have to say I wish I had begun earlier! Each hour we spend together engaged in creative handiwork and conversation is time spent for the glory of God. It has brought both of us much joy, and much closer to each other.

Anyways, I am attaching photos of two recent projects. Olivia embroidered a wreath of flowers around her new backpack logo, and I cross stitched a gift for her to bring to the missionaries in Spain, who host a teen retreat for MKs at a farmhouse they own on a mountain in the Basque region. Now that I’ve begun I can’t stop! I have a cross-stitch project of Psalm 23 that I begun 20 years ago in memory of my grandmother, and have finally picked it back up again to finish. It all sits in a basket that I cart around the house, ready to dive into when I have a spare moment or just want to keep my hands and mind busy.

I just wanted to thank you again for the blessing you shared with us. It is like Christmas all over again! Praying the Lord will continue to bless your craft, your family, and your own ministry.”

What a joy to receive her letter and the photos! I wrote back to thank her for remembering me and asked if I could share this with you on my blog. She was delighted.

I then sent her a link to the blog and she responded:

“Enjoyed the blog, and some of the trip descriptions. They sound AMAZING. Germany will be wonderful. We love going there. And my daughter is teaching herself Japanese, so Tokyo is very much a place she is planning to go someday. At least go knowing thank you and hello: arigato (thank you); kinichiwa (hello), LOL. Although I’m sure you’ll get by.”

Olivia is teaching herself Japanese – Wow! At least I know 2 essential words now.

Thank you Denise, for allowing me to share this fun follow up to my Floss Frenzy adventure!

Happy New Year all!

Merry Christmas 2019

December 22, 2019 13 Comments

As I try to keep focused on the true meaning of this beautiful season, and not get too “wrapped” up in the pre-holiday rush, I treasure the traditions that make this my favorite time of the year (it helps that I actually like winter weather too – I know – I’m weird ?)

This past week my friend Sharon and I “rang and sang” for the Salvation Army – our 17th year!

A fun way to share the joy of the season through Christmas Carols, and to help a worthwhile charity.

Next came our annual cookie baking time. My mom and I have been doing this all my life and we’ve never missed a year.

Over the years Mike, my dad, our kids and grandkids have all joined in. This year great grandpa Bruce and the kids were on the decorating team.

Sommer made each cookie a work of art!

Trey tired out early with the pre-baking decorating, but he liked the frosting part,

Grandchildren are a great blessing! As are parents! I am so grateful my mom and dad are still a big part of my life. Dad is 89 and mom is 85 and they’re going strong. Praise the Lord!

Last Thursday was a bittersweet day for me. After teaching quilting at WCTC for 23 years, they have discontinued the adult enrichment classes and it was my last day. My dear students threw a party with delicious food, thoughtful gifts, lots of hugs and a few tears. This is an amazing group of women and I thank God for each one of them (and the few who couldn’t attend too)!

What made it a bit easier was knowing that I will begin teaching at Sew Much More in Waukesha, beginning in February. Where God closes a door, He opens a window. Thanks Wendy!

The Christmas concert at church was lovely, the presents are wrapped, and the kids are excited. I have so much to be thankful for, and having all of you continue to follow my blog is one of my blessings!

In the words of Tiny Tim: “God bless us everyone!”

Scrappy String Blocks

December 15, 2019 16 Comments

When I wrote about my guild’s retreat back in October, I included a photo of some scrappy blocks we made for a charity quilt.

My friend Judy wanted the pattern and I found instructions for it by Lorraine Mooney on this site (thanks for sharing this Laure!): https://www.handmadeguilders.com/downloads/LorraineMooneyStringBlock.pdf

I had fun making a bunch of these blocks from my leftover strips.

The trick is to use a partial seam. I first learned to do partial seams in the late 1980s when I made a quilt entitled “Around the Twist” from Trudie Hughes’ book “Template-Free Quiltmaking”.

It’s a great technique and I was excited to do it again after all these years.

But I must admit, I felt the on-line step-by-steps on this site were a little confusing and, since I love writing instructions, I’d like to share my own version with you. I began with my fish bowl. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know that I keep my scraps in a large fish bowl (I actually have a second one now – to catch the overflow),

and my grandkids love to play with them. (my first post about it was in 2012 – click here to read it)

So I dug out all the strips and chunks that were at least 9 1/2″ long, pressing them as needed,

and then trimming them into a variety of widths, arranged by color.

This block could be done with a “non-scrap” pallette and strips of consistent width also. However I chose to try to lesson the load in my fish bowls ?.

Now for the fun – choosing strips of similar colors and piecing them into units measuring 6 1/2″ x 9 1/2″. Here are my units in progress:

And with a bit of trimming up:

At this point I realized each block would need a pair of 6 1/2″ x 9 1/2″ units, so I continued to sew and voila:

The units are all the same size, I just overlapped them for the photo.

To make a block, select a pair and place a pin at the center of each unit. The easiest way to do this is to cut a 3 1/4″ x 4 3/4″ paper rectangle and place it in the lower left corner of the unit. The pin will mark the upper right corner of the paper:

Lay the 45° line of a ruler along the bottom edge of a unit, with the long edge of the ruler aligned with the pinned center spot:

Cut, and repeat for the second unit in the pair:

Cut a 3 1/2″ center square for your block from a contrasting fabric, and lay it out with these new units:

Flip the lower right piece, right sides together with the center square, and sew a 1 1/2″ seam partial seam as in this photo (this seam is only 1 1/2″ long):

Finger press open:

Flip the lower right piece, right sides together with the center square unit, and sew the complete seam:

Finger press open:

Repeat for the piece in the upper right:

Finger pressing it open:

Pull back the partial seam piece, and sew the unit in the upper left in place:

Flip the partial seam piece, right sides together, with the rest of the block and complete the original seam:

Square up the block to 10 1/2″ (I used scant 1/4″ seams and my blocks required very little trimming):

And your block is done!

I’m seeing a reduction in my scrap stash and I love the way the blocks are coming together.

Have you made quilts with partial seam construction? Would you care to send me a photo to share in a future blog? ?

Gradation Borders

December 8, 2019 1 Comment

The inspiration for this week’s post came from a wonderful event I attended last night called the “On Wisconsin Fiber Arts Biennial”. Every other year the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts holds this exhibit to showcase pieces from fiber artists throughout our State. The opening reception was a lovely opportunity to get a first look at this visual feast!

The piece I have on display is the 3D box I made for the ThreadBenders challenge. I posted about this in September (click here to read that post). We decided to each enter our boxes in the biennial as a group, and here they are:

I was honored to be a part of the photograph taken of all the artists in attendance:

Mike and I spent a lovely couple of hours enjoying beautiful downtown Cedarburg, in it’s Christmas finery, before attending the museum reception. I highly recommend exploring Cedarburg and visiting this fascinating exhibit.

So what does this have to do with borders? Well, I met up with Jackie while enjoying the exhibit and she had made a “slice” of the building quilts featured in the photograph at the beginning of this post. As we talked she said she heard me give my Gradation Play lecture at the Sheboygan Quilters guild. Afterwards she was inspired to purchase some gradation fabrics, and wasn’t sure what to do with them. I mentioned a great place to use these fabrics is in borders, and on the way home I decided it was a good idea to share.

A single border of a gradation fabric can add a lot of interest without taking away from the center of the quilt.

I especially loved using a gradation border in How Beautiful – Liberty (to read a post about this quilt click here):

In this next full size quilt top I struggled to find a border that would work. I searched through my stash and was quite frustrated until I found a black to white pointillist gradation.

In the first two borders the gradation ran perpendicular to the edge of the quilt top. In the third one it ran parallel. It’s a good idea to try it both ways.

In the next quilt I appliquéd circles cut from the background fabric onto a black border.

There are so many ways to use gradation or Ombré fabrics, and placing them in borders is one of my favorites. If you’re working on a Christmas project that needs a quick and effective border… this may be the answer ?.