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So, while many of you are suffering with winter weather, I’m writing from Florida in January once again. Last year at this time my friend Linda invited me to come for a visit to Ft. Myers ~ and to teach for her guild. Today, as I pulled up my blog post about that wonderful trip, I read that it was below zero back then too. If it makes those of you in the north feel any better ~ the first part of my trip was cool and rainy. But I’m not complaining.

On top of that, Mike and I decided it was time to renovate the kitchen and have the floors refinished on almost all of the main level in our home. All the cupboards are gone, and the day I flew away work was continuing on the floors.

By the time I return home Mike should have all the furniture back in place, and the kitchen cupboards will be arriving. I’m feeling very blessed (spoiled rotten might be a better term ☺️).

Linda and I love to stitch together, so as I was packing I looked around to see if I had anything new for us to try. I found the Yorkshire Button Looms I’d purchased in a booth at the Birmingham Festival of Quilts.

There were so many delightful patterns. I especially liked the way the loom was used to make cacti and pumpkins by stuffing the “buttons” rather than finishing them flat.

So I took the looms along with some threads I had on hand, and my first morning here we gave it a try.

Thank goodness for video tutorials! Linda and I started slow, but caught on quickly.

We experimented with different sized looms and different threads.

It was such fun to see how the variety of threads and yarns worked (and don’t we all have fun fibers in our stash?) The colorful one at bottom center still has the “petals” sticking out and can be appliquéd onto something to look like a flower. All the others had the “petals” threaded and gathered up tight to either make a flat “button” (multi-color, farthest left), or stuffed to add a 3D effect. I think I’m going to make a few in orange and combine them with the yellow one to make my own Fall display.

I can’t wait to see what we do with the rest. I enjoyed trying a different type of traditional English button making. The Dorset button class I took in England was great fun too.

Linda’s guild is so energetic and welcoming, and they really seemed to enjoy my Journey With a Compass lecture on Tuesday night. The next day Linda and I decided to make a new project for their guild’s quilt show boutique. Their President, another Linda, sent my Linda the link ~ and the video tutorial was great! It was a fun afternoon of sewing.

The following day Linda invited some of her friends from the guild for a yummy lunch, and it was so nice to get to know these dear ladies. Then, on Friday, the sun decided to make an appearance and the temps got into the 60s. So we went to the Manatee Park to see a large number of these gentle giants.

I’d never seen manatees before, and it was a lovely way to celebrate our first day in the sun. We also visited Linda’s friend Carla. Our time with her was inspiring, but I’m going to save that for my next post.

My last day in Florida was warmer and filled with sunshine. I was scheduled to teach my Mariner’s Compass workshop for the Southwest Florida Quilters Guild, and there were 19 quilters signed up. The problem was the facility where the class was supposed to take place didn’t have the reservation. Thankfully a nearby quilt shop, PJ’s Quilts, was able to set up their classroom so the class could go on. All of these delightful ladies handled the change with grace and good humor and, even though we were rather cozy, a good time was had by all!

I want to send a huge THANK YOU! to my friend Linda, and her husband Carl. They were the best hosts! I so enjoyed spending time with them in their lovely home. God bless you both 😁!

Before we jump into this week’s post I have some information to share concerning the Eco dying from last week. The wood was placed in the Nesco to keep the fabric out of the water. The temperature was set at 350 degrees. Please send photos if you try this method of dying on your own. Thanks!

And now onto the Murder Mystery game!

At the end of last year I shared a photo of all the blocks I’d made for the Murder Mystery Quilt (MMQ) adventure. In December we were sent the instructions for putting it all together, along with the second to the last chapter in the murder mystery. We were to make the quilt, read the chapter, and then guess who the murderer was ~ and submit it all by New Year’s Eve. So this is my quilt top.

 It’s very bright, and I like it! It was fun to make, and all the parts fit together beautifully. It reminded me of a European tile floor. But here’s the best part. A week after we got the instructions for completing the top, Deborah ~ the originator of the MMQ ~ sent this message:

“One of our VERY favorite things to do at the MMQ is surprise members with bonus content.  This year, the ENTIRE QUILT has been hiding a surprise all along!  Our quilt design is based on the game board at Knossos, the oldest known game board in existence.  And now YOU can play Murder In Greece using your QUILT as the game board!”

What a creative idea! So I searched the web for information on the Game Board at Knossos, and here’s what I found:

“The Knossos board game is a unique archaeological object belonging to the Minoan civilization that is preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. It was found by Sir Arthur Evans in the archaeological excavations of Knossos, in an area to the northeast of the palace that has since been called the “corridor of the zatrikion”. It is dated to the time of the second palaces (between 1700 and 1500 BC). It is a rectangular piece, made on a wooden base with valuable materials such as ivory, rock crystal, glass paste, gold and silver. Four cone-shaped ivory pieces were found next to the board, which were probably part of the game.”

Deborah included printable pdfs for the game rules and a large die to roll in the game. The grandkids were here the weekend I finished the quilt top ~ and we decided to play.

Sommer really liked the big die.

The kids and I chose items in my studio for our game pieces. Trey was a spool of red thread, Sommer was a tomato pin cushion, and I was a miniature bed with the quilt I call Flying Goslings.

The game Deborah came up with is similar to Clue. Trey was great at moving our pieces since the “game board” was so large.

The rules were a bit complicated, but we had a great time figuring it out ~ and Sommer was the winner.

I emailed my MMQ friends for photos of their game board quilt and April sent me this one of her’s in progress. Great job April! I wonder how far the others have gotten.

After the murderer had been found, and the quilt instructions were complelte, Deborah held a live chat in which she explained the clues in the chapters and the quilt blocks. She is such a creative and fun person! I’m so glad I traveled along on this journey with her. If your interest has been piqued, and you’d like to participate in the 2025 Murder Mystery, I can tell you it takes place in Machu Picchu and you can Click here for all the information!

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And one more thing…

 I will be teaching at the AQS show in Paducah again this year ~ Praise the Lord!

My dear friend, and travel companion, Lori Dickman will be teaching there too!

Member registration is now open and you can click here to join in on the fun. Non-member registration begins on January 28th, but to join AQS is only $30 for the year, and if you join you can register now!

Please consider joining us in a class if you’re planning on making the trip to Quilt City USA. And please tell your friends!

 

A few weeks before Christmas I posted that I didn’t take any photos of our marbling adventure at a recent Fiberista’s meeting because I was disappointed with the results. I was disappointed with the marbling results, but I was very impressed with another bit of dying we did that day. Barb and her sister have been experimenting with a process called eco dying, with great results. These are some of Barb’s silk scarves. Aren’t they gorgeous!

Prior to that get together she emailed us and said she would do a demo on this before we began marbling, because it had to “cook” for 2 hours. When we arrived she had everything set up for each of us to try our hand at this interesting process. We were thrilled!

Barb had collected and flattened enough leaves for us all. She had them soaking in an iron solution. She’d also “scoured” muslin for us (perhaps I should try marbling scoured fabric 🤔). This meant she’d boiled it with cellulose scour and soda ash. She said it was a pain ~ and we were grateful she was willing to do it for us. We laid our wet scoured fabric on plastic sheeting and began placing the wet leaves in a pleasing arrangement, as Ruth and Barb are doing on the right in the photo below. Lori and I were at the next step in which we took another piece of fabric and wet it either in plain water, or the iron water the leaves had soaked in, and laid it over our leaves. Lori did the first option and I chose the second. That’s why the one in the lower left (mine) is more of a beige color.

Once this was done we rolled the entire length around pvc tubes, wrapped it in plastic, and tied it tightly.

These tubes were placed in a nesco for 2 hours.

During this time we did our marbling, and when we were done it was time for the unwrapping. Once mine was unrolled I took off the top piece of fabric and began removing the soggy leaves. It was beautiful!

This is what both pieces looked like. They are mirror image. At the top is the actual piece, and the bottom one is the cover fabric.

Beautiful! I was so impressed with the process and the results. They all turned out well.

I can’t wait to see what we each do with this beautiful fabric! Thanks Barb, for a wonderful morning! It’s so much fun to play with quilting friends 😁!

The most recent small challenge in our ThreadBenders group was another fun one. Each participant was handed a magazine from the library where we meet, and asked to create a piece of fiber art inspired by page 20. I’ve done this type of challenge before and loved the creativity that resulted (to see those quilts click here). We could be inspired by anything on the page: a photo, a color scheme, a word, a ???

The magazine I was handed was MKE Lifestyle. It has a lovely photo of the Milwaukee Art Museum on the cover:

And this is page 20:

I must admit, I wasn’t very excited. I haven’t been a parent of young kids for quite a while. So I set it aside for a few months and then ~ as summer came to an end ~ the idea struck! It was a wonderful summer and was chock full of fun with family, and especially grandchildren. We flew to Washington for Hanna’s graduation in June. Then Hanna and Will came here for a visit in July. These were wonderful days with our grand “kiddos” ~ playing in water, riding around in golf carts at a wildlife zoo, boating at the cottage, celebrating my parents 90th and 93rd birthdays, and still others just enjoying time together.

Perhaps a bucket needed to be tipped over on my quilt with all the memories flowing out! So I gathered my favorite photographs, printed them on fabric, and trimmed them up.

Then I took a photo of a bucket in the grass,

 and laid it all out.

This was going to work! All I needed to do was a bit of repliqué to make the bucket, and the rest would be easy. I always tell the students in my Repliqué classes that it’s a great technique to have in your toolbox for instances such as this. I traced the lines of the bucket to the back of the paper, pinned it in place on my background fabric, and began to Repliqué.

Next the photographs were stitched in place, and it was time to layer, quilt, and bind.

I think memory quilts are some of the most fun ones to make!

Would you like to see what the rest of the ThreadBenders came up with? Click here ~ and ENJOY!

As 2024 comes to a close (and boy did it go fast!!!), I spent some time thinking about all the wonderful quilting fun I’ve been blessed to enjoy this year. I started with a delightful trip to Florida to visit my friend Linda,

and make houses with her guild (I’m very excited to be going back for another class and lecture this January 😊).

During the year I spent time helping kids sew.

and I went on some great adventures, like Paducah:

and the Birmingham Festival of Quilts, with a tour of England and Wales:

We were blessed to be at the graduation of our oldest grandchild, and watch Hanna unwrap her quilt.

I participated in some very interesting challenges ~ like the cigar box I turned into a clock.

I also enjoyed a Murder Mystery Quilt adventure. Here’s the year’s worth of blocks which I tossed on the floor as I anxiously waited for the instructions on how to put them all together. I couldn’t imagine what it would look like.

The final instructions came over a week ago, and my quilt top is now complete, but I’m going to save that photo for a future post because I think you’ll find the story for the layout quite interesting!

I have two more finished projects to share. This is the embroidery piece I worked on while Hanna and I were in Hawaii together last December. I found the frame in a thrift shop and finished it up this month in time to gift it to Hanna for Christmas.

And for my final quilt of the year ~ I of course have a story 😁:

Last Summer a friend from church approached me with a request. Her mom fought a very difficult battle with cancer over a year ago. Chelley and her mom were very close. She explained that her mom had made quilts for all of her grandchildren but the youngest. While she was going through chemo she began making blocks for Isabelle’s quilt, but she wasn’t able to finish the quilt. I think you can guess the rest ~ I agreed to make that quilt.

The next time I saw Chelley at church she had a bag with 6 appliquéd blocks, some purple fabric, and batting. I knew they were Sunbonnet Sue, but I hadn’t seen this variation before. It seemed quite unique. I’ve never actually made a “Sue” quilt, but I do own an antique one (a portion of it is featured at the top of this post).

At my next retreat I put the blocks on the design wall and asked for ideas from friends on what to do with them.

Can you see what I mean when I call the blocks unique? The skirts were very large and wide; many of the fabrics blended in with the background; and everyone agreed each image looked more like a woman’s dress with a full bodice than a Sunbonnet Sue. I remember seeing similar patterns in which a portion of a dresden plate block made the skirt for Sue. So I did an internet search, and didn’t find any blocks that looked like the ones above. These were the closest:

So what to do? I wanted to keep it simple, so I decided to hand embroider some details and outlining. I think it improved things.

After they were all embroidered and sashed in the purple, it was time to do some quilting.

In the meantime Chelley moved to North Carolina. I recently shipped it to her, and I hope to have photos of Isabelle and her quilt to share some time soon.

Sew, that sums up a wonderful year of stitching fun. I am so very blessed, and I’m anxiously looking forward to what 2025 will bring. God’s blessings on each one of you!

Before Mike and I were married (in 1976) I began to collect things for my hope chest (do they still do that?) I wasn’t into quilting, but I was into painting ceramic items purchased at “Accents Unlimited”. I made a lamp, wall decor, and dozens of ornaments for our future Christmas tree. These are just a few of those:

They’ve held up well over the years. As time went on we added to our collection until we’ve reached the point that just about every branch on the tree is adorned with an ornament. And we love having the grandkids help us decorate the tree and rehearse the old stories. They were here along with my parents this past weekend for our annual cookie baking day. Everyone pitched in! Mom made the dough for our traditional spritz cookies, and Trey wanted to learn how to use the press. He did a great job.

The kids helped me cut out the gingerbread cookies, and everyone helped to decorate – even the grandpas!

It was a wonderful day!

So if you look at our tree you’ll see that it certainly doesn’t look like the fancy ones on display in the high end stores. The variety of ornaments in our collection is huge, and the kids wanted to put them all up. I’m sure many of you have ornaments that have stories too. The ones at the bottom of this post were made by our kids/grandkids. Here are some others:

You might remember a previous post about heart ornaments I made with photos of kids and grandkids. Click here if you want to read that post with instructions on how to make them.

Back in the 80s, after my Grandpa died my Grandma Ardis started going to a senior center. She made many ornaments while there, and I love that they cause me to pause and think about her 😊.

Please note the adorable ice skating couple in the upper left.

Some others were gifts from friends.

I made a lot of ornaments too. I painted a bunch of the santa spoons (lower left) years ago, and they still make me smile. And I made oodles of the “Dairy Christmas” cows back in the 80s. They were a big hit in craft fairs.

Mike’s mom gave us a number of his favorite childhood ornaments for our first Christmas. Can you tell he was into aviation even then?!?

When he first hung the pine cone I made a face and said “that’s not very Christmassy”. He responded “This is José. He used to have arms and legs, and I like him!” That was that. Now we have a tradition. Every year I complain about putting José on the tree while Mike, the kids, and grandkids tell me they love him – and laugh and laugh.

There are many ornaments from our various travels.

And of course – there are the special ones about the true gift of Christmas – Jesus!

I have to share just one more photograph. I finished the Christmas quilt I started at our early December retreat! You may remember that I purchased the tree fabric at Liberty’s in London. The things in front of it have a story too: the painted sled was made by my great Uncle Everett, and painted by his wife, Aunt Hazel. The teddy bear was made from Mike’s mom’s fur coat. When I found the toy rocking horse at a thrift store I knew I had to put them all together.

Wishing you the very merriest Christmas!

I decided to give myself a little pre-Christmas gift, and purchased a ticket for the “Paula Nadelstern: Kaleidoscopes and Quilts Tour with the Artist” at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts yesterday! I’ve admired her quilts for years, and I knew the moment I walked in the door that this was a great decision 😊. A small group was gathered around a snowflake quilt in the entryway, and Paula was chatting with them about it – before the tour even started! Just seeing that quilt up close was worth the trip. Then hearing what she learned about snowflakes in order to make it was very special.

It was hanging next to Paula’s first quilt. She said she was inspired to make it by a beautiful Liberty fabric back in the 80s. That is where her journey into rearranging portions of intricate fabrics into kaleidoscopes began.

This is the description of her exhibit:

I was lucky enough to find a seat before she began, and was fascinated to learn that she lives on the same block where she grew up in the Bronx. She currently lives in a two bedroom apartment on the ninth floor, and that’s where she creates her amazing quilts.

Paula said that she was grateful to have started out working in a series (since she was passionate about kaleidoscopes), because each quilt led her to a “what if?” that led her to the next quilt. She also shared that she is left handed and her labels are all tracings of her hand.

Soon she was moving from quilt to quilt with the group happily following after her. At this point I have to apologize. I was so overwhelmed by the intricacy and beauty of each piece that I forgot to take photos of the tags, and so I don’t have the names of the quilts to go with them. Sorry.

This one was inspired by a tree grate around a tree in New York city. She pointed out that the artisan who made the grate chose to make each of the circles surrounding the center different from each other, so she did too. Beautiful! And I love that Cedarburg has tree grates on it’s main street also.

This piece she designed while looking out of her ninth floor window in Spring. She could see the tops of the trees, with the color specks of the tulips below peeking through.

Paula also shared information about kaleidoscopes, and how the mirrors work inside of them. She said that many are based on 3 mirrors which give 45 degree triangle designs, thus many of her designs do too. But some use 4 mirrors which yield a rectangular pattern. This is one of those:

I think this was my favorite, and it was the one that the colors in my photograph don’t do justice to.

It’s actually behind Paula a few photos back and the brightness is much more accurate there. What intrigued me was the way the light centers in each kaleidoscope glow. And the detail knocked my socks off.

The matchstick quilting on some of her pieces surprised me. It worked so well.

The quilt behind Paula here has two mandalas, one much brighter than the other.

That’s because the one on the left was pieced with the fabrics “right sides together”, the usual way (and please note that she positions her fabric so well – it’s difficult to see the seams!).

And the one on the right was pieced with the same fabrics “wrong sides together” (which she said was incredibly difficult to do because it was “wrong” 😂).

Wow! And I have to share just one more. In this quilt she skipped the intricate piecing in some of the wedges in order to create linear designs.

Isn’t that striking! What a great “what if”. Here’s a detail shot that shows the “un-pieced” wedges:

The entire experience was wonderful. Paula’s quilts will be at the museum until the beginning of March – and I highly recommend seeing them all. But that’s not all. After soaking up the effects of Paula’s phenomenal piecing and designs. I headed over to the other side of the gallery to take in the fiber art of Shin-hee Chin in her exhibit entitled “Rootedness”. Her skill at stitching yarns, threads and other fibers to the top of her quilts provides the most amazing texture.

Chin makes geometric designs,

as well as landscapes. This was my favorite, with a detail to follow.

But I like this one almost as much.

The tiny light leaves are made with “eyelash” trim. How extremely creative!

I really hope many of you get the chance to visit the museum sometime soon. All of the pieces are so much better in person.

I think I’m on creative overload ~ and so grateful for our wonderful museum!

Earlier this year I was invited to tour a new retreat house in Janesville, Wisconsin. After my tour I knew I wanted to spend some time there. A short retreat in the beginning of December sounded like the perfect way to get some things done before the holiday season got busy. A few friends agreed, and last week we had a lovely time at the Bradford House.

All the rooms were spacious, from the dining room:

to the four bedrooms (each with colorful quilts on the beds):

and the sewing areas too (this is just one of the two adjoining rooms):

We enjoyed talking, laughing, eating,

and we got a lot of projects done too!

I acomplished hours of satin stitching on a challenge quilt that’s due after the first of the year. I’m not ready to share it yet, but I’m pleased with the progress I made. My second project used a fabric I bought while on our trip to England and Wales. A friend told me to buy a piece of Christmas fabric at Liberty because whatever I made from it would bring back wonderful memories of the trip each year when I put out my holiday decorations. I decided a simple 9-patch and snowball quilt would be a good way to show off this special tree fabric. Susan suggested adding some blues, and this is the snowball block that resulted:

I made as many 9″ blocks as the fabric would yield with a fun “slap back triangle” technique. I sewed an extra seam while attaching the squares that made the triangles so I’d have some bonus half square triangle blocks. I’m sure many of you have enjoyed this process, but if you want to know how it’s done, please click here for a post I did on it a few years back.

Next I made the 9 patch blocks. During this process I stitched two strips together incorrectly, and I was very happy to try the “new” ripping technique Marie showed me. Many of you probably have used this one for years, but it was new to me, and I got very excited about how quickly it ripped long strips of mis-stitching. You simply take out a few of the first stitches, place the long prong of the ripper inside the seam, with the small ball prong along the outside, hold the strips together with your left hand and push the ripper through the stitches!

It makes a lovely “popping” noise as it slides along quickly unsewing. Sometimes the little things can bring us joy 😊.

As I put the blocks up on the design wall my friends noticed that I unintentionally dressed to match my quilt – and took a quick photo:

The bonus half-square triangle blocks from the snowball corners ended up creating a delightful pieced border.

By the time the retreat was over, my borders were on. I’m looking forward to getting it quilted and hung in time for our Christmas celebrations.

Quilting with good friends is such a blessing. Thanks to Marie, Susan, Cathy and Mary for a wonderful time! And if you’d like to learn more about the Bradford House, please click here to visit their facebook page.