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A Tribute and the Quiltilly Saga – Part 2

May 12, 2013 2 Comments

The Milwaukee Art Quilters is a very talented group of artists and I am honored to be a member. Recently we had a showing of a group of our quilts that were made as a tribute to a dear member who passed away in 2011.

Nancy Kimpel was not only a skilled quilter, but her many talents also included knitting, and dyeing of fabric and yarn. She was a great inspiration and encouragement to the group. When she died her dear husband John and close friend, Mary Ellen Heus, decided to divide up her hand dyed fabrics/threads into 40 bags, bring them to a meeting, and challenge members to create a piece of fiber art from the contents of the bag for an exhibit to be called “Inspired by Nancy”. We all clamored for a bag.

The fabrics and hand dyed perle cottons in my bag were lovely and I decided that I didn’t want to add anything to them. They were interesting enough to stand alone. I’d always wanted to play with overlapping geometric shapes in a positive/negative fashion and the patterns in one of the pieces of Nancy’s fabrics gave me a great place to start. So I began drafting and drawing until I got a design I liked, used my Repliqué technique to appliqué the top and then had a lot of fun quilting it all.

I was pleased with the effect of extending the designs from the center into the border with the quilting.

The resulting group of quilts were amazing. If you missed the exhibit at UWW, you can still see the quilts on our blog: http://milwaukeeartquilters.wordpress.com/.

The Saga of Quiltilly, Part 2

As you may remember Quiltilly, one of the Quiltsissies, has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. We will begin with Evelyn’s cryptic response to the ransom note:

“I’m sorry. How high is the ransom? Hummmm. I’ll have to check my stash.”

The kidnappers quickly realized she hadn’t actually read the note and gave her a bit of instruction:

“Click on the first picture above to read the ransom note!”

This was her next unsatisfactory response:

“Sorry I haven’t learned how to download to my computer and could only read about half of the ransom note. I was able to read the tattoo. Sounds like you two are having way too much fun since we left.”

To which the impatient kidnappers replied:

“Can you tap on the picture and then reverse pinch on the screen? Remember we are the kidnappers, do not humor us. Tilly is in good company. No suffering…….yet“

At this point she caught on and sent this message:

“Wow. The kidnappers even have to educate the victims. Okay, will diamonds do? I’ll do anything you say to get my Tilly back.”

To which they messaged back:

“Any unmarked jewels wrapped in a brown paper bag. Just make us happy.”

So the kidnappers and the Quiltsissies had an enjoyable ride back to Wisconsin with time to climb a tree:

And a cultural stop too!

From there began the long portion of the ride back to Wisconsin and the stress and excitement were a bit much for poor, little Quiltilly. This message and photo were sent back to Evelyn:

“Not traveling well. She threw up”

What will happen when Tilly gets to her new home? Will she behave? Be here next week for the continuing adventures of the Quiltsissies!

Big Stitches and an Exciting Saga

May 5, 2013 3 Comments

A few weeks ago at the Sun Prairie Quilt Show I was stopped in my tracks by a pieced, blue ribbon winning quilt called “Conceived in Liberty” and made by Patty Roost of Fort Atkinson, WI. What grabbed me was that the quilt was quilted with “the Big Stitch” and it really worked!

Typically hand quilting stitches are supposed to be even and small, with prize winning stitches smaller than 12 stitches to the inch. With the Big Stitch a larger thread is used (perle cotton) and the stitches are meant to be about a 1/4″ long so that they show (for a blog with instructions for the Big Stitch click here).

I found this quilting method very effective on this quilt and while I was smiling and staring at it, the white glove lady nearby informed me that she was Patty. I complimented her work and asked if I could feature her as a topic of the week. She obviously agreed – thanks Patty!

I’ve mixed the Big Stitch with free motion quilting in one of my smaller art quilts and really enjoyed doing it. Plus I felt it added some pizazz to the design.

Patty’s quilt show’s how effective it can be in a traditional quilt.

Have you used the Big Stitch? Please tell us about it.

On a completely different note – I’d like to share a story in parts over the next few weeks in hopes it will make you smile:

The Saga of Quiltilly

Once upon a time there were 2 quilters, named Chris and Wendy, who liked to take others on quilting adventures in Europe. Prior to a trip to France in 2008 they talked about creating a traveling companion named Quiltina. She was based on a cardboard cut out called Flat Stanley who travels with school children and helps them to journal their trips. Wendy made the first Quiltina and then created her friend Quiltanna for Chris. These Quiltsissies joined the quilting cruise in France. They brought along a third friend, Quiltilly. While on the cruise a contest was held and the winner, Evelyn, was awarded Quiltilly as her prize.

Since then the Quiltsissies have been on many delightful adventures and they were reunited this past April in Paducah when Evelyn and her sister Hazel came to stay with Wendy and Chris. Here they are getting reacquainted in the kitchen/studio:

When Evelyn left to fly to Wisconsin she left poor Quiltilly behind. Upon realizing her error she texted this message:

“Look after Quilt Tilly for me. Hazel says you should drag her through the mud because she has been lost and abandoned.”

Wendy and Chris found Quiltilly stuffed in a tote bag and when they pulled her out they noticed that her left hand was missing, her feet were both hanging by threads and she looked a bit neglected and worn out by all her travels (she’s been all over Europe and even to Bali!). They were very concerned and wanted Evelyn to know how valuable she was, so they tied a knot in her stump of a hand and decided to write a ransom note :-)! This picture was texted to Evelyn:

Quiltilly wanted to send a message and picture of her own:

“Mom, how could you? Aunt Wendy (she makes me call her that) tattoo’d my butt! They said you told them to drag me through the mud! But they feed me chocolate, take me to art galleries and doctor my damaged left arm. Maybe this isn’t so bad, but if you love me, you’ll pay the ransom. Love, Tilly

Quiltilly's tattoo — National Quilt Museum logo tattoo

To find out Evelyn’s response please join us next week for the continuing Saga of Quiltilly!

Paducah Glimpses

April 28, 2013 9 Comments

Another year’s pilgrimage to Paducah is but a memory. In spite of a lot of rain and the coldest temps I can remember during quilt week, it was a wonderful trip with many highlights. The dogwoods were at their blooming peak! The quilts were stunning and inspiring! My classes were filled with delightful, enthusiastic and talented students! The vendors were way too tempting. Fun times were spent with good friends! And there were many giggles along the way. I wasn’t as good as I should have been about snapping pics, but here are some special times I did capture:

Wendy’s birthday lunch at Grace Church with a special rendition of Happy Birthday by Quiltman and Bobbin!

Yummy, good times!

Quilting on the back of the Best of Show quilt by Renae Haddadin and Karen Kay Buckley.

Hanging around with dear friends Hazel and Evelyn after a “Bubble Tea” at Etcetera.

Hanging the Milwaukee Art Quilter’s group entry: The Jenning’s Quilt and

Accepting the third place award from Bonnie Browning with fellow Marq member Judy Zoelzer-Levine.

Watching a very enthusiastic employee at Kirchoff Bakery doing the “basket dance” while waiting for our delicious sandwiches.

Dinner with friends at JP’s.

Making good use of car time on the ride home with the Quiltsissies observing (more on them in a future post :-))

It’s Paducah Time!

April 21, 2013 2 Comments

A big hi y’all from sunny Kentucky!

Wendy and I began our adventure this morning

and for the first time we traveled to Paducah via Chicago so we could make a stop at Troy Fabric’s Fabriganza. Troy is a fabric manufacturer and distributor and this weekend they were hosting a big warehouse sale. There were shelves and tables full of beautiful bolts of fabric.

Wendy shopped for the kits for her “Block of the Month” at Frank’s Sewing Center in Waukesha.

Then a nice man helped us load the bolts into an already full van.

As evening neared we knew we were getting close when we crossed over the river from Illinois to Kentucky via the “Flying Geese” bridges. Here we’re approaching them.

And here the geese are flying overhead.

Upon arrival we hoofed all our things up 25 stairs to our B&B above a Mexican Restaurant. We were then able to set up our studio in an area some people refer to as a kitchen 🙂

Tomorrow we’ll help hang the quilts in the 2013 American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show and Contest.

We are very excited to be here and we are also very excited to share that we have some updated information about our May 2014 Baltic Cruise.

We’ve finalized the cruise details: dates, inclusions (daily shore excursions and a pre-trip extra night in Copenhagen!) and prices. You can find all the information at www.chrisquilts.net/trips. We still don’t have pricing for the airfare, but we do want to be sure we get enough cabins reserved. This is your chance to visit the site and reserve your spot now!

Stay tuned! Next week we’ll have pictures from Quilt Week!

Best Part of Spring!

April 14, 2013 1 Comment

To me, the best part of Spring is that it’s quilt show season. Last week was non-stop overcast and rain – perfect weather for being inside at a show. And last weekend was also filled with opportunities in our area.

The Crazy Quilter’s show in Mukwonago, WI is always a treat. The variety and quality of quilts was inspiring and the vendors were chock full of temptations! I had the pleasure of being one of the judges this year and it was a real blessing to be a part of such a well run show. My only regret was that I forgot to take my camera :-(.

This same weekend was also the date for the Sun Prairie Quilt Show. This is a unique show in that it has been run by the same person, Klaudeen Hanson, in the same location for 39 years! Amazing! I’m sure that’s a record! I have been a part of her group, the Prairie Heritage Quilters since I began quilting in 1987. This year we added a special exhibit of quilts by the 3 teachers in the group: Klaudeen, Joanie Zeier Poole and myself. We also each did some free demonstrations for the attendees on Sunday and were blown away by the response – standing room only. What a joy!

I did bring my camera and would like to share a few pictures of the show. This one is of the teacher exhibit. A few of my quilts are on the right, Klaudeen’s bright piecing graces the center and Joanie’s amazing heirloom quilting is to the left.

My dear friend and traveling companion, Wendy Rieves, won a Founder’s award for her latest block of the month quilt which she teaches at Frank’s Sewing Center in Waukesha, WI.

This room contained some of the smaller quilts and quilted items. My dear friend, Ida Porzky, made the flower table runner.

I was very proud of a student in my Open Lab. Louise Sundquist is fairly new to quilting and recently jumped into creating her own art quilts. I had to twist her arm a bit to get her to enter her sunflowers quilt (lower right), but doesn’t it look delightful?

There were great vendors at this show too. What a lot of inspiration for one weekend!

Then there’s just one more “show” I have to mention. It’s actually a Milwaukee Art Quilter’s exhibit taking place at UWW called “Inspired by Nancy”. Nancy Kimpel was a dear friend, talented fiber dyer/artist and marq member who passed away a few years ago. Each member of Marq was given a bag of her fabric and asked to make a small wall quilt for this exhibit. It is a wonderful collection of quilts. Here are just a few photos (but they really don’t do the exhibit justice):

The piece on the left of the kite on Milwaukee's lakefront is one of Nancy's quilts — The piece on the left of the kite on Milwaukee’s lakefront is one of Nancy’s quilts

If you would like to see them in the cloth, here’s the information:

MArQ “INSPIRED BY NANCY” QUILTS • FINE ARTS GALLERY • 1500 N. University Drive, Waukesha • Gallery open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.; Wednesday: 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.; Friday: 10:00 – 11:00 a.m., 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Through April 29.

This coming weekend Wendy and I will be packing up the car and heading for Paducah! I can barely wait. So next week I’ll be blogging from Quilt City USA! I’ve already started packing for my classes – I just love Spring!

Does your guild have a Spring show? Are you a part of it? Do you have a photo you’d like to share? Please email them to me at .

PS Registration has begun for Summer classes at WCTC. All of the information can be found at wctc.edu. To find Wendy’s and my classes click on “Course Search” in the bar at the top; type “quilting” in the “Title/Subject” box and click on “submit”; Then click on each class for the details. Here’s a sneak preview:

Beginning Free Motion Quilting 6-14-13 (sorry, no picture)

Quilt In 6-28-13 (sorry, no picture here either) – this class is a one day Open Lab where the students work on whatever project they choose and I’m there to help in whatever way I can and I’ll provide a surprise or two also :-).

Mariners Compass — Compass Capers 7-12-13

logs and chains — Logs and Chains 8-9-13

Wendy's T-Shirt Quilt 6-4-13 — Wendy’s T-Shirt Quilt 6-4-13

Wendy's Dresden Tree Skirt — Wendy’s Dresden Tree Skirt 7-13-13

Wendy's Stars of Fortune 8-10-13 — Wendy’s Stars of Fortune 8-10-13

Diamonds, Gangsters and Quilts???

April 7, 2013 13 Comments

The diamond is a fascinating shape when used in a quilt. I’ve enjoyed playing with the lone star pattern:

and the tumbling block (in a little less than traditional way):

But I have a different sort of diamond story to tell in this week’s blog. This story has been passed down by my husband Mike’s Mom, Johanna, who was 10 years old when it happened. I hope you’ll find it interesting, even though it has nothing to do with quilts (pretty clever segue – huh? :-)).

My husband is from Mason City, IA and his Great Grandfather, Furman Stephenson, was a prominent citizen during his career in the brick and tile industry.

One morning, in March of 1934, Grandpa Furman (who was 76 at the time) went into the First National Bank of Mason City to transact some business. He was wearing a 1 carat diamond tie tack that he had received in payment for a car. While he was in the bank Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and the gang showed up to rob the bank! They took all the cash and then grabbed a bunch of hostages to line up on the running boards of the cars as a human shield and make their getaway.

Grandpa Furman was one of the hostages and as one of the gangsters pushed him up against the car he asked “what do you want with me? I’m an old man and I’ll only slow you down.” The gangster agreed and pushed him in the dirt … with the diamond tie tack in plain view! After the gang departed Grandpa picked himself up, dusted himself off and went about his business. That night during dinner a neighbor called to ask how Furman was doing. When Grandma Sadie asked why, the neighbor told her that he had been in the bank that morning when the Dillinger gang robbed it. The family story goes that facing the gang was nothing compared to facing Grandma’s wrath for not having mentioned it to her :-)!

The diamond was passed down to Mike’s Grandfather who had it made into a ring and Mike inherited the ring when his step-father passed away a few years ago.

Well, I’ve heard this story many times and my Mother-in-law was always a bit disappointed after sharing it because it had never been documented. When she passed away in January, we took her ashes out to Mason City to be buried next to Dad and during her funeral I shared the story of the ring Mike was wearing with an acquaintance. After hearing it he told me that a few years back the Globe Gazette, Mason City’s newspaper, had begun holding a reenactment of the bank robbery every March and he thought they would be interested in the story. We contacted the paper and 2 weeks later the story Mom had shared for so many years was finally documented on the front page of the Globe Gazette with this picture of Furman, Sadie and the ring:

If only we had thought to do this while Mom was still around to see it in print. I hope you enjoyed the story and promise to get back to a more quilt related topic next week!

An Alternative to Fusibles

March 24, 2013 3 Comments

The students in my Open Lab class at WCTC are always bringing in interesting projects to work on! This semester June Puls chose to create a winter quilt from the book: Snowfolk Friends by K.P. Kids (I did a web search and the book is out of print 🙁 ). The quilt contains rows of delightful snowpeople and winter designs that are meant to be created using fusible web appliqué. In brief: each little piece needed to be traced onto fusible web, fused to the correct fabric, cut out and put together on the background fabric “jigsaw puzzle” style. There were so many tiny parts to the snowpeople row June was a bit overwhelmed:

So I suggested using Repliqué. Repliqué is the technique from my first 2 books: “Repliqué Quilts” and “Snuggle & Learn Quilts For Kids”. I know that many of you own one of these books, but perhaps you hadn’t thought of using it for this type of project! In brief: the pattern is traced full size, each part of the design is stitched directly onto this tracing from the pattern side, turned to the fabric side, trimmed close to the stitching and then the raw edges are covered with with a satin stitch finish. June seemed skeptical at first, but is now a believer!

She’s a very talented quilter and she did an amazing job! Everyone in class was very impressed:

All of the other rows in the quilt are much simpler (she tackled the tough one first). Some are pieced, but June says the other appliqué rows will also be Repliquéd!

Just about any pattern written for fusible appliqué can be Repliquéd. Also, photographs and children’s drawings can also be recreated in fabric with this technique. And one of the best benefits is that the quilt keeps a soft “hand” because there is no added stiffness from the fusible web.

Have you used Repliqué in a unique way? I’d love to hear about it!

Talking Quilts

March 10, 2013 5 Comments

Do your quilts talk to you? I’ve discovered mine do and when I don’t listen, they usually don’t turn out as well. This is the story of a conversation I had with a recent quilt. A few weeks back I was piecing a quilt top for an upcoming class at WCTC. I’ve discovered that any class that involves some variation on Log Cabin will be popular, thus I need to make one of these every so often. Once the top was finished (and made totally from my stash :-)), I couldn’t decide which fabric to use for the border.

I was really leaning towards the plaid (just because I think it’s pretty and I’ve been wanting to use it). I laid the fabrics out around the top and the quilt virtually screamed “use the paisley”!

I, of course, asked “are you sure”? The quilt answered “yes”, so I decided I needed a second opinion and took it to Open Lab where the class unanimously voted for the paisley. Well, I gave in and added a 5″ paisley border with a 1/2″ dark green flange tucked into the seam for drama (if you’re unfamiliar with adding a flange, click here! This was a topic of conversation at my WCTC Open Lab this week :-)).

Go figure. The quilt was right!

Do your quilts talk to you? Have you had an experience where you refused to listen? Please tell us about it.

A Tribute and the Quiltilly Saga – Part 2

Big Stitches and an Exciting Saga

The Saga of Quiltilly

Paducah Glimpses

It’s Paducah Time!

Best Part of Spring!

Diamonds, Gangsters and Quilts???

An Alternative to Fusibles

Talking Quilts

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The Saga of Quiltilly

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