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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.

I’ve purchased a number of pieces of hand marbled fabric over the years. One of my favorites was a fat quarter dyed by Debbie Huff, which I used in a quilt I entitled Crossings II ~ Water and the Spirit.

The fabric was so beautiful that I simply quilted it on the lines of the marbling with invisible thread, finished it in four sections, and beaded them back together as a part of my Crossings series. A few strings of beads adorn the upper left corner and finish it nicely. It’s one of my favorites, so much so that it hangs in my studio.

Another piece I purchased years ago made a lovely cover for my Bible (click here for a post about the making if it).

I do admire beautiful marbling. In fact I bought a silk top at the IQA show in Houston back in the 90s, and I wear it often. The marbling still looks great after many washings.

While at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham I watched a fabric marbling demo. Craig did a great job and helped me make this small sample. He dropped the paint and let me do some of the swirls.

I decided their beginner kit was something I needed to bring back and play with at a future Fiberistas sew day. I tried it out at home on the 4″ x 6″ pieces of fabric included in the kit. The results weren’t stellar, but they weren’t bad either for a first attempt.

I brought the supplies, along with some muslin pieces I’d soaked in alum, to our next sew day and we had fun playing.

So we decided to play more at our next get together – but on larger pieces. I didn’t take any photos at our second attempt, and I think it was because our results were not all that good. Especially for Lori and me. I began with muslin soaked in alum, and the paint patterns on the float liquid looked beautiful, but when I rinsed the fabric afterwards most of the paint washed away and I was left with some rather pale fabric.

What happened? The colors turned out so much better on the fabric from the kit. Ruth loaned me a few pieces of the fabric she’d brought and the color was better (thanks Ruth).

I emailed her and she said it was unbleached muslin treated in the same way mine was. Hmm. I decided to pull out some of my Kona “prepared for dye” fabric (the expensive stuff), and I soaked it in alum for 2 days. I was determined to make prettier large pieces! I set up everything in the kitchen and began in earnest.

The paint on the marbling medium was beautiful – as usual!

And it looked good when the fabric dropped on top. The paint really seemed to soak in well this time.

I decided to let it sit without rinsing for a while after pulling it off the marbling medium.

And when I did rinse, dry, and iron it, I still was disappointed with the lack of brightness:

Perhaps I just haven’t tried the right muslin yet. I’m not sure what to do to improve things, so I think I’ll continue to buy hand dyed and marbled fabric from people who are good at making it. I now have an even greater appreciation for the skill it takes to do this well.

Have you had success with marbling fabric? Any suggestions? Any photos you’d like to share?

Two years ago, at my annual eye appointment, I was told I had the start of cataracts. My vision deteriorated quite quickly after that, requiring three prescription changes in under two years. At the last visit I was told that my cataracts were very fast growing – and it was time for surgery. What a blessing that turned out to be! I was able to have my astigmatism corrected via laser, and then have trifocal lenses put in place in both eyes. I can read, work on the computer, and see distance without glasses for the first time since I was nine years old! Amazing!

That being said, nothing is perfect. It’s a small thing, but to read I need to have bright light now. Enter Emma. A month ago I brought home my new Janome. I named her after my great grandmother (click here for that post) and we’ve been getting along famously. I realized right away that she needed to have tattoos like all her friends (decals really). That was an easy fix – and I think she looks stunning.

In the above photo please notice the bar that says “Janome” on the upper left. This is actually a light that slides back flush with the machine, and then slides out to put light right where it’s needed. This is especially helpful since my eyes need more light now to line up blocks for piecing before I put them under the needle.

In the past I’ve used a generic clamp magnifier to see detail work. It was a bit cumbersome. Emma to the rescue again. She has her own easy to attach magnifier:

that swings out of the way when it’s not needed.

And there’s one more feature I didn’t think I’d use much. I was wrong. Attached to the right of the very large foot pedal is a smaller one ~ and it works the automatic cutter on the machine ~ hands free. Brilliant!

I’m finding more things I like about her every day. Today’s stitching adventure was to make the final blocks in the Murder Mystery Quilt. I really love the apricot batik fabric, and these strips of blocks were once again very interesting.

Next month we won’t get any new blocks to make ~ instead we’ll learn how they all fit together. I’m looking forward to it!

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And one more thing! I was cleaning out some drawers and found a “what is it?” item. It’s made of black shiny plastic. One side has a piece of paper covering a thin, gray, spongey adhesive disc. Any ideas???

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FYI ~ the watercolor eyes at the top of this post were painted by my niece, Kaitlin Walsh. She does amazing anatomical art. I did a post about her a few years ago, and you can click here to read that post. If you’d like to read more about her, please visit her website: https://www.lyonroadart.com/. She also has a facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=lyon%20road%20art. Kaitlin has many fascinating items available for sale. If someone on your Christmas list is interested in anatomical art ~ framed prints, mugs, coasters, puzzles, etc. ~ I know you’ll find her site a blessing.

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions for combining batting scraps into usable pieces in last week’s post. This week’s post is another topic that you might want to respond to at the end. I love how we can learn from each other.

Do you have a design wall? They really are invaluable! The ones I’ve used for years are 7′ x 4′ styrofoam insulation boards, covered with gray fabric (they started as 8′ boards and I had to cut them down to fit in my studio). I don’t have them covered in flannel, since flannel attracts threads and I want things to look neat when I photograph quilts on them. The down side is I have to pin things in place. It’s a choice that works for me. My walls are covered with a charcoal gray polyester fabric I found on a clearance rack at JoAnns. Here they are in front of my quilt “storage box” (click here for a post about my “magic box”).

Tall Pines retreat has a number of flannel backed tablecloths, hanging on the walls flannel side out, to be used as design walls. I think this is a great idea for quilters with limited space because it can be hung in front of a closet (or other similar area) from just a few nails at the top, and taken down when not needed. Some quilters put grommets in the tablecloths to reinforce the hanging spots. Here’s my project hanging from one of the tablecloths at Tall Pines.

While I was working on it, my friend Deb began putting her One Block Wonder blocks up on another tablecloth design wall.

It was going well, but when she realized she wasn’t going to get it sewn together before the retreat ended she was a bit disappointed. It would have been a big effort to take all the hexagons down, and then replace them on her wall at home. So, we came up with a better solution! She rolled the pieces up inside the tablecloth to take them home,

and then replaced the retreat center’s cloth with a new one. So here’s the lesson learned:

If you plan to work on a quilt at a retreat, and you’ll need a big chunk of time to figure out block placement, take your own flannel backed tablecloth so you’re ready to transport it home easily if needed!!!

What does your design wall look like? Any suggestions you’d like to share?

 

When I went looking for a piece of batt to layer the friendship quilt from last week’s post, I couldn’t find one big enough in all the leftover pieces from previous projects. I didn’t want to cut into a new batt for this small project, so I decided to piece some of the chunks I had. I learned a simple way to do this years ago, and decided it might be of help to some of you.

Typically the chunks we want to piece together do not have even edges. This trick makes them fit perfectly. Simply overlap the uneven edges.

Place a ruler on the overlap, being sure there’s some of each piece past the edge of the ruler and cut.

Remove the excess batt.

Then stitch the even edges together with a “Z” stitch. I recommend matching your thread and making the horizontal stitches about 1″ apart. Don’t pull them tight ~ just enough to cause the edges to lie comfortably against each other.

Once stitched it should hold together well enough to layer and pin the quilt sandwich. And once finished the quilting will hold the batting secure. This is the batting being pieced for my runner (note needle almost half way up).

The “Z” stitch is a temporary stitch, so be gentle as you put the sandwich together. I personally would rather do this than purchase batting tape. Do you have a way you prefer? Any other ideas for using up scrap batt?

Prior to our trip to the UK I did a post about the friendship block project I was putting together for the tour.

My blocks were made from Liberty fabrics, and you can click here to read that post. While in Birmingham I collected the blocks from the participants. One evening it was time to lay them out on my bed, and gather 1 from each pile to make an evenly mixed stack for each quilter. In the past we would have the ladies walk around and pick up the blocks themselves, but it never seemed to come out right. I eventually discovered that making the piles in a quiet room by myself yields the best results.

Not everyone joined the exchange, so those who did brought extra blocks to get signatures from the others… and from interesting people we met along the way. Also, a few quilters stepped out and created their own exchange. It was fun to see the variety. One night we had a get together for the blocks to be returned, and then the collecting of additional signatures began.

During our travels, many of us asked people we met along the way to sign blocks too! Like Calico Kate!

And Jen Jones

A few weeks after our return home I went on a quilt retreat with the Fabricators. One of my goals was to put the friendship squares together – and I did. I also had some larger “test” blocks I’d made when coming up with the pattern, and I decided to stitch them into a back for my table runner (on the left). I got them both pieced while on retreat.

Then I finished it up at home. A few weeks later we had our trip reunion and I was excited to see what the others had done with their blocks!

Each one was delightful! Thanks ladies for making this project so much fun!

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And one more thing! Friends of mine from church were married last month, and I couldn’t resist making them a wedding quilt. I chose a top from my UFO pile, and finished it just for them. To read a post about the making of this fun, scrappy block click here!

I stitched their names across the top border, and because Wes and Rose are planning on going into the ministry, I included a Bible verse across the bottom.

Last summer I went to a rummage sale of a lady who’s sister was a quilter, and had passed away. She had some beautiful pieces of fleece, and one of them was perfect for the back of this cozy quilt. Isn’t it lovely?

May God bless Wes and Rose in their married life!