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The definition of achromatic is: “without color”, and it’s also the theme of our latest “big” challenge at ThreadBenders:

“Quilts must be black, white and/or gray (no off-white or blue grays). Any technique, designs or embellishments may be used in the quilt center, as long as there is no color added.  Size 37″ square: center of quilt 32″ x 32″; visible 2″ solid white border all around; and 1/2″ binding in the same metallic gray used by all.”

The rules may seem a bit intense, but since the theme was so open to interpretation, we wanted the quilts to still have a cohesive look.

Have you ever made an achromatic quilt? I had a bunch of ideas, but one by one they didn’t turn into what I envisioned. The first was to try “thread sketching” a photo of the pier at our previous home. A 32″ square whole cloth in which the design is only done in thread sounded like fun. So I printed the photo in black and white, and made a sample pattern. Then I layered a small quilt sandwich and jumped in.

The sample on the right was as far as I got when I realized it wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be. So on to plan B. I took a photograph of a curvy road and decided to have “geese” fly down it using a photo altering program. After a while I knew this wasn’t what I wanted to do either.

As a side note some of you might be interested to know that I no longer use Photoshop™, but have changed to Affinity Photo™. It’s been a good change for me. Contact me if you’d like more information.

So now what? I’ve said before that artists are inspired by many things, and my faith in Jesus has been a big part of the inspiration for many of my quilts. So one night I simply prayed for an idea that would bring Him glory. In the morning I had a new direction based on Genesis 1:4 “And God divided the light from the darkness”. Why don’t I pray about it first ?!?

I love working with swirls and spirals, so I searched the internet for a positive/negative, black/white swirling image to give me the “bones” of the design. I deleted some portions, and added others until I was happy with it. Then I had the pattern enlarged to actual size, straight stitched the pattern through the black and white layers,

trimmed away what wasn’t needed, and spent two days at our December retreat satin stitching it all via Repliqué (on my new machine – I love it!).

It was looking good, but something was missing. I had another conversation with the Lord and thought about how sin is often referred to as darkness in the Bible, while Jesus is called the “Light of the World”. According to the Gospel of John, Jesus was the Word God spoke to create everything. He was there at the beginning, and God’s plan was already in place to have Him suffer, die and rise again to pay the price for all who would believe. So I needed to add the cross. That was what was missing. I added it at top center, white on white (it’s subtle, but it’s there ~ and much easier to see in person). Then it was all framed with a gray flange, and the white border.

Once the quilt sandwich was pinned I experimented with different quilting designs, drawing them on with a sliver of soap on the dark fabric and an erasable fabric marker on the light.

The quilting step was great fun (I love spirals!). When that was completed I decided that the white border was so narrow it might not need any quilting. So I put on the binding and discovered I was wrong. The border did need quilting. Then it was finished!

Last week was the “big reveal” meeting where we bring in our challenge quilts, do a sort of “bed turning” in which we all get to see them one at a time, and then wait while our fellow ThreadBender ~ and amazing judge ~ Carol Butzke, juries them to select the eight that will be entered in the Ultimate Guild Challenge competition at the AQS show in Grand Rapids. There were thirteen quilts revealed and they were each wonderful! They are now posted to our ThreadBenders site. To see them you can click here! I’m so blessed to be a part of this talented group!

These quilts have been invited to be displayed at the Crazy Quliters Quilt Show in Mukwonago, WI on March 29-30. For all the details on that show click here.

 

This winter I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Florida for teaching and quilting fun. I’ve also been on two great retreats. One at Tall Pines with my Fabric-ator friends, and the other at Cattail with the Sisters of the Cloth. While on the Cattail retreat I talked the ladies into taking a road trip to Baraboo to visit Ardyth’s Sew and Vac (so I could pick up my new sewing machine tote 😊)

and then have lunch at Jen’s Alpine Cafe across the street. It was lovely!

Both stops were great ~ and there were some other fun shops in Baraboo as well. I’m so grateful for all these winter adventures with friends.

During this time I left Mike with a house that was anything but normal. As I mentioned in January, we had our kitchen torn out,

and almost all the hardwood floors on the main level refinished (meaning all the furniture was moved out 🤪).

The floors were finished in January, and then the cabinets were delayed. They finally were delivered the Tuesday after my last retreat ~ and John got to work.

He had them in by Friday, and we’re very pleased!

That same day we had the measuring done for the countertops, and that will only take 2 to 3 weeks (UGH!). In the meantime we’re looking at tile and light fixtures. So many decisions.

And what does this have to do with quilting??? Well, after trips to three different tile stores there was nothing I liked enough to use for the backsplash. The image at the top of this post is the old subway tile that was torn out (and very poorly done). Maybe we’d have to go simple like that again. We tried one more store and ~ I FOUND THE ONE!!! Wait until you see it! With the yellow walls and sage cabinets I didn’t want to add any more color (I know neutral is in, but I love color so much that I had to have sage cabinets ~ even if they’re not trendy 😊). The countertops will be white with a slight marbling in shades of gray and beige.

Drum roll please…

Do you see tone-on-tone texture? I’m leaning towards the rectangles. The entire backsplash will be a mix of all the different textures ~ sort of like a patchwork quilt!!! Here’s a close up:

I think it will quietly say “a quilter lives here”. And what about a grout with a light sage green tint to it? I’m so excited. Decision made ~ and Mike likes it too. So now we wait.

As promised after my trip to Florida last month, I want to introduce you to my new friend Carla. She has a lovely home on the river in Labelle Florida.

Her business is called Kits by Carla. She has a shop/classroom in her home, and it’s also a quilter’s retreat.

Linda showed me Carla’s book the night before our visit, and I’m intrigued by her techniques. Once we arrived she introduced us to some of the lovely ladies from her sewing group. I told her I was interested in her “Shortcut Sheets”, and I wanted to purchase her book.

To view her video tutorials click here. In essence Carla has done all the math, and all you have to do is pick the basic block you want to make. You then follow her instructions to do some simple strip piecing of what she calls a “sheet”. The sheet is then cross-cut into oodles of the chosen block, and she gives instructions for how to make them in many different sizes. I’ve already watched a few of her videos and I’m looking forward to trying her techniques in the near future!

As we entered her living room to see some of the quilts she’s made with these blocks, I was impressed with her corner quilt.

Why didn’t I think of hanging a quilt around a corner. What a fun perspective!

I’ve always loved the Hunter’s Star pattern, and have made a few of my own quilts using Deb Tucker’s ruler (this is one of mine).

I can’t wait to try Carla’s method because it looks even easier, and it yields extra blocks that make a great border. She’s also discovered that the Hunter’s Star blocks can be rotated to make maple leaves (be sure to notice the fun border made from the leftovers):

or a pattern she referred to as No Star Hunter’s Star (also with a leftovers border).

She calls this quilt pattern “Mosaic”, and it contains all of the different basic blocks that can be made with her technique.

It was a wonderful visit. I think I have some fun and playful piecing in my future. Thanks Carla!

PS Carla said that if you book a retreat with her she cooks the meals. I wish I could have stayed long enough to try it out.

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And one more thing…

The ThreadBenders have an exhibit of work hanging at the Wauwatosa Library through the end of February. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it! If you are unable to attend, you can see some more photos on our site by clicking here!

This past week I learned that a very dear friend of mine passed away at her home in Arizona. Evelyn and I met many, many years ago at the Log Cabin Quilt Guild in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. We connected right away and I was excited to join in a small group she put together called the “Quilty Bees”. We all collected bee fabrics and made fun projects from them, but Evelyn was definitely the Queen Bee.

She was a very talented quilter, teacher and lecturer. She was known for her beautiful vests and embellished art quilts. I wrote a post about some of her amazing work five years ago. Please click here to read all about it (and be aware that the first part of this post is from long ago ~ and not current information).

I learned a lot from her over the years, especially about paint sticks. On a visit with her in Arizona she shared her knowledge and helped me to make a quilt that ended up winning awards. She even used them to make the shadow along the lower edge of the flying geese in our collaboration quilt: Intragalactic Journey (aka Out of the Bathtub).

In 2008 Evelyn joined Wendy and me on our quilter’s riverboat cruise in France. We had a pre-trip contest in which we sent fabric to each participant and asked them to make something for the trip. Evelyn’s vest was the winner, and her prize was her very own Quilt Sissie. She named her QuiltTilly.

Evelyn’s sister Hazel was also a quilter, and she shared Evelyn’s love for life ~ and quilting. In 2010 they invited me travel to Alaska, and teach for a few guilds near Hazel and Eddie’s home in Kenai. What a fantastic adventure that was! I met so many lovely people and saw many amazing sites. The classes went well, and the best part was who I was with.

Then in 2012 I was invited to teach for shops and guilds in Arizona ~ while staying with Evelyn once again (Hazel lived there half the year). This was my bedroom (and her studio) there.

Our time in Mesa (and the surrounding area) was great. Plus we made a trip to a quilt show in Tucson. What a wonderful adventure!

The following year Wendy and I invited the sisters to join us on our annual trip to Paducah for the AQS show.

We even got to meet Quiltman and Bobbin while having lunch at Grace Church.

We had a lot of fun, but all good things come to an end. After we took Evelyn and Hazel to the airport we discovered that Evelyn had left QuiltTilly behind. That started one of the silliest adventures I’ve ever blogged about! If you’ve never read the story (I have posted about it before), and you’d like a good laugh, you’ll want to visit the links below (and be aware ~ the saga of QuiltTilly is at the end of each of these posts). To begin with, we noticed QuiltTilly was in rough shape. She’d traveled all over the world with Evelyn and seemed to be suffering a bit (one hand was actually missing!)

So Wendy and I conspired to send a ransom note while driving home from Paducah (click here to read about it).

While QuiltTilly stayed with me she got into a bit of mischief (click here and then here for that part of the story).

In the end the ransom was paid and there was a happy reunion (click here for the conclusion!) I told you it was silly ~ and I’m so grateful for friends I can be silly with!

A few years later Wendy and I led a trip to the quilt show in Sisters, Oregon. Evelyn, Hazel, and their Quilt Sisters joined us for another wonderful adventure.

This was followed by a cruise of the St. Lawrence River from Quebec to Boston a few years later.

One of my fondest memories of time spent with Evelyn was prior to my trip to Japan. She wasn’t able to travel with me that time, but she called me a few months before and told me I needed to make a jacket along with her. The jacket she’d made previously with this particular pattern had worn out, and I was delighted to spend time with her making our new jackets. I love wearing it, but the time spent with her is the best part of it’s story (click here for that story).

For my 60th birthday Wendy arranged to have my friends send me blocks (to read about that click here). I made them into a quilt that I use often. I’m so grateful to have Evelyn’s block in that quilt. Every time I snuggle under it and read her block, it reminds me of my dear friend and all our wonderful adventures.

I miss you Evelyn! And I’m so grateful for all the precious moments we’ve had together!

I met Lisa Binkley when we were assigned to room together as faculty at a quilt event many years ago. I’ve admired her work ever since, and have blogged about it from time to time. So I was very excited when the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Art in Cedarburg held a two day workshop with her in November. It was spectacular! Lisa is an excellent teacher.

And her samples were great!

Our kits included a square of hand dyed checkerboard fabric and loads of beads. We began with some basic techniques and stitches.

And then we moved up to more complex patterns. I was happy to have my clamp-on magnifier alongout .

As we neared the end of class Lisa demonstrated a few additional techniques and then encouraged us to come up with some designs of our own.

Her step-by-step sample of “netting” (I think that’s what she called it”) was very intriguing, but I didn’t have a button to try it out on.

So a took a photo of it, and used it to attach a shisha mirror on my own, at home the next day. It isn’t perfect (and the reflection in the mirror center/right confuses the eye), but I was pleased, and I’ll know how to do it better next time.

I also snapped a photo of her sample of this method of beading a button onto fabric,

and was very happy with what I came up with. It was fun to use some of the beads in my collection.

I purchased this cabochon years ago,and enjoyed practicing the peyote stitch as I attached it to the sampler.

It was all finished with a bit of hand-quilting and placed in a frame. I’m so happy to have added some new beading tricks to my toolbox, and I look forward to using them in future projects.

PS The Amish say that they always include an error in their work because only God is perfect. I find it easy to inadvertently have errors in my work 😂. Can you find the fairly obvious error in the image at the top of this post? I chose to leave it that way because I like the way the flower beads dangle.

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I’ve decided to enter my Beaded Sampler in the Winter Quilt Show sponsored by the quilt museum. It’s being held Saturday, February 8th, at the Washington County Fair Park. For all the information click here. It’s always a great show ~ and I hope many of you are able to attend.

There are many fun quilt shows coming up in Wisconsin. Here’s some information about a few of them. Simply click on the name of the show and it will link you to their site. If your guild is having a show not mentioned here, please include it in a comment to this post.

West Suburban Quilt Show – March 14 – 15

Crazy Quilters Quilt Show – March 29-30: 

Wisconsin State Fair – July 31 to August 10 

Great Wisconsin Quilt Show – September 4-6

Lighthouse Legacy Quilt Show in Racine – October 4-5

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 😁!