A few members from our group have been making the Antelope Canyon quilt this year, and I have posted most of the quilts, but wanted to do a post with photos of them all, so that you can see the variations. They were all hanging in the exhibition last weekend, but the lighting was not good in the corner they were hanging in, so I could not capture the detail I wanted. This pattern was designed by laurieshifrindesigns, and is very clever. I love this quilt, and the options for putting it together. We still have some ideas for more variations yet. Marie has another one cut and I can't wait to see this one sewn up. Following are the 5 quilts that were displayed at our show. Marie used her bluey green hand dyed fabrics and a grey background fabric for this one, that she called Sea Foam. She stitched it together with the half circles on each border. It was quilted allover with a pattern called Over and Back Ripples, which gave it a wavy effect. Val used her stash to make this quilt, with one background fabric, and did the circle in the centre layout. When she brought the quilt to me for quilting, she called it "Circling the Wagons". I thought this circle pattern looked a bit like a wagon wheel, and fitted the quilt well. This version used the jelly rolls of the Garden Delights fabrics, and one background. I posted a few months ago about the making of this one. I thought the fabric was pretty and floral, so it needed feathers and flowers in the quilting. I made this one and changed the colour of the fabrics in the points, hoping for the on point square to show up. The half circles and the large X through the centre also feature. I have called this Illusions. Pat decided to make one also, and as expected put hers together in a different way. She also added sashing through the centre of the blocks, and a border outside to make it larger. She named her quilt, Twisted Canyon. The spine of the feather pattern in the background also gives a twisted effect through the quilt, as does the pattern on her border fabric. This is one that was sewn together in the days leading up to the show, but not quilted. I had this on display on my table, with fabric kits and the pattern to sell. (It will now wait patiently in the queue for my quilter to get to it!) Following are a few close up photos of the above quilts, showing the detail of the quilting patterns. I had kits of the Texture Graphics and Garden Delights options available for purchase at the Quilt show, and these were very popular, so I expect we will see lots more of these quilts around soon. There will be more cutting of fabrics for more orders. I am selling the packs with the strips wof already cut. Sorry that the photos are not as clear as I would have liked, but the lighting was not good. I think that is about it for the quilt show report, and Max has been busy again this week. Tomorrow I am off up the highway again, and then it's time to get things ready for the Statler gathering this weekend. Looking forward to some time to chat and talk the same language. Be back soon with more newsfromjude. Blessings, From Jude

Naoko Takeshita

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Block Count - Seventy Two + + + + + + + Just a friendly reminder to get your weekly One Block Wednesday blocks done. + + + + + + + Need to get caught up all the details can be found here.

If you have been following my blog this past year, you've probably seen pieces of a very "October" looking quilt in progress. The quilt is finally complete, in Loving Memory of my irreplaceable Bestie - Vicki Steffenhagen. 1950 – 2015 I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one, I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done. I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways, of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days. I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun, of happy memories that I leave when life is done. “Thinking about you a lot today as I look through your unfinished projects. Reflecting on how amazing you were. How big your heart was, how vast your mind and how kind your spirit. Always learning and always teaching. Together, we were an unbeatable team. There will never be another like you. I love you and miss you every day. But I'm doing better. Day by day, week by week. I feel your watchful eye on me. Your silent strength and I love you for it. Thank you for your unwavering friendship for so many years.” Quilt Name: Autumn Victoria Piecers: Vicki R. Steffenhagen Janet A. Mercer Amazingly talented Long Arm Quilter: Kim Werth The "Story" - Once upon a time, the Lord graced the world with a special Angel. Everything she touched, everyone she met, was better, forever changed, because of her. She was my BFF, my soul Sister, my guardian angel. She bought this pattern almost 2 years ago (Glacier Star + Queen Borders by Judy Neimeyer), signed up for classes at Mt. Pleasant to stay focused on it and set to work. Ray, her husband, shared “I remember spending an entire day going to one shop after another looking for the right fabric and colors so my bride could make this quilt. At the time it was nothing more than a lot of shopping bags. As she began to sew the sections I saw the idea she was embracing. She never got many areas complete before the Lord called her home.” Before Vicki passed away, she had completed the large center star pieces, the inset squares and had begun working on the spiked star outline pieces. The pieces were lovingly folded into a carrying box with all the tools needed to pick it up and work on it whenever the mood hit her. I inherited many of her beautiful things and this quilt was the one that I decided to focus my effort on to complete in time for her guild's show. My tears are woven into this quilt. Some of my healing came from this quilt. Its beauty is nothing compared to the beautiful soul we had the opportunity to know. Special thanks to more of my besties that also laid their hands on this quilt. Kim Werth (The Long Arm Quilter), Mary Christopher & Kathy Case (the paper-puller-offer-team), Lois Marvin, Lori Zappala, Charlotte Hawkes, Kathy Rochette, Lona Mahoney, Denise Hare, Anita Kile, Jerilyn Prentice (the CHEERLEADERING TEAM!!) Whether it was to position pieces, make color choices, change things, change them back, encourage me, sit and peel papers off, do the breathtaking quilting and help to stitch the binding. Friendship....is what quilting is truly all about. ……………. “Do What Matters!” ……………….

Nancy's Spool quilt block first appeared when I was writing the No-Hassle Triangles book. The block really spoke to me. After receiving a gift certificate for

I finished my Legos top and love how it turned out. This is Ellis Island: While I sewed, I realized I was making a quilter's Ellis Island. (Ellis Island was the port of entry into the United States way back before airplanes). You know, send me your tired, your poor, your wretched refuse - all those unwanted (fabrics). The name's a bit formal for this loud fun quilt, but still appropriate. There really are some uuugly fabrics in here... I ended up going smaller than king-sized - this is 70x80. With all these shedding cats, any quilt on our bed will have to be washed and I'd like it to be easy to do. Plus, I was really inspired by a photo of Mary's bed with multiple quilts on it. Perfect since my husband and I completely disagree about how much warmth we need to sleep. So sorry that these fabrics from Barb didn't arrive in time, but they will get into another lego quilt! some of these are sooo not ugly. love love the "hello" fabric in all sorts of different languages. Not that we need warmth that often in Florida. But we'll be moving to Maryland next spring and I know they get winter "up in America" as my husband calls it. We've done some househunting and fingers crossed will get a house we love. Anyone here a member of the Columbia Faithful Circle Quilting Guild? I think that will be the nearest guild. Back to the legos. These blocks are sooo much fun to make and so addictive. Seriously fun. Here are some fun one that others have worked on (sorry if I missed anybody - just let me know!): Chawne's Compost Quilt top Julies Dumpster Diving Siobhan's Pensieve Quilt top Diane's Chinese Coins in progress Clare's ongoing monster (don't we all need Doctor Who!) Sara's legos with One-Patches top. The borders are great too. Joe Tulips legos with Flying Geese. she got distracted by zombies though... (well worth it!) Lynley's not quite legos top Kim's I-Spyish lego blocks This is how I approached making the Legos quilt. Sara came up with a different method, just sewing a biiiig long strip amd cutting it in two and joining those lengthwise etc. I have to get a blogpost done so I'm going to sign off now... See you all hopefully sooner than the last time! By the way, you can follow this blog by email (there's a doohicky over in the sidebar) so you'll know when I finally post again! That is, if you're not using a reader (which I highly recommend if you follow more than a couple of blogs). Lily says, time for a nap!

You guys, I've got some awesome news. My beautiful, awesome and talented friend the one and only Krista Hennebury ( Poppyprint ) has written...

What a striking quilt! Made by Ann as a present for her son, he picked the quilt from the book Design Art Deco Quilts by Don Linn. Unfo...

82.5 by 95 inches block finishes 7 1/2 by 9 1/2 inches The background is cut four pieces 4 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches, two pieces 2 by 3 1/2 inches, and 2 pieces 2 by 4 1/2 inches. The shoo fly is cut from solids, one square 2 inches, and four squares 2 1/2 inches. The larger squares are sewn onto the larger rectangles in the sew-and-flip method. Block is sewn in three columns. All pressing is away from the triangles. In sewing blocks together, I only matched the corners, not the internal block seams. My design--use at your pleasure!

I don't like complaining (though I confess to being a world-class whiner!), but I've had a rough month. I won't belabor the details other than to say that I passed through the worst virus I've had in years only to tear some muscles in my arm which left me in such pain that I was unable to sleep for more than two hours at a time over the course of two more weeks. I could barely sew and could not lift my big iron at all. It was my definition of misery! But so far, February has been great (ha! It's only February first!), so the year is looking up. I've started sewing again and lifting my iron more. As a result, I do have a few things to show you this month. I can't show them all to you because I ended up crunching a month's worth of sewing into 10 days... and didn't get a chance to take many pictures. You'll see my un-photographed projects next month. This month, I'll show you some of the things that I've been working on, along with some Sally Collins quilts. Her work is unbelievable! I'll also show you some more quilts from the Houston International Quilters Association show last Fall, and several quilts from friends. Let's roll! * * * * * * * Sally Collins is known for her exquisite piecing. She doesn't use paper foundations at all. Take a look at the quilt below. There is so much detail in the quilt with its borders and frames. And I love the hand-quilted cable design in the border. So what makes this quilt so amazing? Besides its beauty? Its size. Here's the same quilt... with my finger in the picture so you can see the relative size. Wow! How does Sally do her piecing so well? She is a perfectionist when she cuts and when she stitches: her seams are a perfect quarter-inch. She measures them after she stitches them to ensure they are the right size. She places pieces she has pressed underneath a ruler so the seams are heat-set. It all makes a big difference. Check out another of her quilts. Note the size of the little baskets. I love the scalloped border on this quilt. Again, below is a photo with my finger in it so that you can see how small the quilts pieces are. Oh my! And without paper foundation piecing! I want you to also note how Sally carefully chooses fabrics that fit the scale of what she is working on. Look at the border just inside of the outer blue border - it is a border print and she made sure that the mitered corners meet beautifully. Again, here's another quilt by Sally with some miniature Lone Star blocks in it, along with half-square triangles. I like how the stars are so scrappy -- and notice that there are two larger stars (half-stars, actually), as well as two small half-squares in the lower corner. I like symmetry but once in a while, having these little surprises makes a quilt interesting. Below, you can see some of the wonderful hand-quilting that Sally did on this quilt. What's nice about making little quilts like this is that hand-quilting them isn't an overwhelming task. Okay, here is a double wedding ring quilt by Sally. Be still my heart! Such tiny little pieces, so perfectly stitched. Note the perfect scalloped border binding - the corner circles are fabulous. You can even check out the back of this quilt and see the binding, below. For most of us, a lone star block is challenging. But try this quilt... and look at the borders in it. Now here is a REAL challenge! Here's a close-up of the quilt - again, with my finger so you can see the size of these units. I can't even pretend to think that I could make a quilt like this. Sally is unsurpassed in her skills. I love this quilt with its set of nosegay blocks. These are not easy to make, either, as they are full of set-in seams. And this quilt adds the challenge of an inner scalloped border. Oh my - Sally's outdone even herself. Look at the beautiful hand-quilting she did in this quilt, too. Now if you have not been impressed yet (which is doubtful), take a look at this quilt with its variety of blocks -- goose in the pond, basket, tree, and more. And all those little half-square triangles, all done in a wonderful rainbow array of colors. And again... the pieces are all very small! Here's a basket quilt that would challenge the best among us. Could you make something like this? This beauty, below, uses a wonderful border print that picks up all the colors in the inner blocks. Eek - those half-square triangles that include the purplish "inner frame" are quite a challenge, too! Last but certainly not least, here is a two-color lone star surrounded by frames and borders. It is amazing. And below is a picture of the back of the quilt above, so that you can see how carefully Sally pieces... and presses her seams. Beautiful doesn't even begin to describe her work! Thanks for being a great quiltmaker and teacher, Sally! * * * * * * * Next, I'll show you some more quilts that were in the juried exhibition in the Houston IQA quilt show. These quilts were all included in the Innovative Pieced category. Emi Chabata of Kobe City, Hyogo, Japan, made Flowers in Bloom in the Rainy Season. She said she wanted to create a quilt with her mother's favorite flower, the hydrangea, in it. She sound it quite challenging to applique small fabric petals with yam-dyed fabric, but she was intent on portraying "gracefulness." She arranged the Grandmother's Fan pattern as a series of umbrellas in order to represent the rainbow after a rain, and she cleverly used beads to represent the raindrops. Emi said, "I always feel Mother's smile from this work." Her quilt is entirely hand pieced, hand appliqued, hand embroidered - and she inserted trapunto in the quilting. It is unfortunate that the description stands that are used at the IQA show always seem to be in the wrong spot for photographers like me. Hiromi Yokota of Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan, made Piece Peace Piece and described her work as follows: I was piecing small, small pieces. I arranged several places of slanted lines. Because the piecing is aestheometry, the border expressed pleasure. I don't know about any of you, but I had to go to the dictionary to see what aestheometry meant. In the simplest of terms, it involves drawing straight lines to form geometric shapes, such as a circle. I pulled the illustration to the right off of the internet and you can see here how these straight lines form a round shape. Now... below is Hiromi's quilt. She machine pieced it, and then added hand applique, embroidery, and hand quilting. Her lovely border includes bead balls that she made from felt, along with felt flowers. Her piecing is astonishing! I think I'm a pretty good piecer until I see a quilt like this and feel like a rank amateur. Ole' is the work of Hope Wilmarth of Spring, Texas. She created this quilt during the cold, dreary winter months, and found the juxtaposition of robust reds to be invigorating. She says, "the varying directions in the piecing further adds vibrance and energy to my surface design." I love the fabric choices Hope used in her quilt -- including the black and white strips in it that break up the red a bit. This was a very attractive quilt at the show, and I love the name that Hope chose for it! Nariko Kawashima machine pieced and hand quilted her quilt, My Family. I do not have all the details about this quilt, but what I can tell you is that I love this quilt! It drew me in as I tried to envision the meaning in the letters and the hearts and the colors. It is a refreshingly simple quilt, though making it was probably no easy task. Even the border, with its many layers of strips, is unique. Jane Frenke of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, created Spheres XLVII, saying, "I have been working with circles for years. Salada tea bags quote, 'circles always have their ends meet,' struck me one morning. Oh no, you have to work hard to have them meet - that was the beginning of the 'Spheres' series." Jane used hand-dyed cottons with vat-dyed discharged designs on them, and then longarm quilted the quilt. I am always a bit envious of quilters who can make quilts that (intentionally) do not have straight and parallel edges. Doing that would be a real stretch for me, who lives in a structured, symmetrical world where I can plan everything and have it come out perfectly. I need to go to a workshop one day and push myself to "think differently" than I currently do. It might be a real eye-opener for me! Jaynette Huff of Conway, Arkansas, made Captured Blossoms, saying, "I truly enjoy mixing intricate paper foundation piecing, Broderie Perse hand applique, and 1/8-inch wide curved knotwork - adding laters of design to my quilts." Jaynette's leaves are made of ultrasuede. Her design is based on a modified log cabin block, which she used in an original setting with the placement of her applique. This was an unusual quilt in the show - the setting was very unique, along with the broderie perse applique. The work of Karen Eckmeier of Kent, Connecticut, is often seen at the Houston IQA show - and I'm glad to see it, every time! In Rambling Roses, Karen says, "The children's song, 'Ring Around the Rosie,' and the line, 'we're painting the roses red,' from Alice in Wonderland inspired me to play with my Random Roses blocks in a different format. I wanted the piece to have a musical playful feel to it. The entire quilt is topstitch pieced." Karen's work also includes computer-generated text that was transferred to fabric. At the Houston show, this was a very dramatic quilt with tremendous visual impact. Photographs can never capture that, unfortunately. Karen also entered River Stones. She says that rocks, pebbles, and stones fascinate her, and when combined with water, she is mesmerized. Her challenge when making this quilt was to capture the "flowing meditative quality of a riverbed within a grid format." The color palette Karen chose was inspired by photos of rivers and stones in New Zealand. She did some photo transfer to fabric (rocks and ripples of water) to complete the work. Honestly, when I see this quilt, I immediately hear the sound of rippling water in a creek. The colors are wonderful and so soothing. What a great job! Keiko Ike of Kochi, Kochi-Ken, Japan, created Magical Zone. She said she intended to create a mysterious quilt with the design and color, noting, "I could perfectly piece the extremely sharp points in the Mariner's Compass, which is normally difficult to finish flat." She is right about that! I find it interesting how she combined a very striking, spiky geometric shape (the compass and the wandering spikes) with the very soft, fluid design of the feathers. Those combinations are not often seen except where the quilting, itself, is done using feathers. Below is a close-up of Keiko's compass. Note that she heavily quilted her compass. Kiyoko Ishihara of Ashikaga, Tochigi, Japan, made Flowers in the Crystal based on a valuable crystal ornament that she owns. It has pretty flowers inside -- which are included in her quilt, below. The quilt is hand pieced and appliqued, hand quilted (including trapunto), and hand embroidered. Her quilt combines cotton and wool. Her design is original, based on a class she took from Noriko Masui. The details in this quilt are wonderful - as is Kiyoko's choice of fabrics. I think that she chose some difficult fabric colors to work with as they often mush together, but she managed to make them play together nicely, resulting in a very striking design. This next quilt, Ravendale Star, was made by Linda Fleschner of North Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Linda didn't design the entire quilt before she made it. She used the Ravendale paisley print in a Radiant Star pattern and when she finished making that, she designed the border feather, sticking to a black and white palette. She used modified English paper piecing, fused applique with machine satin stitches, hand-guided free motion and ruler work longarm quilting, and hand-sewn beads in her quilt. Her strong use of contrasting colors left her quilt with a dramatic visual impact. In this close-up, you can see some of the colors and quilting in Linda's quilt. Notice the fussy-cutting that she did in making her star; that's quite a fete! Marilyn Badger of St. George, Utah, made Exuberance, which was dear to her heart, as she did all the hand-applique and embroidery while sitting with her husband during his illness. She says that before he passed, he was able to tell her it was his favorite quilt; he was the one who named it Exuberance. Marilyn said she could not get it quilted for months after his death as she just couldn't face the quilt. Finally, one day, she decided that if he were alive, he would be asking her when she was going to get started on his quilt. Six months later, she finished the quilt. I love the colors and designs in this quilt - especially the delicate outer border. Many of us make quilts that are tied to deep memories that will be in our hearts forever - this is certainly one for Marilyn and I'm certain that her husband is smiling down at it now. Here is one last quilt from the IQA show - at least in the Innovative Pieced division; I'll have more quilts from the show from other categories in future blogs. This quilt, named Ghosts, was made by Ruth Montalvo of Madison Heights, Michigan. It was based on a doodle and put together on a whim - and completely pieced (there isn't any applique!) on Ruth's 50-year old Singer sewing machine. What a fun quilt this is with the doodles circling around. How Ruth made it without any applique amazes me. * * * * * * * Next, I'll show you some quilts that my friends and I have been working on. I feel a bit guilty because this post is a little short... but that's what happens when you lose 3 weeks out of a month! Becky Stephenson was busy this past month. First, here is her Square-Square quilt. I love this quilt -- the square-in-square blocks are 3 inches in size. Some are "dark" and some are "light." Now here is an interesting thing about this quilt. Do you notice the off-white "border" in the interior of the quilt? It's not really a border -- it is a set of half-square triangles that form a faux-border. I thought that was pretty cool! Becky is now starting on a larger quilt (bed-sized) using little square-in-square blocks, but she's doing it by doing a block-exchange with a few friends. The blocks are all paper-pieced, which makes them simple and quick to make. I'm jealous, but I won't be participating -- I have too many other projects in my to-do box! Becky also brought me a 4-block feathered star quilt that I had agreed to quilt on my longarm. We are going to produce the pattern for this quilt in the next few weeks and kit it with fabric for those who want to buy the pattern and the fabric together. I would show you my version of this quilt, done in similar fabrics, but I didn't have a chance today to take a picture of the quilt. My quilt has 9 blocks in it and is a good-sized bed quilt. I can't wait to get it on the machine and to quilt it, too! This past month, despite some challenges, I have been determined to make progress on several projects. And I did! Jerrianne, Becky's sister, finished her basket quilt and had it quilted -- it is one of those "happy quilts" that we get to see every once in a while. By that, I mean that when you see it, it just makes you happy -- you actually can't NOT smile! Here is a close-up of these simple basket blocks. I saw Jerrianne working on these at many bees over the past year -- they are the perfect take-along project. And you all must know that I love, love, love the shirting backgrounds! At the same time, friend Sharon Meyer finished her 35-basket "Little Baskets" quilt. It still needs to be quilted, but isn't it nice? I love how the little 2-inch baskets form a faux-border and sashing, too -- they were about to drive Sharon nuts, as there are so many of them! But the effort paid off with an eye-catching quilt. Here is a close-up of Sharon's quilt. And once Sharon and I decided that this design needed a pattern, I put together my own 9-block version of her quilt, appropriately named, "Little Baskets." It is quilted, though I still need to stitch down the binding. The pattern for this quilt will be on my website sometime this month. Except for the basket handles, both the big and the small baskets are entirely paper pieced, making them quite easy to make. The quilt below is about 45 inches square. Those of you who remember that I'm working on a "woven blanket" quilt will be happy to see that I've finished assembling the center portion of the quilt. I was blown away by how easy and how quickly this quilt went together. Really? With all those little 1/2-inch squares? No, I'm not certifiably crazy -- every single unit in this quilt is strip pieced: stitch together one, 1-1/2, and 2-inch strips and then slice them up and suddenly you have a quilt! But wait... wait... there's more! Yes this quilt will have a pieced border, surrounded by a white outer border. Below, you can see how a portion of the border will look on this quilt. I laid one of my partially finished border strips against the edge of the quilt center. I think I'm going to LOVE this quilt when I'm done and, as I said, cannot believe how easy it was to make! Because all the seams are pressed toward the dark fabric, when you stitch the strips together, they all nest absolutely beautifully. Honestly, it could not get easier! I doubt that I'll have this pattern finished this month, but it should be done in March - it will be called Blue Heaven. I still have to quilt it after piecing the borders, though - so that might be the brakes on this project if it's not done in March. I've got one and half borders done... And I've got all the strips to be sliced up and stitched back together ready to go... so there's nothing stopping me, really! And some of you with longer memories may remember this quilt, called Target Practice. I love this quilt and it has been sitting on a rack in my sewing room for a year, awaiting inspiration before I quilt it. That inspiration never came, and so this past week, I drove it over to Cindy G who will quilt it for me. Sometimes, it's better to let things get done rather than to have them hang around forever! Here's another shot of this quilt. I love the layout of the blocks and borders; I had always wanted to make a border out of little circles and this quilt let me do that. If I had the time, I'd do another one in read and green fabrics, as I think it would be the perfect Christmas quilt design! Once I get the quilt back from Cindy G, I'll have the pattern ready for this quilt. Yay! And here, you can see that those long zig-zag borders are all appliqued. Easy does it! Well, gang.. that's all I have to show you this month, despite having also worked on a new Princess Feather design (one block left to applique), a grape vine quilt (lots left to applique but at least the stems are all basted in place), and a new surprise quilt made with fabric from The Quilt Show's Rajah quilt. Frankly, it's pretty slim pickings, but it's 4 a.m. and too dark to take pictures and I'm determined to get this posted on February 1! During this coming month I'll take more pictures and have them all ready for March 1... hopefully with some more finished items. Until then... happy quilting! Sue Garman www.comequilt.com (c)2016 Susan H. Garman

This is Gail’s Tennessee Waltz quilt and I love the soft purple and cream fabrics she used to piece it. It is a very traditional quilt so I wanted to quilt it that way. I did a bead board design in the outer border then loops, CC’s and curls in the inner borders. I SID on all the blocks and was able to do the Star block with only one start and stop! Then added feather wreaths in the snowball blocks.

Fabric requirements and video tutorial for making quilt block #2 from Riley Blake's Meet the Makers quilt along featuring Sunnyside Ave fabrics.

Back in January Mary from Country Threads announced that her and Connie had a new book coming out. Well I was super excited. SUPER EXCITED. I love Mary and Connie as people and I love them as q…

Der Februar-Block für Karen @easypatchwork ... 🙋😊🌈 Diesen "Best Friends Forever"-Block (von Mary McGuire) habe ich total gerne für dich genäht, Karen ... 🎨 und ich freue mich sehr, dass du an mich gedacht hast!!! 😍😘

The Modern Fans quilt pattern is incredibly versatile. By rearranging the unique quilt blocks you can make lots of different layouts and designs.

I finished a couple of quilts last week and took some photos of them and others today. Thought I’d share them here. I love being surrounded by books, quilts and good friends.

I’ve been wanting to cut into some of Brandon Mably’s black Octopus fabric for a long time. I’ve seen some really cool bags made out of it recently and have been itching to make o…

I've had this customer quilt in my studio for awhile. I didn't want to start it until I was pretty sure what I would do and really had the ...

Laurie’s patterns are concisely written for multiple sizes and illustrated for stitching success. Her designs are based on her experiences, travels, love of nature and an appreciation of bea…

Join us as we continue to dive even deeper into scrap quilting this month. This time we're giving you our top preparation tips for making a modern scrap quilt. Even designing scrap quilts takes planning ahead! So, take a moment to consider these 5 tips when you’re preparing your scraps for sewing.

I’ve had several people ask me how I’m arranging my colors in my strip sets for my scrappy trip quilt. A couple others have asked for clarification on how I use the metal ruler in press…

Join the Modern Fans quilt pattern sew-along for a chance to win a BERNINA 350 sewing machine along with other amazing prizes!

New York Beauty, c. 1940, Idaho Just got home from another lecture with the Emerald Valley Quilters in Eugene. It was my second time speaking to the group, and I'll happily go back any time they want me. What a fun group. They were very interested, asked great questions, and at the end many people came up to say hello. It took a while to get packed up and hit the road, but that was just fine with me. I enjoyed seeing more familiar faces this time around. Guess I'm starting to get to know the quilters here in Oregon, and that's a very good thing. I brought 12 quilts with me, and have included all of them here in this blog. I presented them in chronological order, from 1850 to present. c. 1850, Kentucky - the first quilt I ever bought over 22 years ago c. 1860, Kentucky - recently appeared in "Why Quilts Matter" MacMillan Family Quilt, 1868, Monroe County, Kentucky c, 1870, Kentucky c. 1870, Virginia c. 1870 by Florence Caldonia Corley Shealy, Saluda County, SC c. 1880, Kentucky, formerly from the collection of Phyllis George c. 1910, North Carolina Mountain Mist New York Beauty, c. 1930 c. 1940, California Lady Liberty, 2011, Marita Wallace, San Diego, CA Audience members sat up in their seats to get a better look at each quilt, and I imagine it must have been a spectacle to see such a stellar group of these quilts. Sometimes I forget just how good the quilts are because I'm used to having them around. But when I see how others, especially quiltmakers, react to them, it's a good reminder of just how special the quilts are. Thank you to the Emerald Valley Quilters for another fun, memorable evening!

The popular perception of a Welsh Quilt is one that is graphic in style with simple shapes and usually made of plain or slightly patterned woollen fabrics - something like the quilts in the header of this blog. However, this is only part of the story as many Welsh quilts were also made of fabrics generally available throughout 19th century Britain. Something like this quilt which looks like a typical British medallion, not very well planned at that - I first saw it in a display of British quilts at the Tokyo Dome a few years ago and as I don't do large quilts I was attracted to it because of its size, which is that of a large crib quilt. The only reason I know it's Welsh is because it has a recorded provenance - it was made in Aberystwyth in the mid 19th century and belonged to a family who owned a draper's shop in the town. Here is another medallion made of printed fabric - This picture has been taken from a book so it is not the best quality, but if you want to zoom and and see more detail try the V&A Search the Collections website - -http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O128357/bed-cover/ This quilt was in this year's Quilt Exhibition when we had a chance to see it at last. However, even without the meagre provenance it has, there would have been no doubt that it was a Welsh quilt because of the wonderful Welsh quilting patterns that sing out its nationality.

Here we are again for Week 25 Moda Blockheads! This week's fun block is brought to you by Lynne Hagmeier. Such a fun block to make. I...

Brown Paisley Patchwork Quilt Duster Jacket Take your coats collection to the next level with this unique duster, constructed from a vintage quilt in forever timeless paisley print, this jacket is designed to add a little autumn magic to absolutely any ensemble. Jacket features a cozy big hood, wide sleeves, wrap around closure with detachable belt, large patch pockets and original quilt lining Best fits Mediums and Larges Approximate measurements (from back) Pit to pit: 26 inches Full body length: 53 inches Sleeve Length: 22 inches (unrolled) Shoulder drop: 10 inches Constructed from a vintage cotton blend quilt, it has lived a full life before becoming wearable art, and there might be slight chance of wear and discoloration Please contact with any questions Handcrafted in Hastings MI

Finished my Kaffe Fassett, bento box quilt top! Maybe in another month I'll quilt it... No 'me time' at the mo, as I have 50 odd pieces of c...

HAPPY OCTOBER!!! I'm tired of complaining about slow internet as an excuse for lack of blogging, so I'll skip it. You're welcome. :) Update: Change that. This is my FOURTH attempt at posting this in as many days. Sigh. Just imagine, if it weren't for our miserable excuse for internet service, you'd be reading about what actually happened YESTERDAY, not 2 weeks ago. Oy. So things are going well here in Chez Hairball, except we all miss Noel. He's still working his butt off in Utah, learning the importance of warm clothing in climates with huge temperature fluctuations, and the value of lotion in a low-humidity environment. Here in NC, meanwhile, the kitties and I are enjoying the first crisp days of autumn. The leaves haven't turned yet, but I promise to take (and post!) pictures when they do! 2 weekends ago, my mom and I drove up to West Virginia to visit my dear grandmother and 2 of my aunts and their husbands. Now, some people give West Virginia a hard time, whipping out the duelling banjos song from Deliverance (although that movie was in Georgia, heh), and thinking generally it's full of...well...not much. I heartily disagree. I have traveled much of this country (at this point 39 of the 50 states), and can say that West Virginia is unequivocally one of the most beautiful. Granted, I haven't seen North or South Dakota, Iowa, or Wisconsin. But barring the evil influences of cheese, I can't imagine they look anywhere near as stunning as WV. I say this because (1) I encourage those of you who've never been there to drive through there one day, and (2) to make up for my photos, which are...dark and, well, really a bit colorless. It was a gray day for photos, very overcast, and these just don't do the state justice. The motto for West Virginia is Wild, Wonderful. And they're right! You can drive through areas where there are no people. NO PEOPLE. No walmarts! No strip malls! No traffic jams! Just gorgeous indigenous forests festooning the rolling mountains as far as they eye can see. We had a fantastic visit with family up there. So much so that I forgot to take out my camera. Oops! Thankfully my Uncle Jim loves to take pictures, and he promised to send me a CD with the ones he took. Then I'll pirate his pictures to put up here. (You can take 50% of royalties, Jim. That'll be about....$0. Sorry). One fun thing about going to WV is that you have to go through 2 big tunnels to get there (at least the way we went). When my sister and I were kids, we would hold our breath through any tunnel we went through, because if you can hold your breath to the other side, you get a wish. These tunnels make breath-holding a serious Olympian-sized challenge. These tunnels go through an entire mountain. One is just under, and the other just over, 1 mile long. Impressive! Also there's a buckwheat festival in the town where my grandmother lives. No, not the Little Rascal, the grain. They have rides, parades, and yummy buckwheat pancakes at the fire house to raise money. We missed the buckwheat festival by 1 weekend. Sigh. Mom was happy because there would be no traffic. I was devastated, because honestly? How often do you have firemen cook breakfast for you? In addition to the impressively huge tunnels, West Virginians also boast the Western Hemisphere's longest single arch bridge! Bet you didn't know that! (Now you're ready go to on Jeopardy). It's called the New River Gorge Bridge, and it's impressive. Mom and I went to the scenic overlook to try to get a good view of it. We walked toward the pedestrian walkway to the overlook: Oooooooohhhh!!! Autumny!!! This will be a lovely little relaxing stroll through the woods. Oh wait. We sucked it up and went anyway, and the view was lovely! Here's the bridge: And way down there is the little old bridge that the new one made obsolete. Apparently it used to take people a long time to drive down into the gorge and back out again, and the new bridge has cut that time to just about 40 seconds. Here's a graph to show how tall the new bridge is: You know it's big when your currency is National Monuments. :) The scenery was really pretty from up there though. The leaves weren't really changing much there either, so at least my pictures weren't a total disaster. We finished with our photo taking and saw something really scary: The walk back up. But we made it, throbbing thigh muscles intact. At least there was pretty scenery to look at! We went to the visitors center too, and they had some quilts hanging up from the ceiling. Yay Team Quilting! So I took a few photos of them. Then we saw this on the wall, and I thought y'all might appreciate. Enlarge if necessary, but I'll type what it says: "Quilts made by slaves, free blacks, and Abolitionists were used as a means of secret communication on the Underground Railroad. Messages were hidden in plain view hanging from fences, clotheslines, and windows. Quilt patterns - including the use of specific colors, stitches, and pattern sequences - signaled escape, help, and safety. The Monkey Wrench [top left corner] was displayed when an escape was being planned. The Tumbling Blocks [top center] appeared when it was time to escape. The Bear Paw [top right] signaled a proposed safe trail through the Appalachian Mountains. The Shoo Fly [left middle row] signified a place to find clean clothing and take a bath. [Kelli: who says even abolitionist quilters didn't have a sense of humor?] The Bow Tie [center middle row] meant there was a safe church in the area. The Flying Geese [right middle row] pointed the direction to travel with a solid color band. The Log Cabin pattern [lower left corner] with a black center block signified a safe house. Drunkard's Path [lower center - my favorite quilt pattern] told runaways to zigzag and double back. It is believed that in order to memorize the whole code, a sampler quilt was used. The sampler would include all the patterns arranged in the order the codes would appear. Stitches and knots also played a role in the code. Stitches were placed to represent maps, and knots indicated a scale in miles. The messages remained hidden in plain view until everyone planning to escape had completed the signaled task." From: Hidden in Plain View - A Secret Story of Quilts & the Underground Railroad by J. L. Tobin & R. G. Dobard, PhD. How incredible is that? I adore the idea of something so humble, so easily overlooked, as a handmade quilt thrown over a fence, being the beacon of hope that some poor soul was desperate to see to guide his or her way to freedom.

Today I'm going to show and tell you a bit about the quilt show I went to yesterday. These were my fav quilts there. Monochromatic by Barbara Lange. I also liked section where the quilts were called Shapes but I didn't pay much attention to the labels. Some were by Uta Lenk but not sure if all of them. *Update: all the shapes quilt were by Uta Lenk. My eye also caught quilts in Challenge Mother Nature. Especially quilts by Czech author Jaroslava Grycová. These tiny pieces were absolutely amazing in detail. There was also quilt by Joanna from Shape Month maybe you read her post about this quilt. I was happy to see some Vasarely art as well. I actually found this as free pattern some time ago and if I had a bucket list this would be on it. No, yellow will not make it into my quilt :-) Challenge Application had some fun pieces in it as well. This one was called Anatomy of the Old Age. There were few section that didn't really speak to me so no pics of those. Carnival of Fabrics was good in improv piecing but all those colors randomly put together scared me away. I also got the true sense of minis due to Traditional and Miniature section. Leslie Harwood is probably the queen of tiniest pieces ever. She had quite a few there. It was my second time going to this quilt show. As I said yesterday to me it is more social thing. I get much more inspiration on the web and from bloggers I follow. I don't have an intention to send a quilt there. One of the reasons is that the section for Czech quilts has the worst lighting. See for yourself. Would you like to have a shadow to half of your quilt or be in the shadow on the side? Not to mention one quilt hanging on blue plastic cover sheet which was all over the other side. I have much more pics. I'll share some next time if you interested or maybe just a few more. Linking up with

applique, 1851-1900, English; Classical statues, animals and domestic items

Last week I showed pictures of traditional quilt frames and how they were propped up parallel to the ground. The four boards that suppor...

В ярмарке принимают участие более 30 галерей. Одна из самых стильных российских художественных выставок-ярмарок объединяет произведения разных эпох: от европейской гравюры XVIII — XIX веков до графики современных авторов

It seems that each new quilt that comes through my studio becomes my favorite. I haven't been blogging much lately, especially about quilting that I have been doing for clients, but this one is definitely worth sharing. It's a stunner, and my new favorite. Please excuse all of the phone photos. This quilt is called "Eclipse." It was designed and pieced by Kimberly Bourne of Main Street Market Designs. The pattern is currently available as a preorder for $3 off what the regular price will be. It's paper pieced, and Kimberly's patterns are very detailed. I immediately knew when I saw this quilt for the first time that it would be a perfect candidate for straight line geometric quilting within the triangles. I took this photo at night. Mmm, texture. Most of the techniques I used on this quilt were inspired by Angela Walters' Dot-to-dot Quilting. I just love the rainbow of colors from the Alison Glass fabrics (Sunprints and Ex Libris). It was just so FUN to quilt this. As much as I love the front, the back is pretty great too. In the center I decided to quilt some curves, echoing the appearance of curves on the rest of the quilt. Seriously, I love the texture on the back. You can preorder this amazing quilt pattern now here! Thank you Kimberly for letting me quilt it for you! This gorgeous quilt is hanging this weekend in the Andover Fabrics booth at International Quilt Market.