New BOM Coming This Summer - Log Cabin Sampler

  

Curious about Log Cabin Blocks?

I was planning to make a log cabin quilt to represent Tennessee in my 50 quilts from 50 States project because my grandparents lived in a white-washing log cabin at the City Reservoir in Johnson City Tennessee – they were the reservoir caretakers.

So as I was exploring log cabin blocks, trying to decide which one(s) to use for the Tennessee quilt, I was excited and a bit overwhelmed by the shear number of different log cabin blocks. Every time you change colors or layout, the block gets a new name. So I decided to make a log cabin sampler.

It was so much fun to figure out the blocks, the colors and the layout. There were also various techniques to try – accurate cutting, trim tool ruler, and foundation paper piecing. 

I thought this project would make a fantastic BOM to do together. It will be offered on-line (FaceBook and email) starting in July – I’m not sure when yet, so stay tuned. The pattern will be available for download from my Etsy Shop for about $10 or I can send you a hard copy for $15 plus shipping. I plan on making a video each month featuring that month’s block and technique. There will be a special FB group you can sign up for to share progress and questions.

If you would like to participate, please send an email to me at djps1957@gmail.com and I’ll put you on the list. I’m excited to make this quilt again. Hopefully you’ll join me.  

 

Stay Curious

50 Quilts from 50 States - New York

 

Its interesting that I am writing this post while I'm in New York, but
the inspiration for this quilt came from my previous visit in 2014 (OMG was it that long ago?). Saul and I made a driving tour of New England that included visits to family in Brooklyn and Ithaca, a drive up the Hudson River valley to the Finger Lakes district and then through the southern part of the state back to Brooklyn.

As I was pondering which of the many interesting sites should be my inspiration, I of course thought about the New York City sky line, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the hustle of Manhattan, and architectural points of interest. But the thing that struck me most of all were the various water courses and how they reflected the sky and surrounding buildings and foliage.

The water ways that caught my attention were the East River - its color reflecting the grey of the clouds overhead and the buildings surrounding it.

 As we drove north through the Hudson Rive Valley, we followed the Hudson, swollen and muddy from recent rains.

Then we stopped in Syracuse for a visit to the Erie Canal Museum.  The canal was completed in 1825 and was the first navigable water that connection the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.

Next stop was wine tasting at one (or 2) of the many wineries along the banks of the Finger Lakes - Cayuga Lake to be specific. The lake was a beautiful blue and the sweet wine slushie I had was refreshing.

Niagara Falls was the highlight of a different trip back in 1996 and in fact I'll be going again tomorrow. The mist got everything damp - a nice cool down during the hot weather.

So here were my five water ways. I like to design in odd numbers of motifs - surely I heard that in an art design class at one time. Now, how to represent them? French Braids. A technique I hadn't used before, French Braids would be great to represent the dynamic, ever - changing water ways. 

I just happened to have a batik jelly roll in the muddy browns and green colors of the Hudson. A couple off trips to quilt shops added some grey, blue, and sea foam colored jelly rolls and some yardage that I wanted for the constant squares down the middle of the braid. 

I started work on  this quilt while visiting my Mom near Phoenix Arizona. Although not my standard work area, it served me well for the week that I was there. I'm not sure how Mom felt about the mess though.

Here is  pic of the almost-finished quilt top. Water ways are from left to right - Erie Canal, East River, Niagara Falls, Hudson River, and Finger Lakes. This was a lot of fun to do - picking out colors, deciding how wide to make the braid sections, and how to bring the sections together. 

The pattern (when finished) will be available to download or by mail from my Etsy Shop

Get Curious about New York! It's a great place!

A Week with Ricky and Hugo

Did I mention I love workshops? Oh, and retreats? Oh, and Colorado? Oh and Ricky Tims? Oh, and camping? Put them all together and this was how I spent a week in May of this year (2022).

I loaded up a couple of my Ricky Tims projects - Colorado Rhapsody, and the Portland Maine Lighthouse (each of these quilts will get their own post later), my sewing machine and sewing tackle box into Tilley - my new to me toy hauler (hauling a sewing machine, not motor cycles), and headed west for LaVeta Colorado where Ricky lives, creates, and holds his retreats.

I went on a retreat back in May 2019, which is when I started Colorado Rhapsody. At that time I didn't have a trailer, so I stayed at LaVeta Inn, a very nice, but pricey hotel. So on this trip, I decided to bring Tilley and camp in the local RV park - that way I could spend money on Ricky's hand dyed fabric instead of a hotel room and eating out.  A Quilter has her priorities!

My son AJ's birthday was on Sunday May 22, so I left bright and early on Monday, stayed in a church parking lot in Lamar, Colorado (thanks Harvest Host) and arrived in LaVeta by mid day on Tuesday. Except for some bumpy roads which resulted in one of Tilley's windows busting out, the trip was uneventful (no speeding tickets for me this time). 

The RV park was just a block from Ricky's retreat center, so I could actually walk. Did I walk? No, but I could have! I was able to pack lunches, cook breakfast and dinner, so I saved some money, which, of course, I spent on fabric and a new hat in LaVeta.

There were 6 of us quilters there, plus Ricky and Hugo, so we got lots of personal attention from Ricky (well, and Hugo too - he cooked a fabulous lunch for us one day, and kept the jokes and teasing going all week). Everyone worked on a different project, so we got to hear Ricky's guidance on multiple techniques. Several of us were working on the Rhapsody technique.

With Ricky's help, I finished designing, cutting, and ironing on a million applique shapes that illustrate Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, the Tree of Life, and the cardinal directions - all to represent Colorado in my 50 Quilts for 50 States project. Stitching these million shapes down has been my focus for the remainder of the summer and I'm only about 2/3 done. I heard Ricky when he said that you can have as many fiddly shapes as you want, but remember that you'll have to sew each one down. Somehow it didn't really register though.

After the designing and cutting was complete, I moved on to a
second quilt - Portland Maine Lighthouse. This quilt uses the Gridified Art Quilt technique that I learned in a online workshop I took with Ricky last summer. So I finished (well, started actually) foundation piecing the lighthouse tower and house, started the background blocks, and made some really good progress. I needed some addition sky fabric, so I couldn't complete it there, but almost! 

It was a productive week with some really great quilters who are now new friends. We had dinner at a couple of great local restaurants, visited the home of one of our local students, shared music, quilting ideas, stories, and basically bonded over the week. Here is some of their work - they are some talented artists!

I hope I can do this retreat on a semi-regular basis - maybe every couple of years. I learn so much about my creative process and various techniques. And of course LaVeta is beautiful!

Curious about Ricky Tims and his quilting, photography, and music? Check out this multi-talented man here, on his website.

50 Quilts from 50 States - Oklahoma

 I didn't finish as many of my 50/50 quilts as I had planned - life really took a turn in 2020. But I did finish OKIE DOKIE my Oklahoma quilt.

In the past, Oklahoma has been a state I drove through to get somewhere else, or the place I met my kids' Dad for a handoff so that they could visit him in Texas. But as I started to explore different parts of the state I learned there's so much more. I really love the red dirt peaking through the rolling hills. 

Route 66 runs right through the state, so that was the inspiration for the quilt. It was established in 1926 and was one of the original highways in the US Highway system.  I like to imagine a young family driving Route 66 in the 1930's on a little adventure from Chicago to Los Angeles. 

The centerpiece of the quilt is a colorful tea towel I got at an Oklahoma rest stop and information center on Interstate 40 on my way to Arizona a couple of years ago. It lent itself perfectly to a quilt with 30s reproduction fabric. OK, an idea was starting to coalesce.

Traditional quilt blocks, a Route 66 sign, and a sillouette of the End of the Trail statute found in the National Cowboy museum, combined with the Oklahoma tea towel  - this is going to be a cute quilt. 

My friend Patti Pearce makes a lot of quilts with vintage linens, so she was the perfect person to quilt this. She did a fantastic job.

I've written a pattern for OKIE DOKIE and its available in my Etsy Shop. I love that my adventure is continuing state by state. 

Curious about Oklahoma? Check it Out!

50 Quilts from 50 States - Iowa

Even before I started quilting, I fell in love with the Bridges of Madison County Iowa. I read the book, I watched Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood fall in love in the movie, I even had a CD with original songs by the book's author Robert James Waller. 

My first trip to Iowa included a visit to Winterset to see the bridges, as well as the birthplace museum of John Wayne. My second trip included a trip to the Iowa Quilt Museum to see an exhibit by MaryAnn Fons.

So, obviously, my inspiration for Iowa has to be the Bridges. Obviously there is lots to see and do in Iowa. Corn, there is corn, lots of corn. A sea of corn - it stretches as far as the eye can see. The Amana Colonies are interesting from a historical and cultural perspective, as is the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque.

Guilds and Shops in Iowa
Iowa is the home to Fons and Porter, the iconic quilting gurus who have been publishing patterns, magazines and videos for over 20 years.

The Generations Quilt Patterns website has 40 guilds and 132 shops on their list. I've visited a few in Des Moines, the Amana Colonies, and Council Bluffs - where my favorite shop is. Whenever my son AJ and I go to the Omaha Zoo (stay tuned for my Nebraska Quilt), we always stop at Cut Up & Quilt in Council Bluffs. 

The Inspiration
The Bridges - Cedar, Cutler-Donahoe, Hogback, Holliwell, Imes, and Roseman are the remaining bridges in Madison County. But how to incorporate them? I took several pictures on my trip, but they really didn't sing to me.
I did find several fabric panels with covered bridges but a wall hanging with a panel also didn't sing to me. But I was getting closer. 

My friend Liz Granberg-Jerome of Gypsy Dreamer Quilts teaches classes on using panels for One Block Wonder quilts. She calls them Hexified Panels. OK, that's it, the perfect technique for this panel wallhanging!

The Quilt
I found a panel that had good color, looked like the bridges I saw in Madison County and I thought it would be a great candidate for a One Block Wonder. The panel was made from a painting by artist Larry Hersberger.  So I ordered 7 panels (6 to stack and 1 for the focus).

Due to the strong horizontal lines in the roof and tree line, I decided to cut the strips on the diagonal - after starching it 3 times to tame those bias edges. Since the panel is not very large, I cut the strips 2 3/4 inches so I can get the maximum number of hexies from the panel. Now comes the fun, but mindless part - sewing half hexies together and arranging them on the design wall.

Then comes some decision-making. To frame the panel or not? If I frame it, what color for the frame? To set the hexies in straight-edged or allow them to flow into the panel? This is where art and design meet craft and technique.

After trying several layouts, I settled on a small yellow border (to lighten up the dark sections of the panel) and then centered it within the hexies. I arranged the hexies so that they somewhat mimicked the color placement within the panel. A simple batik border finished it off. 

I have to admit, even though I starched the heck out of the strips, it was still somewhat wavy due to the bias edges. I forewarned Lori Kukuk, one of the fantastic long arm quilters with whom I love to work, that it might take some special TLC to help it lay flat. Poor or inaccurate piecing won't always quilt out, but Lori is pretty talented and if anyone can tame those wavy edges, she can. She did not disappoint. I especially love the simple waves in the sky and the continuous curves in the hexies.

Iowa Bridges is the third quilt in my 50/50 series. I've already started on Oklahoma and have plans for about 25 more. Stay tuned!

The pattern is available to order as a hard copy, or as a download from my Etsy Site. So check it out!

I'm Curious about your visit to Iowa. Leave a comment and let me know.

50 Quilts From 50 States - Missouri

My Journey To Missouri

I'm continuing my journey to and through all 50 States - but I'm not going that far - just a bit more than 30 miles to Missouri.
There is quite a rivalry between Kansas and Missouri. Some believe it goes back to pre Civil War time (1850s) of open violence between pro-slavery Missouri and free state Kansas. Now its known as the Border Wars and is all about sports and Universities. KU - Mizzou. I have to admit - I pay ZERO attention to sports. Sorry loyal KU Basketball friends.

My travels usually include an East-West road trip along I-70. My In-Laws used to live in Kentucky and I've driven east many times for a holiday visit. A quick detour off I-70 leads you to Hermann - and the wine producing area. Missouri also has the beautiful Ozark area, with Springfield and Branson. Its a wonderful vacation spot.

I'm not as in to quilting history of Missouri as I am in to the history of Kansas.  My guess is that it as a neighbor state, it is quite similar. But what Missouri has that Kansas doesn't is Quilt Town USA - Hamilton Missouri, home of the Missouri Star Quilting Company.

Guilds and Shops in Missouri
The Generations Quilt Patterns website says there are 55 Guilds and 126 shops in Missouri. Good thing my goal isn't to visit every shop - I've only been to about 5 or 6. One of my favorites is Jackman's in St Louis. Every time I drive across Missouri to the East, I try to stop at Jackman's. They have a really nice selection and super helpful staff.

I've also been to shops in Hannibal, Springfield, Cameron, Liberty, Columbia, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

Missouri is also home to some big names in the quilting biz - Angela Walters, Tula Pink, Carl Hentsch, Jacquie Gering, and of course Jenny Doan - again, I'm sure I'm forgetting someone.

However, the biggest draw for quilters in Missouri is Missouri Star Quilting Company in Hamilton. Its probably the most famous quilt shop in the country. It's also known as Quilt Town USA.

Jenny Doan and her family have invested in the small town of Hamilton, the birthplace of JC Penny, and have revitalized the small town by renovating old commercial space and installing quilt shops in them. Currently there are 12 shops - the main shop, forals, 30s, batiks, kids, reproductions, holiday, modern, solids, themed fabrics, machine shop, as well as meeting and retreat areas, and a "men's" waiting area. It's a great story and you can read more about MSQC and the Doan family here.

The Inspiration
Missouri Star is by far the best known quilt shop in Missouri, maybe in the entire country, and is therefore my inspiration for this project. MSQC's logo is the Missouri Star block.
So what better block to use in my Missouri Quilt?

The Missouri Star Block can be found in several quilt pattern books including Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. Nancy Cabot of the Chicago Tribune named this block in 1933.

The Quilt
OK, so a Missouri Star block - but 1 big one? Three in a table runner? A bunch in a full size quilt? I want to do something different than just a block  - so in comes a cool technique. Selvages. I've been collecting Pins on Pinterest of all kinds of quilts made with selvages. They are so interesting looking. 

I've been collecting selvages for a couple of years now, so I have quite a collection - good thing because I'm using 3 colors - orange, teal, and purple. 

When I cut the selvages off fabric, I try to cut about an inch of fabric with the selvage, this gives me the interesting selvage and a snippet of the fabric for color.  I found it best to sew the selvages down onto a foundation - a muslin or paper, or for this project I used Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff. 

The pattern is available to order as a hard copy, or as a download from my Etsy Site. So check it out!

I

2019 Quilting Goals

Gosh, can a whole year have passed by so quickly? Zoom, Zoom!

Any new goals obviously (for me) require a revisiting of last years goals to see how I did. I wouldn't want to have to put the same goals on my list because I made no progress!

I had 5 goals and I am pleased that I made pretty good progress on all of them.
1. Use my rotation system - check!
2. Blog every other week - check! Sometimes every week, sometimes once a month. But I'm OK with that.
3. Prepare a trunk show - check! In fact, I've presented it at one guild and have 2 more scheduled.
4. Publish Kansas Goes Modern - Check! It's available on my Etsy Shop.
5. Design and make 2 quilts for my 50 Quilts from 50 States Project - Check! Kansas done and Missouri almost done.


OK not too bad - I wish I had done this well on my other resolutions and goals.






Ok, now for 2019 goals. Some of my previous goals I am dropping because they are habits by now and don't need to be on a goal list. Others are repeating because they really work for me. A few are minor things that may pay off big in term of reducing my quilting frustration level. A few are longer term goals that I want to start on now. So here goes . . .

1.  Prepare 2 more trunk shows.
2.  Prepare 3 workshops.
3.  Get 5 more gigs lined up for 2019.
4.  Trim my threads immediately after sewing. (I really shouldn't need this as a goal, but what can I say, I've gotten lazy about trimming threads).
5.  Design the BOM for KVQG 2019-2020.
6. Explore Artist In Residence programs.
7.  Design and publish 3 more 50/50 quilts.
8.  Get 3 old UFOs done.
9.  Start ball rolling and make contacts to be a teacher at the 2021 Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival.
10.  Start ball rolling and make contacts to be a teacher on a quilt cruise by 2022.


I'm curious about your quilting goals. Share in the comments. I'd love to know what you are doing this year.

50 Quilts from 50 States - Kansas

My Journey to Kansas

I think it is fitting that my quilting journey through our 50 United States of America should begin in my current home state of Kansas. At this point, I have no idea how long it will take me to make my journey, to design the quilts, to make and photograph them, and write about the journey. But they say that a journey of 1000 miles begins with the first steps. Kansas is the first step.

The first time I came to Kansas was in 1988.I traveled from Germany where I was stationed with the US Army to Fort Leavenworth for a 3 month course. Kansas was not at all what I expected - I guess the Wizard of Oz is not representative on Kansas!

Since it was a long course I got to ship some baggage. I wanted to make something for my young son AJ, so I brought my sewing machine with me. I started an applique transportation quilt - tractors, trains, airplanes, cars, bicycles. I visited the local quilt shop in Leavenworth - which is closed now, and bought fabric. I don't remember where I got the pattern. The result was a disaster. I didn't know to stabilize the fabric when doing satin stitch applique and I couldn't get my stitches even. It was my first UFO - I never did finish it.  But my quilting journey had begun.

Guilds and Shops in Kansas

Kansas is where I was fully launched into the quilting life - helped along by the Kaw Valley Quilters Guild and local shops.  The Generations Quilt Patterns website says there are 33 guilds and 81 shops in Kansas and I happen to belong to one of the best guilds and shop at some of the best shops.

 I live in Lawrence, where we have three great shops: Mea Bernina and Babylock, Stitch On Needlework, and Sarah's Fabrics– each very different from each other. Within an hour’s drive there are 6 more great shops.  I’ve probably been to about 20 shops altogether.

       

Both guilds and shops are great places for information and inspiration. I love taking workshops and closely follow class schedules from nearby guilds and shops.  What a bounty!

The Inspiration
This is my first official foray into quilt designing. For my Kansas quilt I decided to take a bit of a journey back in time and learn a bit about the quilt history of Kansas. While looking through Barbara Brackman's book Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, I noticed that there are several blocks named for Kansas. This encouraged me to dig a little deeper. What about a sampler quilt? Boring. Been there, done that. How about a sampler quilt with a bit of a different setting and up to date fabrics? OK, this is sounding fun.

The Quilt

Kansas Goes Modern – A Modern Sampler. I did this quilt in Grunge by Moda for a modern look. It was beautifully quilted by Sandra Morgan Cockrum, and is  68” x 72”. The pattern is available on my Etsy site.

In addition to learning about and using Kansas Blocks, I wanted to try various techniques in this quilt – piecing, applique, foundation piecing, and English Paper Piecing. I think that makes it a good learning quilt.

Kansas Star

The Kansas Star is a traditional quilt block pattern that's also known as Eight Points Allover.  Quilt historians are not sure, but the name Kansas Star may have been tagged onto the Block by the pattern writers at the Kansas City Star.  What makes it a traditional Kansas Star are the fabric choices and placement.  Traditionally the Kansas Star Block was colored so that an 8 pointed star was clearly visible radiating from the inside of the Block, with a high contrast between the star and the background fabrics adjacent to it.

Kansas Troubles

A bit of History from Barbara Brackman's Blog - http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2011/01/5-kansas-troubles.html

For years the Kansas territory had petitioned Congress for statehood, but Southern politicians refused to add a new free state in the West. After Southern Senators walked out of the Senate Chamber, the remaining majority finally had the votes to create the 34th state of the Union.

In 1861 as Kansas was being admitted into the United States, Kansans (free white men in Kansas) could vote on whether to be slave-state or free-state, a process that encouraged activists on both sides to use voter fraud and terrorism to advance their agendas. The territory became known as Bleeding Kansas.

This quilt block goes back to the time of the Kansas Troubles, but we have no idea what women called the design then. The pattern name appears in print about 1890. It doesn't matter how many little triangles there are; it's the rotational repeat that makes it a Kansas Troubles Block.

Rocky Road to Kansas

Rocky Road to Kansas was published in the Ladies Art Company and was in print in 1895, and possible as early as 1889,

Occasionally, quilt blocks were names after the time or event when they first appeared, I imagine Rocky Road is such a block. Referring to the period on the late 1880's and the difficult traveling conditions women experienced.

Kansas Beauty
In Quilt Kansas! Jean Mitchell writes that this block was designed by Miss Roberta Christy of Scott City for the Kansas City Star and came out February 22, 1936. Fieldguidetoquilts.com indicates that the instructions specified a white center and alternating light and dark colors.

Kansas Beauty is one of those Blocks that creates an interesting secondary pattern when multiple blocks are put together.

Kansas Sunflower

The sunflower (Helianthus) was adopted as the Kansas State Flower by the legislature in 1903. I found several sunflower blocks patterns that had "Kansas" attached to it, but since I want to incorporate several different techniques in this quilt, I decided to use an English Paper Pieced Dresden Plate type sunflower for this block.

Kansas Dugout
This block goes by many names - Xs and Os, Indian Hatchet, Five Crosses, Lattice Block, and Church Windows to name a few that I found.

This block is a very simple one - just an elongated hexagon and 2 triangles. It's one of those blocks that doesn't look like anything until you put a bunch of them together. So this quilt includes 16 Blocks so we can really see what the Kansas Dugout Block can do.

I found pictures of antique quilts made from the Kansas Dugout Block – some had the middle Block all one color, others had the elongated hexagons in one color. You could hardly tell it was the same Block. Also it looks really different if it’s on point.

This Block can be made many ways. Some techniques call for templates, set in seams, making strips and then cutting out the Blocks. The technique that I am using is the “sew and flip” technique. It does waste a little more fabric than some other techniques, but I think it’s the easiest.

Kansas Dust Storm

Kansas Dust Storm is Block #3596 in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. This pattern designed by Alva Ryan of Scott City was published in the Kansas City Star in December 1935, during the Great Depression  and the Dustbowl was families needed to make use of every scrap of fabric they had. So this Block is representative of an important era in the history of Kansas as well as the history of quilting.

Kansas Twister

This block seems particularly pertinent for Kansas. There were 60 tornadoes in Kansas last year. Luckily here in Lawrence, we usually get passed over. This block has also been called Texas Trellis or whirligig Hexagon. Here we have another block that looks ho-hum singally and fantastic when put together with multiple Twister blocks.

Kansas

The Bill admitting Kansas to the Union was signed by President Buchanan on January 29, 1861. Today we still celebrate January 21 as Kansas Day. Hearth and Home was a popular farm magazine in the early part of the 20^th century. They ran a series of state Blocks between 1907 and 1912. This is the Hearth and Home Kansas Block.

I used Grunge by Moda in the sample quilt, which was beautifully quilted by Sandra Morgan Cockrum. 

This first quilt in my 50 Quilt Journey was educational and fun for me to design and make. I hope you have enjoyed reading about my journey. If you're encouraged to make Kansas Goes Modern, visit my Etsy site to order either a hardcopy of the pattern, or a download. 

Curious about my Journey? Stay tuned for State number 2!