If you are not familiar with Quilt Market, it’s a vendor market for individuals and companies in the quilting industry. In the fall, Quilt Market precedes the quilt show in Houston. In the spring, Quilt Market rotates among four different cities, coming to Portland every fourth year. This year was our turn. Today I had […]
A Nifty Way to Store Quilts
At the last Northwest Quilters Guild meeting, I agreed to “test-drive” a new product called a QuiltSafe for Sullivans, the makers of quilt basting spray, in return for responding to their questions within one week. The QuiltSafe is available in King and Queen sizes. Here you can see I’ve placed a small quilt in the […]
March–National Quilting Month
Today is the tail-end of National Quilting Month, and here’s what quilting and I have done together. My cousin Michelle asked me to create two wall hangings from state bird blocks embroidered by her mother. This is my Aunt Lee who turns 86 on April 13th, two days after my birthday. She stitched the blocks […]
A Quilt For Conor
When I attended the IQA show in Houston last October, I ran into a new vendor called Patternjam. (Love the name). The company does pre-printed panels for you to quilt, which you can personalize. This past Christmas I quilted a panel purchased from Keepsake Quilting for my nephew Nick’s youngest son who was born right […]
Master Art Series Challenge–It’s On!
During last year’s workshop, one of the exercises was to choose two pieces of painted fabric that complemented one another in style or color. Then we were to interpret the fabrics through quilting, while changing the character of the design. We started in class, and I just finished the quilting this week. Now the really […]
Christmas Goodies
My nephew Nick and his wife Samantha had a second son on November 12th. I wanted to give the new baby something quilted, so I purchased a Zoo Quilt Panel for the top from Keepsake Quilting and backed it with a thick fleece aka cuddle fabric in an owl print to coordinate with the animals […]
Quilting, Quilting, and More Quilting
This week is all about quilting. This past weekend I taught the NACQJ Two-Day Judging Seminar to a group of seven students. Marilyn Bevan was one of them. By way of introduction, she said she was 90 years old, had just bought a new sewing machine and planned to learn how to use every feature […]
Oregon State Fair
A week ago Tuesday, I evaluated 107 quilts at the state fair along with my fellow certified judge, Elizabeth Spannring. A nice surprise in my pay envelope were two tickets to the fair. Mike and I drove down to Salem, Oregon’s state capital. Unfortunately, the drive was grueling with an hour drive taking one hour […]
Finishing the Top
To finish the border, I appliquéd the red triangles with red rayon thread. Then I couched the blue triangles with a Kreinik Metallic Braid in size medium in a matching blue. I considered couching around the inner edge of the triangular border with metallic black but decided to use the same Kreinik blue. Here’s the […]
Quilt Building Doesn’t Always Go According to Plan
My next step was to construct the blocks in the four corners. I had my fabrics and needed to choose thread color and stitch. I matched the thread to the blue “four-leaf clover” under the fleur-de-lys. I know there must be a name for this motif, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere. I […]
How to Build a Quilt From the Ground Up–Part II
As promised, here is how my World Heritage Site quilt featuring Chartres Cathedral is progressing. The first step was sampling threads and stitches in order to embroider the cathedral. From my stash, I chose a six-strand floss in the same shade of blue to match my blue fabric. I have done a lot of embroidery […]
The Morton Mansion, Arbor Day Farm, and the Lied Lodge
The Grieser family reunion was held at the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, a town of 7,500 located on the eastern border just across the Missouri River from Iowa. The location was the perfect place to spend a few days. The lodge itself while attractive on the outside has a stunning interior entry. As a […]
Quilt Auction
Last week I accompanied my Aunt Lee and cousin Jacquee to a family reunion in Nebraska. My grandmother, Kathryn Grieser Kerler was the 12th of 13th children born to a German Mennonite family. The Grieser family reunion has been ongoing every three years since 1967. None of us descended from my grandmother has ever attended […]
How to Build a Quilt From the Ground Up
As mentioned in a previous post, I’m participating in a new International Challenge. This time the subject is World Heritage Sites. Mine is Notre Dame Cathedral in Chartres. By the way, this Notre Dame is not to be confused with the more famous Notre Dame de Paris. I’ve been to Chartres twice, once during a […]
