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I recieved some wonderful emails after writing a post about lace this past summer. This first one was from Karen, a traveling friend of mine. Karen makes the most lovely memory quilts about her trips. Here’s what she wrote:

“Hello Chris, I wasn’t able to post pictures on your blog about lace, so I’m sharing them here. I love your lace hearts!  So creative!! I purchased some lace while visiting Switzerland last year and incorporated it in a memory quilt by using a dark blue background. I also included fabric that I screen printed in the wall hanging (the pink and blue). I’m currently working on a memory quilt from my trip to Belgium and Netherlands with Country Heritage Tours last April.”

What a great way to display the lace!

Thanks so much for sending these Karen. They reminded me of a travel memory quilt I made after a “Sew We Go” trip to the Netherlands. I’d purchased a lace doily that found a spot on that quilt.

Sharyn also sent me some photos in response to the lace post with this message:

“Here are some pictures of a quilt where I used lace. The Sunbonnet Sues have lace pantaloons. I didn’t want the top part of her shoes to show so I put the lace over white cloth. The white fabric is completely stitched down (needle turn appliqued), but the lace is loose at the bottom. The quilt was a challenge quilt where my quilt club exchanged polka dot fabric. We had to use some of each fabric on the pattern of our choice. On one of the fabrics, I used the reverse side of the fabric and on another, I carefully cut out the fish, (I think it was?), so that the polka dot part of the fabric wasn’t visible! The fish and the hatchet were my husband’s idea and he sketched them out for me. He also drew out the top and the bole of the tree trunk for me. (He had commented that it seemed odd to have the turquoise border hanging in mid air in the midst of the green fabric so I said, “Okay! Then I can hang it from the tree. Would you please draw it for me?”)”

Just look at all the fun polka dots!

Here’s a closeup of one of the Sue’s with her lace pantaloons. I think having the tree support the border is quite clever, and the lace is just the right touch. Thanks Sharyn!

After replying to Sharyn and thanking her for the photos, she sent me this:

“I saw paired Sams/Sues on a quilt online, liked it, contacted the website about getting the pattern, but never heard back. Eventually the post was removed. However, I had printed out a picture of the quilt which I enlarged for an applique pattern. (Tom modified the watering can so it looked more like serious watering cans, which made it easier to applique.) The tree trunk was fabric from my late mother-in-law’s collection. I am not a scrappy quilter, so I wanted to have the various polka dot fabrics make logical sense in a balanced way; I spent a lot of time determining the placement of the Sam/Sue sets to provide that balance. Very OCDish!”

WooHoo! I love Sharyn’s problem solving, and her fearless way of figuring out a pattern when one wasn’t available. You too can work from a photo when you reach a dead end in trying to find a pattern source (as long as you are doing it for your own personal use – we always want to be careful of copyright).

So, as I was typing up this additional lace post I decided to do a web search about lace in quilts. The first item that showed up was a YouTube video that captivated me. The site is called merrymabelmarket, and her string pieced lace quilts are delightful. She has a charming way of demonstrating her technique ~ and I’m pretty sure I have to try it! Here are a few photos I snapped from her video:

I highly recommend you watch it all by clicking here, and “like” it on the bottom right corner of the screen! Her website is great too (click here) Please send me photos if this inspires you to play with lace on your quilts.

And, since I’m posting about embellishing, I have a few more things to share:

Lorraine responded to my Buttons and Fasteners post with these clever button ideas:

“Hi Chris,
I thought you might like to see two ways I use my buttons. First of all, I have given several salt shaker vases of button flowers to family and friends. I like to use old crystal or china shakers. When I give a salt shaker to someone I always remind them of Matt 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth.” I tell them that as salt is added to food to enhance the flavor we are put into people’s lives to enhance their lives with love,   kindness, gentleness, etc.

I also like to use buttons on each of my quilts. Sometimes they are part of the quilt pattern but usually I put them on the label.
 Lorraine
(the button collector)”

Buttons on the label – who’d have thought?!? Thanks again Lorraine!

Then Lynn sent me a few photos regarding the post I did about making jewelry from unexpected items. There’s no lace involved, but I couldn’t resist sharing this here.

“Chris,  You asked for pictures of jewelry made from things not usually used for that hobby. Here is a picture of a necklace that my aunt made for me using beads and gold safety pins.  You work with what you have on hand.”

What a fun necklace. Thanks Lynn!

I made The Way Home in 1996 for the National Quilt Museum’s contest: “New Quilts From an Old Favorite ~ Mariners Compass”. It was one of 18 winning quilts that hung in the museum, traveled the country, and was featured in a book about the exhibit. What a blessing!

It’s 60″ square, and is also featured on the cover of my Compass Capers book. A year or two ago I thought it would be fun to make it in miniature. I drafted it the size I thought best, and began paper piecing the compasses at a retreat. Then it went on the back burner. Earlier this year I pulled it out and worked on it between other projects. I pieced the center square first and then got to work on those elongated, pointy oval shapes. I wondered what those shapes are called. I’ve been referring to them as “marquis,” like cut gems. I looked it up and in geometry they can be called “pointed ovals” or “vesica piscis”. I think I’ll stay with marquis. It’s the shape that’s made when 2 circles overlap. – and that’s how I originally drafted it.

They were fun to piece!

The difficult part was choosing a fabric to fit between the compasses. The original one was purchased at Ben Franklin in Oconomowoc, WI all those years ago (I really miss that store).

Even though I had some of it left (yes, it’s been in the stash since 1996!), the scale was way off for a mini. But we live in an amazing age. I was able to rescale a photo of the fabric to the size I needed, and have it printed on quilter’s cotton at Spoonflower.com.

Once the compasses were pieced I stitched these new fabric rectangles to the center compass. The tricky part was going to be the curves. I knew that the seam allowances on the marquis compasses were just too bulky to fold back around the paper patterns. Fortunately I’d saved the background pieces of paper from between the compasses when they were drafted. I traced them onto freezer paper, ironed it to the back of the marquis compasses, and pressed back the seam allowances on the map fabric with liquid starch to create the finished arc. Then I squeezed a thin line of Elmer’s School Glue™ along the back seam allowance on the curve, placed it on the first marquis compass, aligned the points, and ironed the glue dry.

It looks nice, but it’s only glued in place. Here it is from the back:

It was now ready to appliqué, and since Mary Jo’s hand appliqué had been such an inspiration to me at the last retreat ~ I knew I could do this (stay tuned for a post about some of her amazing quilts)! It was actually a very enjoyable process, and I soon had 2 marquis compasses stitched in place.

Pressing the remaining curves of the map fabric for the other compasses was a bit trickier at this point. But I persevered and was very pleased with the results!

I then went looking for a green fabric to encircle the center piece ~ and I found the remnants from the original circle made back in 1996. Sometimes keeping too much stuff has it’s advantages. I used the Pieceliqué™ basting method once again, and hand appliquéd the circle.

Now it’s time to piece the very odd shaped corner compass quarters. Here’s what they look like in the original quilt:

Watch for my next update ~ I’m hoping it will be soon. I’ve been thinking about the possibility of entering it in the miniature quilt competition in Paducah this coming April. The deadline for entries is November 19th. Perhaps that will be the incentive I need.

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And one more thing, in case you were wondering about the Autumn image at the top of this post, this past week we stopped at Jelli’s Market, a pumpkin farm near us. They do fun artwork on their hay bales every year, and I especially loved this one. Happy Autumn ~ and God Bless America!

Almost 20 years ago I wrote my second book with That Patchwork Place. It was called “Snuggle and Learn Quilts for Kids” and included patterns for educational quilts with words on them using my Repliqué technique.

I made a bunch of different patterns to be included in the book and the editor decided there wasn’t room for all of them. My Critter Quilt project was cut. So, I ended up making a stand alone pattern for it,

and gifted my first critter quilt to our grandson Will when he was a baby (I don’t think he was all that interested in it in this photo).

While teaching classes on these quilts I realized I needed to make a second one to travel with me. That was the last time I stitched any of these fun critters ~ until recently. When I heard that my nephew Kevin and his wife Alex were expecting their third child, I started noodling on quilt designs for this new baby. Why come up with a new idea when I already had a fun pattern? So I started making blocks while in Paducah this past April. As I made them I taped them to the hutch in our kitchen at the 1857 Guest House we stay in.

Repliqué is such a fun technique for reproducing photos and drawings. I had 9 blocks done in no time.

You might notice the fish has a different background fabric. That’s because I ran out of the plain blue. But the blue with seashells worked just fine.

I put them all together and the top hung on my design wall with other “works in progress” for months because the baby wasn’t due until October.

And then it was October! And Sullivan Brophy Walters was welcomed into the family. He joins his sisters Roan and Breen.

Sullivan is his grandmother’s maiden name and Brophy is his mom’s.

This is when I realized it was time to finish the quilt. So, I got the top layered and had fun quilting it – animal sounds and all!

It’s ready to give to them when we meet our new grand nephew. My dad already has had that privilege. Sullivan is the 15th great grandchild born to my dad – and the first boy to carry on the Walters name. Dad was thrilled to hold him. Here they are aged 2 weeks and 95 years.

God is good!

Last week Friday morning I packed the car and headed to Iron Mountain, Michigan for the Wild Rivers guild show entitled: “Quilting in My Life” – and a wonderful show it was!

I love to teach, but I always say that the packing and the “schlepping” is getting a bit harder with time. This time I “only” needed 4 suitcases and 3 tote bags!

The drive up was lovely. I think the trees were almost at their peak.

And many of the buildings in town had beautiful murals. The man on the ladder in the last one is part of the painting – so clever!

When I arrived at the middle school they were beginning to set up the quilt racks. I was so honored to be given a long wall for my quilts, and it was the first thing attendees saw when they entered the show. In this photo I’d just hung them, with help from Hilda (thanks Hilda!), and was about to put up the signage. It made me smile when I realized there was a ladder at the end of my wall too. This exhibit is part of the reason why I had so many suitcases 😁.

The guild members and their helpers worked hard all evening to set everything up ~ and it looked great for the start of the show! Here’s just a sampling:

I met Barb while the show was going up and asked her about this quilt. She hand stitched the entire quilt using the English paper piecing method. Beautiful!

I talked to Rose about her quilt “Six Sided Wonder” during the show. It’s all hand stitched and includes pieces of vintage linens.

I found 3 embroidered hexies cut from vintage pieces in this portion alone. Can you?

“Omigosh!” by Anita Berry is really scrappy ~ and I thought it was so interesting that the border squares were far more intricate than the center of the quilt. I understand it was time consuming, but I’m thinking those blocks were a bit challenging too ☺️.

Isn’t Laurie Frieberg’s quilt “Fox in a Box” delightful? She made it for her first grandchild.

Cozy Camp Nights by Jodi Peterson is a “rag quilt”. It’s named that because the raw edges of the seam allowances are showing on the top of the quilt. Jodi did an amazing job of “fluffing” up her seam allowances:

Here’s a close up:

Mayan Mirage by Jackqueline Lehto was striking.

As I was looking at the quilts I discovered I’d photographed quite a few by Jackie. Her stories are as charming as her quilts. Here’s another:

I also noticed that many of the quilts that weren’t hers had been quilted my her. It was such a joy to get to meet her! What a talented quilter she is! Jackie was also teaching at the show, and she had quite a few quilts in the bed turning. It “turns” out she has made a different quilt to use on her bed each month!!! Here’s just one of them. She puts a lot of herself into the designing of her work. Just look at the machine stitched redwork, and the sweet outer edge.

Not only did I have the chance to present my “Quilt Tales” lecture and “Fall Into Repliqué” class at the show,

but I was able to take a class too. I’ve seen Laurie Landree’s award winning work many times over the years and I’ve wanted to learn about her technique for making faces. It was a fun class. Here are a few of her quilts:

And here’s a photo of her with one of her more recent pieces at the Madison show:

She provides many original line drawings of facial features in her pattern and the students create their own character with fusing. It was fun to choose the features and fabrics for my whimsical lady, and here’s my wip (work in progress):

One of the other talented quilters I met was Melanie Roath. She had some of her quilts hung together in the show,

After admiring them I learned she has also written a children’s book about quilts. She and her granddaughter are part of a story about quilt blocks and the animals in their names. It was illustrated by her daughter,

and I was tickled to be there for her book reading.

There were so many fun aspects to this delightful show. I wish I could have shown you all the quilts and introduced you to the other wonderful quilters I was privileged to meet, but space only permits me to tell you about one more friend of mine.

In closing, I need to introduce you to Laurie Cwerenz. She is the dear quilter who invited me to be a part of the show. She and her team were very well organized and did a wonderful job. She also narrated the bed turning and here we are with a special memorial quilt she’d made for a family member.

Thanks so much Laurie, and all of the members of the Wild Rivers Guild, for a wonderful weekend in Michigan!

I’m posting this week from Iron Mountain, Michigan, where I’ve been invited to be the “featured quilter from Wisconsin” at a wonderful show 😊. What a blessing! I’ll be organizing my thoughts and photos this week and share them with you in my next post. In the meantime – I hope you’ll enjoy reading about another of my travels from a few weeks ago.

Marie and I have traveled around Japan and the UK together. Sew, when she asked me to join her and a group of friends on a retreat in September ~ I jumped at the chance. And now I have more quilting friends ~ WooHoo!

We stayed at the Posie Too! crafting retreat in Suamico, WI. It was just over a 2 hour drive for me, and I wondered why this group of friends who live south of Milwaukee decided to travel so far. I discovered that they had been retreating together for years, and then Linda moved to Eagle River. They found this crafting retreat halfway between.

It’s not fancy on the outside (it shares a building with a used car shop), but the inside is spacious and lovely and it’s within walking distance of Green Bay (the bay, not the city). There were 6 of us, so we had plenty of room to spread out and create.

And the kitchen was well appointed.

This sweet group of ladies welcomed me in, and there were so many wonderful projects being made.

Marie was making sampler blocks inside of spools – lovely!

Linda was doing some amazing paper piecing.

Kathy’s yellow and blue diagonal set top was delightful.

Colleen’s king sized Hunters Star top had the most amazing collection of blue fabrics.

And Mary Jo’s hand appliquéd blocks blew me away (stay tuned for a future post with more of her work).

I began the retreat by working on Betsy’s VW quilt (featured in last week’s post). I decided it was such a silly and playful quilt it needed fun free motion quilting ~ and I had a happy time doing just that!

I decided to sneak this photo in here because we finally got together with Betsy and family to celebrate her birthday this past week. She really liked her quilt!

OK – back to the retreat…

I hadn’t been to any quilt shops in Green Bay, so three of us took a short road trip ~ and we weren’t disappointed. The first shop we found was “My Favorite Quilt Shop” – and it was worth the trip!

The Police Call Box above is actually a “Little Free Library”. It added to the charm of this very interesting shop.

Every room on two floors was filled with fabric, notions, and loads of other interesting stuff!

And quite a few bargains. We had a great time exploring all the nooks and crannies – and made a few purchases too.

From there it was a short drive to Quilting Divas.

It’s a more traditional style quilt shop. With loads of fabric, supplies and friendly people.

While there I really enjoyed meeting Becky and her group. They meet regularly in the shop and make charity quilts. As she explained their purpose I knew you’d want to read about them.

In the middle of this photo is the pile of quilts they’d made that day!

And here’s the group’s information as sent to me by Becky:

“Our group name is Quilters for HOPE, we meet one time per month At Quilting Diva’s in Howard, WI and sew charity needs.  We hope next January that we can start meeting 2X per Month. Currently, our group supports several charities that we sew for.

We are making Cancer large throws to support patients during Chemo and beyond, Project Linus, both quilts and Self Binding Receiving blankets, Wounded Warriors of Wisconsin in Gleason, WI, they take twin size quilts for Veterans, We are making Brooke’s Bags for Antigo, WI (these bags are filled with tampons, pads, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, etc), the school nurse passes them out to those in need so they can continue to go to school during their monthly cycle)

We held a Brat Barn Fundraiser to help support us to buy batting, backing material, and background fabric.  We are always looking for donations of good quality 100% cotton or Good Quality Flannel.    We also support some of our funds through Thrivent members, they are able to lead Action Teams 2X per Year and can get $250.00 per time.  This has been very helpful to help us with our batting needs.Our Group Goal: To continue to Give HOPE to those in need and support our communities.

I have attached one of our special quilts we sewed as a group and made a quilt for the Bra’s on the Bay event here in Green Bay, WI.  The event is held on October 22nd and this quilt will go up for Silent Auction to help them raise money for reconstruction cost for those in need. You can check out the event by searching on the Internet. Great event.“

What a giving group! And what a wonderful retreat! Isn’t is a blessing to get to hang out with quilters!!!

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And one more thing…

At the retreat I needed to change my rotary cutting blade. I showed the ladies my magna-dots and how handy they were for this chore.

I purchased these magnets with handles from an artist out east, and she doesn’t always have them available online. That’s when Colleen showed me her version – the magnet is glued to a cork!

I thought there might be a few of you out there who would like to make rotary blade changing tools of your own. For a post on how to use them click here. Thanks Colleen!

At a retreat last winter I finished a quilt top I’d started in Paducah over a year ago (click here for that post). I purchased the border fabric at Barry’s Fabrics in Birmingham England when I attended the 2024 Festival of Quilts (click here for that post), because my daughter-in-law had a thing for VW buses back then. When I finally got to this point, I wondered if Betsy still did. Her daughter Sommer assured me I should finish it.

Aside from the colors, there really wasn’t much of a connection between the center of the quilt and the buses. It just needed a little something extra. So, I used repliqué to make a side view of a bus and appliquéd it on top of the big dots in one of the blocks.

Just one was all that was needed, and it made the whole quilt more fun. This reminded me of a photo from my trip to Hawaii with my granddaughter Hanna back in 2024.

We were driving down the Road to Hana after a swim at the black sand beach.

Getting back to Betsy’s quilt – I asked Sommer what I should put on the back, and this piece of fleece (purchased when JoAnn’s was going out of business) was her choice ~ our last name is German for cherries after all 😁.

Then, a few weeks ago, I went on a retreat with my friend Marie and some of her friends ~ and I got it quilted and bound. It was finished 2 days before Betsy’s birthday – WooHoo!

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And one more thing…

Since the topic this week was about a quilt I made for my daughter-in-law, I can’t resist sharing about a quilt that recently resurfaced. I made it for Sommer years ago. She was just two and her mom, Betsy, had decorated her “big girl” room in these colors, with an owl theme. Sommer loved her dogs – Mosely and Nirshey, so I decide to make her a quilt combining all these things in a modern style.

Click here for the link to a post I did about it.

I have to admit ~ I never saw it on her bed after giving it to her for Christmas that year. Recently Sommer asked me if I ever made her a baby quilt. Duh – you can probably guess that I made her a few. But the one above was a real creative adventure for me, so I told her about it. She didn’t remember it. A few hours after we took her and Trey home she sent me this:

Grandma’s heart is happy!

Last week I shared photos of some of my favorite quilts from the Madison show. I also talked about how my classes and lectures kept me very busy. The 3 hour workshop I taught this year was “Quilt, Slash, Create”. It’s a very playful, creative class, and I think I can safely say we all had a good time. Here are some of the student’s works in progress:

I had one morning free and I couldn’t wait to take a class. It was a serging workshop and Pam Mashie, the Bernina instructor who taught it, was excellent! I had my winter runner finished before class was over and I learned so much. Pam teaches at Sew Much More and I highly recommend her! (and don’t you love the way I coordinated my outfit with the class project? 😂)

Prior to the show I decided to experiment a bit more with my serger, and I created something to wear at the show (and anytime I teach a Seminole class 😊). Here’s the story:

After having a good time making a pair of pants a few weeks ago, I decided to go with an idea that had been brewing for a while. My Seminole Sampler classes have been very well attended, and wearing a garment with Seminole piecing would make teaching it even more fun. So I purchased a beautiful dark blue batik at Madison’s Crafts and Fabrics here in Watertown (it was actually an extra wide backing fabric ~ which worked great). Then I chose a fun Seminole design and began piecing a strip to go down the sides of a pair of wide leg pants.

I love the Seminole strip piecing techniques and followed the measurements in a book I have ~ which was published in the 1980s.

It resulted in a pretty strip, but it was quite narrow and I wasn’t pleased with the low value difference between the two gold fabrics I’d chosen.

Hmm… maybe this narrow row should be used in a vest, and a wider one could be made for the pants. The instructions for the piecing were only in one size, so I grabbed my 1/4″ graph paper and came up with amounts for a larger strip of the same design.

It looked much more proportional!

Making the pants was easy because it was the same pattern I’d made previously. And I’m getting better at serging 😊.

Then came the vest. I found a pattern that I thought would work, but where would the Seminole piecing go? I stared at the fabric and pattern for quite a while and decided to walk away until inspiration struck. That happened the next day when I took photos of the fabrics and leftover chunks of Seminole from the pants, and played with designs in Affinity Photo on my computer. This is what I came up with:

It really is handy to know how to work in a photo editing program. I took a ten week class in Photoshop™ 20 years ago and it was one of the most useful classes I’ve ever taken. Now it was time to stitch what’s pictured above for the back of the vest. Here’s an “in progress” photo . The colors aren’t good in this photo, but by the time I realized it the piece was already sewn together.

The colors are closer to the actual piece in this photo of the completed block:

Next I added fabric around the piece and cut out the back of my vest. Then I asked myself “should I piece a motif for the front? I wasn’t sure, and so I took a photo of the pattern piece (on the left) and a leftover strip of the Seminole piecing (laid out on a piece of the background fabric to the right). I opened them in Affinity photo again and tried something I hadn’t done before. Using a selection tool in my computer program, I selected the inner part of the pattern on the first photo and deleted it. That made the “hole” where the pattern was turn into a “tiny gray/white checkerboard”. This is what happens in photo editing software. My idea was to then copy the middle image (with the hole) and paste it over the one on the right.

And this is what happened!!!

Yup ~ the image on the bottom showed through the hole! Just like I’d hoped. And I liked it! That was fun 😁! You may have noticed I added a small gold square in the center of the Seminole strip prior to taking the photo above. I was happy with that too. But all this was only done on the computer once again. It was time to have some fun piecing it and putting it all together.

I think the entire outfit is fun ~ but is it a little clown-ish? Mike said kind words, but I’m not sure he wants to be seen with me wearing it in public 😂. The strip down the legs looks a bit like it came from a band leader uniform. Even in the 70s, Seminole pieced outfits were a little out there. It will however be a hit in my Seminole classes. ~ and I had to wear it at the Madison quilt show, because quilters get it! I wore it to my first class of the show and received many nice comments. Here are a few selfies I took in the hotel room mirror.

I think this serging of garments could become a new addiction!

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And one more (completely unrelated) thing…

I recieved an email from Debbie with this message:

“I have a vintage crib quilt with appliquéd Beatrix Potter characters that I would like to sell. It is in very good condition and has no stains or tears. It is 53″ x 35″.”

What a sweet quilt! I would love to own it, but I’m at a point where I need to start downsizing my collection, not adding to it. If you are interested in Debbie’s quilt, please comment or email me at , and I’ll send you her phone number.

As always ~ there was so much to do and see at this year’s show that I can’t fit it all into one post. So, I’ll start with my favorite part of any show ~ the QUILTS! As most of you know, I like to share photos of some of my favorites. I’m not doing this with my judges hat on, I just pick the ones that intrigue me, whether they’ve won a ribbon or not. So here goes…

I was teaching quite a bit again this year, thus the time I had available to see the quilts was precious. I decided to start at the back of the exhibit and the first quilt I saw really grabbed me. It’s orange! I love orange! And then there was teal, yellow, intricate piecing, appliqué, and it was topped off with hand embroidery and embellishments. How could I not love it? I soon discovered it was made by my friend Eileen. I think I feature one of her quilts every year, and with good reason.

And that was just the beginning. I’ve talked to many people about the show and the general consensus was that the quality of the quilts was really fabulous this year. I would agree.

I have a warm spot in my heart for quilts that do something innovative with traditional patterns, and I’ve done a few of my own variations of the Dresden Plate, but this one took it to a new level because Mary Jane embroidered the petals in some of the plates. Every aspect was well done.

When I think of Laurie Landree’s work, faces usually come to mind – not mushrooms. And just look at all those wonderful hand stitches! What fun.

Sampler quilts are another favorite of mine. In fact, my lecture this year included my first quilt and it was a sampler. Placing all the different blocks in a heart created a bright, cheerful, happy quilt.

And for a rather unusual twist on a sampler – placing the blocks in cows fits the bill. I’ve never added googly eyes to a quilt, but in this one it works!

I want to include one more sampler. The many bright scrappy blocks are fun, but what I liked was the way Brian pieced the four pointed compass into it all. What a fascinating design concept.

Next are a pair of lovely wholecloth quilts. The combination of a vintage linen tablecloth with modern machine quilting worked beautifully in “Antique Irish Linen”.

And “Antique Blush” was incredibly elegant and well done.

Plus, did you notice that Megan lives in Canada? Our Madison show is definately international.

The appliquéd rings in Lorraine’s “Circular Cosmos” are completely hand stitched, and the quilting is non-computerized. Wow!

The following pictorial quilt has such depth, and the children are so lifelike. What wonderful use of fabrics and values!

This next quilt is very special to me. As you’ll read, it all started in one of my Mariner’s Compass workshops. Glennes used it as the jumping off point for this spectacular quilt, and I was so pleased to run into her and get to talk about it.

I’m not usually very interested in still life art, but this one grabbed me. I especially like Sara’s color choices and her piecing of the background and table.

Each show I have to pick one landscape – and this one was hands-down my favorite. Susan’s attention to detail is fantastic!

A month or two ago I did a post about lace. It was inspired by things I saw on my trip to the UK last May, and included some quilts of my own that were embellished with lace. So, Pamela’s combining of vintage looking lace with a very contemporary bright center was photo worthy.

And speaking of lace, Tia Otto’s “Lace of the Northwinds” used the term lace in a very different way. To begin with, I loved her fabric choices that overlapped with wonderful transparent effects. And the inclusion of the snowflake fabric that looks like lace was the perfect touch.

I’m often fascinated by Linda Fleschner’s work, so it was not surprising that “Unconstrained” appealed to me. “Color Catcher™” dots??? I wonder if she cut them out with a hole punch? How very creative!

Unique art quilts often get my attention. And I’ve made a number of quilts that are made up of more than one quilt. Jane’s was quite original and very well done.

Ruby had quite a journey making “Lura”, but it was well worth it. Just look at all those raw-edged feathers.

Here’s a new take on temperature quilts. The trees and quilting were a perfect fit with the houses.

Cindy and I have traveled together. She is a very adventurous globe trotter and I always enjoy seeing what she does with the fabrics she purchases on her trips around the world. This has to be one of my favorties!

And as long as we’re looking at great piecing, I just had to share Donna’s delightful quilt.

I think what grabbed me about Kelly’s quilt was when I noticed that there were only 3 fabrics in the entire work. She had quite a vision for what to do with the “striped turquoise” fabric, and the quilted stars are unexpected and just the right fit.

Sadly, I just didn’t have time to really examine the extra exhibits. But I did hang the ThreadBender’s Achromatic challenge on Wednesday, and we were blessed to have a wonderful space right near the front entrance.

And I loved all of Victoria Findley Wolfe’s exhibit (her lecture was excellent too!). What’s going on with that wedding ring quilt hung way up high?

I zoomed in with my camera. Too cool! Her combining of piecing and photos on fabric is truly amazing!

There’s more to share, but it will just have to wait for a future post.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why the view out our hotel window at the show is at the top of this post, it’s because we usually are on the 4th floor and only get to see the buildings and parking lot. This year we were on the 8th floor and we could actually see the Capital! Beautiful!