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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!

I’ve just returned from the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in Madison (which was definitely not the “dark side” of anything!). It was fabulous, and I have a lot of thoughts and photos to search through, so I will be posting about it next week. In the meantime I hope you enjoy this week’s post about fabric and garments:

I’ve mentioned Madison’s Crafts and Fabrics in previous posts. Haley opened her shop in Watertown a few years ago (Her last name is Madison, so it has nothing to do with our State capital 😊). Her shop is great, and it’s growing! She is still selling vintage fabrics at great prices from the sewing stores she purchased in Iowa. But she has new things coming in everyday, and her quilting cottons area keeps getting better and better.

The last time I stopped in I was thrilled to see that she is now carrying Gutermann thread. I know many quilters who like this basic thread – and now there’s a place to get it again! She also has boxes full of garment patterns.

Last Christmas our granddaughter Hanna wanted me to make her a jacket, which I did.

Finding a pattern was not easy. The pattern companies of the past are gone and I ended up having to order one online. It was just what she wanted, but it required me to tape 51 sheets of computer paper together to make the pattern. Oh how I longed for the tissue paper pieces in those old pattern packets pictured above. And did you read the signs? Free!!! I couldn’t control myself. I now have patterns for every garment I might ever want to sew. Plus – I’ve been itching to play with my new serger! So I purchased some of Haley’s vintage fabrics (at $2.99/yard) and started in on a pair of pants (don’t you love that wide leg pants are back in style?)!

Did you notice the pattern weights? I’ve had them for years and they work great ~

~ especially when you want to cut out garments with a rotary cutter! Sadly, these weights are no longer manufactured by Olfa. I did find a variety on Amazon by other manufacturers, along with the vintage ones I own ~ at “antique store” prices (ugh).

I had the pants sewn in a few hours and I LOVED using the serger (even with the learning curve 😊). I decided to take a mirror selfie like my granddaughters do.

The next day I met a friend for lunch at a very eclectic restaurant in Waukesha. They have oodles of fun things hanging all over the walls, and I couldn’t believe the large poster near the front door ~ of a vintage bit of Americana:

Can you believe the price ~ 75¢ ~ those were the good old days. Wait ~ mine was free 🤣. God is good!

So, is anyone wondering why I entitled this post “Returning From the Dark Side”? It refers to one of my lectures ~ “Gone to the Dark Side”, and has to do with my background in garment sewing that led to my love for quilting.

To read a post about that lecture, please click here. I’m grateful I can’t be “pigeonholed.” I think all aspects of sewing are bright and exciting!

PS I was back at Madison’s store recently and the patterns are going fast. It looked like the amount on the table is less than half, so hurry in if you want to check it out. (717 W Main St, Watertown)

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As I was preparing to share this post my friend Ruth brought a jacket she’d made to one of our Fiberista’s meetings. She designed it on a child’s sweatshirt and will be gifting it to a granddaughter at Christmas. Isn’t is delightful!?! Well done Ruth!

A few weeks ago I took you along with me to Iron River, MI. In that post I mentioned that I would be returning to teach at a quilt show in the UP in October. The Wild Rivers Quilt Guild is putting on the show, and here’s the link for anyone who is interested: https://wildriversquiltguild.org/quilt-show/.

It’s going to be a wonderful show. Maybe I’ll see some of you there!

And now for something completely different 😁:

While in the Scottish Islands last May I picked up some shells along the shore of the North Sea. They were a pretty periwinkle blue and I later found out they were simply mussel shells.

One of them was especially interesting. It had a hole in it and it looked like something had been growing on it. I did a bit of online searching and I think it’s some sort of barnacle. Whatever it is, I found it fascinating and decided to put a cord through it and wear it as a necklace that might spark some fun conversation. Before I could do that I needed to coat it with a clear finish. This caused the blue areas to darken in an interesting way. Now to thread a cord through the hole and wear it!

Working with a shell I picked up while traveling took me back to a necklace made from a rock I picked up in Rostock, Germany in 2014.

This took place while on our Sew We Go cruise on the Baltic Sea . During a walking tour through the city our guide showed us some local rocks that had natural holes in them. She recommended we each take one and even had the strings to make the necklaces.

From there we went to the Blaudruck and Handdruck shop ~ and it was a memorable visit. I wrote a post about our visit and the dear man who didn’t speak a word of English, yet demonstrated his craft beautifully while making us all laugh.

His name is Reinhardt Haase, and this is his family’s shop (please click here to read the post).

Do you have any jewelry you’ve made from found rocks, shells, or ??? Please email me photos at

And then… Mike and I recently attended the:

We like to go every year and it is a very classy show with some unique and creative artists. I found two of them particularly interesting. Stacey Stewartson is a leather mosaic artist from Milwaukee.

She told us that she cuts her leather pieces using a rotary cutter and ruler – and then glues them to a base. She uses value well, and her work is beautiful.

Click here to visit Stacey’s website!

The next booth that intrigued me was filled with fascinating weavings by another local artist named Julia Keuler.

What really attracted me to her work was that she leaves areas open with the warp threads showing so that the wall behind is visible. It reminded me of my Crossings quilts where the different parts of my quilts are held together with beads, buttons, etc., and the wall can be seen through the gaps. Her pieces are finished with the base threads as part of the design. Some are woven into frames while others are on the looms she creates to weave them.

I couldn’t help myself. I had to have one of them. The nails that hold the threads are visible, as are the threads and wood behind the opening under the left arm of the copper cross.

It looks lovely hanging next to a beautiful macramé piece my daughter-in-law Betsy made for my mom ~ and that now belongs to us.

It’s such fun to meet and learn about the work of other artists ~ especially fiber artists!

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And one more thing… after last week’s post about puzzle quilts Lorraine sent me this email and photo.

“Here is my version of a Sudoku quilt. Each fabric represents a number from 1-9 so the quilt represents a complete Sudoku grid. All you need is a stack of fat quarters. It was such fun to make!”

Being a sudoku fan – I love it! – Thanks Lorraine!

I unintentionally sent out my post announcement for this week with the title “Shells, Rocks and Fibers”, and yet – this week’s post is about puzzles ~ and the other “Shells, Rocks and Fibers” will appear next week. Sorry for the confusion. I guess I wanted to make this week’s email really puzzling 🤔.

Here is “Puzzling Quilts”:

I recently taught for a guild in Illinois and this crossword puzzle quilt was shared during show and tell. I loved it and had to snap a picture. In going through my photos recently I decided many of you would enjoy it too. Sadly, I didn’t get the name of the maker. If anyone knows who she is, please add it to the comments.

I am a puzzler at heart and love all types of puzzles. So I’ve made a few puzzle quilts myself. Way back during Wisconsin’s Sesquicentennial, I entered a guild challenge with that as the theme. Each of the words in the puzzle had something to do with our wonderful State, and the fabric squares (which all came from my stash) did too. I was so pleased with the puzzle part that I decided to border it with the four seasons in Wisconsin, and added buttons and embellishments. The book buttoned to the top right corner contains the clues to the puzzle. It was great fun to make and a winner at the State Fair that year.

In June of 2020 I made a quilt for a challenge in the ThreadBenders group entitled “Puzzled No More” (Click here to read that post). This one focuses on jigsaw puzzle pieces rather than a crossword puzzle theme. There are jigsaw puzzle pieces in the appliqués and the quilting too.

And while writing about jigsaw puzzles, 2020 was a puzzling year for me because I also made a baby quilt for my niece’s baby boy Remington. Remmy’s is an “I spy” puzzle quilt (Click here to read the post).

I even love jigsaw puzzles with a quilty theme.

In 2024 one of the miniature quilts entered in the AQS Paducah show was a sudoku quilt. I have to admit ~ I’m hooked on sudoku also. So I was really intrigued by Charles Cameron’s work. His design of the numbers is fascinating.

And for a really crazy puzzle quilt that I haven’t shared in a long time… this is “Puzzling Spumoni”.

If you want to hear that story, please come to my lecture at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show. I’ll be sharing it’s story and you can see it there “in the cloth”.

Have you made any type of puzzle quilt?

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And one more thing…

Diane sent me photos of three quilts she’s made in response to a post I did last month about a “Gray Quilt”. Here’s what she said:

“Gray seems to be the color of the day! I have made these three quilts recently all using grays and beiges.”

Gray is very in right now – and these quilts use it beautifully! I especially love all the curves! Thanks Diane!