Complex Shibori Dyes

As I was organizing and folding my dyed fabrics I pulled these out and hung them on my design wall.
I wanted to study them and look at each one of them to see if it told me what it wanted to be. I am still studying them but I do have some ideas.
These are special pieces I used unique techniques to create and I want to showcase the piece and enhance it as a finished work of art.

More Koeper Ancestors

I have posted some of these photos before but they no longer show up on my blog. I have no idea why.
So I am sharing again and hope the younger family members will enjoy seeing them and they are welcome to share them.


This is my favorite picture of my grandma and grandpa Koeper. I have no idea how old they were in this picture.

This is grandma Matilda Gruenwald Koeper with her siblings.
Clockwise from top left: Alma, May, Matilda, Elsie, Sonny

This is a picture from Grandpa Koeper in his younger years. Love this one. It’s the youngest photo I have of him.

Grandpa dressed to impress

Dressed to impress again!
Grandpa had many  siblings but I do not have any pictures of any of them.
Stay tuned as there is more to come.

Throw Back Thursday Koeper Older Generation Photos

I have decided to post several photos of our parents of the “Koeper” cousins.
I found there was a lot of interest in our ancestors when I posted a photo of Grandpa Casper Koeper.
I will start with our parents today and add previous generations at a later date.

Charlie, Jerry and Cas, the 3 oldest Koeper Brothers.

Grandma Matilda Gruenwald Koeper with son Jerry.

Youngest son Bill, my dad with his cousin Raymond Heinen.

Grandpa Casper Koeper with only daughter Catherine Koeper Rehorst.

Charlie, Bill, Grandpa Casper, Catherine, Grandma Matilda,Jerry, Cas with their Chandler car.
To me Grandpa always seemed old…(wonder what my young grandchildren would say about me). I remember a car in their garage (not this one), but after a few years there was no car as Grandpa no longer drove. He would walk all over. It was probably 5 miles round trip from their house to down town Milwaukee and he did that often.
I hope my cousins, and all of you younger family members enjoy this group of family photos.

Where Have All The Bloggers Gone?

So many of the people I have followed either no longer blog or blog once or twice a year.
The bloggers that I loved and followed were my inspiration to start blogging.
It has been a great way for me to create a personal diary and I share it online with all of you.
Del Thomas is a blogger from California who I continue to follow.  I met her when she was travelling cross country and we spent a little time getting acquainted. She is not only a quilter but a collector of wonderful quilts. She thinks nothing of getting in her car and driving miles and miles to take a class, see a show or visit friends. She recently talked about the diminished interest in people blogging.

She had the nicest comment about my blog:
I read several blogs regularly and others that I catch up on when I have some extra time.
Kay Sorensen  quiltspluscolor.blogspot.com is a super blogger who keeps up with the statistics and enjoys hundreds of visits each day.  She leads a very interesting and varied life in Wisconsin and Florida. Kay makes spectacular quilts and is a very nice lady.  When I was driving cross country once I took a detour up to Wisconsin, because it was one of only two states I had not visited (Alaska is still missing).  I called her and she took me out to dinner and showed me her studio and some of her great quilts.  It is a precious memory. 
You can follow her interesting blog at: delquilts.blogspot.com/

Yes, I still follow several bloggers and I have met the majority of them in person. Some are close friends and others are online friends.
I love my blogging friends.

Bobbi Home Permanent

Everything you think you see on the internet is not what it appears to be. I was not drinking beer but was "acting” in a posed photo.
I was a high school sophomore here.
Does anyone remember Bobbi Home Permanents?

My mom had given me one the week before this picture was taken.
She was left handed and I am right handed. She wound all the curls the opposite way I would.
So when I tried to do curl my own hair it just stuck straight out.
Imagine being this age and having to have your Mom do your hair every night! It was so embarrassing to have to have to have her do it every night.
That was the last Bobbi perm I ever got.

Throw Back Thursday–Way Back To The 50’s

I recently shared a page from my 4H booklet I made with records of  my sewing projects in the late 50’s.
I mentioned I had used many of the scraps in the first two quilts I made.
I am pleased to share with you some close-ups from those quilts.

They were made for my mother and father in law. They were patchwork on both sides as I had more scraps than money. I used old fashioned Mountain Mist cotton batting. I tied them with wool worsted yarn on the floor.

Fortunately they never used them. Had they been washed there would have been one big wad of stuffing inside.

When my my mother in law passed away I  got the quilts. I took them apart with the intentions of making each one into a single quilt and backing it with a solid piece of fabric to make a usable size quilt.

I expected the thread to be weak, but it was as strong as the day I  made them and very difficult to take out the stitching. At this time I have still not turned them into new quilts. But oh, the memories as I look at the fabrics!

I hope by sharing this post it will help collectors date their quilts by seeing pre 1960 fabrics which all of these are. Some are much older but most are 1950s.

What A Year This Has Been And It’s Only Half Over

I was honored to be featured in another magazine article. This time it was the July issue of Ocala (FL) Style.

Creative Quilts
Posted June 27, 2018 | By Cynthia McFarland
The Queen of Ice creates art with fabric.

Many women quilt, but no one works magic with fabric quite like Kay Koeper Sorensen, a quilter from Paddock Lake, Wisconsin, who calls Ocala home for half the year.
“When I first started quilting my goal was to make one of every quilt block there ever was. How little I knew!” relates Kay. “My quilting preferences have varied over the years. I love all types of quilts, from the most primitive antique quilts to the most cutting-edge contemporary quilts.”
Kay started out making traditional block quilts before she began making the stunning creations she is known for: one-of-a-kind quilts made with dyed fabrics.
Respected for her masterful use of color, Kay is known as “The Queen of Ice” and has developed her own personal ice-dying technique to make dramatic patterns and colors on the fabric she quilts with.
Prewashed white fabric is soaked in a soda ash solution and then covered with ice. Powdered dye is sprinkled over top. After 24 hours, Kay rinses and then washes the fabric and irons it once it’s dry.
“At one time I bought fabrics dyed by others, but eventually, I realized to get the fabrics I wanted, I would have to learn to dye them myself,” says Kay, who took classes from top dyeing teachers Carol Soderlund and Jan Myers Newbury.
To date, Kay has completed 512 pieces, and her work has been exhibited across the country and beyond. This last spring, her exhibit Florida Ice, was displayed at Ocala’s city hall.

Kay’s current quilts are seldom done with a traditional block format. She works on a vertical design wall, which lets her evaluate and make changes throughout the process.
“All my early work was quilted by hand. Today I use my sewing machine to quilt my art,” says Kay. “The hard edge machine quilting creates is more suitable for the strong graphic designs I create.”
It takes anywhere from 30 to 2,000 hours to create one quilt, and this is only the actual design, construction and finishing time. It doesn’t include the time spent dyeing fabrics and working on design.
Kay taught quilting for over 30 years. Although she’s retired from teaching, as an artist, she will never retire from creating art.

The Quilting World Is A Small World

I taught quilting locally for many many years.
I have kept in touch with one of my students who left the area years ago and moved to VA.
She did a lot of quilting when she took classes from me and has continued quilting and  excelled over the years.

She retired (young retiree) this year.
She is now working for Jinny Beyer in her studio in Virginia part time.

This week I ordered some real neat mesh tote bags from the studio and they arrived on Saturday.
I opened the package right away and guess what was in the package?
A personal note from my former student Jenni!!!!!! (JJ)
I love the tote bags but I was more excited to get the note from her.
If you ever call the studio and someone named JJ answers the phone tell her you are a friend of mine!