Antique Christmas Peony Quilt

I do have some antique quilts. This is one of them that I purchased in southern Wisconsin. It is a combination of hand and machine stitching with hand quilting. I love to take this out for December and put it away for the rest of the year. Red and green quilts say Christmas to me. I haven't had time to take out any other ones this year as all my time is being spent preparing for my show.

I also have a small collection of Santa Clauses and all are hand made by various artists I have met at Fine Folk Art shows.

I decided to decorate very simply this year. My decorations consist of my Santas and the necessary items to complete the unique vignettes.
These four Santas were made by Delores Jacobs of Illinois. She made annual limited addition Santas and I am the proud owner of 4 of them. I have had them for quite a few years.

Tonight's puzzle is Magenta Maze. It is one of the quilts that will be available in the gift shop at my show. I had to turn it sideways to make it fit the puzzle format.

Merry Christmas Cards

I love receiving Christmas cards.
My favorites are the ones with photos and the hand made ones.
Several years ago I remember hearing about keeping all your Christmas cards by punching a hole in them and putting them on a large binder ring.
I love that idea because it was so simple and I usually do it.

I did find some cards that I hadn't added yet so I'll take care of that later today.
One of our friends has sent photo Christmas cards for over 20 years. What fun to go through their cards and see how the family has grown up.
My sister in law Sue makes wonderful hand made cards each and every year and you can see some of them here. Do you see any of the cards you have sent me? I wish I could share each and every one with you.

Tonight's puzzle is a composite of 2 Christmas cards. The first card is my nephew Dave with his twin baby brothers. The second card is David and his wife Rachel with their twin sons. They also have another son who is a perfect little boy. I expect the card this year will have all the boys. The two older boys are perfectly bright little boys who can come up with things no one single child could imagine!

December Dreams

When I was growing up we each were required to do about an hour (or maybe it was only a half hour) of work around the house each day. Anyhow it seemed like much longer than that when you are a preteen and teenager. Since there were 5 of us, it only took 2 to do dishes - one to wash and one to dry so my Mom found other chores for us to try to get out of!
I learned to sew and was often able to fulfill my chore requirement by sewing something for someone else in the family.
For Christmas the year I was about 15 I made red and white striped flannel nighties and PJ's for the whole family, including my little sister and brother's dolls. They even had those gripper snaps which I still don't like to put on anything.
I fulfilled my work requirement for several months to come making these.
My parents then had a photographer take family photos and used them for their Christmas Card that year. It's too bad we didn't have colored photos "in the olden days". We all wore these until they were totally worn out.
Can you find me in the photo?
Now to make this quilt related, I saved the scraps from all the things I made for the rest of the family and myself out of cotton (not the flannel) and they appear in 3 scrap quilts I made years and years ago.

Tonight's puzzle is another version of the family in their Christmas sleepwear.

Thoughts after blogging for 3 months-second post tonight

I am writing this after I have blogged for 3 months.
I had no idea where I was heading when I began this journey.
What seems to be happening is I am documenting my work.
There will be early work, recent work, good work and some that's not so good.
But it has all has been important in my development as an artist.
Anything I share with you will be something that has meaning for me and has helped me to be what I am today and allow me to do what I am do today.
Those things I share won't all be quilts. They may be knitting, decorating, family traditions, or anything else I feel I'd like to share.
I am not someone who sets lofty goals and focuses on acheiving them.
Much of what I've done and where I've been has been the result of either being in the right place at the right time, adapting to the circumstances I'm dealt, working hard or having the courage to just do it.
It will be interesting to see how I feel about what I am sharing here in 3 more months.
It's not about recognition, making money, or getting high readership reports.
Hopefully sharing my work and experiences will make a difference in other’s lives by either inspiring them to do the work or just giving them some eye candy.
Oh, of course I can’t forget giving you brain exercise by doing the puzzles too.
Each and every day I get new surprises and experiences as I do this and for that I am very grateful.

December Star

Anderson Arts Center published a calendar for their 10th anniversary in 2003.
13 artists who had had solo shows there were invited to be a part of this.
My quilt was chosen for December - how appropriate since it featured a star (or a mariners compass) design using mostly border prints. The title is Bordering On A New Millenium. It was my entry into the Jinny Beyer Bordering on Brilliance competition and I am pleased to say I won first place large quilts.
This is a 94 inch square quilt and I finally have a wall to hang it on.
Yes, that is me in the picture but it is not one of my most recent photos!

This is the front of the calendar featuring the Anderson Arts Center. You can find out more about it by going to: http://www.andersonartscenter.com/

Tonight's puzzle is a stretched out version of this quilt.

Contemporary Christmas Trees?

Does this look at all like Christmas? Could we stretch the definition of a Christmas tree and see 2 trees here? There is a lot of red and green. OK, you may have to stretch the definition of red.
This quilt started with a piece of fabric Peggy Erlich put on our guild give away table. It called my name and went home with me.
The design is all done with fabric I dyed or painted. Often when I have left over bits of hand dyed and painted fabric I will fuse them to a large piece of Wonder Under. I then have ready to use fabric when I want to do a fused quilt.
When I am in Florida I tend to work smaller and do a lot of fused work. I prepared the base to work on for this quilt and intended to do a design with circles. Why can't you see any circles in this quilt?
When I am designing this way I start by picking up a piece of fabric that appeals to me and my scissors. I let the scissors direct my cutting. It works and saves a lot of time trying to make a decision. I continue looking at what I have done and add more to it. The scissors didn't want to do circles that day with that fabric. I may put it aside and work on it for several days or I may finish it at one sitting. This was a several day project.
I think of this quilt as a very happy quilt.
At the present time the title is Quilt 315.

Of course we think of stars at this time of year. The star in this puzzle is a unique star with 7 points. It is another design I created with Corel Draw as a quilt inspiration.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!!!!!

Quilter blogs is a site that features posts from many blogs.
I went to check it out the other night and found my blog. Then I scrolled down and found a photo of someone who looked familiar. No - it couldn't be - it had been at least 10 years since I had seen Cyndi Wheeler. It couldn't be her because this lady didn't look any older than she did the last time I saw her. I continued to scroll down and this is what it said:

Today was my guild's Christmas coffee. I am so thankful to be a part of this group. I learn something from other members constantly. And they are so giving!
Of course I saw many beautiful Christmas sweaters, vests, sweat shirts, t-shirts, and jackets on members this morning, but this one really caught my attention. This is Cyndi Wheeler modeling her creation.
She sewed antique button on the shirt and drizzled metallic paint around them. What a lovely Christmas tree!

I immediately emailed Julia at: http://greenquilts.blogspot.com/
Cindi and I have only kept in touch through occasional Christmas cards since I last saw her. Julia forwarded my email to Cindy.

This was Cindi's story on Julia's site the a few days later:

Yesterday Julia Wood took a picture of me and my Christmas tree sweatshirt that I had on and posted pictures on her blog.
A friend of mine in Wisconsin (who actually introduced me to quilting in the 70's and that I've really not communicated with except through Christmas cards over the years) was on Julia's blog yesterday, saw my picture, said, "That looks like Cyndi Wheeler!", read the blog and found out it was me, and then wrote to Julia to get her to say hello to me (because she didn't have my email address)! What a small world. I promise that I will communicate with her and try to be a better friend!"

Julia said: Isn't that cool? It's wonderful how the internet brings us closer. I read blogs from around the world now, and I've had people from approximately 40 countries read my blog. It is a small world, indeed.

If you'd like to see a close up of Cindi's clever idea visit Julia's blog. I'm sure you'll enjoy your visit.

Yes, I woke up the next morning to a lovely email from Cindy along with photos of the projects she has recently finished. I also sent her an email and we've promised to keep in closer touch.

When I started this blog I never dreamed I would connect with long time friends who I had lost touch with. The world is getting smaller every day. I think I could write a second blog with all my small world stories!

I should have a puzzle with another reunion with friends and family but I don't have photos on the computer.

So I will close with this photo from several Christmases ago. We made ice luminarias to hold candles in our yard. It was the coldest Christmas season I can remember so it was perfect for this project. We filled 5 gallon buckets with water and put them on the deck to freeze for 16-24 hours. They were ready when there was a thick wall of ice with water remaining in the center. We poured out the water and ran hot water over the pails to release out luminarias. We put a candle in each one and lined the sidewalks in both the front and back yards. We made at least 50. When you are a fabric dyer you have a LOT of 5 gallon buckets! We had a lot of snow so it made a picture perfect winter wonderland in our yard. The only problem is when it snowed a lot we had to scoop out the snow from 50 buckets before we could light the candles each evening.
I wanted to let you see the full size photo so you know what you are putting together.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

I made this quilt several years ago to display at Christmas to be enjoyed mostly by my grandchildren. The fabric just said to me "Put me in an attic windows set." It was right.


I then added the names of the grandchildren to Santa's List being held by the center Santa in the top row.

Having young children around at Christmas is what makes Christmas so much fun. This will be the first Christmas we won't have any believers.
One of the fun things we used to do with the kids on the computer is visit: claus.com
If you click on the North Pole it will take you to another page where you can get your naughty or nice rating.
I just checked the Naughty or Nice rating for Vicki Welsh http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/
and this is what it says:
Vicki Welsh
Has been nice most of the year (not just near Christmas)! Makes others happy. Sometimes she is a little impatient. Could share a little more, however. Politeness is sometimes very good. Can be great listener.
So it looks like Santa will be visiting Vicki this year! But I think it is wrong about the sharing thing. Vicki is one of the best "sharers" I know. She is always sharing blogs and other interesting things on her site.

For Vicki and the rest of you who's day isn't complete without doing one of my puzzles here's my little fluffy Christmas tree.

Log Cabin Look Alike

When I designed this quilt I thought I had seen something like this block before but couldn't find anything in any publications so I designed the block and size myself.
To make this quilt I just made a lot of blocks in dark light combinations with fabrics with very similar colorations but different types of prints. The block mimics a traditional log cabin block with the half light/half dark coloration.
I put the blocks up on the design wall and moved them around until I was pleased with the overall layout.
As you can see it is a very asymetrical quilt. I tend to prefer assymetrical designs.
This gave a more contemporary look to the quilt.
I then played with fabrics and did an unconventional uneven border using several different fabrics. I am pleasesd with the completed quilt. Of course I taught this as a class too.
As I may have mentioned, I'm not currently doing any teaching. I'm old and tired! I was old and tired twice before but I got over it. I'm still deciding if I'll get over it this time. I do love teaching and have considered teaching on line. At this time I just throw out a few ideas, hints and how to's on the blog. Of course I help my friends or anyone who wants suggestions when we're together. I guess once a teacher, always a teacher!

Of course I'm going to include a puzzle for you tonight.

This is another one of my donation items. It is a wool rug I braided many years ago.
Someone else can enjoy it now but I still have it as a photo. It is about 12 1/2 feet by 21 feet. when I started it I thought it would be a good way to use up all my wool skirts and clothing. I found they were just a fraction of what I needed. I spent a lot of time at Salvation Army, St Vincent DePaul and other resale places to acquire the wool for it. It then all had to be cut apart, washed and torn into strip.
I laced it together with strong linen thread I bought from a shoe repair shop. I would guess I finished it about 35 years ago. It will never wear out.

Door County Dreams

Every quilt I make has a story. This quilt took longer than it should have because I didn't baste the layers carefully enough. I started quilting on the outer edge and by the time I was within 6-8 inches of the center I had a HILL in the middle.
What to do? I know better than to take shortcuts, but I still do sometimes and I'm almost always sorry.
My husband and I drove to northern Wisconsin to pick up the postal desk you saw on my studio photos. He drove the truck. I took the quilt along and took out ALL the stitching. The total trip was about 9 hours and it was enough time to remove all the stitches. I then put it together carefully and the quilting worked perfectly.
Remember - it takes at least 3 times as long to do so something incorrectly.
1. The time it takes you to do it the first time.
2. The time it takes to rip it out.
3. The time it takes to redo it.
Think about that next time you're ready to take a shortcut.
This quilt uses hand dyed fabric from 4 different dyers. The green border was dyed by me but all the rest was purchased from other dyers.

This quilt uses the intersecting fields of color method. It is a complex variation inspired by the fabrics in my collection. I have also made a companion quilt that is the reverse of this - something you may see in the future.

Today I started assembling the pieces for the last quilt for my Colors Of My Life series. It is the grand finale and is 3 dimensional. It poses it's own set of challenges but I think it is going to work.

Another project today was getting things together so a charity could come and pick them up. One of the things I donated was this antique sewing basket. By taking a photo of it I feel like I still have it and yet I've cleared out the space it took.
I thought this would be an interesting puzzle for you tonight.



I have been nominated for the Kreative blogger award. I would like to thank Cathy Ortelle who nominated me for this award. http://www.artjourneys.blogspot.com

Threads Through Time

One evening at 10 p.m. when all my students had left I decided to make more log cabin blocks like those I made for the project I was teaching. I found this caddy to be a perfect way to keep everything I needed for hand sewing together. It is another one of my original designs.


As I continued to make a few more blocks I suddenly felt a connection to my paternal grandmother who sewed and made at least one pieced quilt top.
I continued making blocks and got up very early the next morning and made quite a few more. As I was making the blocks I started to think of the similarities and differences between my self and my grandmother who had passed away quite a few years earlier. That evening after our quilt guild meeting I went out for coffee with Julie Silber. Julie told me about the lecture she was preparing called "The Grandmother Connection".
Of course I had to tell her what I had been working on. She asked me to keep in touch.
I worked on those blocks every spare moment and had the top done in one week, including the pieced border. (I was also teaching a full load of classes at the time) As I worked on it I wrote down my thoughts about my grandmother and myself and our similarities and differences.
When I finished it I laid it on the floor and planned on layering and quilting it quickly. Somehow I was paralyzed when it came to doing this and yet I felt I had to do the quilting myself. It laid on the floor for a month or two until the cleaning lady folded it up and put it on the table.
After several months I decided I just couldn't quilt it so I sent it away to be quilted. I asked the quilter to quilt along both sides of each piece.
On a Saturday morning Julie was lecturing again in our area. The quilt returned from the quilter the day before the lecture. I brought it along to show her and she asked me to send her my story.
I went to Hilton Head Island that year in January with the intention of doing some writing including the writing of the story. I forgot my notes so just started writing what I remembered longhand (didn't have a lap top then!). I wrote until I had 13 pages. Being superstitious I added one more page. I sent the letter off to Julie along with some slides of the quilt, a few of my other quilts and the quilt top my grandmother had made that I was lucky enough to have.
I call this quilt Threads Through Time and it is a tribute to my grandmother and my parents.


I was one of the quilters featured in Julie's lecture but I wasn't able to see and hear the lecture for several years.
When I finally did I will have to say it is one of the most moving and emotional lectures I have ever heard. (This has nothing to do with the fact that I am one of the quilters she talks about) If you ever have a chance to attend this lecture drop everything and go. I have enjoyed every lecture of hers I have been fortunate enough to attend.


One of the reasons I was able to create this quilt in such a short time is because of something I did with my extra fabric each time I finished a project. I cut it all into 1 1/2 inch strips. I sorted them by light and dark. They were already cut when I started to make this quilt. When I had finished and joined the 96 blocks I had a lot of dark fabrics left and very few lights. I sewed enough darks together to make a border. Although this was done out of necessity the dark border grounded the quilt and finished it off. It also made me realize that most quilters use a lot more darks than lights and that is probably why many old quilts have dark borders.


I've included these close ups of some of the fabrics. Those of you who were quilting in the 70's and early 80's will enjoy looking at them and saying "Oh, I remembber that fabric." or "I used that fabric when I made the quilt for ...."
You can click on any of these photos to see a larger immage closeup.

The puzzle I am sharing with you tonight also has a grandmother connection. The purple glass bowl belonged to my grandmother. I filled it with sealife I acquired when I visited my friend Suzie in Maine 2 years ago. The lamp belonged to my great aunt, my grandmothers sister. The Santa's are done by an artist who's name I do not remember.
I'm also sharing this as the first of several Christmas vignettes with you. The puzzle cut I am using reminds me of snowflakes.

Jerry's Quilt

This quilt looks harder than it really is. I had intended to have a cream print background around it, and then a wide border made from a border print. I auditioned at least 30 fabrics for the cream background and nothing seemed to be working. One evening we had another couple over and we were sitting in the area where the quilt was on the design wall. I told my friend Dolly how I just couldn't find a fabric that would work.
My DH Jerry, who up until that time would say "I don't understand it" when he looked at my quilts made a brilliant statement.
He said "Why does it have to be square?"
That was what the quilt had been trying to tell me but I wasn't listening. I finished the quilt with a very dark narrow binding and it was perfect.
I have also made this quilt in two other colorways that you probably will see at another time.
This quilt showcases beautiful fabric.I've taught this as a class titled "Jerry's Quilt".


Tonight's puzzle is also a quilt I designed but have not actually made in fabric.

Why you need a larger fabric collection

I designed this quilt for a class at The Quilters Land Cruise in Racine, Wisconsin several years ago.
Each year they have a theme and the theme that year was 4 Patches. The 4 patches are the 4 small diamonds. This quilt is a perfect example why you need a fabric collection.
There are some Austrian fabrics I bought in the early 1980's that form the white inner border and the star background. The navy, white and narrow strip of red in the border are from Gutcheon Patchworks - no longer in business but well represented in my fabric collection.
The navy outer border and the large star points are pieces of Japanese fabric purchased at the quilt show in Houston, also over 20 years ago.
One of my favorite sayings is "Fabric has to age". By that I mean all the fabric produced at a particular time is too similar. Often when you make a piece with fabric all from the same collection or year it ends up looking almost like a preprinted piece you could buy. If it has to age for 20 years, so what!

My motto is if you like it buy it and you'll find a place for it. This pertains to fabric but also to home accessories and other items like clothing and personal accessories.

This photo shows a part of my fabric collection. You see my blues, greens, blacks, grays and whites.
The distance between my shelves is only 5 1/4 inches. Originally there was 11 inches between shelves and I stacked my fabric. I always wanted the fabric either on the bottom or in the middle of the pile and things never got put back where they belong. This works so much better. As you can see I store my fabric by color, unless the pieces are 2 yards or more. Those pieces are also stored by color but on lower shelves where their 22 inch width fits flat. I always enjoy reorganizing my fabrics. Each time I do this I find fabrics I had forgotten about. I also purge the fabrics I know I will no longer use and have several places I donate them to.

NOW GO BACK AND LOOK AT THE QUILT. I just saw something that I had never noticed before. The pattern on the large navy points was cut randomly. As I look at this I see each of the two adjacent points are similar. It would look better if the similar points were across from each other. Fortunately you are seing a top rather than a quilted quilt. I will go back and change the position of these points.

I am going to share 2 puzzles with you tonight. One will be easy and the other harder. They are both the same section of the same quilt. I have manipulated the photo of one of them and made it a mosaic with my computer.

This is the easier of the two.


This one is a little more challenging. It is the one I manipulated for a mosaic effect.
If these are too easy for you and you would like a little more of a challenge just put a comment in the comments section and I'll try to give you a greater challenge.

More Quilt Designs

This is another quilt I designed on the computer but never made in fabric.
At the time I designed it there probably wasn't even fabric available that I could make it with. Today there are shaded fabrics that could make this work.


This design could be a quilt block or an entire quilt.
I teach a class called Honey I Blew Up The Block and this design was an example for that class. By choosing appropriate fabrics you can piece a simple quilt and let the fabrics do the work.


This is yet another quilt I designed and never made. This one would be a challenge to piece and would be just as big or a bigger challenge to fuse.
When I did these design experiments I had no end result in mind. I just tried different things until I came up with something I liked. I also didn't consider whether they would be practical to construct. I was more interested in learning to use the program so that eventually I could use it to design quilts.

Here's a puzzle that will show you a small section of June Series 19, the quilt I finished yesterday.

Quilt 322 or June Series Quilt 19

I just finished the 19th and last quilt in my June Series.
This is one of the two series that will be part of my Solo Show opening in January.
What a wonderful freeing feeling to have all 19 finished.
Sorry - I can't show it!
It's also the 322nd quilt I've finished in the last 30 plus years since I started quilting.
I also keep a record of my works in progress. That list just shrunk to 79!
When the WIP list threatens to go over 100 I review it and move some of them to the rework or abandon list. Then I no longer count those. I also started a new list to move things to "Questionable to Finish".
But I can show you some quilts I designed on the computer now than I know how to share Corel files.

I designed this log cabin quilt using patterns that resembled fabrics we were given for a quilt guild challenge years ago. I printed this out on several pieces of fabric to make it large enough.Then I added the actual fabrics to the 4 corner squares. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the finished quilt before I sold it.

Does this image look familiar? This is an intersecting fields of color quilt. This is the quilt on my logo before I distorted it.

Today's jig saw puzzle is also something I designed on the computer. My students were designing their quilts for my Graduate School - Shapes class following the guidelines I gave them. At the same time I was learning to use the computer to manipulate designs and used the class exercises as a challenge to myself.

Where do you keep your thread?

Last week a topic of discussion on the Quilt Art list was where do you keep your thread.
Just about the time I finished my studio I was extremely lucky to find this thread spool cabinet in my favorite antique store.
The thread you can see in the front of the drawers is almost all old wooden spools with thread on them. I don't use them as the thread has probably lost it's strength.

Behind each one of them is space for about 10 spools of thread. I place similar colors behind each of the front spools.

Odd size spools go in the 6 bottom drawers.
It's both a beautiful and practical piece to enjoy in my studio.

University of Quilting Logo

At one time I taught a lot of quilting classes.
I designed this logo for my wide assortment of classes.
I used it on my class mailings and also printed it on t-shirts and a jacket. I designed this in Corel Draw but didn't know how to share it on my blog.

I finally learned how to use a Corel Draw image on my blog with help from Glenda Kirkiridis in South Africa. She just kept offering suggestions until I was able to make it work.


Has anyone tried to make a scarf like the one I showed on November 24th with the explanation I gave?
A friend of mine said I should have taken photos for a tutorial as I did it. That would have been a good idea, except that I didn't know what I was doing and it was an experiment - a successful experiment.
I wore it when I went to the dentist's office today. All the ladies who work there loved it and I told them I thought they could do it with the explanation on the blog. They were ready to head to the rum dum to search for wool sweaters to felt. I'll see them soon so I'll check their progress. Let me know if you make one.

Here's another puzzle made from one of my miniature quilts. The strips in the log cabin are 1/4 inch wide. I distorted it in Corel Photopaint.

Another Student's 8 Pointed Star Quilt

I received a phone call today from a friend and student.
I mentioned putting the student work on my blog yesterday and she commented how much she enjoyed the 8 Pointed Star Quilt she made in one of my classes.

Suzanne McCormack made this quilt for the bed at her summer camp in Maine. That is why there is the plain area at the top to accommodate the pillows. I also feel it really allows the star to shine. I have seen it on the bed and it comes alive in the setting on a beautiful lake in Maine.

This quilt is the Broken Star version which uses 32 star points.


Here is a closer view of the pattern area of the quilt. The use of two different background fabrics was a decision I helped her make because there wasn't enough of her first choice for a background.
If I hadn't told you that you would probably think it was just a brilliant design decision! There were many design decisions to make as she created this work of art.
This quilt was designed as a bed quilt and everything she did is in proper proportion for using on the bed.

Nothing makes a teacher feel better than seeing her students succeed with a project.

And Suzie, since you like the puzzles, here's one especially for you:

8 Point Star - student work

When I teach I tell students I will put their work on my blog if they send a photo.
I think you will find these examples very interesting.

When I teach a class I give recommendations (guidelines) on how to choose colors and fabrics. All my classes emphasize the use of color as that is one of the things I do and teach best.

Sometimes students have their own ideas and don't want to follow these guidelines. It is their choice whether or not to do what I suggest.

I also tell them to "Prove me wrong". Tonight I am putting examples of one students choices for you to see. She took the "Prove me wrong" challenge!

For this quilt I suggest solids for the strata in the star points.


Here is one of the quilts I did with solids (You've seen this on my blog before.)

Barb Valone completed two tops from this class.


In the first one she used solids (or possibly some solid prints - it's hard to tell from the photo) for the points.


In the second one she used prints for the strata.

Another difference between her two pieces is the contrast. Her first quilt has values similar to the background in the strata.
Her second quilt uses greater contrast in value between the strata and the background.
Each quilt uses the same background.

There isn't a right or a wrong, there are just different ways to approach something.

I hope you enjoyed seeing Barb's work and seeing different interpretations of the same design.