aqua

I love this shade of aqua, and it works well with the thirties repros. The pattern is a scaled down version of one in McCalls from several years ago. The small squares were cut 2", finish 1 1/2".

tile maker

This quilt may qualify as a variation of Finn's orphan block project.
Twelve years ago I hosted an exchange on Quiltnet called the Double Dutch. People exchanged either delft blue colored blocks or tulip blocks. My sister Janna has been patiently inquiring about these blocks and hoping for the resultant quilt ever since.
One member of the exchange put hers together and had it published in one of the last issues of Patchwork Quilting magazine. I miss that excellent publication.
Anyway, the blocks have aged a dozen years, and I decided they really did not belong in the same quilt. So, I pulled out the blue blocks, setting aside those just too far outside the size I wanted. There was still a bit of variation. I put them together, not worrying about cutting off points or matching things. I considered sashings, but Finn's orphan train quilts got me to realize Dutch tiles are set together without visible grout lines. Here is a photograph of my precious Makkum tiles set into a step in our house.
Janna will have her quilt at last!

raffle quandry

Bonnie's beautiful raffle quilt has me thinking again about my problems with raffles. When I joined my guild in about 1986, we sold our tickets 1 for $1.00, 6 for $5.00. Here, over 20 years later, that is still the price and people still buy just one or 6. Costs of making the quilts have gone up, so our take is yielding less and less of a proportion to the effort and financial commitment.
These photos are of a quilt I made for a raffle at my church, and the raffle was handled by someone who was savy in the way of fundraising, and not from the quilting community. When I told her the traditional quilt raffle prices, she said, no way. This was to raise money for a good cause and the quilt was the bait. She set prices at $25.00 each and, and encouraged most buyers to buy in $100.00 lots. The take on this quilt, tickets sold only within the congregation, came to over $6000.00!
The beautiful quilt I assembled for my guild raffle in 2006 brought in less than $3000.00. Part of the problem is it is not for "a good cause" to non quilters (for the guild) but it also has a lot has to do with our pricing. People continue to buy just one ticket.
Any ideas on how we as quilters can structure it differently? Will people pay more for a ticket from a guild?

This quilt was commemorating the Rouse Simmons, one of the legendary Great Lakes Christmas tree ships, which went down on Lake Michigan in 1912.
Its title, Morgenrot, is German for red sky at morning, as in the phrase "Sailors take warning".

mom

I have added my sister Janna's Veterans History Project link to my blog. I am so proud of her work.
It is a wonderful place to spend a few hours reading about some ordinary people who have extraordinary stories. The veterans stories are very moving, and I am glad she is gathering these life defining stories. She also includes civilian memories. Look to the Dutch girl who was in a concentration camp in Sumatra and the Japanese American man who was in an internment camp.
Within my father's history (Leroy Dykstra), she includes my mother's (Henrietta Scholten Dykstra).
Growing up, I remember being secretly pleased that we had very modern parents compared to our relatives and friends. My mother wore blue jeans, even in the 1950s, we had pizza in the early 60s (albeit with hot dogs on top!).
Mom was a telephone operator until my older sister was born, and I remember being pleased she had at one time held a "real job". I love this picture.
She continues to be a wonderful role model to her daughters in her creativity, faith, and compassion.

more plaids

I just got these back from my quilter, Suzette. The County Lines pattern is a wonderful way to use a theme of fabrics. I have previous posts with using the pattern with turquoise and red, and batiks with black. This one with brown and plaids I really like. Very Japanese looking. http://www.mountainpeekcreations.com/patterns.html
The squares were made as a class sample for my Flower Garden class, to show you could use the idea with something other than large florals. I love the border fabric.
Both of these quilts use very humble fabrics for the interior, then fabulously rich fabric for the borders.

vestments

I was asked to make the ordination stole for a former intern at our church. She asked for periwinkle to be included. I had a hard time finding that shade, but settled for this. It is, along with the white, from Michael Miller's Fairy Frost line. It has a plasticized type finish to the printing that is a bit irritating to work with, but works good on garments as it resists oils and stains from the skin.
The design is very abstract. I put a lot of thought into these, as the white stoles are used at weddings and funerals, and at Easter and Christmas and other special times in the liturgical year.
My mother was here this weekend and was invaluable in helping with the handwork of the binding.

antique log cabin

This antique top is from my mother's friend, Mina, who is deaquisitioning her house to move to a retirement home. It is lovely. It is my turn to take care of it.

Grandma Scholten and her chickens

My neighbor, Steve Johnson gave me this wonderful painting of my grandmother. I knew he had been painting industrial type things, and gave him some photographs of farm scenes with machinery to look at. I was so happy to see this little (5 by 7) painting--it is framed and by my front door, so I see it as I leave and enter the house.
Grandma Hillegen "Ella" Scholten is known to us only in stories. She died in 1948 on the same day her second grandchild was born. There came to be 26 grandchildren. From all accounts, she was a gentle, unassuming woman with a subtle sense of humor.
Read Steve's take on this painting at
http://slimjohnsonpaints.blogspot.com

spliced log cabin

Mary and Eleonore, in my small group, have been making spliced log cabins--where you splice together the fabrics, pay no attention to keeping one side light and one side dark, and just keep sewing.
I like the subtle internal diagonals the splices give the quilt.
I used a basket full of plaid (of course) scraps and really like the results. My logs are cut 1 1/2 inches, finished blocks are 8 inches.

mom

Judy encourages us to use stash this month in a quilt for/inspired by our mothers.
My mom, (who reads my blog, so I must be careful here) is a wonderful seamstress. She made most of our clothes when we were growing up, including our wedding dresses. She saves her scraps, and kept very special ones in one box.
For her 70th birthday, I asked for access to these sacred scraps. She was reluctant to let me near them, but I took just 2" by 12" of each. I used a Fons and Porter floral pattern, and I think it turned out beautifully.
My sister took the tiny waste triangles and made a legend to tell where each fabric was from.
Mom loves the quilt, but is still not very happy that I cut into these scraps.
Mom, note almost 8 years have passed and you haven't made anything else from this box yet.
You know you can find several sacred stashes of mine that I haven't touched and cut into them!

Donna's pattern

My friend Donna has been playing with optical illusions in her quilts and has developed a pattern. I am honored she asked me to test the pattern, and am thrilled with my results. The tiniest square in these quilts is 1/4 inch finished. I love how they turned out, and the whole family has claimed the pillow. I made a mistake in the red quilt, that is why it is off centered. I like it that way. And I like how the paisley cut apart.
Contact Donna at donnainchicago@netscape.net for information on purchasing a copy of her pattern.

more crumbs

Another crumb quilt--someone asked why I call my plaid quilts cowboy quilts--I like cowboy fabric and find they work well with plaids. I love the little boy quality of these quilts, very playful. I may be projecting my life with this playful 9 year old boy!

insomnia

I have periods of insomnia, nothing terrible, but when I find myself tossing and turning too much, I head downstairs to the davenport. I awoke to a flash, to find Andy taking my picture--quilt included.
Eve and Paul have caught me downstairs, and I thought I had better explain my move was not due to a fight, but that I was trying to protect Andy's sleep. Eve said, "I thought you might be doing this because you were irritated with him." I explained that if I was irritated with him, I would have stayed in bed and made his sleep miserable!
Note the cat--This is the Creature Who Has No Purpose. He escapes the house and terrorises raccoons. He stands in the middle of the road and stares down cars. I really dislike this cat (most cats, actually) but he lives here so I feed him. Andy and the kids adore him.

monocromatic crayon box

I finished my version of Bonnie's Crayon Box. I have been trying to get a handle on the plaid shirt problem in my sewing space. I tackled the small parts in the blue pile and cut them into pieces for this--put together with no concern for value of light, medium, and dark. I did not use the sashing, butting 20 blocks together, spining alternate ones. This puts in a subtle secondary pattern of a woven cross at the intersections.
Thanks Bonnie!

the usual suspects

I belong to a group of wonderful women called "Tuesday Knitters". Our children were in preschool together, and we would get together on Tuesdays to knit. Time has past, children grew, and we now gather yearly on Super Bowl Sunday.
I am a very basic knitter, with it used more as a calming/distracting activity than a chance to showcase amazing skills. My usual output is dishcloths, for crying out loud. But, rearranging a cupboard today brought out this lineup. I loved making gnomes. These are all well played with. I think the ZZ Top guy on the left is one of the first ones I made. I'm sure I made over 50 of them, giving as gifts and to a school shop.
I have lots of bits of yarn around, in small quantities. Time to make more gnomes.

serendipity

Eve and I are just back from a few days in New York, doing touristy stuff, and getting a Chicago angle by visiting the site of our of our favorite John Cusack movies.
We also went to see the play Grey Gardens, about a mother and daughter who are crazy and grow old together.

We took notes.

boys

Seth loves my quilts and my fabrics. A few days ago, when a revolution was forming on LeClaire and a banner was needed for the troops, some of my hand dyed fabric of Robbi Eklow was commandeered.

another cowboy quilt

I finished this quilt last year--another cowboy quilt made from thrifted plaid shirts.

married life

Andy and I were married on St Patrick's Day 23 years ago. Here we are early in our married life. We tell people we chose St Patrick's Day because we are too disorganized to remember dates without a trigger from the world. Living in Chicago, this means we note when the river is dyed green, the green Hostess Snowball cakes come out (we had them circling our wedding cake), and McDonalds serves Shamrock Shakes. One of those a year is plenty.

advent at lent

I am finishing an advent wall hanging for our church auction. I have made many of these over the years adapted from a Debbie Mumm piece--I usually find her stuff a bit much, but loved the simplicity of this tree. I changed the construction techniques, put 24 buttons on for advent, and include small ornaments to hang each day.
I have made some of these as mourning quilts, using buttons of loved ones who have died, one with uniform buttons of a veteran of WWII; she was one of the first WACs.
I also add a dowel and make a storage bag for it all, giving a bit of organization out of my life of chaos.

crumbs from shirts

I have been making crumb blocks from plaid shirts I have taken apart--the great stripe for the border has been on my shelves so long I have no memory of buying it. The blocks were trimmed to 6 1/2 inches.
Yes, those are Christmas lights still up on March 6th.

students!

I really enjoy teaching--my quilting students are so wonderfully excited about their newly discovered talents.

buzz saw mountains

One irritation with the new blogger is it rotates my photos. I will take time later to fix this, but has anyone else been having this problem? (((FIXED!!)))
Here is a delectable mountains variation of the buzz saw pattern--made with plaid shirts from the thrift stores.

strings

All the wonderful string quilts showing up on the stashbusters ring got me to make my first string quilt. I had made blocks before, but is my first whole top. The strings are lights that have been languishing in my 1 1/2 inch strip drawer--the stuff that was not selected over time due to the blah feeling of most of them. I used 3 different blue solids I had pieces of for the diagonals, and had some 5 1/2 inch squares given to me by someone for some unknown reason that I cut in half for the corner pieces on the foundation. I used Bonnie's method with the wax paper, and 8 inch strips of 6 different lights for the borders.
A cheerful, summery looking quilt made in my unheated attic when it was -1 degree outside!

Bible Story Theater 2007

I needed two shots to get the cast of thousands (ok, cast of 169). This year, it was "Follow Me" a look at the calling of the women and the disciples. We reused/altered many costumes from previous years.


These are some of the demons who disturbed Mary of Magdala


And, a drop of the Sea of Galillee with her fish, and some of the catch.