LAUREL RIDGE -- LET'S GET READY

 Laurel Ridge is the 2025 Block of the Month quilt designed by Lynn Wilder exclusively for The Quilt Show.  Star Members have FREE access to the patterns starting December 29, 2024.  Made in two colorways, the complete patterns are excellent. You will love making this quilt. Lynn supports the pattern instructions with Videos too. 

Laurel Ridge Autumn

Laurel Ridge Spring

Now is the time to prepare. What do you need to be ready?

1. Use the Fabric Requirements Information to gather your fabrics. Information Pages

2. If you intend to PRINT the patterns, have paper and ink available. The patterns are first class quality. There are separate patterns for BOTH colorways. You only need to print one of them.

3. Watch Lynn's show #3601, which airs Sunday December 29, 2024. It will be FREE TO EVERYONE so tell your friends to watch too. Lynn teaches so much about precison piecing, lessons you will use in all your future quilts.

4. Exceptionally helpful tools Lynn and I highly recommend, both were available at the The Quilt Show Store but are currently out of stock, more will be available in the future:

            1.25" x 2.5" finished size BlocLoc Flying Geese Ruler  AND

            5.5 inch square fabric ruler, Quilter's Select gets my vote

        You can make the Flying Geese with just the 5.5" square ruler but the BlocLoc Ruler makes the process much easier and more accurate. I had to be convinced but now I am. This quilt has MANY of those small Flying Geese units.

5. Up your THREAD game. Many of these blocks are 5" finished. The pieces are small. Accuracy in piecing is important. Try using finer thread than you may be used to. My preference is Quilter's Select 60 wt in the top and 80 wt in the bobbin. Strong, fine, low lint, these threads will improve your piecing dramatically. Also available in The Quilt Show Store. 

6. If you enjoy pre-planning your quilt, use the Coloring Page Lynn has provided: Coloring Page

7. Consider buying the Kit if you want your quilt to look exactly like the pattern. For a limited time, both Kits are available. When they are gone, they are gone. The Fabric Kits

8. Feel free to do your own thing with Fabrics and the design. I am using the Spring Kit and have added a few more fabrics to it:

I also plan to replace the two applique blocks with pieced blocks. It is your quilt, you get to decide how to make it. This quilt can easily be made larger or smaller, depending on the size quilt you need.

In addition to the patterns, Lynn's videos, and her Show, each month I will do a LIVE broadcast on Facebook and YouTube and write a blog with tips and suggestions.  The FORUM provides the best place to ask questions and share your progress. Be sure to check in there frequently.

I hope you will join us as we learn a lot with Laurel Ridge.  My FIRST LIVE for Laurel Ridge is Friday December 20, 2024, noon Central time. Find all the LIVE broadcasts HERE after they have aired Live, they remain available to you at your convenience.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

I am not a big decorator, simpler is better for me. We do very little entertaining so there is no reason to do lots of holiday decorations. Each year I concentrate on putting out the special things I love, not a lot.

So, from my house to yours, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, whether that be Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, or just taking time for some peace and quiet.

Greetings!

12 Days of Christmas quilt with Teddy in a sleigh basket

This funky Frog was a gift long ago and every year he makes me SMILE!

Several of these small stockings were gifts to me from Judy Murrah and I love them. 

This quilt was featured on the cover of McCall's Quilting magazine December 1997. It was one of their top selling issues I am happy to say. It goes up Thanksgiving Day and makes the room look ready for Christmas. 

My "Quilt Tree", with special gifted ornaments from friends over the years. The Nutcracker was a gift from an old friend when she lived in Germany. My most FAVORITE ornament is the A6 wooden jet; my last Squadron in the USMC was the A6 Training Squadron, VMAT 202. One of the wives made them and I was thrilled to get one.

An Okra Angel, a gift to me

My husband made the wooden angel more than 25 years ago.  The "Old World Santa" was carved from a cypress knee--I bought it years ago from the craftsman who made it, the "Woodcarver's GrandDaughter"

Another 12 Days of Christmas quilt, pattern from Temecula Quilt Company. The first block is ONE fabric, the second block is TWO fabrics, the third is THREE, etc. I have made several of these as gifts over the years. 

The rest of the living room

Another shot of the living room

The friend who lived in Germany for a few years also gave me this wonderful gift. 

Let's quilt.

Barbara

MONTH 12 -- THE QUILTING AND FINISHING

PICK A PETAL is the 2024 Block of the Month quilt designed by Jen Kingwell exclusively for The Quilt Show. It is FREE to Star Members, join today to take advantage of this great bonus. WATCH Jen's Show to see how she makes this quilt--it is FREE for EVERYONE all of 2024: Jen Kingwell Show 3401 

IMPORTANT REMINDER:  the patterns for Pick a Petal are available FREE to Star Members of The Quilt Show through December 31, 2024. Be sure you have saved/printed/backed up the files if you need them after that date. Any files you don't have will have to be purchased directly from the designer. No one here can give them to anyone, the rights to the pattern return to the designer per the contract. We protect the copyright of our designers who continue to create wonderful quilt designs for the exclusive use of The Quilt Show  Star Members for a specific amount of time.

This month the pattern instructions show how to assemble various parts of the quilt. Most of us did this as we were making the quilt. If you are ready for the quilting, it's time! 

Be sure to watch Show 3401 while it is free to Star Members, through December 31, 2024. Jen talks about her quilting designs and shows some details of the free-form quilting she did with decorative thread. She doesn't have a plan for specific motifs quilted in specific places. It appears she did what the quilt told her it wanted in any given area.

Here are some detail shots that may assist you as you do the quilting on your own Pick A Petal:

Some of the visible stitching is additional embroidery added to just the top, not quilting lines that go through all three layers. Some of the visible stitching is hand quilting, that does go through all three layers. I leave it to you to decide how you want to enhance your quilt with your quilting.

In addition, the Month 12 pattern contains Jen's instructions for how she added a FACING, to finish the completed quilt, rather than an applied binding. I plan to  try that on a small quilt I will soon have finished. A FACING is a nice way to treat the edge of a quilt when a binding might detract. 

The FACING brings the front of the quilt to the back without adding a binding. Here you can see additional rows of hand quilting at the very edge of the quilt. People will wonder how you did that outside edge! 

I hope you have enjoyed Pick A Petal this year. Now it's time to pull my fabrics for Laurel Ridge--the 2025 Block of the Month Quilt designed by Lynn Wilder exclusively for The Quilt Show. Be watching for a post about how you can be prepared to get started in January 2025 when Laurel Ridge hits the website! 

Grandmother's Autumn

Granddaughter's Spring

I am making mine with Granddaughter's Spring and some additional fabrics. Be watching for that soon.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

BUCKET LIST QUILT # 4

As I try to de-stash a bit, I am pulling fabrics for about a dozen "BUCKET LIST QUILTS".  Those I still want to make. Here is the next one, Pieces of the Past in Purple. 

PIECES OF THE PAST--CIRCA 1875:

I have written about this quilt several times. To read the whole story go here: MY FAVORITE QUILTS #1  It is a reproduction of an antique top I found at a yard sale in 1988. The top was later determined by a well-known quilt historian to be from approximately 1875, hence the name, 

As a baby quilter then I thought I would hand quilt it. After studying it for a while, it was clear the fragile fabrics would not stand up to that so I reproduced it. Following the antique top, I used my least favorite color, BROWN. The quilt took all the skills I had at that time--those four-patches are "set-in", on the diagonal. Not easy by machine.

As much as I loved this quilt I knew no one would want to make it, the construction was just too difficult. So I made it again, easier this time, by replacing the four-patches with a square and adding more geese to create regular sashing that could be machine pieced. This has been a successful class for me. I named it "FIVE EASY PIECES":

Some years later I took it to a workshop with Liz Porter who assured me the large squares of what look like cotton bolls was originally PURPLE, not brown! Everyone laughed as they knew purple is my favorite color. From that moment on, it has been my intention to make the original one more time--in PURPLE this time.

PIECES OF THE PAST IN PURPLE:  The FABRIC PULL:

                                        

The antique top, now stored safely in a pillowcase, in a closet, out of light. It rarely leaves home these days:

the back showing the hand piecing

Front detail 

Front showing very worn border fabrics

The day I bought it at a yard sale I had my sons hold it for a photograph

This top is one of my greatest treasures. It has taught me a lot. Like:

1. Don't judge a book by its' cover

2. Look at the bright side of things

3. When you find a treasure, forget about the one that got away

4. Beautiful things are all around, you just have to look

5. Being in the right place at the right time is mostly luck and good fortune

6. Someday your skills will catch up to your desires

I am really eager to see this one made new and fresh, maybe looking more like it originally did Circa 1875.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

CRANBERRY CHUTNEY TIME!

Each year I make a double batch of my CRANBERRY CHUTNEY, we love it! It is easy to freeze so I pack it in small batches, easy to share with others as well. And the kitchen smells SO GOOD while it is being made!

Every time I share this recipe someone finds it and declares it a "NEW FAMILY FAVORITE".

Find the post with FULL RECIPE HERE: CRANBERRY CHUTNEY

The most important thing to remember: when I DOUBLE THE RECIPE, I DON'T DOUBLE THE SUGARS!  The first time I doubled the recipe I accidentally did not double the SUGARS and it was BETTER!  

This is a relish, not super-sweet like canned cranberry sauce.

You can find lots of my favorite RECIPES up there on the RECIPES TAB: RECIPES TAB

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!

Let's quilt.

Barbara

BUCKET LIST QUILT # 3

My "BUCKET LIST" of quilts I still plan to make includes a few I started years ago. This is one of those,  STAR OF TEXAS. 

I am enamored of all things TEXAS, I was probably meant to live there, but for now I want a "TEXAS" quilt:

STAR OF TEXAS was started at least 25 years ago when I saw a tiny little image in a magazine of the center square made up of many small five-pointed stars. Using graph paper and a calculator, I drafted the center using 64th's of a inch. Yes, crazy, I know, but I am a numbers person and it was fun. 

I played around with Electric Quilt--whichever early version I had then, long gone now, and got the center made. The off-white background was what I had on hand and seemed the best choice at the time.

Once the red border was added I knew the yellow-ish cream muslin center fabric was wrong. And I didn't know what I wanted to do next so I packed it away, with a big bundle of red, white, blue and gold fabrics and left it. 

About 10 years ago I tackled it again, taking off  the red borders and carefully removing the background fabric. I had created full-size paper templates of the 5 background shapes so it wasn't too hard to cut new ones and replace them with white Grunge--much better!  

Now I had this. NOTE: the red borders are just on the design wall for inspiration--they haven't been sewn in place yet. I expect to cut them down a bit:

Now that I have looked at it a few times  I know what to do next. Playing with EQ 8 I came up with this design. I did not take the time to draw the actual center star as it is made--this simply allows me to get right to playing with border ideas:

62" square

But wait. What if I want it larger? Here is another possibility:

71.5" square

For now, I will make the red and blue stars for the borders since they are definitely going to be used. They are 5" standing with the star center point at the top but 7" if I set them on point as shown in these border ideas. Does it make a difference to Texans if the star is sideways?

This one has moved up to the top of the list of quilts to make/finish.

Let's quilt,

Barbara

International Quilt Festival 2024

 Just call it "HOUSTON" and every quilter knows what you're talking about.

Travel in both directions was easy. I arrived in Houston for Market first, then to teach at Festival Monday-Wednesday. It was the 45th anniversary of Market, the Trade show open to shops, and the 50th anniversary of Festival. Quite a remarkable occasion.

Market is a good time to see the more than 1200 quilts on display. Here are just a few:

Best of Show--you have to see it to appreciate it. 17" x 18" Everything you see is stitching and fabric. Entitled STILL LIFE, it was made by Chen Jing of Bejing, China:

A detailed photograph of the front:

This photograph of the back allows viewers to see the Cats that are quilted in to this piece--they are invisible from the front: 

I saw lots of prior Block of the Month quilts from The Quilt Show. It always makes me feel good to see these quilts in shows:

Color My World by Sally Robinson Quilted by Helen Rode

A few quilts made by friends of mine:

A few favorites I just loved:

And then there are the people. I didn't get nearly enough photos of all those I hugged and was so glad to see. Here are a few:

Alex Anderson took a little tumble Saturday night, and got a black eye. She needed something to keep her occupied all day Sunday in her hotel room--she didn't bring any handwork! I brought her my Pick A Petal top and the Wonderfil threads for hand embroidery. A few stops at generous vendors and she was all set with needles and scissors. We hadn't gotten a photo the day before so this was the best we could do:  NOTE: she is all better now!

Jenny Lyon, Catherine Redford, and me

Patty Murphy with her latest new book Zero Waste Quilting

Brenda who takes such good care of me at the Hilton

My classes were full of fun, eager and interesting students who all seemed to enjoy our time together.

Disappearing Patchwork:

Slow Stitching--Hand Piecing. It was a 3 hour class that went by so fast. They were a great group of happy students:

Charming Sampler--the class was full with 25 students but quite a few hustled out to get in line for Preview Night before I could get the photo. They worked all day on lots of small blocks: 

The students were all kind in their evaluations and many already want to know what I am teaching next year. I am working on that right now and I hope to see many of them back next year. 

I was also thrilled to meet a Navy veteran who was in my first class Monday. We sort of bonded, as veterans sometimes do, and enjoyed breakfast together all week. She registered for my upcoming Two For One 5-day seminar at Empty Spools Seminar March 30-April 4, 2025. I am so proud of this class offering, LOVE to teach it and want so many to sign up for it. Don't miss this chance--here is even more info on that amazing place to learn quiltmaking: EMPTY SPOOLS--WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND

A few more Houston photos to wrap up my week there:

I worked out for more than an hour every day in the Fitness Center, 5:30-6:30 am, usually had the place to myself:

I enjoyed an excellent breakfast every day: 

The ONE PHOTO THAT DIDN'T GET TAKEN:   My oldest friend, Judy, came to Houston with her quilter sister. Judy was my maid of honor many years ago. We arranged to have lunch on Thursday, walking to a great Vietnamese restaurant near the Convention Center. It was so good to see her again but, we forgot to get a photo. Believe me, we both look great. Next time, Judy!

Not our food but you get the idea: 

I was pleased to be invited to the annual "show and share" with the Lakeview Quilters at the Hilton Thursday night. Reconnected with several old friends and made new ones--I will be visiting them again in March 2026. I did not buy a thing so had nothing to share but loved seeing everyone else's purchases.

This wonderful antique was bought by Jenny Arkinson, daughter of the wonderful and dearly missed Sue Garman. She knew her mom would have approved of this one: 

Too soon it was time to fly home. It was my husband's birthday and I changed my flights and hotel to go home that day--the first time since 1995 I was home on his birthday. I even dressed up a bit more than I usually do on flying days:

My flight was early, we arrived at J. Alexander's an hour ahead of the reservation but they seated us right away and the birthday boy got to celebrate with a great meal. He especially loved the carrot cake:

That wraps up my travel adventures for 2024--lots on the calendar for 2025!

Let's quilt,

Barbara