Crafts

A Look Back at 2025

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Each January I try to look back on what I created so here goes! In 2025, I made six quilts. Four were for charity and each has a story.

The firefly quilt raised $925 for MD Anderson’s Ovarian Quilt Project and was made in memory of my sister, Mary, who passed away in 2016 from ovarian cancer. I’ve made this pattern before and just love it. The pattern has a version with bees instead of fireflies, but the fireflies are just so stinking adorable. The amount raised for the quilt was double what MDA appraised the quilt and probably the most one of my quilts has sold for.

I also made another Quilt of Valor quilt which was gifted to our Texas State Representative. This is my third Quilt of Valor which our quilt guild sponsors. My goal is to make one every year. It is such an honor to place a quilt on a veteran’s shoulders and thank them for their service. My goal is to make one a year!

I made two quilt tops for our prayer quilt ministry. There are several ladies in our ministry that are cranking out quilt tops by the dozens. I

Honoring the past with cutter quilt #3

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Projects honoring the third Calvert family cutter quilt is the subject of today’s blog post. This quilt is probably my favorite. It reminds me of the curvy stitching on multiple baseballs. Go Houston Astros!

The hand pieced quilt is 73″ by 59″ with a vintage white backing. The narrow borders are red, white, and blue. I have so much respect for the maker of this quilt. So many fabric pieces and precision piecing. Just look at all those curves. I know experienced quilters that stay away from patterns with curves. And yes, I am the one at the keyboard raising my hand! The quilt is in relatively good shape with a few holes. It was hand quilted with several different colors. Close your eyes and imagine several ladies sitting around a quilt frame many decades ago contributing their “signature” quilting thread color.

With so many quilting projects gathering dust in my head that have nothing to do with cutter quilts, I decided to tackle just two projects. The first, a handful of mini-quilts with the printed psalms. I started with six-inch square pieces of the antique quilt. The off-white psalms were stitched onto one of the sides. On the reverse side, I stitched a heart … just because. Then I stitched the two sides together.

Next, I tackled more double-sided nine-inch tall crosses like the ones made with the second cutter quilt. I have shared the crosses with quilting friends and they really seem to connect to them. I only have a few left from the second cutter quilt. This morning I filled ten crosses with rice, stitched them across the top, and affixed the front of each cross with a inspirational charm. The front of each cross also has a heart stitched on it. Shout out to my friend Michele for gifting me a jumbo bag of rice for the crosses.

Finally, I have also become buddies with my pinking shears. Either my right hand is developing muscles, or I am just powering through the pain.

Next up … Stay tuned … I’m working on a new collage quilt pattern!

2024 was all about the Journey!

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It’s kinda fun once a year to reflect on what’s been happening in the sewing room. In 2024, I attended a quilt retreat and was given a quilting journal (thank you Janet). It allowed me to keep track of the finished chaos that can sometimes be quilting/sewing projects. I don’t blog about all my projects, so the journal was a great reminder.

In 2024, I completed 8 quilts (one of them a Quilt of Valor), embellished two jean jackets (so much fun), created one new collage “cake” pdf pattern (which included two prototype quilts), honored a couple of “cutter” antique quilts, a block was created/submitted/and accepted for the 2024 Texas Agriculture Matters quilt for the Texas Department of Agriculture, made three burrito-style dinosaur pillow cases with French seams for the Michigan grands, made a Christmas pillow for a good friend, and four piped-edge pillows (piping on pillows is not easy; just saying) with canal house fabric purchased in Amsterdam last year. 2024 was all about the journey!

I remember purchasing this amazing fabric while visiting Amsterdam in 2023. I couldn’t tell you how much I purchased. They don’t sell fabric in yards (maybe meters?) in Europe. The fabric is tightly packed with adorable navy blue canal houses. After a year patiently waiting on the shelf, I got this idea to make pillows as Christmas presents for my family. I wanted to pipe the edges and had Erica at A Needle and Thread teach me. I’ve had Erica previously make a University of Alabama pillow with piped edges. But did I want to have her put together four pillows? It’s the old story of what do you want to do … give a man a fish … or teach a man to fish! I came prepared to her sewing lounge with yards of bias binding and cording and nearly had a entire pillow finished by the end of our teaching session. I could do this! Each completed pillow looked better than the previous one. I had learned to fish!

I had the most fun embellishing a couple of blue jeans jackets. At Houston’s 2024 International Quilt Festival, it clearly was one of the trends. I was stopped a couple of times at the festival by quilters asking to take a photo of my jacket. It was super easy (the zipper foot was my best friend) and I’m not finished adding to the Texas or Christmas jackets. Someone asked me if I was going to bedazzle it. Seriously, that kinda scares me!

One of my favorite 2024 quilts was “Elephants on Parade.” It is a Laundry Basket Quilt pattern and easy breezy to make with the elephant template. The last quilt I made from LBQ was similar in appearance but with multiple butterfly blocks. Sewing the elephant quilt, I perfected my button hole machine applique. I finished the last block while on a quilt retreat. While laying the blocks on the design wall, someone suggested I should make one of the elephants face the other way. I loved that idea!

My friend, Cynthia, came across a press release requesting quilt blocks for the Texas Department of Agriculture. Every two years, they request quilters make a 10-1/2 inch block for a themed quilt. A few pieces of fabric are supplied which must be included in the block. Creating a block about Texas agriculture was a challenge. I know nothing about the subject! Although they did not settle in Texas, my mother’s side of the family were dairy farmers. I decided to create a block honoring my heritage. Accompanying the finished block to the agriculture department, I wrote the following: “My mother and her family left Holland after WWII for the United States. My grandfather and uncles were dairy farmers and continued until retirement. In 2022, Texas was fourth in U.S. milk production. The Holstein cow is the top dairy breed. It produces 9 gallons of milk per day per cow. The churn dash red and white block is often associated with butter churning, a milk product.”

Big shout out to my friend, Sally, for making my quilt labels for over 10 years. She continues to wow me with her designs. Each quilt label is my favorite! And then there are the longarm ladies that continue to amaze: Lisa and Val. All these ladies make my quilts look so much nicer!

Honoring the Past

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Many months ago, my dear friend, Cynthia, told me about 20 antique quilts that were going to be donated to parts unknown, likely Goodwill, and did I want them. I am not a quilt historian, and will be the first to admit, I do not have any experience with very old quilts. So, of course, I said, YES!

After taking possession of the quilts, this is what I learned. No quilt had a label or information as to who made them, location, and the year they were made. The quilts were residing in Lufkin, Texas on family property owned by Pat and Gene Calvert. The property had for many years belonged to Gene’s side of the family. His aunts and uncles lived there for many years. I betcha nine dollars the aunts had a hand in creating the quilts. Several old homes were nestled together on the property and filled with quilts and antiques. 

The quilts probably date back to the 1930’s or 1940’s (my best guess). They were all hand pieced, quilted, and not in the greatest shape. The bindings were mostly shredded and there were many holes and random staining. Despite their condition, I felt there were areas that could be salvaged. After a little research, I learned about “cutter quilts,” a way that tired quilts can be repurposed. The first thing I did was have them all cleaned. My thought was to somehow honor these quilts. But I had to noodle on that for a while. I knew it was going to be emotionally difficult to take a pair of scissors and cut into the quilts.

It is my plan to work on a few quilts a year. The first quilt I tackled was a red 8-pointed star pattern with an orange and red burst. I don’t know the name of the quilt pattern. The quilt measured 63-1/2 inches wide and 69 inches long and hand quilted with navy thread. The backing is a blue and white plaid and might be cotton, but maybe not.      

I decided to start by making three Christmas stockings by fussy cutting the star and sewing a red binding/hanger at the top. Next, I used cookie cutters to trace and cut out two sizes of hearts for Christmas ornaments. One thing I noticed was how physically difficult it was to cut into the quilt with pinking shears. My thought was perhaps the batting was super dense, or maybe I need to invest in better pinking shears. As I was struggling with the cutting, I imagined this quilt had to be super cozy and warm during those East Texas winter nights. On the larger heart shapes, I sewed a cute ceramic button in the middle of each heart. The buttons have been gathering dust at my house for decades. It seemed right to finally use them. I sandwiched two hearts for each ornament and placed a ric rac loop between the two layers before sewing the layers together with red thread.

I have also fussy cut a stack of six-inch squares highlighting the eight-pointed stars. That project is still simmering on the back “inspiration” burner. I do have an idea! Future blog post alert!

Two Chicks lost trying to find Two Chicks

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Today, April 30, 2024, is the final day of the very first All Texas Shop Hop. Over 100 Texas quilt shops participated which began on the first day of March. My sister and I participated this past weekend for just one day!

It was an interesting adventure that had some steep downs and lots of ups. It all started on Friday evening after checking into our country hotel. Gretchen and I were catching up in our room … Room 104. Suddenly, there was a little “eke” from my sister’s bed. And then … “there’s a bed bug on my bed.” After a frowny face at the front desk, we were offered another room and a large discount.

“We will check it out and let you know,” I sternly said.

It was far away from Room 104. It checked out fine and we reluctantly stayed. It was late and the thought of checking out and going to another location was not appealing. I mean, what if we encountered alligators in the bathtub? What would we do then?

The following morning we headed out to Two Chicks Quilting. We decided the back roads were our best route! The thing about back roads is there are lots of twists and turns. Unfortunately, we both have no sense of direction. When we wound up at the end of a long dirt road there was an entrance for someone’s ranch. Obviously, we knew something was amiss. The sign read “No Trespassers.” Yep, our maps program had let us down. These two chicks would not be going to Two Chicks. Maybe next year, we said, and turned around!

We did make it to four lovely quilt shops: Yorktown’s Seams Like Home, Shiner’s The Square Quilter, Hollydee Quilts in Luling, and Fiberworx Fabric Studio in McQueeney. At the shop in Yorktown, we noticed someone had dropped off Flat Colleen (kinda like a Flat Stanley). We offered to take her to our next quilt shop destination. Flat Colleen rode in the backseat and was a wonderful travel companion. We could tell from all the signatures on the back of Colleen, she had traveled to lots of quilt shops!

Road trips are so much fun! Road trips to quilt shops, even better, especially when there are sisters involved! We are going to do this again next year. This time we may even make it to Two Chicks Quilting.