Category Archives: Uncategorized

When I retired ten years ago, I announced that one item on my bucket list was to enter a quilt in the Prairie Quilt Guild bi-annual quilt show. Ten years later it is finally happening! I have judged quilts in a country fair for several years and graded hundreds when I taught Sewing in HighContinue reading “Common Threads Quilt Show”

What is the best part of summertime for you? I look forward to grandkids coming to visit. I enjoy fresh tomatoes, basil and zinnias from our tiny raised garden beds and even some nights at the ball park. But what I wait for every year is to simply walk out the house at 7 amContinue reading “Summertime”

May was my birthday month and I believe that birthdays should be celebrated! My family and friends did not disappoint me, although this year’s events won’t soon be forgotten….waiting for three hours plus in a hospital’s emergency room parking lot and KFC tenders eaten at a park. To top it off, I received an edgerContinue reading “Gifts for the Quilter”

When does an item become “vintage” or “antique”? Cars can obtain a special vintage or classic license plate after 25 years. Furniture, china etc. need to be close to 100 years old to be labeled antique. But quilts—sort of up to the owner and what the quilt itself tells us. (This is why labels onContinue reading “Is it Vintage, antique or classic?”

When I suggested adding “ric rac” to the apron a student was making in class, I was met with the most incredulous look only a teenager can give. Ric Rac? Surely I was making that word up! None of the students recognized the name of a trim they might have seen once. Gleefully, I introducedContinue reading “Ric Rac”

Quilters love to play with blocks! Not the wooden cubes of our childhood– but those squares of fabric cut and combined with other squares to create a quilt top or the square made up of little cut shapes that create a pattern that will be repeated over and over to create a quilt top. TheContinue reading “Playing with Blocks”

Well, life happens! This is not news, but this past week or so, “stuff” seemed to change plans and interrupt daily schedules. My brother and my husband had routine surgeries. My husband’s was be minor and he would be back on his feet in a long weekend. Oops, now he is completely off his footContinue reading “Life Happens!”

Quilters love stars in their quilts. Is it because we “wish upon a star”? Or like the Kansas state motto, quilters believe “Ad astra per aspera“— “to the stars through difficulties.” Stars may symbolize our “light at the end of the tunnel”. Whatever, they are fun to make–depending on the pattern! If you “googled” star quiltContinue reading “Stars in the Quilting World”

My son and his family are spending Spring Break in Hawaii—again. This trip is much easier to do if one lives on the west coast! Their photos this year are showing me a different side of the islands . If it wasn’t for a few glimpses of the ocean and beach, I would think theyContinue reading “Island dreaming…”