Quilt for Alice

It sure has been a while since I updated this blog. Whoops. But to break the drought I wanted to let you know how proud I am of my number 2 son who has just completed and delivered his second quilt, "Alice's Peeps".

 This quilt was made for the 3 yr old daughter of a workmate. Some many months ago Alice graduated from her crib into a big girl bed so it was decided a quilt would be an appropriate way to mark that transition. Again, a foundation paper-pieced pattern was used (the hen, rooster and chick from "A Quilters Ark" by Margaret Rolfe) for the chickens but the overall pattern layout/setting was designed by my son. In the lowest row he was inspired by the book "Word Play Quilts" by Tonya Ricucci in creating the letters to spell out the name of the quilt.

 The chicks were arranged randomly but he wanted to have one chick asleep (see purple chick above).

 We had lots of fun visiting the fabric shops to find chicken themed fabric but most of the rest of the fabrics came from my stash. Note the chicken foot quilting pattern on the scribble border.

 The plan was for each row to be colored a different fun color while blue would be a constant background color. In addition to the paper pieceing there was the challenge of hand embroidering the beaks, eyes and feet. For the combs and wattles it was decided to use a red wool fabric.

 Check out the chicken wire quilting. The quilt was longarm quilted by Jenny Eccleston with input from son and I.

 I do admit that I was drafted to do the binding. We had used more fabric than was initially anticipated on the back and what we wanted to use for the binding had to be augmented. The suggestion was floated to make it scrappy and insert some of the colorful fabrics that were used to make the hens, roosters and chicks. Since this is for a 3 yr old's bed the binding needed to be robust so it was machined on on the back side first, turned it to the front and then buttonhole stitched it down, choosing red thread to repeat the color of the combs and wattles.

 Chicks roamed freely all over the lowest name row. The blackberry fabric was deliberately chosen because that fruit is a favorite treat for Alice.

We happened across this wonderful rooster fabric in the quilt shop markdown bin and couldn't resist buying it for the backing.

Work has commenced on the third quilt and ideas are forming for a fourth.The first two quilts were for firstborn girls and now each girl is soon to have a baby brother.

That first quilt, featuring sheep, made a short appearance on this blog on October 28, 2015.

This  one, Alice's Peeps, turned out to be a great quilt don't you think?

Morris Hexathon Block 11

July 16 gave us the block named "Merton Abbey".

 This block is a tessellation which creates a rotating star - a mill wheel of sorts. Although I initially tried to find a fabric that would give a circular swirl to the center I was not successful. Instead I chose a new "milk chocolate" to go with the "dark chocolate" brown I am featuring in my project. Having decided on my setting plan I now need to concentrate on which color fabrics I put where as that will impact their location in the finished article.

In 1881 William Morris purchased Merton Abbey, on the Wandle River south of London, which had been a textile factory. Having decided to weave, dye and print his own fabrics Morris wanted a premises that would facilitate doing this in the traditional techniques. Merton Abbey was a mill with a water wheel which would provide his power source. In 1940 Liberty and Co purchased the Merton Abbey and used it until 1972 so there is a good deal of interesting history to be discovered by a visit today.

Morris Hexathon Block 10

For July 9 our block was named "Thames Path"

Again, I employed careful fabric selection and cutting choosing fabric with a swirling pattern to evoke the swirling currents of the river.

William Morris had two homes named Kelmscott and both overlooked the Thames River and he was very fond of both homes. On occasion the Morris family traveled by barge on the river from one home (Kelmscott House, a townhome in London) to the other (Kelmscott Manor in the Cotswold village of Kelmscott) .

For this week Barbara gave us an alternate block, explaining that it could be used in lieu of this week's block or made as an extra to use in place of a future block that one might decide not to make (because of the complexity of the design). Thinking this might be a good insurance policy I went ahead and made this block deciding to construct it using a variety of fabrics so it would be sure to blend in with the others. I really like how this one turned out and will keep it in mind to maybe make more versions of should I need to have extra blocks.

Morris Hexathon Block 9

 For July 2 we have a  block named "Red Lion Square" to acknowledge the two times William Morris inhabited this London Square in Camden.

The beauty of this block pattern is it's 3D appearance. To highlight that I decided to make a feature of the front corner and to also use a "grainy" fabric to show change of plane. Now looking at it I'm not so sure about those four "eyes" staring out form the top side of the brown corner.

After leaving Oxford University William Morris and his friend Edward Burne-Jones rented rooms at #17 to use as a studio/residence from 1856 to 1859. Lacking the money for much in the way of furnishings they designed and built their own medieval style furniture. William Morris returned in 1861 and rented the entire premises at #8 for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co for use as workshops, offices and a showroom. The Red Lion Square area suffered major damage as a result of German bombing in WWII but #17 remains and may be visited.

Morris Hexathon Block 8

 For June 25 we were given a block named "Greenwood".

This block used only the one shape so I used two different fabrics and fussy cut that one striped fabric.

Ms Brackman comments as follows: 

"I named this basic block Greenwood for a mythical place, a symbol of the English forest. Greenwood refers to the Anglo-Saxon culture before the invasion of the Norman French in 1066."

There were lots of great photos of quilts to be seen in the (Material Culture) post this week. One of them has been earmarked by me as a potential way to set my blocks.

Westering Women Block 6

For this month, June, in the Westering Women series we had the story of the trip beyond the Platte River and the necessity for the women to come up with a new style of apparel; the Bloomer Costume.

Named "Hill and Hollow" this month's block goes with the tales of having to navigate Windlass Hill, a very steep incline to get the wagons down. It required much effort by the men to inch the wagon's down the hill and they were assisted by some of the women who held on to a rope at the rear to act as an additional brake to prevent losing the wagon to the steep slope. The women adapted their usual dress by adding trousers underneath their long skirts to protect themselves on the descent.

Fortunately the reward for safely negotiating this hill was the arrival at Ash Hollow, a much needed source of fresh, clean spring water.

For this block, made while on a guild retreat, I focused on careful cutting of my fabrics. Thanks to the advice from my friend Ms Pink (who is also working on this project) my little wagon is in there almost halfway down the hill. Do you see it?

Morris Hexathon Block 7

Vacation trips in the last several weeks have really messed up my schedule to stitch and blog the Morris Hexathon blocks. Let me try and get caught up now...

The week seven block, published on June 18 was named "Avebury Stones" by Ms Brackman. To acknowledge the name of the block I sorted through my fabrics to find one with some stones on it to include in this block.

The Avebury Stone Circle (the largest one found in Europe) captivated the attention of 15 yr old William Morris. It is now a National Trust Site and a World Heritage Site.

Barbara is providing us with many interesting facts and stories as we make our way round England as seen through the eyes of William Morris

Morris Hexathon Block 6

In a desperate attempt to get caught up on the blog posts before block 7 comes out tomorrow, the star for this past week was a block titled "South Kensington Star".

Now if you are a quilter you will know that this block has a very challenging center wherein twelve points have to come together nicely. My strategy was to use a boldly patterned fabric for each of the star points so as to disguise any mishaps.

Both of those fabrics are from a Barbara Brackman fabric collection within her Morris designs. The brown is from the Best of Morris collection. The same design appears in different colorways in the Morris Jewels collection which is also where the brighter green and brown fabric is from. And, as previously, the outer background is from the Moda Grunge collection.

In just a few hours the block for week 7 will be revealed. Will this be the week I have to resort to english paper piecing?

Stay tuned because I need to get block 8 done smartly so I can go on vacation on Tuesday (and take my sewing machine in for service on Monday so it can be worked on while I'm away and not needing it).

Morris Hexathon Block 5

There has been a delay in getting my blog posts up but here I am with week 5 in the  Morris Hexathon, a block titled "Upton".

This was a relatively easy block to piece - altho I freely admit I attached the central hexagon at the end using hand applique. The block was done all in a hurry before I went out the door to day two of our quilt guild show. The center hexagon used a fabric I had found the day before but really what I hoped to find was a piece that had an image of an older English house to go with the story for the week. William Morris built his "Red House" from red brick, an unfashionable building material at the time and gave it a distinctive "half hip" roof line. The house was located very nearby the town of Upton.

We were also provided with an alternate way to put this block together; the suggestion was that we might want to use it in an upcoming week when we deem that weeks block too difficult to do.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Exhibiting at Art Shows

In addition to my regular quilt groups I also belong to an art group. In that group we have opportunities to exhibit our work a few times a year in all-member all-media shows. After a few years I have found that there is a difference to what I show when it is with the art group than the quiltworks I exhibit in a quilt show.

I had taken this photograph last year but it got held up in the framing process and I was too late to exhibit it. When the annual all-member show rolled round again I was ready with my entry. Since each member could submit a maximum of two entries I thought it might be fun to try making a fabric interpretation of this photo.

Working quickly I was able to make this...

You'll see I moved the bottle slightly to the right, added in many more viburnum flowers and somewhat rearranged the phlox flowers. Then I had some fun with my bead collection. Trying to keep the interpretation close in spirit I "double matted" it and gave it a brown binding to imitate the (wider) frame.

This is what the photo looks like framed:

(Do pardon my reflection in the glass!)

This was a fun project to try and maybe I will attempt it again sometime with a different photograph.

Morris Hexathon Block 4

When I decided to do this block of the week it was with the idea that it would challenge me. Yep, it is doing that. Again, I machine pieced the block. But the blocks are designed for english paper piecing and by golly, if there is another one with this many pieces in it I might succumb and use the english paper piecing method.

For week four we had a block that is a variation on the classic box design with seven tumbling or baby blocks in it, renamed for this project "Box Hill". The finished side of each little box is 1.33" and there are 27 pieces of which 14 had to be fussy cut and placed carefully when stitching into place.

At first I was pressing these with the box tops (the plainer fabric) all pressed out. But I didn't like the way that looked. Something I try to do when writing instructions for others to piece a block is to give pressing directions because it often makes quite a difference to the finished appearance of the block.

The pressing is not perfect but from the front side it looks better this way as the "lids" pop out now.

Next weekend is our quilt guild annual quilt show so I'm hoping for an easier block for block five as I'm not going to be home a lot to sew.

Westering Women Block Five

On our journey west we have arrived at the Platte River. The story for this month is all about how the wagons had to cross the Platte River  “We are traveling up Platte river bottom, the north side” wrote Amelia Knight in 1853. “It is a beautiful river about a mile across, full of Islands and sand bars. As far as the eye can reach the road is covered with teams.”

My challenge was how to deal with the big 6" square of unpieced fabric at the block's center. I wanted to somehow have some blue in there to remember that this block was about a river (albeit one that did not sound particularly blue - it was more about having a sandy bottom and a murky appearance). Looking back at the blocks already completed I felt that this one had some similarities to block 1 and I resolved to go back to how I colored that one and give this block a similar darker border. The curvy bit of blue gets the river idea in there but I'm not sure yet that it is sucessful.

One of the quilters who posts her photos on the Westering Women flickr page also notes the fabrics she uses. I'm going to do that here, perhaps to show you what a wide variety of fabrics I use as I work in a decidedly "scrappy" way.

Outer border combines: a leafy fabric from the latest Barbara Brackman line "Morris Earthly Paradise", a pindot fabric from a Maywood Studios collection, called, believe it or not, "Santa Claus" and the stripe is from FreeSpirit Leaf Dance by Jane Sassaman (as is the inner fabric with the touch of blue). And then my theme fabric with the wagon from the Little House on the Prairie collection by Andover.

We are moving along on the trail now and I am trying to keep pace by making setting blocks as well.

Morris Hexathon Block 3

For this week our story takes us to Camelot and thus is born the Camelot Star. The tales/legends of Sir Lancelot, King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, Queen of Camelot were the particular favorites of William Morris during his university days.

 In choosing my fabrics for this block I wanted to somehow mark it as being for Camelot; figuring a crown might be easier to find (in the right colorway) than a knight in full body armor I headed out on a mission. Not exactly the easy mission but I did find this Jo Morton print - is it a crown? is it a jesters hat? Whichever it is it was the best I could find!


I know we are only at week 3 of 26 but it is always good to keep in mind how the blocks look together. And how they seem to change color each week. That slightly acid green is a difficult one to accurately reproduce on the screen. You'll note I now have three different hues of green and a couple of browns. Past experience with projects like this has shown me that they will all work out playing well together in the end once I have set them with something to unite them all.

What is also interesting is which is the top of the block? With fussy cutting there is often a specific "this way up" for the motif. On Barbara Brackman's blog she shows her hexagons with the pointy bit at the top and I have decided to adopt that position. I notice that some people do likewise and some people make a flat side the top edge.



For my closeout fun shot I went on a hunt (at home this time) for crowns to put with the block. Oh dear, the green does look quite acid in this photo with a green linen back drop. Maybe next week I will choose a different shade of green.

Morris Hexathon Block 2

For week 2 of this project we have moved a few miles away from central London out to the site of the Great London Exhibition in 1851; Crystal Palace.


Our block for the week is a basic six triangle hexagon. Despite the simplicity of the design (the construction is not really what I classify as simple!) this block gave me issues. What you see above is my second effort. I thought the fabric pattern had some vague resemblance to the swirling motifs Morris used based on nature.

It wasn't so much the construction of the block that gave me grief. No, it was selecting the fabrics.


What was more fun was setting up my own "Crystal Palace" for my posed shot. Lighting was a challenge as I was inside on the north side of the house in the very late afternoon shooting out into the green of the backyard.


This was my first effort. I spent at least an hour just fussy cutting but I am not sure it shows. Now I am wondering about adding some embroidered tendrils on the block as embroidery was also a feature of William Morris designs.


In closing I am giving you another shot of my Crystal Palace. A fun shoot.

Morris Hexathon Block 1

Our friend Barbara Brackman has a new project for us; a 26 week block of the week effort she is calling the Morris Hexathon.(Side note here, my spell checker is not at all happy with the word Hexathon and keeps changing it to Heathen!) Focusing on her new fabric line by Moda "Morris Earthly Paradise" she will be giving us a story about William Morris's  England with stops along the way at places that were important to him - as she comments, it will be a virtual tour of England. As a bonus we will get a different hexagonal block pattern each Saturday.


For week one the block is named "Westminster" and is a six pointed star inspired by the tile-work floor of Westminster Abbey in London. In the photos on Barbara's blog she orients them so the red and green colored tile block has the red diamond at the top so I have tried to imitate that here.

In all likelihood these blocks are best made using english paper piecing but I am going to plan/hope to make them using the sewing machine. If nothing else it will be good practice in stitching y seams!

If you have been following my quilt blog for some time you will know that I usually choose to work in a controlled color palette. The "Morris Earthly Paradise" collection while very lovely and authentic is multi-colored and does not suit my preferred method of choosing to work with a limited number of colors.


On Saturday May 7 when the project began I was on a high hillside in West Virginia. It has been raining every day for almost two weeks now and that combination of very clean air, spring leaves and a longtime thought to work in a green and brown palette all came together at a most serendipitous moment. Being in this location was akin to being in nature's cathedral; quiet and inspiring. Once I got home I found two good, not yet used, two-yard pieces of green fabric in the pile of fabric that I had used for a previous Barbara Brackman project "Grandmother's Choice" and they have become the nucleus of this new project. I will combine them with browns from the Westering Women pile and a few from the fabric cupboard as well.


In the past I have had fun here on the blog with posing my blocks.In the 1980's we lived in central London and Westminster Cathedral (not Westminster Abbey - they are two distinctly different buildings albeit on the same street) was our parish church. At the time they were updating the seating and had a fundraising effort. My husband had donated money consistently for the effort and as a way to thank him they offered to give him some of the pews that were being phased out. So here I have posed my block on our Westminster Cathedral pew.


Can you catch a glimpse of that brown "moose" standing behind the trees? Nature has colored this scene so beautifully.



Thank you, I will have a seat. That is an F for Finished!

Westering Women Block Four

For the April chapter in this fascinating project the block was titled "Lone Elm". This pattern is more frequently known as Pine Tree or Christmas Tree but the story this month was about guideposts or signs along the route west and one such sign was a particular Lone Elm.

The block pattern traditionally has the tree pointing to the right side but, since our project is about heading west and most of the women on the trails were heading to the northwest, I changed the orientation of my block to match. I'm sure you can catch a glimpse of my little wagon through the tree.

With being away sewing again this weekend I am making good progress on this project.

Westering Women Block Three

For March we had the block Sweet Gum Leaf. Again, a dilemma; no center spot for my little wagon.




I was away at a quilter's retreat when I was making the block and had begun to cut it out without using the wagon fabric. Fortunately my friend Pinkdeenster, a compatriot on the Westering Women journey, was also at the retreat. She stepped over as I was cutting and suggested I could put it in the lower left corner. After a five minute pause I figured out that not only was she correct but I could use the fabric as the entire background. And I think it worked out well in the end.

The stem? Yes, it made it's own rules as well. I think the pattern called for it to bend to the right but no matter, there's room for all variations fortunately.

Do you like that pop of pink? I was happy with the final result and glad I had taken the time to do some fussy cutting.

For most of the time at retreat I was working on this project. I have planned a setting that requires thirteen setting blocks and the long hours available on such a weekend are perfect for doing that somewhat monotonous task. When I got a little tired of what I was doing I could take a break and go look at what someone else was stitching on, help with a layout issue, commiserate when a mistake was made or, the ultimate, go on a field trip to a quilt shop.

Block four for this project is due in a couple of days. And in ten days or so I am again going away for the weekend on a quilt retreat. Guess what I'll be doing then?

Westering Women Block Two

For the month of February the block was Indian.



For this month I had a design dilemma. The center of the block was a 6" square and I felt that would be somewhat bland. One option was to make four versions of the block at 6" each to create one 12" block. Then I saw the block that my friend Pinkdeenster had made and was inspired. She made a 6" version of the Indian block and replaced that unpieced center with the 6" block. Brilliant!

I'm hoping she understands that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".

Indian is the block chosen to go with the story of the Indian Territories. One of the several "jumping off places" for the would be settlers was St Joseph, Missouri. Heading west brought the wagons directly into the area that was set aside for the reserves assigned to various Eastern tribe. A map of the reserves shows they were neatly arranged in horizontal stripes.

For the outer edge of my block I used a striped fabric to recall the map and chose a print with circles to represent the wagon wheels that rolled all those thousands of wagons west through Indian land.

If you are just the tiniest curious about Pinkdeenster go visit her  http://pinkdeenster.blogspot.com/

Westering Women Block One

Oh dear, I have not been keeping up on this blog. I do apologize.

At the beginning of the year our friendly quilt historian Barbara Brackman launched a new block of the month. If you have been reading this blog for some time you will know I have done many BOMs and even a couple of BOW with Barbara.



For 2016 she has chosen the topic of women heading west. To quote from Ms Brackman's inaugural post for the project it will be "celebrating the women who walked west on the overland trails in the 19th century".

Blocks are published, along with a short story from history, on the last Wednesday of each month. The block patterns will be for a 12" block and I am going to make mine in that size.

This first block is Independence Square and the story featured the start off point for many from the town of Independence, Missouri. Thousands of wagons headed out each May with optimistic families seeking a new life in the west.

For this project I am going to use a palette mostly of golden brown/amber representing the dirt and soil the trekkers would encounter along the way. I'll add some pops of color. For January those colors are green for the grass and blue for the hoped for blue sky trip. And, all going well, you'll find a small wagon in each of the blocks.

Maybe you'll join our happy group of stitchers as we walk along the trails...

You can read more about the project by going to http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2016/01/westering-women-block-of-month-2016.html

Threaded With Green Seasons

With the recent big snow still uppermost in everyone's minds around here it seems timely to show you quilts about seasons.

But first, after much delay



Please do come to our reception on Sunday. It's a great chance to shake off the cabin fever and get out and meet the quilters who have made these pieces of fiber art hung for your enjoyment.

In 2014-15 a group of twelve quilters were asked to make quilts for the "There is a Season" challenge. Each participant was given a vintage quilt block and asked to turn that block into a finished piece measuring 24" x 24" representing one of the four seasons. Green had to be used somewhere on the face of the quilt. Many of the quilts resulting from that challenge are now on view in the "Threaded With Green" exhibit and are shown below.


Beginning with Spring - everyone received a sailboat block (original block, uncut, is used in the lower left corner of the lower left quilt).

Upper row, left to right: Carol Campanola "Spring in D.C.", Rebecca Owen, "Mother Nature Follows Her Own Rules", Lynn Purple "Waiting for Spring Break".

Lower row, left to right: Dorry Emmer "Sailing Into Spring", Prudy Traut "Butterfly = New Life", Cheryl Kotecki "Trillium".


More Spring.

Upper row, left to right: Annabel Ebersole "Spring Graces and Grasses", Virginia Hodge "A Non To Wynken & Blynken".

Lower row, left to right: Sarah Entsminger "Sailing Into Spring", Barbara Wise "Heralds of Spring".


Moving into Summer participants were given an unusual Carolina Lily block as seen, uncut, in the center of three of these quilts.

Upper row, left to right: Dorry Emmer "Full Bloom of Summer", Rebecca Owen "Bouquet of Summer", Cindy Grisdela "September Solstice".

Lower row, left to right: Prudy Traut "In My Mother's Garden", Cheryl Kotecki "Watermelon", Sarah Entsminger "Summer Bright".

Summer continues with the six quilts on the left and Fall begins with the two quilts on the right side.

Upper row, left to right: Annabel Ebersole "Summers Bright Blooms", Virginia Hodge "Carolina Lilyfish", Lynn Purple "What Was in Those Seed Packets?" and for Fall, Prudy Traut "Autumn Splendor".

Lower row, left to right: Barbara Wise "Happy Butterfly", Carol Campanola "Happy Flower", Gayle Maisel "Beach - a Time For Shovelling Sand" and for Fall, Gayle Maisel "Time for Leaves".

Now for Fall when participants were given an Ohio Star block with a vivid solid orange background. There was much angst about that orange and several artists disguised that orange as best they could.

Upper row, left to right: Rebecca Owen "Signs of Autumn", Annabel Ebersole "Autumn's Grace Notes", Cheryl Kotecki "Maple" and Cindy Grisdela "Autumn Neighborhood".

Lower row, left to right: Seasons Challenge description, Virginia Hodge "Indian Blanket", Carol Campanola "Fall in D.C." and Lynn Purple "Leaf Fall".


And at last, we finish with winter, the season of snow which is when all of this beauty is on exhibit for you to see! Participants were given a dark blue and cream Monkey Wrench block - see it uncut and on point in Cheryl's quilt and uncut,straight on in Rebecca's and Annabel's quilts.

Upper row, left to right: Rebecca Owen "A Long Winter's Sampler", Virginia Hodge "Winter Wonder", Cheryl Kotecki "Moonlit Midnight", Prudy Traut "Snow Swirls", and Lynn Purple "Snow Fell".

Lower row, left to right: Gayle Maisel "Time for Snow", Annabel Ebersole "Winter's Sparkles", Sarah Entsminger "Dark Night", Barbara Wise "B'rrr" and Cindy Grisdela "Migration".

"For everything there is a season, turn, turn turn..."

As always you can click on the photographs to see them in a larger size.

Threads at the Exhibit Part II

Here we are back again to showcase the lower row of quilts in the "Threads" installation at the "Threaded With Green" exhibit.

But first, let me take time out for an important public service announcement:



Yes, we have a little weather event happening outside right now and the reception for our exhibit, planned for Sunday January 24 2pm thru 4pm has had to be cut out of the schedule i.e. abandoned. But, fear not, we hope it will be re-scheduled for Sunday, January 31, 2pm thru 4pm at the same location. Watch this blog and/or the ArtSpace webpage www.artspaceherndon.com for confirmation of this.



Earlier this week the upper row of quilts were featured. Below we have five quilts beginning on the left with Lynn Purple's entry.



"DIY and Save Some Green" 36"h x 12"w is the title for Lynn's very creative piece. She is making a statement about modern women who have skills ranging from DIY projects around the home to creating art to display in that home. Clearly Lynn spent some entertaining minutes in the hardware aisle collecting items to embellish her piece with.



Up next is "Blush Garland"  40.75" h x 11.75"w by Anne Smyers. Beginning with a base of a vintage damask table runner Anne appliquéd the garland on top to create her quiet piece.



"Nuance" 48"h x 12" w by Cindy Grisdela is a very successful combination of the  hand dye fabrics that Cindy usually works with and batiks. Her embellishment is achieved by the wonderfully textured effect created by her quilting.



Another full length view...



"Pale Memories" 46.5"h x 12"w by Dena Brannen. For several years now Dena has been incorporating pieces of handwork from her personal collection of textiles made by her grandmothers. As you can see she chose to feature crocheted doilies in her entry.



"Virgo in the Fog" 39.5"h x 12.5"w by Shoshana Spiegel. Shana tells us that this is the second in a series using woven strips of grey fabrics, anchored by a hand embroidered running stitch and finally embellished with grey buttons, green beads and more embroidery.  In common with most all of the entrants making a "Threads" quilt Shana says the biggest challenge was meeting the requirement to work with pale fabrics.

Now I have given you a preview of this portion of the exhibit I hope you will come to the gallery to see the real quilts - they are so much more interesting than you can imagine from merely seeing these photographs.



To close, here's a view of my "Green Man" in the backyard this morning.