12 blocks, 14 settings, dynamic quilts

Pat Speth, author of “Nickle Quilts” and three other books about quilts made entirely from five-inch squares of fabric, was the lecturer at the Mississippi Valley Quilters Guild yesterday. The lecture was the fourth one she gave to our guild, so she created a brand new lecture to keep things fresh. As promised in yesterday’s […]

Celebrate National Quilting Day!

  Saturday is National Quilting Day! It’s a special day to appreciate your favorite quilter and share your love of quilting with others. I’ll be spending the day sewing at quilt retreat, hopefully finishing a quilt top or two. My guild, the Mississippi Valley Quilters Guild, is celebrating with a special mini quilt show at […]

Children’s quilts tell the stories of our lives

Quilts are important because they tell the stories of our lives, and that’s the message I’m trying to get across with the Children’s Quilts exhibit at the Quad-City Botanical Center which I curated for the Misssissippi Valley Quilters Guild. The quilt show features more than 20 quilts with a mix of modern, antique and not […]

Christmas present reveal

Last Christmas I made three quilts for gifts. I believe I was suffering from a bout of temporary insanity when I decided that would be a good idea. I got about five hours of sleep in the two days before Christmas to finish the quilts. The first was a queen-sized quilt for my parents that […]

Quilt retreat!

As you read this I am happily sewing away at quilt retreat. The semi-annual get-a-way is hosted by my guild, the Mississippi Valley Quilters Guild and it gives me four days of (mostly) uninterrupted sewing and quilting. This is the first time I’m going for more than just the weekend in three years, so I’m […]

Stunning Christmas tree skirt in batiks

I LOVE batiks. I can’t get enough of them. So I was in heaven when the benefactor for the Mississippi Valley Quilt Guild suggested buying fabric from SewBatik.com to make Judy Niemeyer’s Christmas Celebration Tree Skirt. The benefactor business, Quilting By-You in Bettendorf, Iowa, is purchasing the fabric and donating the quilting for the tree […]