GRANDMOTHER'S' FANCY WORK

This quilt was inspired by the postings of Kelly Cline Quilting on Facebook..  I first started following her years ago because of her fantastic quilting on her long arm machine.  She is also a collector of feedsack material, trimmings, and embroidery; and makes wonderful pincushions, bookmarks, and cards from her collections.  She believes that it is alright to cut into these treasures to make something new to extend their life to add joy to the present.  So, with that permission, I pulled down off the shelves my own treasures of my grandmothers' 'fancy' work.  Some have been stored for my entire married life; never used or enjoyed.  It's time!!!  I've never had any use for doilies or dresser scarves as times and styles have changed.  But, maybe a quilt can be saved and enjoyed by my grandchildren as a combination of all their grandmothers' 'fancy' work from several generations.

THE STATS:  Grandmothers' Fancy Work, 2026, 29" x 29", Machine Embroidered, Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted.  Made with my Grandmothers' fancy work and fabrics from my five decades of fabric scraps.

ABOUT THE GRANDMOTHERS

I was fortunate to have spent many hours with my grandmothers from childhood even through the first twenty years of my married life.  My maternal grandmother Billingslea embroidered, appliqued, quilted; my paternal grandmother Haines crocheted, hooked rugs; great grandmother DeLong embroidered,  quilted; and great grandmother Maddex tatted.  They considered this their 'fancy' work.  After a day on the prairie working in the garden, cooking, preserving food for winter, cleaning, laundry on a washboard, and raising kids; they were sometimes able to sit down, rest and cool off to do some 'fancy' work.  Examples of their work are included in this quilt.  I have retained also some of their work complete and in excellent condition including a set of seven dishtowels embroidered with days of the week, quilts, and a large crocheted lace tablecloth which were all wedding gifts to us 68 years ago.  Also, included is a sheet/ pillowcase set with tatted edging made by great grandmother's sister, Minnie.  It was a wedding gift from Aunt Minnie who attended our wedding as the oldest guest there!  She is another interesting family story; a story for another day.  If you're family, you know!!!

I have been inspired greatly by these women plus my mother who was a career-oriented woman who didn't do 'fancy' work.  Briefly as a young mother, she did some family sewing until I learned how to sew at age 11 when she turned the mending over to me.  Included in this quilt is a scrap of fabric from the skirt for my childhood dressing table that she made.  After achieving many of her own career goals, she retired after 35 years from the U. S. Department of Agriculture to enjoy her grandchildren.    

I'm sure my mother might have temporarily lamented that I chose a life of doing 'fancy' work instead of choosing the career I was trained for in college.  But, she always told me that a woman could accomplish anything she desired with work and dedication.  

Here is a picture of me at age 11 with my grandmothers.

PRAIRIE HOMESTEAD

 

Time for a simple project that uses narrow scraps from my bins.  I always enjoy making any type of string piecing that doesn't require a lot of thought or planning.

THE STATS:  Prairie Homestead, 2026, 29" x 29", Paper Pieced, Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted.

Photographed at the site of a historic log cabin that is in the process of being reconstructed after being moved from the prairies of southeast Colorado.

AUTUMN JOY

All summer I watch this plant grow in our front garden from a stub to this bush.  It is a perennial sedum called "Autumn Joy", and right on schedule on the first of September it blooms.  It always says to me that the Fall season is upon us; and I begin to want to make a quilt using autumnal colors.

Here is this year's effort.

THE STATS:  Autumn Joy, 2026, 26" x 26", Paper Pieced, Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted.

This quilt was photographed at the Colorado State Armory in Manzanola, Colorado.  Several armories were built in the 1920s around the state to house the Colorado State Guard Units.  Because of their very large areas inside, they were also used as community areas, gymnasiums, roller rinks, etc.

The Canon City Armory was designed by the same Manzanola architect, and were both built in 1922.  The Canon City building was the only gym in town until the new high school was built in 1961, so was used for school athletic events.

 

RINSE AND REPEAT

 Several years ago 'Round Robin' quilts were popular.  The idea is that one person makes the center block; then passes it onto another person who adds a border of their choosing; then the quilt goes to the third person who does the same; and the process is repeated with different quiltmakers until a certain size is reached.  At this point, the completed top is returned to the orginal block maker, as the owner, to do the quilting and binding.  In a group of quiltmakers, there could be several quilts making the rounds at the same time.  Some round robins had rules, such as color, fabrics, size, etc.; or there could be no rules leaving it up to the indiviual quiltmakers. 

 I have never been part of such a group, but the idea has always interested me.  I decided to give the idea a try even as a lone quilter. 

 

Without any plan as to any possible borders, I made my center block with the mindset that I would use just what fabrics I had on hand and no particular design idea except to finish with a half-way cohesive product.  Every border was approached with no idea of what I was going to do.  I had a couple of false starts; and because there was no pattern or previous idea to follow, the math aspect was complicated on occasion.  This is the end product, and it was a fun, enjoyable process. 

THE STATS:  "Rinse and Repeat", 2026, 25" x 25",  Machine Appliqued, Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted

TILT-A-WHIRL

 It seems that my method of operation any more is to decide what I want to make; then figure how I can accomplish it without buying anything.   

This quilt follows that plan.  I started with an interesting geometric plan in my head, but after searching in my scraps could only come up with this blue, green, brown color scheme.  Thinking it would work, I persevered.  Now, I realize that the design deserved a better and different color scheme that only a  fabric purchase could have provided.  Oh, well, it is what it is.  Not all of my quilts are as successful as they could have been.  It is still a learning experience even after 200+ quilts.

THE STATS:  "Tilt-a-Whirl", 2026, 31"x31", Paper Pieced, Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted.

PERFECT IMPERFECTION

 I have never made a perfect quilt -- well, back in 2016, maybe I ALMOST did.  So, I always strive to make an imperfect quilt as good as I can.  This quilt certainly fits that mode.  There are imperfect points (don't look too close), and a design aspect gone wrong; but I still love this quilt very much because of all the colors and the fun of going through scraps to find motifs to fussy-cut for bitsy medallions.  That makes it a perfect imperfection quilt in my mind!!!

THE STATS:  "Perfect Imperfection", 2026, 30" x 32", Fussy-cut - 8 pieces in each 3" square, Machine pieced, Machine Quilted.

STEPS TO THE COURT HOUSE

A log cabin quilt contains one of the most popular blocks used in quiltmaking.  I've certainly done my share having made several.  Time to make another; this time the court house steps variation.

  

THE STATS:  "Steps To The Court House", 2026, 34" x 34", Paper Pieced, Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted.

I'm partial to this variation because of the many fond memories I have of my hometown county seat and its courthouse.  I was born in that county and my birth certificate was issued from there;  my grandfather's office as a county commissioner in the 1940s was located there.  I remember very clearly at age 16 when I took my driving test and received my license on the street in front of the building.  Then, Bob, his mother, and I went there to get our marriage license.  At that time, the bride only needed to be 18 years old, but the groom needed to be 21.  We were 19, so Bob's mother had to sign for him to marry me!  Fourteen years later we, with our 4-year old son, went to the court house to pick up at the welfare office a 3-week old baby girl for adoption.  After six months time, the last trip to that building was for the final signing of her adoption papers. Who would have thought at that time she would be the mother of our adult grandchildren?  It has been a long journey with many steps to that Otero County court house!!!

This is the court house of my childhood----

Then in the late 1950s they tore the orginal building down, and built this one.

P.S.:  One misstep on the steps of that court house -----

As a mother of a four year old, I thought I knew everything.  Wrong!!  When we left the welfare office with our new daughter,  I threw her pacifier away in the trash barrel on the steps of the building.   She found her thumb before we even got to the car.  She ended up spending ten years of her childhood in orthodontia.  Edited to add:  A favorite picture -- she had just gotten her braces off in time for her senior year in high school.

TWO BLOCK WONDER

I've been fasinated for years with combining two or more geometric blocks together to form secondary patterns.  I even wrote a book and a reprint booklet about the subject back in the early 2000s.  It is not only intriguing to alternate blocks containing different angles, but then change the effect when colors and/or shades of fabric are chosen.  The possibilities are endless.

Here is my latest experiment with the idea ----

The two blocks repeated and rotated in this quilt.

THE STATS:  Two Block Wonder, 2026, 27" x 27", Paper Pieced, Machine Pieced, Machine Appliqued, Machine Quilted

The books:

FIRE STORM

It is officially summer, which means wildfire season in Colorado.  We are currently experiencing one of our largest fires of record, the Aspen Acres fire.   It has been scarry; and has been estimated it will not be fully contained for quite awhile.  We live in the area north of the fire.  Early on, we prepared partially for evacation, if necessary.  Needless to say, it is hard to decide what is important to take with us.  In the meantime, quilting is my emotional support 'animal'; so I worked on this quilt, called "Fire Storm".   

Since 100% containment of this fire will not totally happen soon, the containment line in the quilt shows there are still danger spots elsewhere.

THE STATS:  Fire Storm, 2026, 26" x 26", Paper Pieced, Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted.  Nerd Report:  64 three-inch blocks, 650 pieces with the border.

More about the Aspen Acres Fire -----  We watched the news closely, as the pre-evacuation area was about 5 miles south of us and the fire actually several miles south of that.  It has impacted us only as it forced us to gather together important documents, family photos, a few important momentos; and to consider future down-sizing (including a very large quilt collection!).

I followed constantly social media reports about the fire.  The best reports were from the twice daily reports from the Incident Commander of the fire.  The first two weeks of this fire were under the command of a well trained, and competent unit from Alaska. The Northern Rockies Complex Incident Management Team from Montana then took over. There is now a third team at work. There have been many experienced fire fighters from many states working this fire, for which Coloradans are more than grateful!

Even though I worked in offices of the U. S. Forest Service for three years in the 1960s; I have finally learned more in the last weeks about their dedication to the work involved.  I've improved my vocabulary --- I understand the meanings more clearly of 'contour felling', 'slop', 'super scooper', 'hot shot', 'hot spot', 'mop up', 'dozline', 'black line', 'mitigation', 'numbers like 100,000+ acres, 1,800 fire fighters'; plus important old words like  'family', 'community', 'volunteer', 'faith', and 'hope'.

As of this posting on August 4, 2026, the containment at Aspen Acres is at 71%, and now they are down to 360 fire fighters.  At the height of the fire, there were as many as 1800 fire fighters working the fire, which began in June 2026.

The quilt photos were taken at the Canon City Royal Gorge Park, where there are still wild fire scars from a devastating fire in June 2013.

 

PLAYING WITH BLOCKS

I had several ideas for new quilts, but I really needed to go to the quilt store for a couple of pieces of fabric before I could begin work on those.  With the price of gas, I need to be more deliberate in planning my out-of-town trips.  We had another trip to the city for an appointment later, so I just waited. However,  I couldn't be idle; so I had to start another quilt pulling just from my scrap bins.  Thus -- "Playing with Blocks".

THE STATS:  "Playing with Blocks", 2026, 29"x29", Paper Pieced, Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted.

Everything was from the scrap bins including 7 little pieces of batting sewn together, 4 pieces of fabric patched together for the back, and 4 pieces for the binding. Thanks to my grandmothers for teaching me that joy can result even from frugality.

GRAFFITI -- QUILTER STYLE

One of my favorite designs to explore in quiltmaking is 'strip piecing'.  It can be something that doesn't include a lot of thought using small pieces of many different colors and motifs from the scrap bins.   In the past, I've made several quilts with different arrangements of strip sets; some with printed words; and some with added machine embroidery.  I have some newer scraps to now experiment with and I enjoy the strip piecing process  --- so here we go --- another quilt for a 'quilter's graffiti' experience!

THE STATS:  GRAFFITI, 2026, 30" X 30", Paper Pieced, Machine Pieced, Machine Appliqued, Machine Embroidered, Machine Quilted.

I have a love/hate relationship with graffiti/murals.  I appreciate the creativity and artistry in the development of them.  However, it really upsets me when a mural is painted externally on an architectural-significant building.  Has the orginal architect given approval of this? Is it part of the orginal design? To me, this is when a mural turns into graffiti.  Just my opinion, folks!