One Sunday morning, mulling over the stunning news from the day before, I drove to church along a residential road. I had a view of the low mountain range in my city, the hills turned verdant green from the winter rains. The sun was bright and clear, the sight was glorious. A favorite hymn was playing as the choir sang “This earth was once a garden place, With all her glories common.”
The song finished, I went into church, but the idea of a place so beautiful and fresh lingered.
I wrote in my journal that night: “All day I couldn’t help but think about Eden, and how much we mortals seem to have missed the boat. To live with ‘glories common’ would be the best….I thought then — realized then — that perhaps it was I who was below my best abilities in bringing about ‘all glories common.’ “
I paused, reflecting: the best of the earth, the most beautiful flowers, the clearest streams and tallest mountains — our glories. Shared all together, without rancor, viciousness, greed, cruelty and just plain old revenge and stubbornness. It felt like too big of a task; I closed my journal and went to bed.
With this experience as backdrop, I sat in the quilting room the next morning, trying to tackle one of the prompts in the Stay At Home Round Robin. I knew I wanted to figure out how to write those words of the hymn, and to let this quilt be a garden quilt, a reminder that I could bring about my own version of Eden in pieces, in bits, in my best moments. I struggled with the “how to” of the words, working it out letter by letter. Many times I was discouraged. With encouragement from friends and from my always-supportive husband, I finally finished and pinned the word borders up around the existing quilt.
Then I looked at the center: it didn’t work at all. So I took that out, went to remake a new one but couldn’t find the pattern. So I drafted up my own, remade the center and carried on. (There’s a metaphor here somewhere, I think.)
So here it is: Earth Was Once A Garden Place. And it can be again, day by day, moment by moment, with gallons of forgiveness, bushels of forbearance, and volumes of truth and charity. It’s that dailiness that can be the hardest: to not cuss out the driver who cut you off, to be more patient with those you live with, to speak up when necessary and to find stamina to do the hard tasks in our lives. I often turn to quilting to have a respite, as well as to be a part of a community of others who are exercising their creativity, planting their seeds, growing their quilts and creations.
Over time, working steadily at the task, we may yet find a way to have our glories common–
Earth Was Once a Garden Place Greatest Hits
First, a huge thank you to the co-hosts of the SAHRR for 2026. It was wonderful! After March 25th, I will include the corrected final Link-Up Party *here.*
This is the SAHRR 2026 Final Quilt. I’ve revised and cleaned-up the free tip sheets I made for this journey, plus a couple more new ones for the final quilt. Click to download. Please do not copy or digitally distribute, but send anyone who wants one to this website to get their own. (NOTE: The tip sheets will live here on this post; the earlier versions will soon be removed.)
For those who are interested in coming out for Road, their website is here. They’ve already announced dates for 2027: January 20-23, and their website says “Classes begin on Monday, January 18. Preview Night is Tuesday January 19, 2027.” Sign up to on their website to get their announcements as they are good reminders.
This is what we all see when we arrive: the tall atrium filled with hanging quilts, chosen from a local guild.
I’ve had this one on my list of quilts to make like forever. So, not only can we see quilts in the show, we can see them in the sky, in the vendors’ booths, in the hallways…everywhere.
It’s an abundance, so I’m leading with this quilt, Abundance, by Linda Steel, from Australia — a riot of color and shape and a feeling of you-had-to-be-there.
(Click to view any photo, or right-click to see it enlarged in a new tab.
Crocker’s quilt harks back to the fused art quilts of the previous post, but in a dramatically different way.
Grace Crocker: Sasquatch
Red, white and blue and a broken heart.
As always, click to enlarge the smaller images, above. Mimi Ghauri-Young: Heart. Broken.
Sherry Priest: Single Card Keypunch
This is hand-quilted. Check out the closeup shots, below.
This was inspired by an antique quilt. I’d love to know how long it took her to make this.
Jan Frazer: Tangerine Tango
A very large quilt, and it radiated with energy.
Naomi Otomo: Blessings of the Sun
(In case you didn’t know, I’m writing the maker and the quilt title with every quilt for ease in searching online.)
This was a favorite exhibit, since we travel near, and live not to far from Route 66: The Mother Road. It’s celebrating its 100 years this year. The makers depicted various well-known sites along the road:
Click to enlarge any of them. I’ve put the quilts into a slide show (below) which you can advance by clicking the small arrows on either side.
The first two photos are two of the quilters that made the small quilts, and I’ve included some pictures of how the row of quilts looked.
A couple of years ago we were in Chicago, and took a photo of this sign. If you were like me (of a certain age) you were always piling into the car with your brothers and sisters and parents and driving on your trips (airline travel was too pricey).
My historian sister wrote a book about this, titled “Are We There Yet?” which was an often asked question on these trips.
Right across the street from the Art Institute is where the Mother Road begins, and I have a tote bag to prove I was there, and yes, I was toting it around that day at Road to California. So many roads! (Now I need to go find where the END of Route 66 is!) Okay, back to the quilts.
So…this is happening this year. I recently read that my church is donating 250 semi-trucks full of food for 250 different food banks across the nation, in order to “recognize the freedoms established by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” I feel I can honor that, too, and a couple of posts back, I wrote about what quilt I’m considering making.
So we had a quilt exhibit at Road of quilts all around this theme. I put this one also in a slide show, to make it easier to go through (if it doesn’t work on your phone, maybe head to a regular computer and browser).
I’m impressed that they finished up their quilts so early. I really have to start planning ahead.
I visited YLI threads booth…
…did some shopping (this one from here)…had some lunch (great offerings this year) and then got back to it.
This is an exhibit of Modern Day Heroes, a series of quilts honoring notable figures. Again, to make it easier and less scrolling, here it is in a slideshow:
Quilters: Berene Campbell and various Modern Day Hero quilters, who sent in blocks by the dozens. I headed to their website to read more, and appreciated the detail on President Zelensky’s quilt; the write-up also includes a free pattern for the sunflowers.
Sahara Lion by Lys Axelson, won Outstanding Artistry.
Outstanding Hand Work Award
Sachiko Chiba: To My Father
Another winner was Outstanding Machine Quilting Frame:
(Lighting was tough, but I’m doing my best)
Molly Hamilton-McNally: East Meets West
This won Outstanding Original Design. Her designs are always so happy and they seem to always involve children and dogs. Hiroko Miyama: My Favorite Things
Glad to finally get her photo!
Best of Show Award Aki Sakai: Happy Days
The amazing detail in this was a delight, including moving parts, such as doors that open.
(Click to enlarge any photo, or right-click to see it enlarged in a new tab.)
Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry: Electric Snails #2
Another almanac of quilting stitches for you.
This year’s Cherrywood Fabrics exhibit was outstanding in all ways, from the colors, the quilts and their designs and interpretations of the Abyss.
Slideshow, below:
Almost done, I promise.
One of our local Guilds had a special exhibit with multiple quilts. Shown here is the quilt made for the Modern Quilt Guild’s Community Quilt Challenge, made by the members of the guild, shepherded by Patti Reyes.
Another special exhibit was from Road to California itself.
A row of their annual quilts.
In the early days, Road would have an annual group quilt, made of blocks submitted by those who were interested; we’d get some cuts of the focus fabrics and then mail it back. One year I submitted a block, but the quilt was never made. I always wondered what happened to it.
Found it this year. I think this is about 20 years old if it is a day, but I can’t really remember. I do know I was in school in my Creative Writing course of study, so of course, I wrote a tiny poem. I also had to use a very interesting focus fabric (!), but it was all the rage then.
The unquilted quilt has obviously been stuffed in a box for many years.
It was great to see these quilts.
And it was great to see the show. I did put some up on Instagram at the time, which you might have seen, but I think over these last two posts I hope you feel like you saw a good overview.
The Road to California Quilt Show was held January 20-24, 2026 in Ontario, California — a location about 45 minutes to the east of Los Angeles. It is close to the Ontario California airport, so we attract many attendees from all over California, the Mountain West, and others who may drive or fly in.
I’ve been attending for many of these years, and aside from the blows of Covid-19 in 2021 and 2022, it’s a strong show with many international entries. Road is a juried show, allowing just three entries per person, so those that are accepted have already self-edited their choices. This show also has multiple special exhibits.
I can’t show you all the quilts I saw, nor would you want to sit here and read through that kind of blog post, but I did want to write about some of the ones that caught my eye, although (again), there are many more wonderful quilts here. In the second post, I’ll focus on group exhibits, show you a bit of the flavor and people I met and visited with. Come on out — it’s a wonderful show!
First up are my two quilts: Mercato Square and New York Beauties — for Barbara.
Mercato Square was accepted, and as is the usual with Road, they showed it with all the red and white quilts. (Yes, all the animal quilts are shown together, all the moderns are shown together, and so on. It’s a bit of a visual tic that has been going on for a while, so we just expect it now.) My husband and I went up on Opening Night to see the show, and he was a great help in photographing quilts, and cheering me on (thanks, honey!).
The second quilt accepted was New York Beauties — for Barbara.
It was lovely to see it hanging here! Their title cards:
They omitted the quilter’s name on Mercato Square, so I wrote it on: Jen Boyer. The original posts about these quilts can be found here and here.
I don’t know if you’ve ever entered a quilt show, whether it be nationally ranked (like this one), or a local guild show, but no matter what the show, it’s kind of a big deal, as this is our “art gallery” or “museum” for quilters. So I celebrate all the following quilters and a hearty congratulations to them!
This quilt was my neighbor on the right: a scene from Cuzco, Peru.
(Click to enlarge.) Lynn Jurss: Cuzco Fruit Stand (I’m writing out the maker and title to make it easier for searches.)
And this was my neighbor to the left: a gorgeous Star of Bethlehem.
Jean McElherne: Red Radiance • Quilter: Vicki Ruebel
Stunning thread painting, all the way from Spain.
Isabel Muñoz: Beyond the Seas
I loved how the maker combined an image and appliqué.
Great detail of the shell. This isn’t a huge quilt, but the little details are charming, especially the sea star in his back pocket.
Laura Golden: Ocean Rescue
This was across the way from Mercato Square; I loved it.
Sherry Priest: Core Memory
A beautifully colored Sarah Fielke design.
Renee Miles: Coming Home
I love that we are still seeing quilts made during the Covid experience.
Robbi Eklow: A Bit Garish
You saw some of Vicki Ruebel’s quilting earlier, on the Star of Bethlehem. Here is one of her quilts.
Makers: Vicki Ruebel, with her mother, Judy: The 95
What a gorgeous bouquet of a quilt!
Gareth Griffin: Spring Bouquet Her quilting was worth studying, and was so detailed.
Here’s another quilt, full of beautiful quilting, which won the Outstanding Machine Quilting (Stationary) Award.
Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry: Tricuspid Biomorph #1
I’m still trying to get used to digital prints being “quilts” but I’m making progress on accepting tri-layered, quilted rectangles as quilts, no matter how they started. Seeing some of the entries in the Carrefour Patchwork Show in France this past year helped me on this journey.
I noticed, also, how many “layered” quilts there were this year. I’ll be showing more later, but this one is more modern, and is not raw-edge appliqué. Stunning work.
Here’s an almanac of quilt stitches for you.
Sandy Curran: Survivor
Amy does it again, with her beautifully worked miniatures.
Amy Pabst: Pink Lemonade
I’m always curious: when she says they were foundation pieced, does this mean she did it over a fabric or non-woven that stays in, as I would hate to think of her having to take out all those teensy bits of paper. (As always with these smaller gallery images, click to enlarge.)
This was just down a bit from my New York Beauties quilt. I saw Cassandra putting up the blocks on her Instagram feed while she was making it.
Cassandra Beaver: 100 Days of Apple Cores
From apples…to eggs.
Nikki Castro: All My Eggs. Quilter: Isabell Prado
Loved the repetition here, of boys pretending to fly and the quilting.
Katie Henrich: Flight of Wonder
Sacred Threads Quilts
You can read more about Sacred Threads online. Here are a few of the quilts that were in Road this year.
Patricia Caldwell: Connections (As always on these groups, click to enlarge.)
Living within driving distance of the Manzanar Internment Camp, we took a drive one weekend to visit, gaining an appreciation for what these citizens suffered. If you haven’t had a chance to see one of these camps, I hope you can do so in the future.
Patty Kennedy-Zafred: Tagged
Given that we quilters are so dependent on our eyesight, this quilt’s story was sobering.
Susan Price: Insight
These simple shapes evoke history.
Bonnie Bowman: Striped Stripes
Christine Vinh: A Quiet Oasis
QuiltCon Traveling Exhibit
We had a few quilts from the QuiltCon traveling exhibit here, too.
Lucy Engels: Fugue
Did you see that? HAND-appliquéd circles!
Nora Bauser: Dot Your Eyes
This was from a different exhibit, but for some reason, I only have just this quilt.
Janice Willis: Connecting With Your Roots
Free to Sp%@k Special Exhibit
A very interesting exhibit, but one that had a lot of comments from visitors. I was there on Saturday, shortly after the Alex Pretti shooting in Minneapolis, and many of the pieces in this exhibit resonated with the visitors.
Kathryn Pellman: The Revolution Kind (2025)
Kathyn Pellman: My Thank You to Hillary Clinton (2017)
I was interested in the choice to use writing to illustrate some points in these free speech pieces. While Pellman could have gone abstract with shapes and colors and design, the very fact that she’s chosen to use speech dovetails with the subjects of her quilts, and also gives a nod to the idea that freedom of speech is protected in our Constitution, although sadly that weekend, we witnessed the betrayal of that freedom.
Kathryn Pellman writes out the First Amendment to the Constitution on this piece. The title is Donald Trump Made In China Owned by Putin (2025).
MartyO: Weight of Letters (2025)
MartyO: Scrubbed
Kelly Hartigan Goldstein: OLD BABY, MAD KING – July 4th (2025)
So much in this exhibit to think about, such as, is a paper “quilt” a quilt as we think about it? I don’t know, but that’s trivial compared to the issue being raised. The fact that it is cut out from a single newspaper is remarkable.
Layered, Collage Quilts
Sandra Mollon: Crossing the Mkuze River This quilt won the Stevii Graves Memorial Director’s Choice Award.
Sandra Mollon had more than one quilt in this show, and several of her students also had quilts; I liked that all the photographs were attributed. In addition, Road hosted a special exhibit of some of her landscape quilts. They were all so beautifully rendered.
Sandra Mollon: Toroweap Overlook
I’ve always wanted to make one of these, but they look so daunting!
Sandra Mollon: Valley View Yosemite
This holds a special fascination for me, as this valley is where my husband proposed to me.
Sandra Mollon: Smoky Mountain Vista
Sandra Mollon: Boulders at Lower Yosemite Falls
Ricki Selva: Isbjørn
They had lights shining upwards underneath the quilts, so the value on this is slightly changed: the entire quilt was richly hued.
Angie Tustison: Cathedral Trees
Ricki Selva: Emerald Miles
Another amazing quilt by Ricki Selva (and great story).
Mimi Ghauri-Young: Stag’s Leap
The detail in the lower river was quite perfect.
Are your eyes crossing yet? So many beautiful quilts, and I know this has been a long post. Just a few more until next post, when I show just a few more.
Kestral Michaud: Echoes of Time and Magic
Similar techniques, but such a different flavor of quilt.
How about this for a change of pace?
Anne Kobus: Let’s Get This Party Started!
More color!
Carlton Brown: Destiny Calling 2
Robyn Phelps: Jasper
Made from Maggie Walker fabrics, which inspired her design. Gorgeous quilting, too.
Last one for this post.
Ricky Tims: The Visitation (loved the quilting in the background).
Time to end!
I’ll link over the next post when I get it written. Hope you enjoyed seeing these quilts!
Because I’m a traditional American, a put-out-my-flag sort of gal on the 4th of July, with maybe adding a rootbeer float and maybe a hot dog to go along with it, I’ve been thinking about how I want to celebrate the 250th of our founding of our country.
And yes, I want to make another quilt, and thought I’d throw out a couple of red, white and blue ideas for you and your 250th celebration.
It’s a long story, but this is the red, white and blue version of my EPP quilt, made during covid. The title is I Hear American Singing and references all of us, our differences and how we all sing the song that is America (minus the bad guys, of course). Most all of the block patterns are free here on this blog, so have fun downloading them. The page that has all this info is An EPP Quilt: Circles. Each pattern has a corresponding blog post that’s a tutorial, if you need it.
This hot mess was a Friends Quilt, but I like the idea of a bunch of stars. Very cool background, I must say, but this was in the days when I thought a bunch of random blocks equaled a quilt. I mean, it kind of does…in a way.
This is a better example of what a quilt of many blocks can/should be: Carol Gillen’s Sacajawea quilt; pattern by Minick and Simpson.
Carol’s pup on a red, white and blue: pattern is This is Land That I Love, by Amy Smart. If you can’t tell, Carol’s kind of my go-to for red, white and blue quilts.
My friend Susan designed a star quilt using blue and white stars, called Under Southern Skies (she’s from Australia). She has a free tutorial, if you’d like to make it.
I also like wee red, white and blue quilts. The free instructions are on this post.
Erica Jackman just did a Quilt-A-Long on this last year, another pattern I already have.
Anja showed this on her blog, and I love the randomness of this, as well. You can read about it here. If I were to do this, I might throw in a few of my Sawtooth Blocks from my pattern, as I like the different centers:
And of course, there are millions of Quilts of Valor designs out there on the web. I also plan to read a book in tandem with my historian sister Susan, someone who can guide me through understanding about just what our Founding Fathers were trying to get to. The one we’ve chosen was featured in an interview that Judy Woodruff from PBS did the other night.
There are many good books to read about our early history, and of course plays to see, parades to go to, quilts to stitch up.
But another aspect of How Time Flies has to do with the SAHRR 2026 quilt-a-long I’ve been a part of. As always, thanks to the organizers and hosts!
We’ve reached the last prompt, and it was “Quilter’s Choice.” I think Anja has experience in these, because Prompt #6 was just what I needed after a mad smash to get all the words created and stitched on to the four panels surrounding the quilt.
(bad lighting…we are both tired)
My choice right now is to rest, and get ready for the Top/Quilt reveal on March 25th. I have a couple of simple borders in mind to tie everything together. I am so happy you all encouraged me to keep going, go forward in stitching down the words. I love how they look!
This has been a sprint, but to think that just six weeks has passed since we started and there are so many lovely quilts to be seen. I’ll include the final Linky party when my quilt is complete, but for a taste, here’s a couple I loved:
Until then, maybe give a wee thought about how you will celebrate the 250th celebration of our country? Part of it I will endeavor to work to ignore the noise and chaos generated artificially by pronouncements or tweets or truths or influencers. I will think about what I love about being an American, and how living here has shaped me, changed me, helped me. I will think about ways I can help others to see the beauty and joy (and work to change the things that are ugly or that make me angry).
And I will quilt!
This belongs to the quilt at the top of the post. Pretty funny to see what I wrote, since it was during our current president’s first term. I guess turmoil and chaos goes with his presidency!
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 