NMAI • Top Finished! (Twice)

October 11, 2026October 10, 2026 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

I nearly always put the finished quilt top at the beginning of the post.

Not this time.

I’m putting the Finish, Before I Really Finished It, at the top of the post. Here it is:

This is the finished layout from the 2026 quilt-a-long project from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, with a few tweaks. As I mentioned in my BlueSky post, I absolutely am not a fan of piano key borders. You know those ones with a million little pieces that NEVER FIT? Sure you do.

And this was a type of piano key border, but the bits were subdivided to mimic a step design, seen on baskets from the designer’s region and people. I can honor that, but I was not keen about making it. That’s why you see two extra bands of yellow on top and bottom, as I’m trying to get that border to fit somewhat. I finally gave up because I knew I was going to do this:

(That fun figure I purchased in Northern Arizona is helping to show off my Really Finished quilt top.)

I got rid of all the inner borders, swapped out my sun symbol block for the hand, and tried to set the design to balance as well as it could. In her narrative about the basket inspiration used for the final border, Margaret Wood noted that the break in the design always points East. I intimated at this with my one yellow spacer, pointing to a traditional east.

So I consider this a successful finish.

(Early version)

But let’s talk about that final block.

Which leads me to ask, what is the real point of this quilt-a-long? Past all the designs, past all the paragraphs and aspirations? At first I viewed it as another traditional quilt-a-long, you know: get a free pattern, make a block, repeat.

But when I hit this one all that process abruptly ceased for me, because there was no way I was going to make that block. I went away for a couple of weeks (here, and here…always good for the quilty soul), and while gone saw another quilter on BlueSky make hers, changing it to suit her.

And then I started reading and reading; I read about the Yup’ik people. I read about their designs, where they lived. I found other artists in other venues. I searched for “Ellam Yua,” which is the black symbol floating over that random wave up there. And then I found this:

This hand-carved mask, from Jennifer Angaiak Wood of the Yup’ik people shows the river flowing from the upper right to the lower left. Things fell into place. Instead of that ocean wave representing water, I’ll do a river flowing over mountains.

The Yup’ik live in this area of the world where there are rivers, and oceans and mountains. After I borrowed Ms. Wood’s idea the creating began for me. I was — I think — finally catching the spirit of this adventure: learning about the native peoples who lived here before America was even a glimmer of an idea; perhaps that’s why the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian) was doing this for the America 250 celebration.

And if you haven’t been to that museum, please do put it on your list. We were in Washington, D.C. when it opened and it was just a party of different peoples from all over the American Continent (north and south) with a parade, food, programs. A good memory. And here’s a slideshow of that day, with all the amazing dresses (I love the Ojibwa Jingle Dress, slide 11) and regalia of the different nations. The first slide is a partial glimpse of the museum itself. The last three slides are inside the atrium, with the rainbows shining through the windows and down the walls.

Here’s a free pattern of my version of the final block for you to download. Please do not post this on your own site, but send others here to get it for themselves. Thank you. (This is already up on my pattern site, and eventually I’ll take this one down and the pattern will live over there.)

Yup’ik Block_opquilt Download

Okay, a quick review of how I made the block. I like using freezer paper when I do appliqué that has a tricky edge.

I pressed the raw edge (clipping at the curves) over the freezer paper. NOTE: please do pin your piece to the freezer paper as there is a tendency for it to move as you press.

Once cool, I removed the freezer paper, then put it into place on the “mountain” triangle, matching straight edges. I appliquéd it down, then cut out the excess behind. I chose to use hand appliqué but if you are familiar with using monofilament thread and a small zig-zag stitch, it would work well in this instance.

Similar process for the inner ring (the red center was appliquéd first, then I did cut out behind that). I trimmed the pattern piece on the lines, cutting away the seam allowances. Then, using a small-tipped iron, I pressed the clipped seam allowances over the edges of the waxy side of the freezer paper pattern. I pinned it to the block, then stitched down the inside of that first smaller ring. Then I removed the freezer paper, pinned it down again and went around the outside edges with my stitching.

Same steps. I clipped into the corner when the lines poke out from the circle, and tucked the raw edges under the shape.

I was in Scotland and England when researching this Ellam Yua shape and found it interesting that there were echoes of it where I was: a circles with the four points jutting out:

I learned a lot on this block, really enjoying my exploration of the Yup’ik art. And I learned a lot with all the other blocks and borders, too — expanding my horizons while doing a good challenge. Many thanks to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, and thanks to Congress’ America 250 Committee, which contrtibuted to this.

This final image is of a mask that Jen Wood made and put up online. In the text she notes that “the blue with white dots on the forehead represents the sky and stars, as well as our ancestors.” I liked the idea of this, so maybe the dots for my backgrounds evoke the same idea?

Thanks, Jen.

Happy Stitching!

All Quilty Roads Lead to Liberty

September 27, 2026September 26, 2026 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

That’s Janine and I, up there under the Liberty Arch.

Apparently all roads lead to Liberty of London if you are traveling to England. Janine, of Rainbow Hare, has also written about meeting up a stranger (that’s me!) from the US in the great city on the Thames, and has a wonderful overview of that store. She called her blog post A Grand Day Out, and it was!

I learned from Janine’s blog that it has the idea of a ship at its origins, and I can see it in the timbered and half-timbered exterior (from a ship!) and interior:

I didn’t quite figure out the floor plan, but basically there are central atriums and so many beautiful goods for sale.

These are from the first central atrium we entered. That giant rose with all its petals made me wonder how they crafted it. Magic, I think.

Another atrium. They don’t just sell Tana Lawn or fabric, but being quilters, Janine and I made a beeline for that section, with one quick stop on the fourth floor to see the (new) Christmas displays).

Eyeball ornament?

And…eyeball tree. Must have been some current bit of culture I missed out on.

Love seeing their golden ship weathervane through the skylight. [Truth: Janine spotted it first. It is totally the best to go to a store with a fellow blogger. They see things you don’t, and visa versa, and we “see” so much more!] Okay, time to go down one flight of stairs (we were always looking for the stairs) to the fabric floor.

I saw some of this, too, in Paris, where they drape the mannequins in yardage and ruffles to show you a dress in their exquisite fabrics.

We were moving so fast, I didn’t get a chance to read about this display of giant scissors.

With the open atriums you can see all the festive Christmas lights. It would be so fun to be in London at Christmas. (next trip, haha)

Knowing I would be overwhelmed by it all, before I left home, I did some “pre-shopping,” browsing their website and choosing one print of Tana Lawn — only one — to purchase. I showed the young man (with the fabulous brooch on his shoulder) my photo of what I wanted, and he took me right to the yardage. One meter, please.

It’s for a secret project later on this year, so here’s the slightly disguised view. We also combed through their boxes of “scraps” or remnants, and I picked up a lovely floral clip-dot:

I learned about this way back in the day when I took my textiles classes in college. We know it now as “dotted swiss” but that fabric really that is little dots of glue and bits of fluff.

Above is the “true” dotted swiss: a long thread is carried during the weaving and then clipped short to create those little dots. Then it is printed afterwards, which is why some dots are blue or red or green. This is one of the beauties of Liberty: you can find the traditional fabrics.

While we were looking for stairs, we ran into a few other interesting Liberty tidbits:

What your fabrics are made from: spools of yarns.

The “Sole Spa” for “fabulous hands, feet, and legs.”

No(se) comment.

Stained glass in one of the stairwells.

And then out! We grabbed some lunch at Pret (which used to be called Pret A Manger) then walked over to MacCulloch & Wallis Ltd, another sewing store.

What is haberdashery? In America, we’ve adapted it to mean mens’ clothing, but the original meaning, from Chaucerian times:

“a haberdasher is a business or person who sells fabric and small articles for sewing, dressmaking and knitting, such as buttons, ribbons and zips” (from here)

Here’s some haberdashery eye candy, for those of us in the States still mourning the loss of the JoAnn’s stores:

Yes, I bought buttons. And some elastic to replace some in my half-slip that had worn out, which led Janine to take me to Marks and Spencer Department Store next to find a “half-petticoat.” A great adventure! And why did we ever change out the word petticoat for “slip”? Or the word “haberdashery” to “notions”? We really have to reclaim these words!

Some London sights.

After a restorative beverage at McDonalds (no judging, it was right next door), she took off to the train station to head back to her lovely English countryside. But she left me a great present in the form of a magic wand:

I put it in my scissors-and-pens container when I got home; when I sew on my machine, I can hear the little bells jingle. A treasure, from the hands of Janine.

When we were at MacCulloch & Wallis Ltd, we each got a tote bag with our purchase. Which leads me to confess I have a true love of tote bags. And Scotland and London feed that habit as they are Very Serious about no plastic bags. Maybe if we here in America had all these cute bags, we’d get rid of our plastic bags, too (except for special necessary occasions). Here’s most of the bags I toted home:

Topping & Company was the beautiful bookshop right around the corner from our flat in Edinburgh

Detour Story:
When I was chatting with the clerk at Topping and Co. bookstore, telling him how much I enjoyed being in his shop, I mentioned that it was not like our bookshops at home. He asked me what they were like. And I said well, most of the things in the bookstores are not books. He then said the owner made a calculated decision to not even let pens be sold in the store because if pens come in, then you have to have journals and if you have journals, you have to have stationary, and so on. The whole place is just gloriously filled with books, along with a couple of racks of greeting cards, but that’s it.

Scottish Parliament Building (another tote). The deal in that gift shop is this: you can buy a paper bag for £1. Or you can buy a cloth tote bag for £2. That’s a no-brainer to someone who loves textiles.

National Gallery of Art (London) Some of the art is posted here.

The Royal Yacht Brittania, Queen Elizabeth’s decommissioned yacht, AKA Corgi City. I carried this bag around after that, but turned inside out so it wasn’t sooooo obvious I was a tourist.

National Galleries of Scotland (there are actually four of these linked museums, but they all share the same style of tote bag). Here’s a post about the tiled floors in the National Museum of Scotland. Above is the inner atrium of the National Portrait Gallery.

Holyroodhouse Palace. I was there on the “special day.” If I coughed up a bunch more £-notes, I could see the Queen’s Royal Apartments. I met some a mother and daughter who’d come up from Essex just to tour these rooms. I asked them “Do we like Camilla now?” Oh, yes, was the reply. “And how about your most recent returning royal, Prince Harry and his wife?” The two women looked at each other and shook their heads, saying something about how they need to keep their heads down and be proper royals. And in true British fashion, both of these women’s middle names were Elizabeth.

Last photo from London, in the Heathrow airport. I never did ride on the Elizabeth underground.

Next trip!

Bonus Tote Bags:

Backside of the National Gallery in London bag. Somewhere in the millions of title cards I read while going through museums, there was a line about what will we do when we don’t have museums to learn from? I loved that they were teaching me even on a tote bag.

As fellow lovers-of-cloth, you will understand when I tell you that I grabbed this from the tray in the hallway with someone’s garbage from their take-out dinner. I dumped out their cartons (neatly) and took it back to our hotel room. This heroic rescue made us just late enough that we had to run to catch our bus. #worthit

Free Download · Museums

Quilt Care | Surface Designs

August 11, 2024August 2, 2026 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

Freebie alert!

Now you can give them to the people who get your quilts. Download the freebie below by clicking on the button.

Quilt Washing Instructions 4x Download

This is what it looks like: four to page. Print it out on cardstock, cut it apart and pass them out with your quilts.

I did have an old Quilt Care Card, but when my sister Susan needed one for the quilt she was making, I rustled up a new one. Much better.

As a person who often wishes she’d studied graphic design (or as they sometimes reference it: surface design) in college, I’ve been amazed by all the graphics I saw on our nightly broadcasts of the Olympics. I want to do something with them all, like making a heart block seen above. Or that very cool half-circle in segments. Another color way is below:

Here’s some links to gaze at, if you’d like seeing some of the graphics in motion:

The cool pictograms denoting the different sports
You know that box the Olympians receive with their medals? Here’s what’s inside.
I liked the little video on this post.
And the connection between the pictograms and a few sports.

Oh. Okay. (Need to update my thinking.)

*Dreams Between the Earth and Sky, 2018* by Judithe Hernández from here

We went over to The Cheech [museum] last week, on the last day of Judith Hernández’s exhibit, most done in pastel chalks. So many intrigued me, but the two ladies on either side of this triptych were “clad” in the embroidered designs from huipils, a typical dress.

Here’s a snapshot of the huipil I brought back from Guatemala in 2019, when I visited my sister Cynthia (she has since returned from her church mission), and she took me to so many interesting places that involved needles, thread, looms, cloth. I could have stayed a week, but we only had a weekend.

Here we are, clowning around in a woven shawl. Don’t worry; I bought a couple.)

Three women, one of them just crowned Queen of her Village, all wearing huipils (woven and embroidered tops).

Patchwork quilt made of woven scraps, with some embroideries here and there. Somewhere I have about 10 of these parches, tucked away (of course). This entire post has more information if you are interested.

But back to the tryptich, above.

In the linked video, Hernández explains the iconography of the red ram in the center image. It’s that thing that seems to come around and interrupt the smooth flow of whatever you are doing. Of course, I’m paraphrasing. I’m all too aware of red rams in my life, in the life of friends far away, in our families. I loved that this idea was put into a visual image.

My husband and I walked on the beach this last week, as we had a mini-celebration for our anniversary. The waves drawing out the different grains of sand into patterns fascinated me.

Celebrate the bits and pieces of surface design you run across in your lives–

Post Script:

One can never have too much paper or too many pencils. The pencil above is a quilt clapper made by Modern American Vintage, with the loot from the Field Notes most recent sale: I’m a sucker for small notebooks. The pencil below is a Blackwing, purchased last year. It glows 🙂 in the dark!

Museums · Quilt Shows · Quilts

The 2022 Springville Art Museum Quilt Show

July 26, 2022September 7, 2025 Elizabeth E.17 Comments

I was a judge this year for the Springville Art Museum Quilt Show, and while I can’t include all the quilts that were hung, I thought I would post up a few that were my favorites or that caught my eye.

Details from quilt. She used the pattern from Piecemakers: “His Majesty – the Tree.”

Pizzazz! designed and quilted by Ruth Davis — an original pattern!

Never a Blue Heart
Made and quilted by Lisa Johnson
(pattern here)

Sheryl Gillilan designed and quilted this quilt, titled, It’s All a Game!

The Boys on the Block
Designed, made and quilted by Marian Eason

Afternoon Delight
Made by Patsy Wall; Quilted by Kim Peterson

Winter Bouquets
Made by Katherine Porter; Quilted by Emmy Evans

At first glance, I thought the flowers were broderie perse, but it’s all appliqué!

Ann Larsen started Nature’s Chorus in 1999 and finished about 30 of the blocks. During the pandemic she finished it. Quilted by Shelly Dahl.

I loved the simplicity and elegance of this design, with outstanding quilting.

Pamela (a fellow judge) and Wendy (Chair of Quilt Committee) on the day the show opened. (Lisa’s quilt is in the background.)

Julie Saville first created the borders of her quilt Star Garden, then did the center. She also did the quilting.

I could have looked at this one for hours–sorry about the images. Photographing in high contrast light (like spotlights on quilts) often does funny things. It was stellar, though!

Florence Evans’ Bow Wow Chow Mein
Made by Evans; Quilted by Quilts on the Corner

Improv Curves, Made and Quilted by Marian Murdock

Effervescence • Made and Quilted by Sheryl D. Gillilan

I loved this quilt, with all its blues and aquas (my colors!). It is titled Straits of Mackinac and was made by Lani Brower (my second scribe) in a Bonnie Hunter class on Mackinac Island, Michigan. Peggy Cameron did the quilting.

Just a handful more quilts for this post.

Diversity – Unity – Harmony (Mobius Radial Quilt)
Made and Quilted by Luanne Olson

I hope you can see what a wide variety of quilts there are in this show!

Andrea Erekson made and quilted Happy Golden Days

Katherine Porter’s Fan Flower • Quilted by Virgina Gore

There were quite a few more quilts, but next year you’ll just have to go and see for yourself. Thank you, Springville Art Museum and the Utah Valley Quilt Guild!