Two Quilt Finishes, SAHRR, and The Abyss

January 24, 2026January 25, 2026 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

Flowers for Madilyn was delivered to my granddaughter Madilyn this week, so now it can show up on the blog for reals. I love sunset photos, with that golden sunlight. When I get a photo of her with her quilt, I’ll put it up. She’s a charming young woman, nearly graduated from high school, with a life full of adventure ahead of her.

I stitched in some hearts here and there. Hope she finds them!

Thanks to my husband, Dave, for being a Quilt Holder, par excellance! This is quilt #313. If I’d written a normal label, it would have looked like this, but instead I went with a smaller one, sewn near the top.

Stars for Baby • Quilt Two

I mailed this one off in early January, but not like this.

Stars for Baby (quilt #314) went to my friends Camryn and Landon, who are expecting their first child in a couple of months. Camryn and I had planned to get together so I could teach her quilting, but then he got a new job, and it RAINED A TON on the day she was supposed to come, and then Christmas and New Year’s, so we’ll get together after her wee boy comes and we’ll work on the teaching part then.

Because I was thinking of a beginner quilt, I designed this pattern so a newbie could navigate it. In this pattern, they’ll learn these blocks:

a simple border with cornerstones
pinwheel block
nine-patch block
stitch-and-flip block
basic flying geese block
Sawtooth Star block

I also (as is typical) include another option. Since I was writing this during the holidays, it’s a red/green version:

This is where the Stitch-and-Flip corners come in (we used to call them “snowball corners”). I’ve simplified the centers of the larger Sawtooth Star block for this version.

I like to put this size out as a table topper during the year.

It’s a good pattern for teaching, and it makes up quickly if you are an experienced quilter. You can find the pattern already uploaded in my pattern shop on PayHip, and it’s a Pattern Lite.

Those of you who have been around for a bit, know that my Pattern Lite patterns sell for cheaper price than regular patterns. So grab yourself a bargain and make some small quilts, or teach a friend!

I’ve been at Road to California this week, where I saw my two quilts hanging up with a lot of other beautiful quilts. I visited some vendors, and a full write-up is coming.

SAHRR • Round One

Last week, in my Emergency Blog Post, I introduced the SAHRR: Stay at Home Round Robin, and thought I had a month to get the next bit together. Oh, no! This group is really cooking along, so the first prompt (hourglass) already dropped and the next one is a week after that. So you’ll see this SAHRR morph quickly.

I dug though my Orphan Block box and found a handful of hourglass blocks, so that determined the direction I was going to go. And the colors. But I usually like to put a coping strip in between my medallion borders to help stabilize and strengthen the quilt, so I sketched out two more possibilities:

The top one is the hourglass borders sewn right up against the center block. The one just above on the left has a wider coping strip, and the one on the right has two (1″ and 1/2″), in different colors. I studied them for a long time. I liked the top one, with the hourglass right next to the center, as they interacted with each other. The wider coping strip — necessary because the blocks were 3″ finished — looked as if the center was floating, a bit adrift. So I went with the two colors (and my partner-in-crime, my husband, agreed).

Wild, says the husband. Yep, and it will get wilder, says the wife (me). I’m trying to use up the blocks in the orphan box, so here’s the tally so far:

Four blocks: the center
Six blocks: hourglass border, and then I made some more to fill out the border, and now I have five leftover. I’m not making too much progress here.

The schedule:
*January 14: Center Blocks, led by Gail and shared by each co-leader
*January 21: 1st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
January 28: 2nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
February 4: 3rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
February 11: 4th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
February 18: 5th Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail
February 25: 6th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
[An asterisk *means I finished that section.]

I first wrote this post on Friday, and ended at this point with a cheery and chirpy little bit about what I was looking forward to next week. And then I went to Road to California.

And while I was there on Saturday, taking photos of beautiful quilts and hoping to capture some of them to show you, I accidentally flipped to Instagram and the news of Alex Pretti’s murder at the hands of ICE agents in Minnesota. I went out to the hallway to collect my thoughts (not doomscroll) and remembered the exquisite Cherrywood exhibit I’d seen that morning, an exhibit titled The Abyss.

One image stuck out. That of a young bearded man, sitting slumped over in a sea of deep dark, a small pink butterfly reaching out, perhaps to bring him some light, some hope. I post this now in honor of Mr. Pretti, a bearded nurse who was trying to help a bystander when he was ruthlessly killed. Be skeptical of the narratives you are hearing. Search out the truth yourself; watch the videos if you are able.

I leave you now with three images from the quilt exhibit The Abyss.

I will be figuring out to speak out about the recent deaths in Minnesota, seeking comfort in my home and quilting, and working, phoning, writing in order to extract our beloved nation from the horrific abyss where it currently finds itself.

Stay safe, everyone, and help your neighbors — ALL of them.

Low Hanging Fruit, by Katherine McCormick.
She writes: “This piece is commenting on the ICE raids. Low hanging fruit is the first picked. First they came for…”

300 and Beyond · Free Download · Free Quilt Pattern · PatternLite · Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt · Quilts

Our Quilty Neighborhood • Free Pattern

January 18, 2026January 17, 2026 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

We quilters love to make house quilts.

We love to make landscape quilts. We love to make pictures of our pets, our people. We love to use traditional blocks as well as fly far away from our roots and use modern blocks.

We — all of us quilters — like our neighborhood.

But where has it gone? I came across Nic’s blog (from NZ) and they mentioned that so many blogs had shut down or stopped publishing. Recently I was updating my Reading Library (at the very bottom of this blog: just scroll, scroll, scroll and you’ll get there). I had to create a category called Sadly, in Hiatus. I keep their links because I know what treasures are in their blogs, and what great conversations are to be found, and interesting stories to be told, so feel free to stroll that (now, quieter) neighborhood, too. Yes, there are some Instagram pages in the Reading Library from friends who don’t maintain websites and blogs. If you know of a good quilty blog (maybe yours?) that should be there, leave me a comment at the end of this post.

I could mention something wonderful about every blog on my list, both those on hiatus and those that are active, so I don’t really want to single anyone out, but I will credit Flourishing Palms from Linda Hungerford as an inspiration for a quilt on my 2026 Want To do List:

And Yvonne’s Quilting Jetgirl has just tempted me with the SAHRR project, first seen on Janine’s blog, Rainbow Hare, last year. And I also have the Plaidish quilt, from Erica’s Kitchen Table Quilting on the list. I’ve signed up for a few of her QALs, but they always hit at a bad time, but this quilt is sort of her signature quilt. You had a link last week to Gladi’s blog, always with some mention of the seasons. Mary, of Zippy Quilts, always has great ideas of what to do with my orphan blocks…I could go on and on, but I’ll stop here.

I also keep a category called Mercantile, with some more commercial blogs on it. You’ll also find there are some clothing pattern sites and sources for fabrics, as my sister Susan got me more into sewing recently.

What Inspires When the Spark is Gone is a category of frequently updated links, that I read for inspiration when the doldrums hit, or the sew-jo is missing.

I’ve also asked for recommendations of blogs, and a reader sent forward a vote for Debbie’s A Quilter’s Table, which I’ve read for years, too. We used to be in a couple of bees together, and in strolling through Debbie’s blog, I found this:

Which led to this:

And good news, all these little birds all came from one Charm Pack (5″squares). Here’s some cutting tips:

From the charm pack, choose 16 prints you like, and then find their duplicates. Divide them into two equal piles. From the first pile, cut the block in half diagonally, making two triangles. Put one set aside, and from the other, cut the birds’ heads, as shown. You can discard the triangles on the side, or save them for another use. Now pick up the pile with the matching fabrics.

You’ll make two cuts in through each five-inch square. Make the first cut but don’t move them. Then make the second cut, so you’ll have four bits. Keep the 3″x3″ block. Discard the 2′ x 2″ block, or save for your scrap box.

Then sew along the long edge of the 2″ x 3″ blocks to make a larger patch; trim to 3″ square. Or, just do what I do:

Draw a line diagonally across one of your background squares. Plop it on top of the extended square. Stitch on either side of the line, 1/4″ away from the line, then trim off the edge, and cut on the line. Standard HST-procedure except for that blob on the right. Then press to the dark side, then trim to 2 1/2″ square. You’ll need four of these per bird.

I’ve stacked up a few pieces before I start batch-sewing.

Sew the triangles on either side of the head, then sew to the body. Press, then trim to 4 1/2″ square.

Sew two HSTs together, then two more. Sew the first set to the body. Sew the second set to the white square in the lower left. Stitch everything together. (See photos, above.)

Two Reminders:
• Trim the body/head square to 4 1/2″ and then, after assembling,
• trim the whole block to 6 1/2″, please.

This is what it looks like from the back. On most of them I put one seamed HST in each wing-set, but here I have them both on one side. Now take your sixteen blocks and have fun arranging them.

Working Title: His Eye is on the Sparrow. It’s 24″ square, with two-inch borders and cornerstones.
I’d been thinking about someone I know who has been having a rough go. I mean, we all take turns at that wheel, but now it was their turn. I had tried turning the darkest bird, but it was too much and too obvious. The pink sparrow, the one we all don’t notice all the time and who is quite possibly having the toughest time, is the one we need to keep our eye on.

The other title I thought of was Murmuration, when the birds fly in a huge swirling artful array in the sky. I rarely see them myself in nature, but I love videos of that effect. However, I went with the above.

This is my freebie for you, a wee gift. Click to download.

Darting Bird PatternLite Download

I was able to cut and sew this thing in no time flat. I have a huge project I’m about to tackle and maybe I just needed a little something to get my sewing warmed up? I had fun making it, and hope you enjoy it.

I’ve read some take a Slow January, but this month we threw away the 50-year old workbench in the garage, and bought one of those fancy new rolling ones. We’ve cleared out lots of junk, and my car is loaded for a trip to the hazardous waste facility–who knew what we could accumulate in paint and pesticides over all this time! Happily, we found a new Fixit Guy, and he’s helping us with replacing switches and light fixtures, drywalling and painting. I think it will all be done by the 31st.

But this coming week is Road to California! Even though it is a national quilt show, it’s also our “local” quilt show — only 35 minutes from my house on a good LA freeway day. I’ll be going up several times to see the quilts, find out what the vendors brought, hang out with friends, and then it will all be over for another year. So, no. January is never slow around here, but we do hibernate in the dead of summer. At that point, I’ll be inside with with the A/C on (set to a responsible temperature) and sewing away. But for us Southern Californians, we play our January away!

Your neighbor,

Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt · Quilts · Sawtooth Stars · This-and-That

This and That • January 2026

January 10, 2026January 10, 2026 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

I used a new-to-me number generator, rolling electronic dice and it came up with number 10. So Karen, you are the lucky winner of the pattern. I’ve already emailed you and we’ll get the pattern sent off. And just like a roll of the dice, we are off and running into this New Year, and I’ll start with a This and That post, as I’ve been saving them up for a while.

There always seems to be a pile of tips for the New Year, whether or not you are one to do resolutions. I prefer to think of these as tips for getting started on a road trip. How about these:

I thought some Route 66 stamps — which will be issued this year in honor of The Mother Road’s 100th birthday — need to join my stamp stash.

Head to the Route 66 Centennial website to see calendars, and to get your merch.

And these! Confession: I like small square things, like quilt blocks, stationary items or stamps. Always in our house we have stamps for about 300 letters because I love stamps. I saw some of Harriet Powers’ quilts when I traveled back to Boston, and met Carol there at the Museum of Fine Arts-Boston. Good memories.

Speaking of roads, did I mention I had two quilts accepted to next week’s 2026 Road to California quilt show? The quilts’ split portrait is above, in front of a local modern building I love.

I’ve had some great correspondence with Beth R., and she sent me a couple of her quilt photos, which I really enjoyed. I’d asked about them because she’d done some squircle blocks, and I was interested in her process for her quilt. She wrote:

“One of my favorite new things to do is when I make a more “regular” quilt, like all Log Cabins or all Courthouse steps (albeit wonky improv versions, with lots of scraps) is to make improv blocks at the same time as I am making the “regular” quilt, with the offcut smaller pieces that don’t fit into that regular design, and I just set them aside at the time, each day while I am making that “regular” quilt, to “clean up” the scraps of the day. Then as soon as I get the current “regular” quilt bound, I begin the very next quilt starting from those improv blocks, and add as many more blocks as I need, of the same/similar colors.”

I thought this was a really great idea, and also thought of my stuffed-to-the-max orphan block box, and how much easier it would have been to follow Beth’s ideas. I’m putting this out there for everyone else; thank you, Beth!

In browsing the news, I came across an article about Sue Bender, announcing her death. I still have both of Sue Bender’s books on my bookshelf. As a quilter who has done her fair share of Amish-type quilts (and recognizes that they were the genesis of today modern quilt movement), we quilters owe Sue Bender a thank you for bringing an understanding of those communities we might not ever visit. I have since ordered the third book in the Trilogy, Stretching Lessons, and was happy to see it was a signed, first edition. I hadn’t looked at Everyday Sacred in a long while, and I had forgotten that it was given to me by my parents, my Mother’s inscription on the fly leaf reminding me.

From the New York Times article (gift link, above):
“She wrestled with the tension between being a woman who hated housework and defined herself by her artwork and professional achievements, and her desire to internalize the Amish sense of identity that came from community, godliness and manual labor.”

One of my Amish-style quilts, from 1986

from Plain and Simple:
In writing about her To-Do lists: “I never thought to stop and ask myself, “What really matters?” Instead, I gave everything equal weight. I had no way to select what was important and what was not. Things that were important didn’t get done, and others, quite unimportant, were completed and crossed off the list” (p. 7, Bender).
“All work is important. All work is of value” (p. 138, Bender).
“What really matters?” (p. 148, Bender)

from Everyday Sacred:
” ‘Art is order, made out of the chaos of life.’ Saul Bellow” (p. 2, Bender)

Maybe a little bit too far back into the past for some, but it is lovely to read IN a time where the author wasn’t living with the instantaneousness of social media and the internet, but took the time to think about what she felt, and how she wanted to work. I find so much of the time I’m reacting to what is going on around me; certainly we live in an era of in-your-face politics and news. But the last few nights I’ve immersed myself in her writing and in her thinking, and it’s helped me cope with the terrible news we’ve been having this week (I’m not linking to it; either you know about it or you don’t).

I was struck by what many of you mentioned when you left comments last week. It was your relationships with your people, for one. Others had ways to keep their proverbial chin up and I especially liked Mary’s: “Look for things to be happy or hopeful about instead of focusing on the parts of our world that are going to hell.” Yvonne mentioned “dark chocolate” (a woman after my own heart). Kit reminded me to “Don’t rush. Enjoy. Life is not a fire drill.” These were just some of the tidbits of wisdom and slivers of your thoughts. Thank you all. (And I just appreciate Sharon’s illustration, even if it is from a couple of years back.)

I found the downloadable chart to be informative. Here’s the link. Thanks, Bob!

Zeitgeist is one of my favorite words. It’s that description when something is just all around you, and you see it different places, but they are not the same thing. Technically, it refers to history, but I use it more colloquially. Like the following two things. First, mine, from our Covid Year, 2020:

and then what I did with the rest of my ideas:

Twenty-three different types of Sawtooth Stars.

Now one from 2025:

Same idea, different execution. It’s in the zeitgeist.

I called mine Sawtoothmania, because it was kind of a like a celebration of Sawtooth Stars. (And weren’t we all a little manic in 2020?) I just put my pattern on sale and you can get it from now until the end of January for 25% off. I had a very nice birthday last week, so consider this my gift to you if you want to make some fun stars. And if you want Leila’s pad of stars, well, you have her name and will be able to find it. (She’s very nice.)

In other construction news, I finally made good on my threat to dump the 50-year-old “workbench” table (left) and replace it with something more modern. Of course, my timing was great as we don’t use much more than a screwdriver and a hammer these days, but hey: we’re equipped. The bulky item trash people have already been called, and will be here shortly to haul a lot of that junk away.

Found this message from the Workbench Gods while cleaning out.

New Year’s service at the local car place. Still working on my squircles. It’s fun to see these on Gladi’s blog, too.

I’m getting together some lists of blogs I like to read–starting to write a post about that. If you have a blog you enjoy, drop me a comment with the name of the blog, and maybe a link to one of your favorite posts. Thanks.

Truly, it was only a matter of time until AI found me; I love how the system just makes stuff up. Hope they enjoy hoovering up all of my blog and creativity! (I am working on my Aerial Beacon pattern.)

For my birthday, I asked for three things: a trip to IKEA to buy bins, a stop at Tokyo Central to have lunch, and a final check in at Whole Foods. All of these are about an hour away from our house. Do I like Hokka biscuits? (shown above) Can’t say they are my favorite, but since I am a box sort-of gal, I loved their tins.

Happy Birthday! Happy New Year!
Happy Great Food at the Tokyo Central Food Court!

(still quilting this)

300 and Beyond · Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt · Quilt Finish · Quilts · Something to Think About

Quilt Finish: Orange Sprite Phenomenon

December 7, 2025December 10, 2025 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

The Blue and Cheddar quilt is finished, bound, and sent off to the recipient. If it were to have a name and a label, I would call it this:

This is Quilt #311 in my Quilt Index.

I titled it this because of a celestial event. A rare celestial event.

This is called a red sprite phenomenon, when when lightning flashes above thunderstorms, creating a spikey flash of red light high in the sky. By using cheddar and deep blue, the quilt pays tribute to this transient luminous event: an orange sprite phenomenon. (photo) You can read more about it in this gifted article from the New York Times.

Hawthorne Supply Company was having a sale on Kaufman’s navy blue flannel. I ordered two packs for the back, washed them up. They are so thick and yummy, they are almost like chamois. My quilter, Nancy, did an awesome job on the quilting, with the pattern Diagonal Plaid Bias Cut from Urban Elementz. We used a copper MicroQuilter thread (Superior Threads) on the front and a coordinating thread on the back.

Our wisteria was dropping leaves this week, so here’s the requisite “fall” shot from Southern California. The blue fabrics are just ones I had in the stash, a full spectrum of rich, deep colors. Every so often, I feel like a label would interrupt the quilt back, and not that important (no lectures, please), so I leave it off. This happens like (wait for it) once in a blue moon.

I have long been fascinated by celestial events.

We’ve attended an annular eclipse, a solar eclipse, and a recent total solar eclipse.

When I was first married to my husband, we took our children up and stayed at his parents’ house for a week; one night was a star shower. I spread out a quilt on the grass in the backyard and watched the shooting stars. Since we were pretty much newlyweds (he married me and my four children, saving us all), I wonder what his parents and family thought. But he came and joined me on the grass, on the quilt, and we star-gazed together.

I was fascinated by what Jonny Thomson said this week on his Instagram account about the Korean idea of in-yun. It is not the first time I’ve run across this philosophy, and he described it well:

Imagine you pass somebody in the park and say, you nod, you smile, and you go back to your life. Then, a few days later, you notice the same person behind you in the supermarket. According to the Korean idea of in-yun, something important is happening here. In-yun means fate, but it really means the fate between people and relationships….[E]ssentially, it says that if you see a stranger more than once, it is not just a coincidence. That is the universe trying to tell you something. It is trying to say that here is someone important, they have something to teach you.

The French philosopher Gabriel Marcel argued that we should live our lives in a state of disponibilité, which means that we are ready to be at the disposal of the world.** If you stop seeing events as irrelevant accidents, but as messages, then you start to see the world as an opportunity. If you live your life ready to be helped, and ready to be changed, you will be. In-yun is the philosophical version of the crossing paths theory. It says that if somebody comes into your life, it is for a reason. If something keeps happening to you again, and again, and again, the universe is telling you that there is something to learn.

I’ve had more than a few things that have taught me to stay curious, to live in a state of disponibilité (or availability, as I understand it). Quilting, and the constant rate of discovery that happens in any quilt — from choice of fabrics, to colors, to inspiration — seems to match that idea for me, and I enjoy diving into a new project, and I enjoy finishing up. I also enjoy the quilters I meet, the quilters who teach me, my correspondence with all of you who read my blog, learning from every writer.

And so when my desire to rework my Azulejos pattern kept coming back around, and then I read about red sprites…well, that connection propelled me to this place. I hope the person who receives this gift will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. I had fond thoughts of him (my son-in-law) as I worked on it.