Road to California Quilt Show 2026 • Part 1

March 8, 2026March 10, 2026 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

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!

(It’s been windy here for several days!)

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Time Flies Whether You Are Having Fun or Not

February 27, 2026March 3, 2026 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

250 years have flown by, to be exact.

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.

Free Pattern and How-Tos

Two links on this one: Head here to get the Free Worksheet to make the quilt, and a look at the final quilt finish: Betsy’s Creation.

I have two quilts for this 250 Celebration I’m dithering between:

I saw this at Carol’s “Celebration Station,” a little display she changes out every month. It’s from Timeless Traditions, and is titled Flag Day. It finishes at 36″ square, so not-too-big. And I already have the pattern!

Another idea is just making a ton of star blocks in different sizes and arranging them.

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.

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!

The Stay At Home Round Robin 2026 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 that prompt has been posted.]

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:

Left is Emily, from The Darling Dogwood, and on the right is Wendy from Pieceful Thoughts. Many more, later.

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!

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Two Quilt Finishes, SAHRR, and The Abyss

January 24, 2026January 25, 2026 Elizabeth E.16 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…”

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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,