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!)

Carrefour Quilt Show · European Patchwork Meeting · Quilt Shows · Quilts · Travels

Carrefour VI: RachelDaisy Dodd, Ruth De Voss, Lorena Uriarte, Diane First, France Patchwork & Ulla Hoppe

February 12, 2026February 12, 2026 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

This is the sixth, and final post about the Carrefour European Patchwork show 2025. The post covers:

• Venue 13: Villa Burrus, with RachaelDaisy Dodd
• Venue 14: Église de l’Assomption, with Ruth De Vos
• Venue 15: Salle Polyvalente, with Lorena Uriarte, Dianne Firth, ASL Liépvre, EQA, France Patchwork
• Venue 16: Ulla Hoppe

I have a main Carrefour Quilt Show page that lists all the posts of all the meetings I’ve gone to, and includes the posts from this year too. If I haven’t mentioned it before, you might enjoy these posts more if seen on a desktop computer or even a tablet. Cell phones re-format the layout and can sometimes do strange things to how it looks on the screen.

If you are interested in going to Carrefour, I wrote two posts for them about our travel, and how we put the trip together. You can find them here and here. Their main website is HERE, where you can subscribe to their newsletter (scroll to the bottom).

Thank you so much for reading and traveling along with me by way of these posts. Enjoy!

This venue, Villa Burrus, was just a few short steps from the Party Room (Salle Des Fêtes, from the previous post) and although we’ve been to Carrefour twice before, it was new to us.

Sited on Le Parc de las Villa Burrus, this mansion was built in 1900, at least as I can figure out for the literature we picked up was all in French, printed for their Patrimonie — or Heritage — Days, when many buildings are open to the public. Whatever its origins, it was a great place to see quilts, and RachaelDaisy Dodd had her solo exhibit here.

She was always thronged by, and visiting with, quilters, so I’m afraid I didn’t get the best photos of her. But her we go with some of her quilts.

In the front hallway, just across from where her table was, and I apologize, but I have no title card for this.

Her signature is a variation of the pine cone (or pine burr) block.

Followed by another motif she commonly uses: the yo-yo, a gathered circle with the gathers on the top.

Title: Yo-Yo Bloom
Title Card: “Yo-Yo Blooms is a quilt designed to make you smile and to celebrate just how fun Suffolkd Puff Yo-Yos can be! The quilt brings together all my favorite elements: happy colors, cheerful fabrics, playful Ric-Rac, my signature pieced Yo-Yos and big flowers. Which is your favorite Yo-Yo bloom?”
Technique: Yo-Yo Suffolk Puffs, Appliqué, Machine Piecing.

Several rooms held her quilts, with large moveable frameworks. In the next room, the frame was set up in the center, and the large mirrors and windows and her quilts all echoed with pattern and color.

Click to enlarge.

Where does she get all her ric-rac? I think a lot of it is vintage, as she alludes to in her title card.

This one was always hard to get a photograph of. I also kind of liked that the man is carrying his wife’s (his??) purse.

Yo-yos galore, along with doilies and appliqué; she is not a minimalist, and I love it all.

Apologies: no title card. But what do you think? Did she quilt the background, and then add the giant circular pine burr blocks afterwards? My brain is always whirling with questions at these shows.

Another scrap quilt, another inspiration.

A couple of random tourists, haha.

I just saw a smaller version of this on my friend’s IG feed. Link. Makes me want to put it in the queue for a handwork project while traveling to Pour l’Amour du Fills in Nantes in 2016.

We only noticed two of the triptych of quilts. Click to enlarge the title cards and banner quilts. These were hanging by the entry/exit hall, and we were on our way out.

Loved her dress. I need to get a patchwork-appropriate dress for quilt shows.

The small towns of Val d’Argent; we are currently in Sainte Croix-aux-Mines, heading to Lièpvre. The church above is Église St. Nicolas, venue 11, written about in the previous Carrefour post.

This reminds us that this portion of France went back and forth between Germany and France several times. If you’ve traveled in this area, it gives you an appreciation for the diverse, yet subtle differences between these neighboring countries (and add in Switzerland, too).

Venue 14: Église de l’Assomption, with Ruth De Vos

A small church in the town of Lièpvre, one of two sites in this village. Inside were new works from Ruth De Voss, she of flower fame. You can find her on Instagram @ruthdevosart.

Now she has turned her piecing and printing and surface decoration skills from flowers to children. Her children, which I loved. Many women seem to avoid this side of their lives, and often in the art world they are expected to, but De Voss celebrates it.

(click to enlarge) The church had many of her art pieces; I’m only showing a selection. They were colorful, drawn with strong lines.

Click on small arrows to advance this slideshow to see more of her pieces.

Venue 15: Salle Polyvalente, with Lorena Uriarte, Dianne Firth, ASL Liépvre, EQA, France Patchwork

Lorena Uriarte is a well-known Australian quilter, who has been active in teaching, making patterns, and championing good design in quilts for years. You can follow her on Instagram @lorena_in_syd, as well as enjoy her quilts, below.

Title: Wingdings: A Variety of Symbols
Title Card: This quilt “is my red and white interpretation of Chuck Nohara’s Symbol Quilt Using self-drafter blocks from her book 2001 New Patchwork patterns, I explored every piecing technique to create a playful and personal visual language.”
Techniques: Hand and Machine; Quilted by Michele Mason

She had a range of her quilts hanging in this venue; they had a bold and colorful impact.

France Patchwork, and others

As always, France Patchwork, the national quilting guild, had a few quilts on display.

“France Patchwork is the French quilting guild, with over 6,000 members. Founded in 1984 and still thriving thanks to its volunteers, its mission is to promote quilting and its various forms through competitions, Friendship Days, and a quarterly magazine: Les Nouvelles de France Patchwork (from website).

They can be found on Instagram @france_patchwork_news. Happily this year I was there early enough to snag one of their tote bags. (One can never have too many tote bags!)

The quilting is done by hand, with heavier thread, and is more spare. I believe these quilts are the cover quilts for their magazine, Les Nouvelles, but I can’t find any working links to their magazine or their organization, beyond the Instagram account.

I wonder if Françoise Rigaud is with the group quilt_en_reve on Instagram? If so, they always do such beautiful work in making reproductions of antique quilts. They had a display in 2024 at Carrefours, and I wrote about them here.

I loved the use of that ombre fabric in the one block. Gabrielle Paquin is a favorite of mine; I saw her the first time I went to Carrefour (link) and began to see I had a lot to discover and learn about our beloved patchwork.

I recognized the France Patchwork logo in the center of the quilt.

And I loved the combination of appliqué and these interesting little butterflies.

A tribute to Japan, from France Patchwork.

Title: Koïnobori
Artist: Tom Mace, France
This is from the category of “Les Jeunes Poussent” in the grouping In the Land of the Rising Sun, and was in the age group of 10-13 years old. (Literally it translates to “The Youth Are Growing.”)

The Challenge 5-25 was to encourage the interest of the youth. The website says:

“For the 30th anniversary of the European Patchwork Meeting event, we’re inviting budding artists and young prodigies to take part in the “HEROES” competition, inspired by those people and characters they admire, on screen or in real life.

The challenge is to create a patchwork quilt: a work made up of different pieces of fabric, illustrating the theme of heroes. Think of everyday heroes and heroines, cartoon characters, bright colors and comic books for inspiration!”

Diane Firth

And now, for a complete change of pace in quilting, here are some transparent quilts made by Diane Firth, of Australia. This is titled Scatter, which was inspired by the dispersal of seeds.” The title card also notes, under techique, “Assembled and Machine stitched on Bernina 770.”

Title: Bogong
Description: The moths emerge from the black soils
Technique: Machine and hand-stitched

Bogong is a type of moth.

Title: Floriade #4
Description: Floral Abundance
This black mesh netting was in several of her pieces, holding the circles (which looked like felt) in place. The Carrefour website says this about Diane: “Dianne Firth, a quilter for almost 50 years, is a landscape architect and academic. She exhibits regularly in juried exhibitions and her works are held in public and private collections around the world.” The OZquilt Network has a page about her where you can read more.

Title: Black Mountain
Description: An exploration of changing landform
This is one of the larger pieces, but the entire display was intriguing and again made me ask the question about what is a quilt? Clearly, hers has three layers, but it is so inventive and structural.

EQA: European Quilters Association: Contrasts (2025 Exhibit)

The EQA is a cooperation between the European quilt guilds, and has a yearly challenge of small quilts (35 cm square, which is about 14 inches). As always, I spent a lot of time looking at the artworks. Here’s the Challenge:

(If you right-click to open this in another tab, it may enlarge for you.) What intrigued me was the line in the last paragraph: “Contrasts are a constant given in our daily lives and make up some of the differences between European countries. And yet, when looking at the collection overall we can clearly see that there are not really that many contrast between us after all.”

Here are a few of the many, many wonderful quilts.

After this, we leave the venue and try to decide if we hungry, as this year…they have a full lunch service just outside. Tempting, but we went to the market at the edge of town, grabbed something and drove to Rombach-Le-Franc, the last town. We parked outside the Espace Raymond Hestin, and ate our shared lunch in the car, in the shade as the day had grown hotter.

We were on the last two venues of the show. We’d started the day before, and went through the vendors and other spaces in Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, then headed to Saint Croix-aux-Mines and got to Venue 12, before calling it day and driving back to Colmar.

We got up early the second day, picked up again with the Australian quilters in Venue 12, and progressing through the show. Now, eating lunch there in the parking lot, we talked about if we’d be back next year (no), and what we liked and didn’t like. My husband is a great partner in this adventure and I regularly talk quilting with him. Many of the photos you’ve seen have been taken by him.

Along the road to Romach-le-Franc. We tried for this three times, pulling U-turns to double back to get the wind just right in the banner.

Venue 16: Ulla Hoppe

Here we go! This venue is quite small, and while there were a couple of exhibits there, I’ll mention only one.

Ulla Hoppe, from Germany, was exhibiting her stitching, embroidery. Not quilting, but I thought it was amazing.

The range of blackwork stitches really brings the complexity of the young woman into focus: aren’t we all full of discreet “countless blocks?”

I loved the title of this piece.

“That one” lives across the street from me!

What is notable in this one is the inversion of the stitches, although done in different colors: what is foreground in the black rooster’s image is background in the white rooster’s image. (If you open it in a “new tab” it will be enlarged.)

You can find her on Instagram @ulla_stickt

She even stitched in Dürer’s insignia. Last one:

Title: Der Nobelpreisträger
Artist: Ulla Hoppe, Germany
Description: Nobel Prize winners: often “grey eminences,” yet crowned with gold.
Technique: Gold embroidery, collage, partially gilded

Alas! We could come back in two hours, but alas! alas! we wanted to see another small town on the way home, so we missed seeing Fabia Diniz. We missed a LOT! I went onto the Carrefour website and downloaded this:

I hesitate to put a link because I know they change their website a lot. But head to her Instagram, and click on her Story, Carrefour, and you’ll see her story about coming to France, along with some of her creations.

We drove over the hill, and back down into the next valley on our way to Equisheim.

And this is where we’ll leave our adventure, where the light was just right at the end of the day.

Carrefour Quilt Show · eQuilt Universe · European Patchwork Meeting · Quilt Shows · Quilts

Carrefour V: Tania Tanti, Fiona Lindsay, Janet Bear, He Ok Chang, & Quilts from Kazakhstan

February 9, 2026February 10, 2026 Elizabeth E.1 Comment

This post about the Carrefour European Patchwork show 2025 covers:

• Venue 10: Chapell St. Blaise, with Tania Tanti
• Venue 11: Église St. Nicolas, with a quick look at embroideries sponsored by Guldusi
• Venue 12: Salle Des Fêtes, with Fiona Lindsay, Jenny Bear, Hae Ok Chang, Patchwork Association of Kazakhstan

–––––––––––––––––––––––

Now that the orientation is complete, the story is that last year my husband and I had a chance to go to the Carrefour European Patchwork Show in the Silver Valley, near Colmar France. That’s called the Val d’Argent, in France in the Alsace region, and yes, there is great food and beautiful countryside. One of the things we like about this show is that is spread out over four small towns in the valley, and they use churches and community centers and municipal buildings, so you really get a feel for being in that area.

Venue 10: Chapell St. Blaise

Venue 10 is a small little chapel, the Chapelle St. Blaise, basically a one-room church. I stood there for a long time but that man wouldn’t move from the doorway…so I erased him. (!) Let’s see if this video will embed:

Click on image to start the movie. The voice you hear is the artist, Tania Tanti, talking to some quilters about her technique. Now to see some of her quilts. Many are not pieced, but instead are painted with textile paints then quilted and embellished.

The is quilt that starts the movie, above.

Click on any photo to enlarge. I took detail shots so you could see the amazing amount of work in each of her pieces.

Please click if you want it larger.

Red, Rock, River by Tania Tanti. She writes: “I dream of flying over the red centre after a torrential rain. An aerial view of where the water wiggles its way around the earth. It feeds the ground and creates growth from the earth.” In her technique section she writes: “Procion dyes, painted, pieced, binding, trapunto, hand-stitched, sit-down free motion quilting.”

She writes: “At then beginning of this year I faced my second battle with breast cancer. As soon as I could I got back into my studio and focused on small achievements each day. This is my Recovery.” And that is the title: Recovery. Technique: Painted, free-motion quilting, hand-quilting.

Tania Tanti is on Instagram, if you’d like to keep up with her.

I looked behind the wall to see this spare room in this church.

Look carefully: a spider! (not our car)

Onward, through the valley.

Venue 11: Église St. Nicolas

Hopefully you can hear the bells. Right after this, we went for a take-out lunch from the local market. The choices were rather cleaned out, but we found something. There were a lot of quilters there — so happy to see this!

I admire and enjoy the art of these churches. The exhibit here was titled Guldisi, which is a hand embroidery program launched in 2004 (quoting from the catalogue), which “now enables 200 women in Afghanistan to support their families….Each piece will include at least one silk embroidery in the shape of a triangle, created by the Afghan Woman.

Ingrid Meier, from Germany. Title: *Aller guten dinge sind drei*, or *All Good Things Come in Threes.*

There were also many embroideries, which I found fascinating, and which included some blackwork/redwork.

These two signs were somewhere on the wall; click to read.

Venue 12: Salle Des Fêtes

We drive to the Salle des Fétes, or the Party Room…and they are having quite the party!

A gathering.

A glimpse of a quilt.

And we meet Jenny Bear! She is a renowned quilter from Australia, known for her scrappy quilts, but exquisitely put together. The catalogue called her “Happily Scrappy” and said that “Jenny’s quilts are a celebration of social history, fabric, color, frugality, and the art of making do. She loves using her stash of antique, vintage and reproduction fabrics as well as rescuing old, unquiltable or broken tops, fragments, orphan blocks and tiny scraps to make something beautiful from them. Her favorite quilts are simple, utilitarian and achievable by anyone who loves to sew.”

She “has been making quilts for more than 40 years….and after her exhibition here, she hopes that her quilt making will return to hobby level and that there may again be time for housework and gardening” (from catalogue).

Everyone was busy, but I loved that quilt on the table.

And on another table, it looked like she was creating something new:

Such a rich tapestry of fabrics and piecing…it just glows.

This was a favorite, but I do love stars.

Simple, yet so powerful in its design.

My orphan quilts never look like this.
This is Sweet Georgia Brown, from 2023. She writes: “Using antique fabrics dating from around 1840 to 1910, this hotchpotch of oddment blocks was inspired by an early twentieth century piece featured in “Unconventional and Unexpected” by Roderick Kiracofe, a book that has inspired many a quilt of mine. Many of the blocks were gifts from friends or purchased from Jane Lury and David Hubert. It is indeed happily scrappy.”

A giant block-swap brought Under the Greenwood Trees to life.

Last one of Jenny’s is Scrappier Bennington Baskets. It is made by Jenny Bear, and quilted by Karen Terrens. The title card says: “This is a scrappier version of Linda Collins’ “Bennington Baskets” featured in her book with Quiltmania “Treasures from the Barn.” The basket block is traditional but the setting is quite quirky, especially with the row of oddment blocks at the top in the original, but at the bottom in my version.” Mixing blocks is a great idea, one to try for sure.

She’s on Instagram if you want to see more.

Right next to Jenny’s was the Kazakhstan quilts, a collection brought to Carrefour by the Kazakhstan Patchwork Association. This was founded in 2013, and has over 180 members “dedicated to promoting and developing ethnic-style patchwork (Kurak) and art quilts. The organize workshops, competitions, and the annual Orient Bazaar Festival.” The catalogue goes on to say that “this exhibition merges historical tradition with modern outlook in Kazakh quilting. At its heart is Tuskiiz-traditional wall coverings reflecting Kazakh nomadic culture.”

How many of us have made house-block quilts? Here’s one, using their traditional home, a yurt. A house quilt, but from a different land.

A quilt we are familiar with, but the motifs are all germane to their culture and country.

Click to enlarge.

Natalya Mametniquazova Tamara Stroscherer (at least I think that’s her name, or their names?) made a series of four garments, titled “Four Seasons Chapan Series” with Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

A couple more from this country:

There were several artists in this Party Room. We have two more to go, if you are still with me!

Hae Ok Chang, South Korea

Hae Ok Chang, from South Korea, blends Korean and Western influences in a style that ranges from contemporary to traditional. One of her more well-known quilts has snowflakes on a traditional pieced quilt:

Here is another Snowflakes quilt, Snowflakes_04.

She writes: “Hesitating to start a large piece as my strength waned with age, I began a joint work with my daughter. She created the background, I made the snowflakes. Inspired by the night sky over St. John’s Catholic Church, it evokes angel wings and a chorus of family and friends” (from title card).

It is heavily quilted by machine, with hand-embroidered snowflakes.

She also makes more traditional quilts, such as this one, inspired by pear blossoms.

This was inspired by a trip to the Paducah Quilt Show.

Titled Husband, Chang says she “wanted to weave my retired husband’s neckties into a story. Moments of joy and pride as he walked our daughter down the aisle, welcomed a daughter-in-law, celebrated with friends, and shared hardships. Days of work, success, and failure. I keep his devotion, love, hope, and sorrow close to me. Made in 2007.

This quilt was made in 2012, after her husband passed away. Title: Time and Seasons.

She writes: “After my husband passed away in 2012, I couldn’t bring myself to do anything for a while. I had started this quilt earlier, but left it unfinished. Eventually, I returned to it, intensely embroidering each octagonal block with meadows, flowers, birds, animals, wind, and trees. As I followed the seasons, life slowly returned, and I felt grateful to still have work to do.”
Technique: Machine pieced, hand appliquéd, embroidered and quilted.

Title: Wildflowers 01, by Hae Ok Chang
Title Card: “We three sisters spent hours together knitting, sewing, and making clothes. My eldest sister did everything well, the second was precise and skilled, and I, the youngest, just tried my best. As I embroidered this work, I often thought of them and our time together.”

I have three older sisters, so this one was especially meaningful to me, although we don’t sew together.

Title: Serene Glory

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good photo of the title card. You can find her on Instagram, too.

Fiona Lindsay, from Australia

Fiona Lindsay is our last quilt artist for this post, but not the least! as they say. Also showing in Venue 12, her quilts were a veritable flower garden, a theme of hers, chosen carefully, as she loves sewing and she loves gardening.

She was so fun to talk to, and agreed to let me record her talking about her ideas about color and stitching and practice and quilting. It runs about a minute.

Now, for her garden of flowers!

As a reminder, all the quilts are very well lit up, but the shadows can be very strong. I tried to crop them out/edit them out as best as I could.

Those teensy seeds on the blossom, and the wonderful shape and proportions of this quilt: loved it!

(Click to enlarge.)

Those border vines have an energy all their own.

By now you can see that she can put together fabric combinations and colors with such skill, that she makes it look easy. I love the balance of the stems and the shapes of the flowers, too.

One reason why I do these posts from Carrefour is not only to introduce you to new quilting artists, and to let you glimpse the passions from around the world (which Carrefour is so good at bringing together), but also as sort of a reference book for our own designs. Who would have thought to put a Baltimore-style urn of flowers together (above) with a wild vine running free from tiny pots in the corners? Yet it all works with that pieced border and the wild orange Kaffe fabric sashing. Here’s a closer look:

It was great to see a close-up of her work:

Okay back to the quilts.

And now for the favorite from the last post withf Janet O’Dell’s quilts: the antique quilt, but given a Fiona twist:

In pink! With color!

And now I know the maker of that antique quilt: Ann Marker, from nearly 200 years ago. This truly is free and fabulous appliqué — the joy in these shapes just radiates.

Thank you, Fiona, for all your beautiful flower quilts. You can find her on Instagram.
And thank you to all the other quilters and artists.

I know this was a really really long post, but again I hope you’ll treat it like a reference, as well as a delight. I think I have at least one or two more post in me before finishing; it will come soon. Very soon. (Teaser: next up is Racheldaisy, from Australia.)

300 and Beyond · Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt · Quilt Finish · Quilt Shows · Quilts · SAHRR 2026

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…”