This and That • June 2026

June 7, 2026June 6, 2026 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

Let’s go to the movies! The Oh! Granny movies! If I could wave a magic wand I’d change the world so you could see the congregation of Grannies we’ve all started together, but this screen capture video will have to suffice. If you make a Granny Square, I’ll add you to the group — just tag me on Instagram.

Here are my two starter Grannies for June:

Block #9 (above) and Block #10 (below)
If you want to jump in, it’s never too late. More info is on a previous post, plus a free pattern.

Obviously my micro-season of red, white and blue has influenced this last one. And by the way, I really enjoyed reading all your micro-seasons, left in the comments on the last post. After hearing my stories about my garment sewing (see below), Wendy came up with another micro-season: WWIT, or What Was I Thinking? I find myself in that season often.

Did you see this one as we rolled the movie? This is from Allison; she made a pictorial chart in Canva, and is adding in her grannies as she makes them.

I’ve got some more squares cut up in my sewing room, and will soon get to making more.

I keep running into Granny Square designs. This is from PomPom London, a purse maker. I may or may not have just purchased a red purse from them.

My apologies, this model in this color is apparently sold out, but I also like the one-zip City Bag in blue, if that suits you. I’t ‘ve had it for a few months now, and has the best cross-body straps (hands free!) and I can even fit a small, short water bottle in there. I’d say, if you’re hot for a red purse, check back as they replenish their stock often, or choose another (they have three different reds). I’ve now seen three different copycat ads for purses in my IG feed (see below about junk in our media feeds), but PomPom London is the original. And yes, each bag has a pompom, or tassel or whatever.

Short Story: Hair dryer died. Got a new, different (better) one, based on the dryer in my hotel room in Paris. (PS. I mention these items, but no one is paying me.) This year has seemed to be the Time Of Getting Things Repaired & Fixed/Replaced, and I’m getting a little weary, but there you go.

Chimney collar repair, with Tobi on top and David as assistant. And more great news is this:

Yes, the stair bannister was finished, and delivered (late one night, felt sorry for Bryan, but he’s a good guy and his IG feed is fascinating to look at, if you love watching other people work).

Short Story: router died.

Ending: We’re back on the internets with a new mesh network. The bigger problem is that home repairs TAKE TIME, even when you are not the one doing them. I mean, ~~gawking~~ checking on the guy up on the roof seriously takes away from the sewing, if you know what I mean. And don’t even get me started on the lengthy tale of getting the router up and running.

However…I finished up the final squircle!!

I started sewing these nine months ago.

And here they all are, sewn together. (Big smiles.)

Now to consider borders. I have one I’m thinking about, simply because the quilt is intended for a taller person, and more length is needed. Did I mention already that a partner in crime, Gladi, has also finished her squircles?

Now for the WWIT micro-season: a pattern review. And pattern-making review.

My friend Susan, in Australia, has made two of these jumpers, and because of her success, I decided to try. I was a pretty experienced sewer from back in the day, but my advice for this jumper is: Take Your Time.

First off, find the pattern. I went to the Internets (now that it was fixed) and found the pattern at Lakes Makerie. Usually I print off my PDF clothing patterns at Tape Free Patterns (recommend highly) but Lakes Makerie had an option where they would print it off and send it to me for a small extra charge. I liked this! It didn’t include an envelope for the pattern like Tape Free does, but their service was very convenient and fairly quick.

Top two (first two) photos are of the back pleat. I did a modified length — not too short, not too long — and didn’t like how they finished the pleat. I just did a standard finish. Third photo is the inside, and yes, I turned my pocket fabric right side out so I could see the beautiful fabric, hoarded since the Dawn of the Century. This is a navy cotton/linen lightweight fabric, with a metallic thread running through the slubby face (even though it looks grey in the last photo).

This jumper has a scoop neckline, which I lowered by 1/2″ (upon the advice of those on social media), two button plackets on either side, generous front pockets and (last photo) two back patch pockets which are getting unpicked soon. Why? Because while I tried it on and loved it (and see Susan’s post link for how her sister looks in hers), but on my smaller frame it just looked a bit too blocky; the pockets don’t help.

This is why I make my clothes, so I can make my clothes how I want.

So I added two self ties, and stitched them on about 6″ in from the side seams so they’d line up with the shoulders. They help define the waist area a bit more. Button shopping was a challenge without any sewing shops nearby, but I did find some at Hobby Lobby — cheesy plastic ones — but they’ll keep the dress on. On the advice of others, I also cut a smaller size. Do This.

On the left is the Box Box Dress (Merchant & Mills), and on the right is the Hope Dress (Style Arc). I’ve noticed that I tend to find the next dress I want to make from social media and blogs, so here are two that I have made and enjoyed. I did add pockets to the Box Box dress, as well as modifying the sleeve, as I like my sleeves a bit longer.

Here’s a pocket pattern (free download) if you need one.

OPQuilt Pocket_Pattern Download

Cut it out, hold it up along the side of your garment, and just try it for where you want it, making sure your fingers can touch the bottom of the pocket bag. I use a different method of putting in pockets these days (shorter video HERE, and the longer video is HERE). My first pocket installation using the newer method was a bit ragged, but now I’m getting pretty good at it, only because the volume of mistakes I initially made sent me on the Path to Knowledge.

Okay, that’s all for garment sewing — I try to put this topic on Instagram, but just couldn’t include a pocket pattern on that site for you. 🙂 According the latest, if we’re smart we’ll all get off of social media, given that most of what we see is ads, even when you think it’s just a someone-or-other showing your their favorite thing:

Click HERE to listen. I did want to read the article by Lane Brown, but can’t get past the paywall. Kai Ryssdal is good host on the Marketplace podcast, and the show is not political in the least. Which is how I’ll close.

I said something off-hand last week about the upcoming California Primary Election to a neighbor when we encountered each other during our morning walks. It did not go well. I was upset for days at how it blew up quickly, but then — the quilting world came to my rescue with this:

My Stars and Stripes
Probably made by Ella Evans
Made in Tennessee, United States; Circa 1900
Cotton
IQM 2013.025.0001

The International Quilt Museum writes: “In this piece, we see the American flag as an enduring symbol of American patriotism. Made by Ella Evans, this quilt holds identical Unions in opposite corners each with forty-five stars — an accurate rendition of American states in 1900. Evans made this quilt for a man named Otis Golden. Evans cared for Otis and his brothers after their mother passed away.”

Even on opposite sides, we can still be part of one entity. Our church did a nationwide discussion of the Constitution last week, and my husband and I took the opportunity (and reminder) to read the full Constitution. It was instructive, a bit over our heads in some places (the Senate’s interpretations on the side did help), but it reminded me, as does the flag quilt by Evans, that we are all in this together.

Thanks so much for reading, I appreciate you very much–

100 Quilts · 300 and Beyond · Free Download · Free Quilt Pattern · Quilts

Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow

May 24, 2026May 23, 2026 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

Eric Hodel, a scientist and writer of The Intrinsic Perspective substack letter, described a breakthrough by AI this week. It involves the above image, which was the answer proposed 80 years ago by mathematician Paul Erdös to the question “If you place a set of nodes down on a plane, how can you organize this set of nodes such that as many pairs of nodes as possible are an exact fixed distance apart?”

If you are a quilter, like I am, you looked at this and thought, Can I make a quilt out of this geometric design? for that’s what we are all about; that’s what caught my eye. Do I understand the above mathematical question? Not in the least, but here’s the new answer, courtesy of machine learning:

Nature magazine’s headline reads “AI cracks 80-year-old mathematics challenge — researchers are astonished.” The first drawing looks like that string art we made in grade school, where there are all these nails driven into a board in a grid. That was as far as we could see, as much as we knew to do at that early time, and we put our heads down and concentrated and wrapped our string around the nails.

Years go by, we get busy, advances in science and in life are made and we get older, we realize the wisdom in the old adage my mother used to say about keeping your eye on the sparrow: paying attention to what’s important. I could say something here about AI and its intrusion into our lives: some of it helpful, some of it not. However, I’d rather pay attention to the things I can make with my hands, keeping my eye on things I can discover myself, building relationships with the humans around me.

I made baby quilts for all of my grandchildren. This is Alex’s and I used one of my favorite block at the time: a nine-patch. This little boy turned 22 last week, I say with some shock.

That year I was teaching Creative Writing while finishing up my MFA. I sewed very little for two years. It felt like forever.

But it did end, here, with my parents and family in a jubilant day. They — and the grading and the teaching and the going to classes and the little first grandchild I held in my arms — are now gone or grown. Did I keep my eye on the sparrow? The answer is obvious on some levels: the university gave me my degree. But my eyes are not everywhere, nor can they be. And we move on, hopeful for forgiveness for what we miss, or cannot yet see.

And here I am now. I do not teach, whether it be in a classroom full of 20-somethings, or in a Guild workshop, which I also did for a while. I still collect interesting quotes (see the Steinbeck, below). I live a relatively quiet life, as our children are all grown, the grandchildren nearly so. How to keep my eye on these sparrows, now that they have flown away?

I do what I can, keeping in mind my mother’s advice, but also realizing she said it for herself. The small quilt is titled His Eye is On The Sparrow, and it comes from the song that continues, “and I know He watches me.” And so I depend on others. I let a lot more things go, I get a lot less done, but it is still a gratifying life: this making quilts and writing about it…and seeing the sparrows when they fly home for a visit.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for keeping your eye on this sparrow–

Postscript: As a thank-you, I gave my grad advisor a quilt I’d made in a Mystery Quilt Along before I started grad school. Besides Alex’s quilt, this is about all I sewed during that time.

We work in our darkness a great deal with little real knowledge of what we are doing. ~John Steinbeck

The quote on the blackboard (chalk! how quaint!): I wrote a quote on the board every day, and had them free-write for 5 minutes in their journals to loosen up their writing hands and minds.

Alex’ baby quilt was Quilt #55. My grad advisor’s quilt was Quilt #56. The sparrow is a free mini-quilt pattern, available in an earlier post on this blog.

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

This and That • MarAprilMay 2026

May 16, 2026May 18, 2026 Elizabeth E.16 Comments

Let’s begin this overdue missive with the mundane: the stair rails in our house. This sticker belongs to Bryan, who I finally called in to finish the project after mucking around with it since March 6th.

I need a sticker that has the words “finisher” and “quilter” in it, although I haven’t yet figured out in which order the words would go.

This is when I called him. We’d had other recent attempts at this project of refinishing the stair rails, including a feeble attempt by Yours Truly, but in the end I called Bryan of Fine Wood Finishers to get the job done. It was needed as they probably hadn’t been refinished in the life of the house (about 50 years).

Do we exude this kind of confidence and fun? He spent some time trying to get it in his shorter van, and in the end needed a bit of a red flag. I’m your gal! I called as I zipped upstairs, ripped off a strip of red fabric and brought it back down to him. Now we just let him do his magic; I’ll keep you updated. (He does have a bigger van for delivery; no worries.)

Apparently all our businesses are in warehouses now. I took my husband to his physical therapy and was off by one block. We were at Jump and Shout Therapy, instead of Marketplace Therapy. While he was in there, I sewed squircles while I waited in the car…

…but first I took a walk around the complex where I took photos. (I’m always taking photos.)

That skeleton of metal reminded me of this sweet little chapel in the Blois Chateau in Blois, France, where even the ceilings were amazing. And this reminded me that I wanted to show you this:

Now that you know there are 640 of them, and that she made each one different, you’ll want to see some detail shots (click to enlarge any photo):

This is a quilt from the Pour l’Amour du Fils show in Nantes, France. I did include some more photos in the most recent post, but rather than overwhelm you, I’ll drop some more in here and there over the next while, like this one with 640 different little purses and dresses.

My sister Susan also did some traveling, but to London. She’s become an avid sewer, getting me interested again in garment sewing. She’s a fan of Merchant & Mills, so traveled out to Rye to see their enterprise and buy fabric. While there, they photographed her for their well-known inspiration called Social Club, and put her up on Instagram. Wow! (Doesn’t she look fabulous?)

I squircled while in doctor’s offices this month, too, keeping vigil while my husband was there. I’m really getting close to done, as I’m trying to keep up with Gladi, who has finished her squares.

Our church is dedicating a new temple not too far from our house, the Yorba Linda Temple, and we had a chance to go for their Open House to tour the building before it’s closed to the public. As always, I’m drawn to pattern and visual texture, so I loved the stained glass, done by Holdman Studios.

My photo at dusk, on the left. Another photo of this motif, from the Holdman Studios’ Instagram, is on the right (which also has more pictures). That would make a marvelous center to a quilt, right?

I tend to carry home smaller things from my travels, like stickers and an elegant candy box. Sadly, I ate the last one of the little sweet bits inside while writing this post.

But water bottles are also a prime souvenir for me, as they remind me of my experiences. Oh, and tote bags for my grocery shopping (our state has a no plastic bag rule), but I won’t show you my collection at this time.

One last quilt from Nantes: a granny square-inspired quilt, with “granny lanterns.”

Granny Square Updates

Oh Granny Original Post

Oh Granny Update Post

Besides the one you saw a couple of weeks ago, here are four more. I need to make eight total for May’s allotment, so have a few to go. Others who are playing along have posted theirs, too, on Instagram:

Since hashtags are dead in Instagram, if you want to join the gang, either leave a comment on this post, or on This Instagram Post, and I’ll add your account to the list I’m keeping on that post. If you have a a photo and don’t use Instagram, I’m happy to post it up here, or link to your blog. I’m also on BlueSky for those who have left Meta behind, although I don’t know if you need to join to see my blocks on there.

I’ve also reworked some earlier handouts and patterns. This is a digital image of four pinwheel blocks, but I really only made one. The original post shows it in red and white; here’s the free download, if you want it:

Pinwheel Quilt_OPQuilt Download

I also had a request for a really oldie-but-goodie quilt (original post)(original post in green), so I drew up a pay-what-you-want-but-free-is-okay download for that. It’s in my pattern shop.

One last photo of France’s rapeseed fields and I’m off:

Publications · Quilt Shows · Quilts · Travels

Pour l’Amour du Fils • Quilt Show in Nantes, France 2026

May 9, 2026May 18, 2026 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

I’d read about this quilt show — For the Love of Thread — in the QuiltMania magazines for years. This year my husband and I were finally able to travel to Nantes and attend the show.

First, some basics: Nantes (pink star) is in Western France, near the Atlantic side of things; most people head to Paris, which is north-central France. The orange star is in Eastern France, and that’s where the Carrefour European Patchwork Show that’s held in the villages of Val D’argent is located. There are commercial tours to both shows, but we were able to plan and travel there ourselves. The Nantes show is held in April; the Carrefour is held in September. (Just do a web search if you are trying to find tours.)

Having traveled to other parts of France, Nantes was a total surprise to both of us — a delightful surprise. It’s the sixth largest city in this country, and has a different flavor than other regions we’ve visited. We arrived at Paris Charles De Gaulle airport at about 1 p.m., then took a train across the country (train left at about 5 p.m. and arrived in Nantes about 3 hours later). This gave us time at the airport to clear customs, catch a bit of lunch, check out the convenience store for chocolate (I’m crazy about the chocolate in France, even the drugstore variety), and then catch our train. While in Nantes, we stayed within walking distance of the Gare (or train station), which also allowed us to catch the tram to the quilt show the next morning.

We checked with the hotel clerk, who confirmed what we planned and after buying our tickets, we got on the tram with other women, carrying interesting bags and totes (a sure giveaway for a quilter). I saw so many interesting bags and totes while there, that I made a video.

After riding for a bit, wondering how we would figure out where to go when we got off the tram, a woman (I later learned her name was Sylvaine), got on the tram and started doing embroidery, so we struck up a conversation. After about a 20-minute ride, she walked us over from the tram when it arrived at the convention center, or Parc Expo. The quilters were already lining up a few minutes early.

[Note: Here’s a link to a collection of photos of people I met this day.]

We came in the main door (in the white building in the first photo) where they checked our bags, and walked out the other side. We followed the crowds as they walked over to this building, where the quilt show was being held. The white tents you see are the lunch places. We showed our tickets, got our wristbands (we had purchased a two-day ticket), and were in!

[Hope this video works…] Yes, everything’s in French, but fabric and smiles are a universal language. Most of the booth vendors spoke English as did many of the guest artists (many were from Australia), so I didn’t have a problem. Even buying tickets at the tram stop you can switch to English, and I kept Google Translate handy on my phone for places I needed to know the language.

The guitarist was in front of The Red Dress, and both were beautiful. Haven’t heard about The Red Dress? I hadn’t either until I went to the show’s website before the show and read about it.

The photo on the left was when we first arrived, when the show opened. The photo on the right was taken after lunch. Quilters had arrived! But it wasn’t just quilters: it was embroiderers, sewists, crocheters, purse and bag makers, and I even saw a jewelry booth. Here’s a slide show of the vendors; click to advance the images:

Note: except for a few crowd shots and candids, I received permission to take photographs.

I saw so many beautiful things and purchased a few, here and there. Here’s something I didn’t see: pre-cuts. That whole American-merchandising thing seems to be missing from here as well. The vendors are small, specific, art-driven, and some of the things they sell are kits, new ideas (like the leather handles from Miyako that you can move from bag to bag, instead of having to have one handle per one bag — genius). But unfortunately, because of the tariffs here in the US, it is nearly prohibitive to ship to the US market for many of these vendors, but I can sometimes find them on ETSY or other small marketplaces.

In several places around the show are make-and-take tables. This was the embroidery table. On the left, at the opening; on the right, after lunch. It was popular!

The crochet table, top left. The “Corner for the Bloggers” are the other three photos…and me! It got busier and busier as the day went on. When my husband was tired of following me around, he retreated here.

The crocheter setting up a display. It was fascinating to see. There were four or five booths for those who liked to crochet.

On one side of the Vendors Hall were the “classrooms.” These were surprisingly quiet, and I saw several classes in session.

On the other side of the Vendor Hall were the quilt displays, rooms created out of movable walls, done in brilliant colors. I used my Google Translate on some of the signs. Sometimes I even used my Husband Translate (he speaks French).

This exhibit was Collections, from Hungary. We talked to this quilter, Ildikó Kalocsa, about her work, and thanked her for coming to France. I loved the texture in her work. We also asked her about Hungary’s recent elections, and she said “Oh, we are so happy!” It was evident in her smile.

Slideshow for Inmaculada Gabaldon, from Spain (photos on this post were taken both by my husband and I):

Click to advance the images. She does all her own quilting on a domestic machine, not a long arm. In the photo I took of her, she chose the background, and it was a photo of herself as a child. The last photo is of me in an adjoining “room” looking back toward the main hall, with Inmaculada talking with quilters.

I put up a couple more slideshows on Instagram:

Denim by Elisabeth Dubbelde

She is known for her denim work, as well as recycling to keep the fabrics out of the landfill.

Quilts En Rêve

I’ve followed them on Instagram, as they make beautifully perfect quilts, many by hand. They are interested in reproductions of antique quilts.

Carolyn Konig

Carolyn was a joy to visit with, welcoming and happy to answer questions about her unique approach to doing her reproduction quilts: she actually has the background fabric printed to mimic the spots and bits and discolorations of antique quilts, and uses it when she makes her reproductions. (Carolyn on Instagram) If you go to her website, you can order some.

Finally, it was time to leave, but not before I tried to find Carol Veillon and thank her.

I felt invisible in the quilt world until Carol, in her magazine QuiltMania, published a quilt of mine that was hanging in the Road to California Show, where I first met her. She is kind and charming and encouraged me to continue submitting. I had several more published by her and every time it was like Christmas had come.

I thanked her for this, and for her kindness towards me, and grabbed a quick photo as she was incredibly busy. She is someone who had made a different in our quilting world, for all of us.

We walked back to the tram, and as we rode back to our hotel, were joined by families, strollers, children, mothers, teenagers; it was a far cry from the quiet ride in the morning. I will probably post the quilts I did take photos of here and there as I go forward, but I can’t leave this post without giving you some photos of Nantes.

The old LU biscuit factory, around the corner from the Gare, taken in sunset.

A store selling the town sweets: Les Rigolettes Nantaises. They seem like hard round little candies, but once in your mouth the outer hard shell dissolves and they are chewey and delicious. They come in five traditional flavors: lemon, raspberry, blackcurrant, mandarin, and pineapple.

They come in these charming tins (well, the elephant was a different candy), and I’ve already repurposed one for straight pins.

Joan of Arc is big around here. This statue inside the church is dedicated to her, as she hails from Orléans, which is up the road a bit in the Loire Valley.

The Elephant, one of “Les Machines” on the small island in the Loire River adjacent to the city center. A huge mechanical creation, it moves slowly around as it takes a walk, squirting tourists and children with water. We had a great time seeing this.

A few more sights (click to advance):

And what did I take away from the quilt show?

A book from the SAXE bookseller booth, and some fliers
a preprinted canvas to make a bag (Stenzo Textiles)
sweet mini-quilt with papers and templates (Somerset Designs)
a panel to make a small bag (ABCDaires), a favorite
buttons from Chifonie Studio

My suitcase is compact so while the purchases are small, the memories are huge!

Pour l’Amour du Fils has not yet published their 2027 dates. Here’s a link to the visitor section of their website.

QM published quilts:
Riverside Sawtooth (in QuiltMania)
Elizabeth’s Lollipops (in QuiltMania: a photograph from a quilt show, but I’m counting it!)
Crossroads (in Simply Moderne)
Santa’s Night Ride (in Simply Vintage)

During the pandemic, I agreed to let them share my blocks with readers of the QuiltMania newsletter. The patterns have now come home to stay, and most are free (see tab, above).