This and That • November 2025

November 24, 2025 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Dropping off the face of the quilty universe has one advantage: you get some sewing done. But first, let me talk about the Carrefour Quilt Show (France) posts.

All discussions of any project begin with this process: throwing out thousands and thousands of corrupted files on my computer. It’s like how you can’t find the evaporated milk to make your pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving until you clear away all the bunches of canned food in front just so you can get to the back of the cupboard.

Same, same. Every time I start to work on the Carrefour photos, Something Computer-Wonky This Way Comes, and it gets in the way. But the pictures are coming, because I want to show you a lot of the beauties that didn’t get all the press.

Soon, my pretties, soon.

I’ve been re-downloading a lot of the patterns I’d purchased on ETSY and on quilters’ websites. Most of it has been a pretty smooth recovery. I’ve been having real troubles with a clothing patterns site, and we’re trying to work it out, but I’m about ready to give up on that one. And a badge site wants me to re-buy the things I’ve already purchased. Yes, I have the real-life badges, but the digital ones were zapped in the Great Computer Meltdown of 2025. (Gee, I should get a commemorative plaque, or something, to put on the desk.) Buying and purchasing is a lot more complicated when sellers can switch their products from one platform to another. [Public Service Announcement: I now have three hard drives at my disposal for backing up.]

And yes, some pattern-writing has been delayed as I’m having to recreate the digital files that were lost (see illustration, above, of all that I lost in my Shine Circles patterns). I’m just glad it’s up online and free for the download if you click on the link.

I’ve been helping a new mother-to-be design her first baby’s quilt. And for those who are interested, I’ll have it on here for a freebie, once I finish (we moved on from that design, just to warn you). Affinity’s digital editing software is now FREE, apparently, so you can get some of that, too, to design your own quilts.

Remember 2020? Haha.

I’m standing underneath my quilt Azulejos, hanging in the gallery at Road to California in January 2020, before Covid-19 and all the Murder Hornets were released and when the world turned upside down. Well, I’ve been wanting to make this pattern in deep blues and cheddars, and I finished it this week.

Just a reminder.

It has been dropped off at the quilter:

I worked on these, while listening to the end of Louise Penny’s novel Black Wolf, as well as this:

It’s not the Thursday Murder Club series, but a new freestanding novel, and I really liked it. I lost track a little bit, of the minor characters, but the main characters are well-drawn and entertaining, and yes, the novel and I and the Economy Blocks hummed right along.

I finished it last night and rushed out in the setting sun to take a couple of photos, such as this stained-glass effect.

I delivered that one to the quilter this morning, too. I had started this #scrappythriftblockchallenge with Taryn of @reproquiltlover on Instagram. I wrote up a guide sheet and shared it (you can find it all on this post); the quilt begins with this blog post. [Note to all the Historians out there: first Instagram post was on March 31]

I’m just kind of ready to finish up a lot of loose-ends projects that I had started at the beginning of the year, when my abilities were hampered by anxiety/depression/sadness and a lack of wanting to do anything. Over time, a lot of those issues have resolved, faded. Sadly, I think I lost a couple of friends during the last two or three years, when the one-two-kapow-punch of my parents’ death really knocked out my creative — and other — lights. As those who have lost parents know, no death goes easily into that great night (thank you, Dylan Thomas), so I should add it was all the swirling around of everything that knocked me back.

So I chose HelpMeMakeSomething projects, like these economy squares, and a Block of the Month, and a reworking of an old favorite pattern, plus squircles (which are still ongoing).

Here we are in the waiting room at the medical clinic, because all that stuff still goes on, doesn’t it? People get sick and husbands and wives need check-ups and gosh, they already have their Christmas Tree up and it’s not even Thanksgiving.

It’s no shame to admit you can’t make it without some help, and all the quilters I know (well, maybe minus one or two…) are more than willing to sit beside you while you figure out a path through the gloom. And somehow, this fall I started to feel like myself again…with Energy!

We were supposed to go somewhere for Thanksgiving, but Life Intervened, so now I’m considering a new roll recipe, and maybe a stab at that Delicata Squash Pie in the lower right corner, but with a gingersnap cookie crust, instead of the recommended graham cracker.

Lastly, I decorated:

Thank you, Trader Joe’s. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this, and/or write something, or maybe just carry a thought or two around in your head. I’m grateful for you all and for what you share; what rich and varied lives we all lead.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

300 and Beyond · Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt · Quilt Finish · Quilts · This-and-That

This and That • October 2025 • Quilt Finish

October 20, 2025October 20, 2025 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

Boo!

This latest finish had a few mothers:

1) a bag of scraps from mine and Leisa’s Halloween in the Vegetable Patch quilt, and…

2) a need to make a quick quilt, which Azulejos is, and…

3) After the Great Computer Debacle and File Deletion Tragedy, I’ve been trying to put back together my pattern files, and Azulejos was the first one I finished. So I needed to test it out, and…

4) This cartoon from one of my favorites (Grant Snider) and a collaborator (Jon Acuff), and…

5) Realizing that I still had the 4th of July redwhiteblue quilt above this cupboard and now it was the orangeblackwhite season.

This is how it came together in two days (click to enlarge any photo below):

I kept the quilting simple. On the back were two leftover panel blocks from the original kitted Halloween Quilt, along with some rando orange dot fabric from the stash. I used the bits we’d cut off to border the panels, so they’d be large enough. And since this pattern — while quick and easy — calls for a template, I put tape on the back so it won’t move around, then I use a ruler to help in the cutting.

Quilt #308 | Halloween Mini-quilt | approximately 28″ square.

This is still one of my favorite versions of this pattern: SeaDepths. I have one more version to try, a deep blue and cheddar combo. Some of this is that I realize that every corner of my room holds the promise of a project/quilt-to-be. I’d been saving the scraps since last year and the bag kept kicking around the edges. GONE! I have been saving the deep blue/cheddar fabrics since 2019. They are washed, and stacked, ready to go next week. And yes, I threw away the scraps from the scraps, as there was so little left.

You know I wouldn’t want to miss America’s throwing itself a party. One of my signs was a cat print-out from Martha Rich’s art (used with permission), and the other sign was my husband’s (Protect Our Freedoms) with the wording he chose. We both wore yellow, as did others.

Bravo to all the unicorns who came out to walk and gather. Lots of flags, lots of good will and as I noted in my Instagram post, we detoured into the Korean chicken place mid-way. It was delicious. Then back to the march. Then home.

Our signs posed together in the Butterfly Alley, near the gathering.

Started the latest Thursday Murder Club listen: The Impossible Fortune.

How does he come up with these plot lines? I am really loving this.

Even though there are technically three more blocks to this A Quilting Life 2025 Block of the Month Quilt, I’ve using Grant Snider’s advice #6 — getting rid of rules — and calling it done here. It’s been a fun project and hats off to Sherri for her creativity and for sharing these free blocks with us. Now to figure out a border, and get it quilted.

Finally, Squircles will finish this edition of This and That for October 2025. The hashtag we’re using — #backtosquircle — showed up with two more squircle makers: Lisa and Betty, both from the mountain west.

Mine are on the above left, and Gladi has some that are shown on the above right, out of beautiful brocades and silks.

On the train to Strasbourg.

On the train to Colmar. I must admit that I looked out the windows a lot.

Now, with a new sewing box, courtesy of a run through Le Grande epicerie in Paris (where I purchased some cookies just.for.the.tin), this is me stitching in the airplane on the way home. In the dark (again). Why do we never put up our window screens anymore to see the miracle of flying through the air? Nevermind. #screensrule

I’m almost to 60 squircles finished, one-third of the way there.
Keep stitching, keep stitching!

Last Look

If I Do This, Can I Do That? April 2025

April 18, 2025April 17, 2025 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

If I go to see all my kids, will I be able to recover from the trip? If I buy this, can I buy that? If I choose to sew this project, will I have energy to tackle that other thing? Or, this is all another way to title a This-and-That post for April 2025. First, the mundane and then the sublime. (Hint: an introduction to one of my favorite artists.)

Feeling a lot of the time like a blue-footed booby; this photo was harvested from Bluesky, from the #naturesky tag. Bluesky is also where I have a new account. We need more quilters over there (tag: #quiltsky) so come on over. If you set up an account, I’d love a follow: OPQuilt on Bluesky. (If you need to know more about this platform, search, and research, buy this book, or ask me a question.)

Apple’s Photo app has a new fun toy: Clean-up, behind the three sliders at the bottom of a photo (apparently not on all phones, my husband tells me). I click on that, then follow the instructions. Can you see what I did in this next pair of photos?

I probably wouldn’t use it to clean up everything, as that can give your photos (this one, of my neighbor’s cactus flower) a sterile and weird look. Life is messy, life has hoses in the foreground and angels in the background.

Early warning notice. I did none of those when the earthquake came, but did decide to hold off on getting in the shower. Just in case.

I sewed up my next batch of 25 Economy/Thrift/Square-in-a-Square blocks. In my first post about these, I noticed that one of the quilters I mentioned had sewn each of hers to a background block, so I decided to do the same. Eventually I will sew them into blocks of 10-patch units, as suggested by Taryn, who is running this (9-patch units? 12-patch units?).

To make all my economy blocks, I opened my drawers and just used up old scraps, cut nearly a decade or more ago. It’s a lovely time-travel experience. Most centers are not fussy-cut, but this one spoke to me, as my heart aches a lot for what is going on. Other centers of other blocks also hold meaning, but I won’t detail them here.

I can’t work if all my projects are stacked up around me, calling me to come pay attention. So after completing this batch, I carefully put them away until some time in May, giving me some mental space. (Fun video, here, with a perky little tune.)

So, March’s 25 blocks are done.
April’s 25 blocks are finished, too.

This came out next. It’s Sherri’s BOM for 2025. April’s block is finished, and now I’ve tucked that away, too, until May.

Posh Penelope blocks are up next, but I’ll wait to work on them until after Easter. (It makes a big happy mess in my sewing room.)

Every April and October, our church holds their Semi-Annual General Conference, which we listen to via streaming broadcast. Through all the talks, I sink deeply into thinking about ways to better my tiny life, but this year I also enjoyed the sights of this young choir, dressed much as I did back when I was their age: hair streaming down from a middle part at the top of their head, their dresses all smocked and ruffled and gathered and puffed sleeves, too! I didn’t have a camera when I was 17, nor were many photos taken of me, so you’ll just have to trust me that I looked like them.

I also like to sew while I listen (hence making good progress on the economy blocks!). I tried sewing them without paper, but it was harder to keep them square. So, here I’m using the freezer paper method. Here’s a free handout, in case you missed it on the last post:

Two Sizes Economy Blocks_OPQuilt Download

My husband Dave and I took a trip up to see grandchildren and family, as I mentioned.

We also had a chance to visit some of our siblings. My sister showed me the wonderful tree of life weaving she purchased on her last trip. I love all these birds perched on the branches, with companions flying all around.

Another highlight of the trip was to see a mid-career retrospective of the artist Brian Kershisnik at BYU’s Museum of Art. Kershisnik’s exhibit began with a video of him working and talking and interspersed in between were snippets of his TEDx talk, which is worth watching, ending with something to think about. Kershisnik has long been a favorite of mine; he paints the quirks and slivers of human life that we are all familiar with, but don’t seem to see in traditional paintings. He also has a sense of humor about things, so valuable these days.

In this trio of paintings of women, the titles read (left to right):
Holy Woman, 2001
Climbing Mother, 2013
Madonna and Child with the Infant John the Baptist, 2003. Yes, the infant Jesus is poking young John in the eye.

from title card: “While not undermining his holy nature, the baby Christ (still with a visible halo) acts more like an actual child than most traditional versions. Kershisnik humanizes saints and holy figures, suggesting that perhaps they are not as different from us as we might have previously supposed.”

I found so many paintings that echoed into my life. As my father would have said, it was a peak experience. Since this is the week before Easter, here’s a few more.

Even if you aren’t religious, Christ’s palpable straining to let the souls of hell escape their awful fate helped me understand the whole idea of sacrificing for others in a most visceral way. And Christ gesturing, says, “Go.” Get going, get doing, make something of yourselves. Below is a link to a video clip of Kershisnik below where he says he is reticent about “explaining” the meanings of paintings for others, not wanting to limit them. I also don’t want to limit you. This is just my take, after standing there gazing at this enormous painting, a couple of weeks before Easter.

Death has hung around my life in a significant way in the last couple of years, so yeah, I lingered at this painting.

Are we like these little ones in Kershisnik’s painting, Jesus and the Angry Babies (2014)? Maybe. The angels in the background are there to help. (video clip of the artist discussing this painting) Last one, with a theme pertinent to our sewing experience:

The morning after we arrived home, I took a walk in our local park. Right after that photo I saw that some children (not angry babies, not angry adults) had decorated up the sidewalk with all colors of chalk, including a hopscotch diagram, which I most definitely took time to jump through, before continuing. I conclude one of the artist’s names, below.

Happy Easter, everyone!

I had a field day listening to Brian talk on numerous videos. I’m putting these here so I can come back and listen.

Spring Open House Video (long)

On his painting, Bearing News

Brian Kershisnik’s Instagram

On Interpretations [On What Paintings “Mean”]

Working with [Your] Media I love when he says “you have the let it [the media] do what it does.” Boy, do we know this about our fabrics and threads!

Smile!

200 Quilts · Quilts · This-and-That

March 2025 This and That

March 22, 2025March 23, 2025 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

A post where I go wild with cultural references, quilts and art, but don’t worry–everything fits right into a This-and-That.

My friend Jamie sent me this photo of one of my quilt designs in the wild. I did a Quilt Guild visit there; it was the last one before Covid-19 hit, and this was their project. That’s five years ago this month, and wow — so glad to see their Guild is still having fun.

As many of you know, I’ve been cleaning out my Quilt Orphan Blocks where I found this. It’s really only 1/4 of the quilt, and yes, it was a class taken online. I think I realized pretty quickly that I was not cut out to do wobbly cutting. I tried it her way at the beginning, but by the end, I had my rulers out and the quilt changed dramatically. But I love it.

The pattern is called Finger Paints and it is by Laura Loewen. Should I finish it? IDK. I think it can stand on its own. The plan is to quilt it while testing out some new threads.

We’ve been planning a trip overseas (hope we Americans are still welcome), and laughed at the photo of this room for rent. My BIL told me it was reminiscent of the scene from Willy Wonka, with all the grandparents in bed. Only with this model, they could have a table to eat at. (No, we didn’t book that one.)

I have a new thing: when I see a fabric bundle I like, I save the photo and keep it on my desktop for a while. Hey, I’ll even print it out every once in a while, and pin it to the design wall. I don’t do very well sewing from a bundle, which is unfortunate because there are a lot of beautiful bundles out there. But often I fall in love with a bundle because of the colors, and in this case, it was those blue-purple fabrics in the upper left that caught my eye.

Judging by the colors shown on the catwalks for Fall Fashion 2025 in Paris, this color must be in the zeitgeist, and *slouch* must be the posture.

More from the runways, from left to right:
(1) A designer coat that looks very much like our quilty coats.
(2) A giant bra shirt?
(3) A shopping bag shirt?

I got a degree in Clothing and Textiles in another life, so the fashion shows have always held a fascination for me. I did once see a woman at the Houston quilt show who had made a vest out of the souvenir bags…complete with all the handles hanging down in loops around her hips.

I had to mention this Tilda pattern. I see quilts like this and think I’d like to try it, as I have acquired a stash of Tilda fabrics. But after doing the cacti quilt, it will be a long while before I try all those itty-bitty pieces again. It’s a free download on her website.

BLOCK OF THE MONTH 2025 PROGRESS

I finished Sherri’s Block of the Month for March.

And here are the first three. I’m using a collection of her fabric lines, and on the right side, the strip that’s north-south is (I think) from her first line of fabrics. It was very Southwest in flavor — and her subsequent fabrics have shifted from that motif and palette. My most favorite Sherri fabric is the yellow north-south strip on the outside of the second block. I once purchased 3 yards of it, and I’m getting down to the end of it.

POSH PENELOPE BLOCKS PROGRESS

Here’s the danger: doing this (more-complicated) block only once a month causes an occasional oops. I was trying to do this in a hurry and whacked off the seam allowance. And then I ran out of the yellow strawberry fabric. But I had enough of the original background fabric that I think it turned out okay:

This round, after I got going, seemed to be about switching out the backgrounds, and keeping the petals all the same. I still like the violas in the top photo the best. (Or you might call them Johnny-jump-ups.)

In this view, all those fancy petals are slightly distracting. I guess “read-as-a-solid” or in that general direction might be the best choice for the petals. Still not a fan of that purple one in row three, though. Fifteen blocks are finished out of the 42 that Carol and I have planned.

Speaking of petals, we went to Austin TX to visit family, and I fell in love with these towering shapes at the Blanton Museum. Head to this website to read more. This website also calls them “petal-like sculptures” and has more info on the museum. Regretfully the small chapel, Austin, by Ellsworth Kelly was closed, but we still enjoyed ourselves at the Blanton, enamored of the exhibit that included this:

The title of the car is classic: El Muertorider Katrina Car, 2006
(Muerto means death in Spanish)

From the title card: “[Artemio] Rodríguez collaborated with John Jota Leaños on El Muertorider Katrina Car, a refurbished 1968 Chevy Impala. They painted it a sleek black with white skeletal designs reminiscent of Posada’s elaborate figures. Rodríguez and Leaños center the Catrina figure on the car’s hood, altering the spelling of “Catrina” to “Katrina” to make a dedicatory reference to the victims of the devastating Hurricane Katrina that ravaged New Orleans in 2005. Recurring references to oil and money throughout the car’s imagery refer to the Iraq War (2003-11): the slogan “War Is Money!” echoes war protestors’ frequent chant: “No Blood for Oil!” Thus, El Muertorider embodies several cultural practices: lowrider culture, political protest, Day of the Dead commemorative practices, and La Catrina’s enduring symbolism among contemporary Mexican and Chicano communities.

More photos of the entire car are here and here.

Calavera de la Catrina [Skeleton of the Female Dandy], circa 1910

It was also a treat to see this photo-relief etching by José Guadalupe Posada [1852-1913].
[Source: The Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gilberto Cárdenas Collection, Gift of Gilberto Cárdenas and Dolores Garcia.]

I used her image in a guild challenge quilt when I made her the center of a quilty ofrenda. I threw everything on this one, including the little milagros attached with ribbons. I enjoyed seeing one of the original prints of Catrina.

From the title card: “Posada invented this famous skeletal character in 1910, just as the Mexican Revolution was catching fire. At first, he called her La Calavera Garbancera, using the derogatory term for Mexicans who claimed solely European ancestry and rejected their Indigenous roots. In her ostentatious hat, this bony fashionista was intended as a symbolic epitaph for the wealthy privileged classes, a satirical emblem of the sins of vanity and greed, and an allegorical representation of government corruption under dictator Porfirio Diaz (1830-1915). However, her naive, beguiling nature soon endeared her to the disgruntled masses. Posada renamed her La Calavera Catrina, after catrin or ‘well-dressed.’ Reproduced repeatedly in the penny press, La Catrina became a national icon among popular folk, who embraced her as a demure champion of the underdog.”

Now you know.

Austin food: two plates of tacos from Velvet Taco, and they were all standouts with an interesting combo of flavors. Unfortunately, the closest Velvet Taco is in Phoenix. My husband Dave said that the “fish and chips” taco (lower left) had bits of potato-like chips under the fish, which was topped with a yellow curry sauce. Who dreams up these things? I don’t know, but an award to them. And then this impulse purchase of pineapple-flavored popcorn at Buc-ee’s, which now I have to order from the Evil Overlord in a box of 25. It’s always good to expand your food horizons, but it can get more expensive.

And the penultimate image is of a cool Lego spray of flowers, courtesy of my son-in-Austin’s passion of building with Legos. It was amazing to stand in his “Lego room” and see all the things he’s built. Long ago, when all the children were at home, he and our other son built a Lego village that encompassed the top of all the dressers, desks, TV tables in his room. He would have probably put some Lego houses on the bed, too, but I said no.

I think his passion is just like our passion for quilts and color and shapes and making. And while we like our quilts, isn’t the messing-around-in-cloth the fun part? In the Life Kit podcast last week, Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play, said that “when you’re doing something for the end result, you lose joy in the process.” I realized that pulling a quilt or too from the closet to put on the beds for our new guests (daughter and granddaughter below), was just this: I enjoyed the process of making my quilts, so that others can gain joy from them as well.

My granddaughter and I spent time one night at the dining room table, each of us working on our stitcheries. We visited, chatted, and she learned a new stitch: French knot, to put in the center of her flowers. It was a lovely time.

Oliver Burkman: “When you get to the end of your life, the sum total of all the things you paid attention to will have been your life. If there are some friendships there that you never actually paid any attention to, well, you didn’t really have those friendships, right? I mean, if there was an interest that you had, that you never actually spent any attention pursuing, well, you didn’t really have that interest. So it really matters what we’re paying attention to because it just adds up to a life.” (from Life Kit podcast)

Whether it be fashion or tacos or art or popcorn or embroidery, enjoy!