This and That • January 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One of my Amish-style quilts, from 1986

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twenty-three different types of Sawtooth Stars.

Now one from 2025:

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

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

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

Found this message from the Workbench Gods while cleaning out.

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

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

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

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

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

(still quilting this)

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

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.