This is Posh Penelope’s birthday: I’m thinking somewhere around the 19th of January in the Time of the Masks, aka, 2022. We slid Road to California under the 2020 wire, then it was cancelled/online/whatever in 2021, and in 2022, we all showed up in our masks, terrified of anyone coughing. But we’d had two vaccines by this point, and so our confidence was high.
Here’s that block now.
Stained glass version.
I finished piecing the top August 11th at 8 p.m. in the evening. No masks. Just me and my DH, who was downstairs watching some shows, but I felt like staying upstairs and pushing through to the end.
Some seams matched up very nicely. And some did not, but I’m not reworking it.
I went hunting today for ideas on:
a) Do I want borders?
b) Do I want to send this out to be quilted?
c) Can I tackle this FMQ by myself, since I have the rulers?
d) How long do I want this quilt hanging around unfinished?
I found this anonymous block and my heart went out to this quilter. This can be very tough to piece together.
Answers: a) not particularly; a bound edge is just fine b) most likely c) Yes, but then you-know-what will freeze over before I finish d) Kind of want to get this one wrapped up, yes, I do.
This is what it looked like on the morning of August 12th, up on the pinwall in my sewing room. My Polish floral headband is hanging up over another relic of the Covid-era.
And since I finished the top in August and this thing needs a new name, going forward it will be called Summer Flowers. And here’s a little doggerel for you, from M. M. Ballou (aka Maturin Murray Ballou):
Sweet letters of the angel tongue, I’ve loved ye long and well, And never have failed in your fragrance sweet To find some secret spell,– A charm that has bound me with witching power, For mine is the old belief, That midst your sweets and midst your bloom, There’s a soul in every leaf!
Other Posts about this Quilt: (Given how many there are, it’s really time to get this one finished!)
Maybe. Maybe Victor Vasarely got there first in the art world, but I’m guessing the origin of circles on squares, or even squircles on squares, may have come from all the mending the first woman did on her children’s clothes. Just a hunch. I really have no way of knowing this, but when my friend Dot mentioned the artist Vasarely as being reminiscent of our #backtosquircles project, I believe she was on to something. Have fun looking at his art.
My Tips and Tricks
Caveat: If you would rather fold laundry or scrub out the bathroom than do hand appliqué, I have a post on how to do nearly invisible appliqué on machine, using monofilament thread. It’s quick! It’s easy!
Back to the method I used *this time.* (I might change it next time.)
To cut out the shape: I would often iron on my freezer paper version of the pattern (I just printed it directly from the pattern). Other times I would just use a pin. Always I used my rotary cutter to slice around the fabric, and usually I was working with four layers of one polkadot fabric. (I learned in this project how many many many polkadot fabrics I have.)
In my past appliqué lives I have always cut out a bunch of the shapes out of freezer paper and pressed the fabric onto that. I would place shiny side up, and nudge the edges onto the shiny stuff and they would generally stick. When it was cool, I would take the pattern out and use it again.
This time I tried Old School Methods: spray some spray starch into the lid, and using a small brush, stroke it around.
Like this.
You can just see where it’s damp from the starch. Don’t use too much. I always lay down a piece of cloth on my ironing board to catch the dribbles.
Place a template (here I used mylar and punched holes in it — more on that later), pressing the corners and sides up over the template. The starch should dry and hold it in place. Let it cool, then remove the template. Duh.
I finger press some marks at the centers.
Then I arrange the cooled, pressed squircle by eye and pin it down. Sorry if this is repetitive for you experts — feel free to leave a comment if you have more tips; this is always helpful!
Sometimes you’ll get a little bump out. That just means underneath the seam allowance has its knickers in a twist. As you stitch along to this spot, with your needle, sweep the seam allowance away from the bump (in the directions of the arrows) and it should ease up and smooth out.
Sometimes I just put four pins.
Other times that squircle isn’t going anywhere.
I use the Thread Conditioner from Riley Acres, and I like the Super Bobs Bright Thread Collection. Rachel uses her own bees’ beeswax to make the conditioner, and I like how it feels, and it never gets hard.
I’ve sort of started evaluating my polkadots for this project. The ones on the left are rejects. The ones in the middle I was thinking about, but in the end, I only used the ones on the right: regularish-shaped dots, with not too much else going on.
Twenty-two done. I’m ahead of schedule, happily.
I made you a chart to keep track of our squircles. I added it to the pattern, and tweaked the pattern a bit, if you want to download it again:
The mylar sheets can be found on the Great Store in the Sky, and I just slipped the pattern underneath and traced it off with a fine Sharpie marker. The Mylar cut easily with scissors. I punch holes in my Mylar so the steam doesn’t build up and warp the template. Although with the starch, I didn’t use steam this go round.
This little project will sink into the background for a while, so I promise, no more squircles posts for a while. But the pattern (free!) and the tips and tricks will stay here on the website for your use.
keyword search term on this site: squircles hashtag on Instagram: #backtosquircles
You knew this was coming, right? After you saw that last post about squircles, I’ll bet you knew I’d go hunting and fall down a rabbit hole. You are very perceptive.
This is a squircle grapefruit from designer Tai Tan. I found it on Dribble, which is also a website I didn’t know about before.
A squircle is not a rounded square, apparently. There is some design technique that can explain it, and it has to do with the flat edges. In a rounded square there are flat edges. In a squircle, they may LOOK flat, but they are every-so-slightly rounded (from here). John Uttley also has a nice grid of squircles to admire, and here’s more to see if you want.
Lisa, my quilty friend in the previous post, was as happy as I was with these quilts, so we thought we cook up a project. It went like this: 1st idea: make blocks and swap 2nd idea: swap backgrounds but still do your own appliqué 3rd idea: set up a challenge to do *so many* each month, and check in with each other.
Third time’s the charm. We’re doing a Squircle Challenge. So I went looking and besides the designers, I found some quilters:
Marla Varner’s blog, Penny Lane, feels like the OG.
I did an image search and was able to source this image to Zippy Quilts, my friend Mary’s blog. This quilt alternated squares on squares, and squircles on squares. It was made by Carolyn Brown.
Last quilt I found was from Amanda Jean Nyberg’s website, and she calls it “dot your i’s quilt.” This is different because of the low-value backgrounds.
So here’s the story. I started the PatternLite with using a 5″ block (5 1/2″ with seam allowance) and that’s the first one in the pattern. But then in my stash box, way in the back of the closet, I found a stack of Charm Squares in Painter’s Palette Solids, my favorite brand. The 4″ squircle just looked too crowded.
So I redrew the squircle, to be more squircle-y, with slightly rounded sides. Then I resized it to fit — making it a 3 1/2″ (finished) size. That seemed to fit the backgrounds much better. So you have two sizes and two shapes in the free pattern.
I spotted my purple/lime green polka dot fabric at the top of this photo of Machelle Preston’s quilt, in the current Springville Quilt Show (see previous post).
I have been hoarding collecting polka dots for years now. This is why: Come A-Round, from earlier in my making (Quilt #90).
However…I noticed that I seem to have plenty more dotty fabrics, so why not use them again, borrowing Machelle’s idea?
So here are the first three, courtesy of one of those sleepless nights that come along once in a while (if you haven’t seen Melanie, you are missing out). Now I just have about 177 more to go, but don’t worry, in the pattern there are two sizes (the 5-inch requires fewer blocks), and a helpful chart so you don’t panic. Just tote this project around to doctor’s offices, pick it up while watching TV, or while you are hiding from your family in a quiet room.
Because we dreamed this collaboration up in August, and everyone’s going back to school, that’s our theme. Our hashtag is #backtosquircle, a play on Back To School. We have an easy schedule, for who needs more pressure in their lives? The drill:
choose your block size/quilt size
make a bunch
every 20 blocks made, post it up on Instagram with our hashtag #backtosquircle (if you use that social)
take it slowly!
Here’s your free 5-page Squircles handout. It has the templates for the 5″ blocks, for a 4″ block and some basic directions.
You know the usual: send your friends over here to download it, rather than making copies for them.
The Meaning of Round Corners (with this great line: “In interface design, the rounded rectangle is sometimes called “the happy rectangle”.) I can always use some more happy in my life.
I like making these little “postcards” with names from the map. The Mesa is that long dark stripe of rock on the lower right side of the photo, moving away from the road. Yes, we took another roadtrip, as mentioned in the last post, where I talked about making dresses to wear to the wedding.
But this post isn’t about the wedding, although it was lovely. It’s about the Springville Art Museum’s Quilt Show for 2025.
I met my friend Lisa at the show, and at my request, she took me first to her award-winning quilt. She pieced the top and quilted it — a stunning beauty of a New York Beauty quilt. I had been a judge at an earlier show, so I was aware of how hard it was to get a ribbon — and she did get one! I’ll post some of the quilts from the quilt show, but first I want to start with a posthumous display of Carol Ford’s quilts, a special exhibit at the museum.
Summer Sampler, by Carol Ford Quilted by Virginia Gore
The Spirit of Alaska (2013) Made by Carol Ford
Quilted by Virginia Gore
Carol writes: “I spent a lot of time in Alaska, and I love batik fabrics. Everything about this quilt reminds of the color and beauty that I have seen there. This was one of the most difficult quilts that I have made…I think that the quilting truly brought this quilt to life.”
Ice Bear (2017), by Carol Ford. Quilted by Virginia Gore She writes that she and her daughter went to “Manitoba, Canada to photograph polar bears. We stayed at Churchill Wild Lodge, which is one of the National Georgraphic’s most remote lodges in the world.”
Carol Ford’s My Garden Patch (2014); quilted by Virginia Gore
We turned a corner from the huge room of quilts, and launched into the main quilt show. I loved the dazzle dazzle below of Danielle Adams’ Land That I Love (she quilted it herself):
Mariam Gunderson both made and quilted her Various Blocks in Shades of Blue. That’s quite the border: all the quilt has beautiful stitching.
Christine Ricks made Tessella or Big Tess (2025), and it was quilted by Tamera Ellis. This one really stood out among the more traditional quilts in its gallery.
It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2023) was made by Tracie Buys, and quilted by Connie Atkisson. She combined two patterns — houses and children holding hands — to make this quilt. She writes “A neighborhood is a group of many different individuals that are from different cultures and backgrounds, and we should celebrate those differences.”
I wondered if I’d find a temperature quilt. Loriann Fish’s My 50th Year (2025) is a celebration of a half-century of living. Began the first of June 2024, she ended it in May of 2025, with a color key in the lower right corner of the quilt.
A map of the museum layout.
So many beautiful quilts to show, but in this gallery, the Hafen-Dallin gallery, I chose this one:
Squircle Square, by Machelle Preston. Quilted by Konda Luckau.
While I just loved the design of these many squircles, it was the movement of color and value that really sang. Machelle Preston writes “My friend Karlene found a cute rainbow quilt on a modern blog. We both decided to make the quilt. I did my “squircle” squares hand-appliquéd, while she did her squares machine-appliequéd.”
Here’s her friend’s quilt:
Squircle (2024), by Karlene Riggs. Quilted by Konda Luckau.
Karlene writes: “I got the idea for this from a QuiltCon quilt I saw online, but which had no pattern. All the “squircle” fabrics were from my dot collection. The backgrounds were mostly solids. I decided to use all the stitches I could from my sewing machines!”
My La Passacaglia (2023) by Jeri Holley. Quilted by Mindy Powell, who did a stunning job on the outside borders.
I knew you’d want to see a close-up of this!
“This quilt was the result of an online class with Brigette Heitland. After putting it all together, I found it looked like a train […with] all the bright colors. This was made by Jeanette Ivie, and titled Modern Train (2024). Quilting by Sharon Rawlings.
Autumn Baskets (2025) by Myrt Gehring; quilted by Carole Liffereth This has a combination of wool and cotton in the center section (bordered by the blue).
Esther Avila’s My Color Theory (2025). She writes in her title card that “I had lots of solid fabric scraps and sewed them all in strips to make squares, then cut diagonally twice…I love the little stripe of black and white. It gives the right touch.”
Thought you’d like this interplay of modern, traditional (Bee Happy, a Lori Holt design) and my friend Lisa’s masterpiece. That’s combination of quilts is one reason why I like this show. Our show at home tends to group all things alike, as in All the Landscapes, All the Animals, All the Moderns and so on. I prefer the novelty of discovery, which you can only have if there is a change-up.
We went upstairs, where they were having a retrospective of their decades of Spring Salons. All the art was amazing. Click through on this link to read about it. They have a listing of all the art, if you have some time.
The Quilters (2023) Kathleen Bateman Peterson
This was upstairs, and of course I wanted to bring it home with me.
It reminded me of another painting I’d seen the day before, in the Church History Museum. Titled Sisters, it is by Beth Jepson. In our church we call each other “Sister” and “Brother” (as in Sister Eastmond.) So this painting is about all of us women, working together.
The artist writes: “I love the diversity of sisters, old and young, beginner and expert, working together to create a piece of art that is functional and often gifted in charity.”
All these were catered by my daughter, Barbara. Click on the little arrows at the side to advance the show.
1–Desserts table, from the side
2–Crew in the kitchen finishing the last minute prep
2–Macaron tower
3–Cake pops (bride’s colors were sage, tan, black)
4–Key Lime Pie cups
5–Our children and I (I don’t know where my husband was at that point); Father of the Bride is on the right.
6–Father-Daughter dance, which made me weep
7–The happy couple, listening to the speeches
Okay, my dress. Well, about 3 days before the wedding and after I’d sewn three wearable toiles and was about ready to start on a fourth, I got the news that grandparents were supposed to be in solids. Dark solids. Sigh.
So I wore a black skirt and a turquoise jacket, nice and proper and cooperative.
But I changed into the dress below for the reception.
May you celebrate your quilting talents, great art, weddings for those you love, dresses that you don’t wear, and arriving home safely after a long ride home–
Sacred Mending, by Paige Crosland Anderson Dimensions: 48 x 64 x 12 In. Medium: Acrylic and oil
Title card: Painted quilt patterns with names like “All Hands Around,” “Worlds Without End,” “Straight Furrough,” “Jacob’s Ladder,” and “Winding Ways” fit within this altarpiece. The patterns represent the ways individuals reach—for help, for purpose, and for repair.
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 