Matryoshka Dolls Visit the Sewing Room

November 8, 2026November 7, 2026 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

I have a collection of matryoshka dolls in wood, from small to huge, gathered from all over the world. While they originate from Japan, “the first Matryoshka doll wasn’t made until 1892” (from here). Many of mine are from Russia, but I’ve never traveled there. I’ve picked them up in Costco (!), Greek festivals at our local church, Berlin, and the large one at the back (nearly a foot tall), was purchased in the back of a copy shop in Chicago when my husband was there on business. He carried it home in his suitcase — a treasure for me.

(more photos are at the end of this post)

Another gathering of those nesting dolls showed up in my sewing room this month. I had wanted to make a gift to thank Janine for her hospitality when I showed up in London last month, so started to make one for her (she mentions it here). Then I wanted one for me (the red-head in the lower right), and then I realized I needed to make wee gifts for the tablemates at a quilting retreat I’m headed to this week, so added few more to the count.

I cut the cases from the one meter of yardage I purchased from Liberty, while I was in London. (Only one meter from that whole store — what restraint!)

I used 100% wool felt from two sources: some I’d purchased while in Berlin ages ago, and other felt I’d sourced when making the Oh Christmas Tree Quilt, some time ago. It doesn’t go bad in the cupboard, I promise. This post talks about some of the sources I used; the one that is still in business is A Child’s Dream. (How things change!)

The buttons are some that I picked up in Nantes, France, from ChifonieStudio, at the For The Love of Thread quilt show. Truly, this little doll is international!

I put more photos, the templates, illustrations and instructions in one of my PatternLite patterns, found in my PayHip shop.

And from now until our US Thanksgiving, I’ve put it on an introductory sale (incredibly cheep-cheep!). The pattern is listed here.

Besides a few decorative pins and my favorite large-eye needle, what did I put in the little pockets in the front and back? In the front are my favorite travel scissors: baby fingernail cutters, with very short blades. In the back pocket is my favorite thread conditioner from Rachel, of RileyAcres. I’ve been buying it from her for years and it’s made from the beeswax she collects from the bees she maintains on her property.

Construction photos. They are in the (currently, cheap!) pattern. BTW, I put it on an automatic discount so you don’t have to fuss with coupon codes, etc. but it only lasts until Thanksgiving 2026.

Now, more real matryoshka. The title on this is “Mucha” as in the artist who makes glorious art as well as some stained-glass windows in the Prague Cathedral.

The tallest one at the back is the one my husband bought in a copy shop: scenes of family life, with mother on one side — and the father on the other when you turn the doll around. In front are some more dolls including Rosie, as she’s known (front and center with the large painted rose on her front apron).

Front of set…and back of set. (Click to enlarge the photos). Matryoshka dolls are like us: they contain multitudes (thank you to the poet Walt Whitman).

It’s a longer story about how I came to head to a quilt retreat in Utah, but it involves one of my long-time friends, Lisa. She cautioned me: get everything cut out! And Mary, of Zippy Quilts, also sent along another piece of advice: “wind lots of bobbins with neutral thread: it’s amazing what you can get done if you aren’t doing laundry!”

The scene earlier this week, with Janine’s Happy Jingle-bell Star in the background.

Project #1: two table runners for Halloween. That holiday now long gone, I’ll be ready for 2027 (she says, cheerfully!).

And then there’s this one: Project #2.

The original quilt can be seen here, but it just didn’t suit me, plus I wasn’t going to do some of those blocks since I’m doing hand-appliqué (I’m taking my Singer Featherweight, not the bigger machine). But I wondered: it can’t be Utah if there are no cherries that we canned when I was a kid? Or the spectacular Utah peaches, my mother lifting up those glowing jewels from the canner in our hot, steamy Provo kitchen that had no air conditioning? And where was Y-Mountain? And Watchman Peak, from Zion Canyon, where my husband and I spent our first camping trip after we were married (with four young children)? I had to add those things. So it’s not really the designer’s Utah quilt now, but My Utah Quilt. All of the piecing awaits, but most of the appliqué is prepped up, so I’ll get started on the long drive there.

If I get any time, I’ll prep up one more easy-piecing project (multiples of the same block). We’ll see. I do remember Lisa’s advice.

And at some point, I need to pack!

*The Watchman, from the Watchman Campground*

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

Florere • Quilt Finish

October 4, 2026 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

I gave my sister my original Blossom quilt (happily) yet I missed it so much, I determined if I ever found the AMH border fabric again, I would remake it. At Road last year, I found the exact fabric; the personal challenge was on, and now it’s finished.

This is quilt #322, and is titled Florere, the Latin word for bloom (or so the internet says). I used a combination of all Anna Maria (and AMH fabrics), Soft and Bright batting, and I quilted it myself using a combination of Superior Magnifico thread and YLI Elite thread.

I cut out the 12″ size from my pattern. While many fabrics are similar, there are some changes, as Anna Maria had made some different ones that I wanted to use (like the coneflower fabrics).

There’s that border fabric. I started cutting this out in February 2026, only a month after Road (not bad).

While the top gets finished and pinned, it takes me a while to think of ways to quilt it. I went a little swirlier in the yellow-green petals. (That fabric is a Painter’s Palette Solid.)

Pattern can be found here.

I liked it so much, that earlier I made another one, smaller and for springtime. All four sizes are in the pattern.

A little stained-glass view for you.

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:

300 and Beyond · Creating · Free Download · Free Quilt Pattern · Journal Entry · Quilt Finish · Quilts · SAHRR 2026

Earth Was Once A Garden Place • Quilt Finish

March 21, 2026April 4, 2026 Elizabeth E.27 Comments

One Sunday morning, mulling over the stunning news from the day before, I drove to church along a residential road. I had a view of the low mountain range in my city, the hills turned verdant green from the winter rains. The sun was bright and clear, the sight was glorious. A favorite hymn was playing as the choir sang “This earth was once a garden place, With all her glories common.”

The song finished, I went into church, but the idea of a place so beautiful and fresh lingered.

I wrote in my journal that night: “All day I couldn’t help but think about Eden, and how much we mortals seem to have missed the boat. To live with ‘glories common’ would be the best….I thought then — realized then — that perhaps it was I who was below my best abilities in bringing about ‘all glories common.’ “

I paused, reflecting: the best of the earth, the most beautiful flowers, the clearest streams and tallest mountains — our glories. Shared all together, without rancor, viciousness, greed, cruelty and just plain old revenge and stubbornness. It felt like too big of a task; I closed my journal and went to bed.

With this experience as backdrop, I sat in the quilting room the next morning, trying to tackle one of the prompts in the Stay At Home Round Robin. I knew I wanted to figure out how to write those words of the hymn, and to let this quilt be a garden quilt, a reminder that I could bring about my own version of Eden in pieces, in bits, in my best moments. I struggled with the “how to” of the words, working it out letter by letter. Many times I was discouraged. With encouragement from friends and from my always-supportive husband, I finally finished and pinned the word borders up around the existing quilt.

Then I looked at the center: it didn’t work at all. So I took that out, went to remake a new one but couldn’t find the pattern. So I drafted up my own, remade the center and carried on. (There’s a metaphor here somewhere, I think.)

So here it is: Earth Was Once A Garden Place. And it can be again, day by day, moment by moment, with gallons of forgiveness, bushels of forbearance, and volumes of truth and charity. It’s that dailiness that can be the hardest: to not cuss out the driver who cut you off, to be more patient with those you live with, to speak up when necessary and to find stamina to do the hard tasks in our lives. I often turn to quilting to have a respite, as well as to be a part of a community of others who are exercising their creativity, planting their seeds, growing their quilts and creations.

Over time, working steadily at the task, we may yet find a way to have our glories common–

Earth Was Once a Garden Place Greatest Hits

First, a huge thank you to the co-hosts of the SAHRR for 2026 (names and links at end of post). It was wonderful! The final Link-Up Party of all the participants’ quilts can be viewed *here.*

Beginning: choosing the center
Round 1: Hourglass
Round 2: Double
Round 2, Part 2: I made it a Double
Round 3: Animal Kingdom
Round 4: Curves
Round 5: Two Color
Round 6: Quilter’s Choice

This is the SAHRR 2026 Final Quilt.
I’ve revised and cleaned-up the free tip sheets I made for this journey, plus a couple more new ones for the final quilt. Click to download. Please do not copy or digitally distribute, but send anyone who wants one to this website to get their own. (NOTE: The tip sheets will live here on this post; the earlier versions will soon be removed.)

Many thanks.