Road to California Quilt Show 2026 • Part 1

March 8, 2026March 10, 2026 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

The Road to California Quilt Show was held January 20-24, 2026 in Ontario, California — a location about 45 minutes to the east of Los Angeles. It is close to the Ontario California airport, so we attract many attendees from all over California, the Mountain West, and others who may drive or fly in.

I’ve been attending for many of these years, and aside from the blows of Covid-19 in 2021 and 2022, it’s a strong show with many international entries. Road is a juried show, allowing just three entries per person, so those that are accepted have already self-edited their choices. This show also has multiple special exhibits.

I can’t show you all the quilts I saw, nor would you want to sit here and read through that kind of blog post, but I did want to write about some of the ones that caught my eye, although (again), there are many more wonderful quilts here. In the second post, I’ll focus on group exhibits, show you a bit of the flavor and people I met and visited with. Come on out — it’s a wonderful show!

First up are my two quilts: Mercato Square and New York Beauties — for Barbara.

Mercato Square was accepted, and as is the usual with Road, they showed it with all the red and white quilts. (Yes, all the animal quilts are shown together, all the moderns are shown together, and so on. It’s a bit of a visual tic that has been going on for a while, so we just expect it now.) My husband and I went up on Opening Night to see the show, and he was a great help in photographing quilts, and cheering me on (thanks, honey!).

The second quilt accepted was New York Beauties — for Barbara.

It was lovely to see it hanging here! Their title cards:

They omitted the quilter’s name on Mercato Square, so I wrote it on: Jen Boyer. The original posts about these quilts can be found here and here.

I don’t know if you’ve ever entered a quilt show, whether it be nationally ranked (like this one), or a local guild show, but no matter what the show, it’s kind of a big deal, as this is our “art gallery” or “museum” for quilters. So I celebrate all the following quilters and a hearty congratulations to them!

This quilt was my neighbor on the right: a scene from Cuzco, Peru.

(Click to enlarge.) Lynn Jurss: Cuzco Fruit Stand (I’m writing out the maker and title to make it easier for searches.)

And this was my neighbor to the left: a gorgeous Star of Bethlehem.

Jean McElherne: Red Radiance • Quilter: Vicki Ruebel

Stunning thread painting, all the way from Spain.

Isabel Muñoz: Beyond the Seas

I loved how the maker combined an image and appliqué.

Great detail of the shell. This isn’t a huge quilt, but the little details are charming, especially the sea star in his back pocket.

Laura Golden: Ocean Rescue

This was across the way from Mercato Square; I loved it.

Sherry Priest: Core Memory

A beautifully colored Sarah Fielke design.

Renee Miles: Coming Home

I love that we are still seeing quilts made during the Covid experience.

Robbi Eklow: A Bit Garish

You saw some of Vicki Ruebel’s quilting earlier, on the Star of Bethlehem. Here is one of her quilts.

Makers: Vicki Ruebel, with her mother, Judy: The 95

What a gorgeous bouquet of a quilt!

Gareth Griffin: Spring Bouquet
Her quilting was worth studying, and was so detailed.

Here’s another quilt, full of beautiful quilting, which won the Outstanding Machine Quilting (Stationary) Award.

Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry: Tricuspid Biomorph #1

I’m still trying to get used to digital prints being “quilts” but I’m making progress on accepting tri-layered, quilted rectangles as quilts, no matter how they started. Seeing some of the entries in the Carrefour Patchwork Show in France this past year helped me on this journey.

I noticed, also, how many “layered” quilts there were this year. I’ll be showing more later, but this one is more modern, and is not raw-edge appliqué. Stunning work.

Here’s an almanac of quilt stitches for you.

Sandy Curran: Survivor

Amy does it again, with her beautifully worked miniatures.

Amy Pabst: Pink Lemonade

I’m always curious: when she says they were foundation pieced, does this mean she did it over a fabric or non-woven that stays in, as I would hate to think of her having to take out all those teensy bits of paper. (As always with these smaller gallery images, click to enlarge.)

This was just down a bit from my New York Beauties quilt. I saw Cassandra putting up the blocks on her Instagram feed while she was making it.

Cassandra Beaver: 100 Days of Apple Cores

From apples…to eggs.

Nikki Castro: All My Eggs. Quilter: Isabell Prado

Loved the repetition here, of boys pretending to fly and the quilting.

Katie Henrich: Flight of Wonder

Sacred Threads Quilts

You can read more about Sacred Threads online. Here are a few of the quilts that were in Road this year.

Patricia Caldwell: Connections
(As always on these groups, click to enlarge.)

Living within driving distance of the Manzanar Internment Camp, we took a drive one weekend to visit, gaining an appreciation for what these citizens suffered. If you haven’t had a chance to see one of these camps, I hope you can do so in the future.

Patty Kennedy-Zafred: Tagged

Given that we quilters are so dependent on our eyesight, this quilt’s story was sobering.

Susan Price: Insight

These simple shapes evoke history.

Bonnie Bowman: Striped Stripes

Christine Vinh: A Quiet Oasis

QuiltCon Traveling Exhibit

We had a few quilts from the QuiltCon traveling exhibit here, too.

Lucy Engels: Fugue

Did you see that? HAND-appliquéd circles!

Nora Bauser: Dot Your Eyes

This was from a different exhibit, but for some reason, I only have just this quilt.

Janice Willis: Connecting With Your Roots

Free to Sp%@k Special Exhibit

A very interesting exhibit, but one that had a lot of comments from visitors. I was there on Saturday, shortly after the Alex Pretti shooting in Minneapolis, and many of the pieces in this exhibit resonated with the visitors.

Kathryn Pellman: The Revolution Kind (2025)

Kathyn Pellman: My Thank You to Hillary Clinton (2017)

I was interested in the choice to use writing to illustrate some points in these free speech pieces. While Pellman could have gone abstract with shapes and colors and design, the very fact that she’s chosen to use speech dovetails with the subjects of her quilts, and also gives a nod to the idea that freedom of speech is protected in our Constitution, although sadly that weekend, we witnessed the betrayal of that freedom.

Kathryn Pellman writes out the First Amendment to the Constitution on this piece. The title is Donald Trump Made In China Owned by Putin (2025).

MartyO: Weight of Letters (2025)

MartyO: Scrubbed

Kelly Hartigan Goldstein: OLD BABY, MAD KING – July 4th (2025)

So much in this exhibit to think about, such as, is a paper “quilt” a quilt as we think about it? I don’t know, but that’s trivial compared to the issue being raised. The fact that it is cut out from a single newspaper is remarkable.

Layered, Collage Quilts

Sandra Mollon: Crossing the Mkuze River
This quilt won the Stevii Graves Memorial Director’s Choice Award.

Sandra Mollon had more than one quilt in this show, and several of her students also had quilts; I liked that all the photographs were attributed. In addition, Road hosted a special exhibit of some of her landscape quilts. They were all so beautifully rendered.

Sandra Mollon: Toroweap Overlook

I’ve always wanted to make one of these, but they look so daunting!

Sandra Mollon: Valley View Yosemite

This holds a special fascination for me, as this valley is where my husband proposed to me.

Sandra Mollon: Smoky Mountain Vista

Sandra Mollon: Boulders at Lower Yosemite Falls

Ricki Selva: Isbjørn

They had lights shining upwards underneath the quilts, so the value on this is slightly changed: the entire quilt was richly hued.

Angie Tustison: Cathedral Trees

Ricki Selva: Emerald Miles

Another amazing quilt by Ricki Selva (and great story).

Mimi Ghauri-Young: Stag’s Leap

The detail in the lower river was quite perfect.

Are your eyes crossing yet? So many beautiful quilts, and I know this has been a long post. Just a few more until next post, when I show just a few more.

Kestral Michaud: Echoes of Time and Magic

Similar techniques, but such a different flavor of quilt.

How about this for a change of pace?

Anne Kobus: Let’s Get This Party Started!

More color!

Carlton Brown: Destiny Calling 2

Robyn Phelps: Jasper

Made from Maggie Walker fabrics, which inspired her design. Gorgeous quilting, too.

Last one for this post.

Ricky Tims: The Visitation (loved the quilting in the background).

Time to end!

I’ll link over the next post when I get it written. Hope you enjoyed seeing these quilts!

(It’s been windy here for several days!)

300 and Beyond · Carrefour Quilt Show · European Patchwork Meeting · Free Quilt Pattern · Quilts · SAHRR 2026 · Sewing

Curves take Stay at Home Round Robin #4 by Storm!

February 16, 2026February 17, 2026 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

This is where I left Round Three of the Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR 2026), our last round. The new prompt for Round Four was “curves.” I’d been writing up my posts from the quilt show I attended in France last year, the Carrefour European Patchwork Show, and kept seeing some curvy eye candy from 2025 and 2024:

And I’d also been working on a new quilt (my Blossom pattern):

And these two borders (from earlier quilts) were running around in the back of my mind, too.

And if you can throw a rainbow in somewhere, why not? This was the sketch I drew up.

I am a fan of cutting my leaf/petal shapes out of freezer paper, putting the shiny side up, then ironing the seam allowance up over the edge.

Sometimes, if I cut the paper too liberally, I have to shave off the points to get them to fit. You can see the cuttings from this pair. I learned that it’s easier to sew all the background squares together, then appliqué the shapes.

Finished, and putting away my recent birthday present from my husband: red scissors. I often carry around a small image of what I’m working on, as I sew in many places. This round it was my son’s home, a long car ride, and a doctor’s office where invariably someone asks what I’m doing.

SAHRR Tip Sheet Round Four Download

Here’s the handout from this week, with the size I worked up (3 3/4″ petals) and a 3 1/2″ size (more common). Click on title to see the handout, and click on download to get one for yourself, free.

Even though I measured and measured, I still had to add on a coping strip on two edges. I think it looks okay, though. (Update 2/17/26: a daytime photo, plus two detail shots.) Dimensions: about 43″ square.

Making Curves is the theme for Round Four of the Stay at Home Round Robin. I’ve seen some pretty terrific curves this round,

Many thanks to the hosts and organizers of this fun experience. Only two more prompts to go!

The SAHRR schedule:
*January 14: Center Blocks, led by Gail and shared by each co-leader
*January 21: 1st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
*January 28: 2nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
*February 4: 3rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
*February 11: 4th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
February 18: 5th Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail
February 25: 6th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
[An asterisk* means I finished that section.]

Referenced Posts

Carrefour European Patchwork Show Index/Main Page

Sunny Flowers Quilt (Blockbase+ Launch)
Sunny Flowers Quilt: tips on making a leafy/petal border

Twilight Garden

Carrefour Quilt Show · eQuilt Universe · European Patchwork Meeting · Quilt Shows · Quilts

Carrefour V: Tania Tanti, Fiona Lindsay, Janet Bear, He Ok Chang, & Quilts from Kazakhstan

February 9, 2026February 10, 2026 Elizabeth E.1 Comment

This post about the Carrefour European Patchwork show 2025 covers:

• Venue 10: Chapell St. Blaise, with Tania Tanti
• Venue 11: Église St. Nicolas, with a quick look at embroideries sponsored by Guldusi
• Venue 12: Salle Des Fêtes, with Fiona Lindsay, Jenny Bear, Hae Ok Chang, Patchwork Association of Kazakhstan

I have a main Carrefour Quilt Show page that lists all the posts of all the meetings I’ve gone to, and includes the posts from this year too. If I haven’t mentioned it before, you might enjoy these posts more if seen on a desktop computer or even a tablet. Cell phones re-format the layout and can sometimes do strange things to how it looks on the screen.

If you are interested in going to Carrefour, I wrote two posts for them about our travel, and how we put the trip together. You can find them here and here. Their main website is HERE, where you can subscribe to their newsletter (scroll to the bottom).

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Now that the orientation is complete, the story is that last year my husband and I had a chance to go to the Carrefour European Patchwork Show in the Silver Valley, near Colmar France. That’s called the Val d’Argent, in France in the Alsace region, and yes, there is great food and beautiful countryside. One of the things we like about this show is that is spread out over four small towns in the valley, and they use churches and community centers and municipal buildings, so you really get a feel for being in that area.

Venue 10: Chapell St. Blaise

Venue 10 is a small little chapel, the Chapelle St. Blaise, basically a one-room church. I stood there for a long time but that man wouldn’t move from the doorway…so I erased him. (!) Let’s see if this video will embed:

Click on image to start the movie. The voice you hear is the artist, Tania Tanti, talking to some quilters about her technique. Now to see some of her quilts. Many are not pieced, but instead are painted with textile paints then quilted and embellished.

The is quilt that starts the movie, above.

Click on any photo to enlarge. I took detail shots so you could see the amazing amount of work in each of her pieces.

Please click if you want it larger.

Red, Rock, River by Tania Tanti. She writes: “I dream of flying over the red centre after a torrential rain. An aerial view of where the water wiggles its way around the earth. It feeds the ground and creates growth from the earth.” In her technique section she writes: “Procion dyes, painted, pieced, binding, trapunto, hand-stitched, sit-down free motion quilting.”

She writes: “At then beginning of this year I faced my second battle with breast cancer. As soon as I could I got back into my studio and focused on small achievements each day. This is my Recovery.” And that is the title: Recovery. Technique: Painted, free-motion quilting, hand-quilting.

Tania Tanti is on Instagram, if you’d like to keep up with her.

I looked behind the wall to see this spare room in this church.

Look carefully: a spider! (not our car)

Onward, through the valley.

Venue 11: Église St. Nicolas

Hopefully you can hear the bells. Right after this, we went for a take-out lunch from the local market. The choices were rather cleaned out, but we found something. There were a lot of quilters there — so happy to see this!

I admire and enjoy the art of these churches. The exhibit here was titled Guldisi, which is a hand embroidery program launched in 2004 (quoting from the catalogue), which “now enables 200 women in Afghanistan to support their families….Each piece will include at least one silk embroidery in the shape of a triangle, created by the Afghan Woman.

Ingrid Meier, from Germany. Title: *Aller guten dinge sind drei*, or *All Good Things Come in Threes.*

There were also many embroideries, which I found fascinating, and which included some blackwork/redwork.

These two signs were somewhere on the wall; click to read.

Venue 12: Salle Des Fêtes

We drive to the Salle des Fétes, or the Party Room…and they are having quite the party!

A gathering.

A glimpse of a quilt.

And we meet Jenny Bear! She is a renowned quilter from Australia, known for her scrappy quilts, but exquisitely put together. The catalogue called her “Happily Scrappy” and said that “Jenny’s quilts are a celebration of social history, fabric, color, frugality, and the art of making do. She loves using her stash of antique, vintage and reproduction fabrics as well as rescuing old, unquiltable or broken tops, fragments, orphan blocks and tiny scraps to make something beautiful from them. Her favorite quilts are simple, utilitarian and achievable by anyone who loves to sew.”

She “has been making quilts for more than 40 years….and after her exhibition here, she hopes that her quilt making will return to hobby level and that there may again be time for housework and gardening” (from catalogue).

Everyone was busy, but I loved that quilt on the table.

And on another table, it looked like she was creating something new:

Such a rich tapestry of fabrics and piecing…it just glows.

This was a favorite, but I do love stars.

Simple, yet so powerful in its design.

My orphan quilts never look like this.
This is Sweet Georgia Brown, from 2023. She writes: “Using antique fabrics dating from around 1840 to 1910, this hotchpotch of oddment blocks was inspired by an early twentieth century piece featured in “Unconventional and Unexpected” by Roderick Kiracofe, a book that has inspired many a quilt of mine. Many of the blocks were gifts from friends or purchased from Jane Lury and David Hubert. It is indeed happily scrappy.”

A giant block-swap brought Under the Greenwood Trees to life.

Last one of Jenny’s is Scrappier Bennington Baskets. It is made by Jenny Bear, and quilted by Karen Terrens. The title card says: “This is a scrappier version of Linda Collins’ “Bennington Baskets” featured in her book with Quiltmania “Treasures from the Barn.” The basket block is traditional but the setting is quite quirky, especially with the row of oddment blocks at the top in the original, but at the bottom in my version.” Mixing blocks is a great idea, one to try for sure.

She’s on Instagram if you want to see more.

Right next to Jenny’s was the Kazakhstan quilts, a collection brought to Carrefour by the Kazakhstan Patchwork Association. This was founded in 2013, and has over 180 members “dedicated to promoting and developing ethnic-style patchwork (Kurak) and art quilts. The organize workshops, competitions, and the annual Orient Bazaar Festival.” The catalogue goes on to say that “this exhibition merges historical tradition with modern outlook in Kazakh quilting. At its heart is Tuskiiz-traditional wall coverings reflecting Kazakh nomadic culture.”

How many of us have made house-block quilts? Here’s one, using their traditional home, a yurt. A house quilt, but from a different land.

A quilt we are familiar with, but the motifs are all germane to their culture and country.

Click to enlarge.

Natalya Mametniquazova Tamara Stroscherer (at least I think that’s her name, or their names?) made a series of four garments, titled “Four Seasons Chapan Series” with Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

A couple more from this country:

There were several artists in this Party Room. We have two more to go, if you are still with me!

Hae Ok Chang, South Korea

Hae Ok Chang, from South Korea, blends Korean and Western influences in a style that ranges from contemporary to traditional. One of her more well-known quilts has snowflakes on a traditional pieced quilt:

Here is another Snowflakes quilt, Snowflakes_04.

She writes: “Hesitating to start a large piece as my strength waned with age, I began a joint work with my daughter. She created the background, I made the snowflakes. Inspired by the night sky over St. John’s Catholic Church, it evokes angel wings and a chorus of family and friends” (from title card).

It is heavily quilted by machine, with hand-embroidered snowflakes.

She also makes more traditional quilts, such as this one, inspired by pear blossoms.

This was inspired by a trip to the Paducah Quilt Show.

Titled Husband, Chang says she “wanted to weave my retired husband’s neckties into a story. Moments of joy and pride as he walked our daughter down the aisle, welcomed a daughter-in-law, celebrated with friends, and shared hardships. Days of work, success, and failure. I keep his devotion, love, hope, and sorrow close to me. Made in 2007.

This quilt was made in 2012, after her husband passed away. Title: Time and Seasons.

She writes: “After my husband passed away in 2012, I couldn’t bring myself to do anything for a while. I had started this quilt earlier, but left it unfinished. Eventually, I returned to it, intensely embroidering each octagonal block with meadows, flowers, birds, animals, wind, and trees. As I followed the seasons, life slowly returned, and I felt grateful to still have work to do.”
Technique: Machine pieced, hand appliquéd, embroidered and quilted.

Title: Wildflowers 01, by Hae Ok Chang
Title Card: “We three sisters spent hours together knitting, sewing, and making clothes. My eldest sister did everything well, the second was precise and skilled, and I, the youngest, just tried my best. As I embroidered this work, I often thought of them and our time together.”

I have three older sisters, so this one was especially meaningful to me, although we don’t sew together.

Title: Serene Glory

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good photo of the title card. You can find her on Instagram, too.

Fiona Lindsay, from Australia

Fiona Lindsay is our last quilt artist for this post, but not the least! as they say. Also showing in Venue 12, her quilts were a veritable flower garden, a theme of hers, chosen carefully, as she loves sewing and she loves gardening.

She was so fun to talk to, and agreed to let me record her talking about her ideas about color and stitching and practice and quilting. It runs about a minute.

Now, for her garden of flowers!

As a reminder, all the quilts are very well lit up, but the shadows can be very strong. I tried to crop them out/edit them out as best as I could.

Those teensy seeds on the blossom, and the wonderful shape and proportions of this quilt: loved it!

(Click to enlarge.)

Those border vines have an energy all their own.

By now you can see that she can put together fabric combinations and colors with such skill, that she makes it look easy. I love the balance of the stems and the shapes of the flowers, too.

One reason why I do these posts from Carrefour is not only to introduce you to new quilting artists, and to let you glimpse the passions from around the world (which Carrefour is so good at bringing together), but also as sort of a reference book for our own designs. Who would have thought to put a Baltimore-style urn of flowers together (above) with a wild vine running free from tiny pots in the corners? Yet it all works with that pieced border and the wild orange Kaffe fabric sashing. Here’s a closer look:

It was great to see a close-up of her work:

Okay back to the quilts.

And now for the favorite from the last post withf Janet O’Dell’s quilts: the antique quilt, but given a Fiona twist:

In pink! With color!

And now I know the maker of that antique quilt: Ann Marker, from nearly 200 years ago. This truly is free and fabulous appliqué — the joy in these shapes just radiates.

Thank you, Fiona, for all your beautiful flower quilts. You can find her on Instagram.
And thank you to all the other quilters and artists.

I know this was a really really long post, but again I hope you’ll treat it like a reference, as well as a delight. I think I have at least one or two more post in me before finishing; it will come soon. Very soon. (Teaser: next up is Racheldaisy, from Australia.)

300 and Beyond · BlockBase+ · eQuilt Universe · Free Download · Quilts · SAHRR 2026 · This-and-That · Tools of the Trade

This and That • February 2026

February 5, 2026February 9, 2026 Elizabeth E.17 Comments

Update on the SAHRR for 2026: The theme for Round Three was “Animal Kingdom,” so I spent a long time scrolling through my BlockBase+ software (really, it’s Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns in digital form–you should have this). I looked at all the names with something from the animal kingdom and found the one in the upper right corner: Bird’s Eye View.

After all that I sewed for last week’s double-double Round Two, I opted for SAHRR Lite. The yellow border is a sketch — to see if I like it. (I do, but I’m waiting to see what the Round Four prompt is.)

Here’s a free handout to make a 5 1/2″ finished Bird’s Eye View block, if you don’t have BlockBase+.

Handout Round 3 block Download

(I don’t have an illustration for you, but if you click on the title: Handout Round 3 block, it should pop up so you can see it. Then click the Download button to download it for free.)

I rough-cut the rays, then seamed them together. Placing the center line on the seamline, I pinned the pattern down and cut around it. I did use a giant plastic circle to help coax that outer seam allowance into place, pressing the seam allowances over it. I hand-appliquéd the circle. And yes, I didn’t end up using this version in the quilt, but instead made another.

Since this is a This and That Post, here’s the first thing for February: glasses. I’m at the three-glasses stage: one for regular walking-around-life, one for the computer (middle), and a new pair of sunglasses (they’ll come with tinted lenses). I only get the sunglasses every few prescription changes, but definitely the clock is not running backwards for my eyes. I had a new optometrist for this exam, with a brand-new machine, and I was totally impressed with her enthusiasm for All Things Eyes.

I updated my Mercantile Links at the bottom of my blog, and included Harts Fabric. They have a super selection of lots of clothing patterns (including Merchant and Mills) and this new feature if you buy fabric: they’ll pick your matching thread. Whoopee! for those of who have no decent fabric stores now that JoAnn’s is gone.

Because of SAHRR, I’m meeting some new bloggers and Ms P Designs is one. I really liked their guidelines for their PHD. You’ll have to read it to know what I mean. I participated in this kind of thing about six years ago and it really helped me clean out the backlog of projects I’d accumulated. I know there are other Linky Parties out there as well. If you are overwhelmed with Projects Half Done, join one. Because of this post, I dusted off my 2026 list:

I picked some that were new, some that are in process, and some that I need to design. One quilt is on the list because this year is the 250th anniversary of our country, and I wanted to think about how to celebrate it. Obviously with some new stamps…

…as I can certainly celebrate 250 years of the Post Office! Number 4 on my list, above, is about making a red, white, and blue flag day quilt and celebrating those things about my country that I love. I’ll be picking and choosing, and writing about them until July 2026. Here’s another set of beautiful stamps, complete with some cloth:

(You already have read about my affinity for stamps. When I travel overseas, I also buy stamps in whatever country I’m in!)

This stumped me this week. I used this (Kona Wasabi) in an earlier completed quilt and I was trying to recreate that quilt. I didn’t have any of that yellowy-green from Kona as I’ve switched to Painter’s Palette Solids.

QUILTY SOLID TO THE RESCUE!!!

Steph Skardahl, a Very Talented Quilter, put this app together and it’s a-may-zing.

So the original query was if Kona Wasabi was similar to Lemon Ice in Paintbrush Studios’ Painter’s Palette Solids:

I was able to compare it in her “Harmonies” section, which gives readouts for Hue, Saturation and Value. Thank you Steph for this really helpful app.

I have an iPhone (Apple) and this is what the landing page looks like in the App Store. So happy to have this and it’s free!

He always makes me laugh.

Another clever crocheter is here. Go read it for the comments. She asks the people responding to speak about current events as if they were talking about crocheting. I think if we all adopted this language we might not be so grumpy with each other so much.

A little HOORAY for this milestone, and yes, it is already on my 2026 Planned Makes list. I actually have made one more, but I don’t count them until I cut out the back and put it in the box. The original post, with free handout and pattern is here.

We are now eating the front yard’s mandarin oranges! It’s so hard to wait every year until February, but it is now, and we are enjoying them.

So why was I on the hunt for something similar to the Wasabi solid? I gave away one of my favorite quilts and was happy to do so, but I missed it. What made it special was the fabric for the borders, an out-of-print Anna Maria Horner (now known as Anna Maria). Gone. But as I was strolling the vendor aisles at Road to California, oh-my-goodness! There was a whole bolt of that fabric!

It was karma, as I already had a stack of AMH/AM at home, so I was good to go. (I will post about Road in the next couple of weeks, never fear.) And now, with a bunch of petals of Lemon Ice cut, within a couple of days, I was cooking:

Hmmm. Missing one.

I finished it just as the sun went down and rushed out to my back patio to try and catch the last few rays of sun.

On the patio. It’s from my pattern Blossom:

(The original quilt, above.) I also want to make a spring version in a smaller size. The pattern has three sizes of this block, with two different borders. It can be found in my pattern shop, and for this February, it is on sale…and without a coupon! It expires at the end of February. Okay, we are almost finished with this post.

Another wonderful quilter, discovered through another online collaboration, Janine of Rainbow Hare made this wonderful combination of wee blocks. She is also in SAHRR. We have a lot of quilty friends out there!

Sometimes I forget to hold space for my quilting, for creativity. I tend to pack things in, rushing from one thing to another. While the thought above relates to how we treat those close to us, I think sometimes giving my creativity a chance without harsh judgement can be a challenge. Sometimes I need to relinquish control and let serendipity find me, as the Queen Anne fabric found me at Road to California, on a day I was just feeling less than subpar, overwhelmed by all the beautiful quilts as well as by the current events in our country. And then, just like that — the spark came, the space opened, and a quilt was made.