Let’s Eat at the National Quilt Museum

May 9, 2026 No Comments

I loved spending a couple of hours at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah!! One of my favorite exhibits was this one….

Part of my excitement was that my friend, Rosie, had a quilt in this exhibit….

“A Slice of Culinary Life” by Rosell Crockett

She used the Drunkard’s Path block to GREAT effect, and added cute sayings as well…

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She made good use of 9-Patches and “Wheel of Fortune” blocks to create this retro kitchen!!

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“Girl with a Pearl Onion Earring” by Lisa Arthaud

Lisa used so much imagination in this quilt….

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Just look at her use of “Courthouse Step” blocks for the basket….

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“Old and New, Borrowed and Blue” by Maggie Ward

I love the Double Wedding Ring designs, but what really caught my eye was the lace on the cake layers…

It added a fun touch to the quilt.

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The clamshell blocks were hand-embroidered and added much texture, as did the detailed quilting.

Come back tomorrow and we will look at more of these quilts.

You DON’T want to miss the 1st-place quilt… it is OUTSTANDING!!!

Writing this post has made me hungry, so I am off to eat Indian food that my husband made for me!!

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One Decision at a Time!

May 8, 2026 No Comments

Yesterday, I wrote about making decisions for this quilt…..

….and that included quilting decisions too.

I finally decided to start with what I knew I wanted to quilt…. straight lines following the diagonals….

When I get through with those, then I will make the NEXT decision and continue……

ONE DECISION AT A TIME!!

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Where do I go from here?

May 7, 2026 8 Comments

In my quickie update about the retreat, I showed you the work that I had done on the scrap quilt I am making for Claire…

Once I had these blocks sewn together, I was paralyzed about what to do next.

My original plan was to applique big flowers in each of the white spaces, but it just didn’t seem appropriate now!

I was also struggling with what type of border to add. I played with a couple of ideas along these lines….

…but nothing seemed to be working.

Deb H. suggested that a black border would be too heavy, but that using black for the binding might be perfect. SUCH a good idea!!

When I got home, I put it on the design wall and started playing more with borders. I liked the idea of two borders, and loved the yellow….

But as I looked more, I realized that I wanted to continue the checkerboard pattern into the border, so now I am thinking along these lines….

I liked this idea, but knew that piecing would be difficult….but where is the fun if everything is EASY!!

I started by sewing long strips of yellow and blue together, then added the first border with the B-W-B three-patch…

I decided that I needed to miter the corners, and they were MOSTLY successful. As usual, there was one that just wouldn’t work right, but we aren’t going to worry about that!!

I added the outer border with the additional black squares next.

I like how this looks, especially with a black binding in the future….

But I am stuck again!!

NOW….it looks TOO plain, so maybe I need to add my flowers???

I decided to let it “rest” for a few days and see if inspiration strikes.

Come back for more!!

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Full Color pattern includes step by step instructions for blocks and border.

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Quilts and Other Stuff from Frances