Retreat Time

It's been a hot minute since I've written a blog post! Well, eight days to be exact. That's not typical for me, but I've been on the go. 

Does this look familiar to anyone? Yep. It was my ready-to-take-on-quilt-retreat pile.

With 14 good friends from Central Florida MQG, I went to Luther Springs in Hawthorne, Florida for our annual retreat.

The retreat was four days and three nights, and marked 12 years of our chapter retreating (except for 2020) to Luther Springs. It's a great facility, started by the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) for campers (kids and families) that has become a favorite spot for quilters. Rooms are private or shared,  and good food is prepared by Miss Sarah who has run the place since we started going there in 2014.

Each year I coordinate our group photo-taking. We can be serious, but we sure have fun too! This year our fun picture was of each of us "pumping iron." Ha, ha.

I don't have many finishes, but I feel good about what I accomplished. 

Many triangles went with me that I spent hours sewing into half-square triangles (HSTs), pressing and trimming. These are off-cuts from several years of saving triangles from other projects, so sizes aren't consistent.

The top right six piles have more than 200 HSTs measuring 2¼" X 2¼".  I also have more than 100 2" X 2" HSTs (four piles on the top left side). A few other sizes are there too. Once I cut and sew solid triangles to the print triangles (lower right) I'll see about putting all of these into one quilt top.

I finished hand-appliquéing and then embroidering a Jo Avery design that was in the February issue of Homespun magazine. I had admired the design when Jo shared it on Instagram.

Design by Jo Avery

When I found I could access to our public library's digital issue of Homespun, I was all over printing-out appliqué pieces. Like Jo, I used some Fableism woven fabric and embroidered with 12-weight Aurifil wool using a "Jo Avery Sampler Pack" purchased at QuiltCon. I'm not sure how I'll finish this piece. Hooping would be easy, but where to hang it? 

Otherwise, I spent my time finishing Cipher, my paint chip challenge quilt. I did most of the big stitch hand quilting while on retreat, using-up almost one ball of size 8 Spagetti (Wonderfil) perle cotton. On Tuesday I was able to share my finished quilt at Big Cypress Quilters when we had our challenge reveal.

The finished 55¼" X 67" Cipher quilt looks quite a bit different than the quilt top! Slashing through the design nine times, then resewing to join seams differently, made quite a change.

A couple evenings of at-home knitting and I've finished another round loom knitted Tiny Doll. I just love this aqua color that a friend gave me to use for dolls. The pillow the doll is posed on is another Jo Avery design I made.

I've continued to work on the seed stitch poncho that is a little more than half-way knitted on fairly large - size 11 (8mm) circular needles.

I've come to realize that it's good practice for me to knit one side then turn and purl the other side, as I continue to try to perfect knitting the Continental method. This How to Knit Faster: Speed Knitting for Beginners Continental Style Youtube video by Chandi of Expression Fiber Arts was very helpful! My aim is to get comfortable enough to knit a couple summer tops. 

An update on Twistee Treat, the ice cream shop I'm still waiting to see open near me. This was on Instagram, so.... soon!

Linda

End of April

Being the last day of April, it's time to recap how things went this month. 

No fabric came into my stash, and fabric usage was nominal. Not quite 5 yards went toward piecing a back and sewing facing onto my Paint Chip Challenge quilt, Cipher, (see the back here), and making headbands (see headbands here) to hold back my growing bangs that I can't stand having on my forehead. 

This is Cipher as of today. It's 55" x 67" and looking pretty good. 

I plan to add more big stitch hand quilting, with black perle cotton, to continue to the faux bias tape look in the black-quilted curved areas. I'll be showing the finished quilt at our Tuesday, May 5 Big Cypress Quilters challenge reveal. 

Because I'm going on retreat with members of Central Florida MQG maybe May's fabric use will be slightly higher. Though, because of my burgeoning interest in knitting - new Chiagoo circular needles...

... and several yarns just arrived for a knitted summer top (or two) for myself - fabric use might continue to remain low.

It occurs to me that perhaps my interest in shopping for yarns is due to the fact that I'm not allowing myself to shop for fabric. Hmm... perhaps I'm psyching myself out. I'll be pondering this.

Book Recommendations

What became apparent in April is that I listened to a lot of audiobooks while I was quilting at my Bernina! That's the best way to keep me entertained when stitching repetitive, sometimes boring quilting designs (especially walking foot quilting). 

The 12 audiobook titles, in scored (out of a possible 5.0) and ranked order (according to my designations) are:

Let me just say that The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede is a MUST READ. I sure don't know how I missed this one, but the book was published in 2002, made into a movie in 2009 called Diverted, and made into a musical in 2021 called Come From Away. 

It's a tear-wrenchingly true story about what happened on September 11, 2001 when 38 planes flying internationally to the US were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, Canada. The amazing outpouring of support and care given by the small population of Gander and several nearby smaller towns will warm your heart.

The audiobook is well-narrated by Ray Porter whose voice sounds a little like Tom Hanks.

South of Somewhere by T.I. Lowe opened my eyes about the continual challenges of overcoming alcohol addiction. Due to drunk driving, Junie has lost custody of her young daughter and is just coming out of court-ordered rehab. She wants to prove herself so she can get her daughter back from her brother, but it isn't easy to earn an income, attend AA classes, and be strong in the face of temptations. When a fella from rehab tracks her down and wants to return to their good times relationship, she has to develop more resolve. The next door neighbor offers support, but can Junie trust a quiet man who isn't telling her the whole truth?  

While the City Sleeps is book #1 in the Women of Midtown series by Elizabeth Camden. This story focuses on Katherine who's a New York City dentist in 1913. While under the influence of laughing gas, one of Katherine's patients reveals information about a plot to blow up parts of the city. Since Katherine is friends with police Lieutenant Jonathan Birch who walks her home each night, it's natural that she shares information that could help police locate the bombs and culprits before the next explosion. But Jonathan is also hiding something that could get him evicted from the police force.

Edge of Truth by Janice Cantore is about Lainie Jensen, a Long Beach Police Department detective whose sister has gone missing while vacationing in Hawaii with her husband. It's presumed she died by shark attack. When Lainie goes to Hawaii to learn more herself, she finds an FBI agent she knows is also on the case. While trying not to work with the agent, Lainie begins to understand that her brother-in-law's story isn't holding up to scrutiny. Now she's even more determined to find out what happened to her sister. 

Since watching wonderful viewing version of The Count of Monte Cristo on public television, I've wanted to read that book. It's not available to me as an audiobook. But it got me to thinking about classic books like Catcher in the Rye, Great Expectations, Tale of Two Cities, Atlas Shrugged and the like. Remembering as a teen how much I liked Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier, I thought to listen to that book. Imagine my surprise when I checked out the audiobook version only to discover it was read in French! Well, I knew French in high school, but... ha, ha. That was a quick return. When I couldn't find Rebecca spoken in English, I checked out DuMaurier's The House on the Strand. (By the way, did you know DuMaurier wrote The Birds - the story on which the Alfred Hitchcock movie was based?)

Published in 1969, The House on the Strand is a strange story taking place along the west coast of the UK. Dick Young is staying at a friend's Cornwall home. The friend has supplied Dick with a liquid that he's testing... to time travel. Dick becomes fascinated by the people living in Medieval Cornwall, and it's impacting his present life.

I'm counting The House on the Strand as my "classic" read for April. Let's see what I can find to read listen to in May. 

I'd like to share a YouTube clip recently sent to me by my friend in Ocala (FL), Nancy. She and I are like-minded, so she knew I would appreciate this two-minute video.

The young woman, Julia James Davis, conveys my sentiments - much better than I could - about art made for attention's sake versus art for beauty's sake. I couldn't help but apply this perspective to my thoughts about four, four-letter-word quilts that hung at QuiltCon in February. Those quilts were were, sadly, made for attention value; not beauty. It's disappointing to see such quilts displayed at QuiltCon. 

Linda

Two Almost-Finishes

The past five days have been spent mostly quilting the Paint Chip Challenge quilt, Cipher. I made good progress while listening to several audiobooks! (I'll review those in my End of April blog post.) 

Quilting took longer than I anticipated as I ended up custom quilting all of it - switching feet back and forth from a walking foot to a ruler quilting foot to a free motion quilting foot; and changing thread colors from black to green to light blue to dark blue (with pale green in the bobbin). 

Just as I like, there's lots of texture. 

Also lots of thread-burying! I know some quilters simply shorten their stitch length when they start and stop quilting in the middle of a quilt, then clip the threads. But many years ago I made the decision to always take time to tie and bury threads. I never know which quilt I make might be judged (unless, of course, I'm specifically making a quilt for a charity), so it's always good to put my best foot forward. 

When black perle cotton arrived on Thursday (ordered through an Etsy shop), I was able to start adding big stitches that somewhat mimic the slant of the bias tape. 

I think I'm gonna like it. 

Now I'll stop big stitching for a little bit so as to finish the quilt edges.

Slashing and resewing the quilt as I did (all the way through the top, nine times) gave me uneven edges. I'll trim those off and sew a facing. While I'd initially thought to bind the quilt with the black and white stripe, I decided it would be too distracting from the stripes in the quilt design. Once the facing is on, I can continue to add big stitch hand quilting "as desired." 

That will be good because I can take it on our upcoming Central Florida MQG three-day quilt retreat. Yay!

My second almost-finish is my 41-peg round loom knitted poncho. I completed knitting two panels.

Using a mattress stitch, I sewed the two panels together by hand. It looks okay, but I've decided to use the leftover yarn to crochet around the neck of the poncho. The neckline seems a little loosey-goosey, so maybe crocheting around it will help with stability. The Youtube pattern for the Seed Stitch Poncho is here.

When it's completely done I'll fold it up and put it away until next January. Ha! Poncho-wearing in Florida isn't a thing. Linda

Bicyling... err, Quilting Again

Until it was time to begin quilting my latest quilt - the Paint Chip Challenge quilt I've named Cipher - I didn't realize how long it's been since I quilted! When I began to set up my Bernina 770QE for quilting, I couldn't find my free motion quilting (FMQ) foot - the transparent one that's foot #29. After looking among stored sewing machine feet and in other usual places, I thought to check my Bernina 440QE machine. There it was. It made me realized that the last time I used that foot was demonstrating FMQ when I taught a workshop last September 24! I haven't quilted a quilt since before then! How did that happen?!

So when I started quilting this quilt, I wondered how long it would take until I felt comfortable at it. Well happily, it was no time at all! 

I liken FMQ to riding a bicycle. When you first begin to ride a two-wheeled bike, you practice. By repeatedly trying, you learn how to balance and simultaneously pedal. Perhaps there's a tip-over or fall, but you begin to get the hang of it. Remember the exhilaration of riding freely? Being able to go wherever you wished? And even now, if you haven't bicycled for years you can get back on a bike and remember what to do. You might be a little wobbly at first, but you quickly remember how to find that balance and pedaling rhythm.

And oh my... how fun it is! Feel the wind in your face? Remember the delicious freedom and joy it brings? 

It's exactly like that with quilting. FMQ feels like that. Though walking foot quilting doesn't bring me the same joy, I do that too when it suits a quilt, as is the case with this quilt.

I began with with walking foot quilting to define and continue the visual curves started by partial bias tape curves. Feeling bold, I used 28-weight black thread to emphasize those curves. My Bernina stitch length is set at 3.2 for walking foot quilting. 

Then the happy part! I lowered the feed dogs, lessened the tension (to ensure the light green bobbin thread didn't pull up and show on the quilt top), put on the #29 FMQ foot, and off I went - circles, swirled circles, and wishbones!

I changed the foot to the Bernina #72 ruler quilting foot, and with a ruler quilting straight edge ruler (Westalee brand, backed with skate board tape), filled in angular spaces with straight line quilting.

This is my preferred method for quilting straight lines because I don't have to continually rotate the quilt to follow a straight path. 

You've probably noticed many thread tails. Typically, I prefer to tie and bury those as I go, but since Big Cypress Quilters meet for an open sew on Tuesday, I thought that time could be perfectly spent knotting and thread-burying while visiting with friends. I'll be using my favorite: 1) tweezers to tie the knots; 2) Sench side-threading needles to bury threads; and 3) new LDH curved blade scissors to snip threads. The scissors are lightweight, and work perfectly to clip threads close to the quilt top without nicking fabric. 

I'm more than halfway finished machine quilting. When that's done I'll add big stitch hand quilting using black Wonderfil Eleganza size-8 perle cotton. (For those who want to know, I ordered Eleganza from an Etsy shop. Two balls of perle cotton were $5.60 and shipping was $5. Ergh.) With two weeks until the Paint Chip Challenge deadline, Cipher will be a finish right down to the wire!

My not-at-the-machine time has been spent knitting. Though I've still been making Tiny Dolls, and finishing a round loom knitted poncho for myself, I came across a free pattern for a single-piece, rectangle-shaped knitted poncho. The YouTube video is here. I like this poncho design because it can be worn as a boat neck or V-neck.

I'm making the poncho for a Christmas gift and am using two skeins of Yarn Bee (by Hobby Lobby) super chunky #6 coconut-colored yarn. The knitting pattern is simple - perfect to work on during TV-watching time. Have you been watching The Count of Monte Cristo 8-part TV series on Masterpiece? It's fabulous! I think I need to read the book. 

While golf-carting to line dancing, I stopped to take a picture, thinking you'd enjoy seeing our local wildlife. Can you spot him? 

A 'gator along the bank of a pond... a pond that's becoming shallower each day. Thus far in 2026, our rainfall total is short 13" (79cm), and on Saturday, April 18 we broke a temperature record with a new high of 91℉ (32.8℃).  

And it's only April. Linda

Honoring Dad

On Friday, April 10, 16 family members gathered to inter the cremains of Dad who passed away November 5, 2025 at the age 95.

Though we miss him terribly, we are at peace because we know he was ready to go and be reunited with our Mother who died 23 years ago. 

Each of us was touched by the beautiful military ceremony for Dad who was a Marine Corps veteran. Two Marines solemnly unfurled an American flag and remained at attention while a bugler played taps, followed by an honor guard firing three rifles.

The flag was carefully refolded and presented to my brother with a folder and document from the US government signed by our president.

My brother was also presented with a small sack containing nine shell casings that represent "duty, honor, and country."  

Now, at Leavenworth National Cemetery in Leavenworth, Kansas, Mother and Dad are together again, and united with our Lord Jesus Christ through the resurrection of the dead.

Leavenworth is a lovely, peaceful cemetery. The stone building at the top of the hill plays carillon music, among the tunes being the Marines' hymn.  

The best part of the five-day trip was spending time with family, including our two teenaged grandsons. If you've been reading my blog for a number of years, you've seen each of these boys, Tay and Aesa, when they were newborns - Tay born in Australia; Aesa born in Kansas City. They're very handsome young men now. 💕

I spent a good portion of 40 hours of car time hand-piecing, and hand-appliquing.

Two more columns of hand-pieced Inner City blocks are now joined. 

I also made a good start on Jo Avery's "Dream Flower Posy Hoop Wallhanging" pattern from the February/March issue of Homespun magazine (Australia publication found in my digital public library's Cloud Library app). 

Jo's design @joaverystitch is on the left, a screen shot from Instagram. Mine is on the right. I'm appliquing Fableism and gradated cottons to a linen background. 

I think Dad would appreciate this blog post. He was a loyal blog follower/reader, and when we talked every week would often comment about something I'd posted. I'm glad you're where you wanted to be, Dad. It was good to be with family; it's good to be home again. Linda

Paint Chip Challenge Quilt Top and Back

With my paint chip challenge quilt due May 5, I've pushed myself to the "it's time to make a quilt sandwich" stage. 

This is the quilt top you may have seen in an earlier blog post, when it was 60" X 72". 

I printed the quilt top photo to test how I wanted to slash and re-piece the top. By the way, I Googled cutting up a quilt top and the term for this is "slash quilting." 

The whole quilt top has been slashed and resewn nine times. It's now about 58" X 61". 

I think the disparate curves and angles make the design much more interesting, and my imagination has been piqued about designs to quilt. Mostly I've looked at the abruptly stopped bias tape curves and thought to free motion quilt to continue to the curve... and then, maybe fill in the space with big stitch hand quilting. I'd like to quilt with black perle cotton, but I don't have a lick of black in my perle cotton stash, nor is there any local place to buy Wonderfil or Aurifil. Will see.

Continuing to use stash, I pieced a quilt back that's 61" X 71". 

It was interesting to unearth two pieces of fabric purchased in other countries. The pindot from Australia was bought in 2009 when I was last there. The print from Brazil was a gift from hubs, brought back from that country in 2001 (25 years ago!) when he was there for six weeks on business with John Deere. I'm delighted about using these in this quilt back.

If you're unable to read what's written in bias tape, I'm okay with that. The black and white stripe camouflages the letters that are in Greek. 

What is says is "Jesus is Lord." Linda ✝