“I’m not telling you to take it easy, I am telling you it’s going to be worth it.”
Arthur Williams.
And then the biggest, scariest design challenge was opened up to me…. was I brave enough to follow my muse?
“I made this quilt for ME. To honor my Quilting Journey and to honor my Grandmother, Mother, Sister and all of the stitchers along my way that gave me confidence and inspiration to continue to stitch, to sew, to create. “
she sews
She Sews …
I am sew excited!!! My quilt, “She Sews” was selected as the KCRQF Showcase Quilt that was displayed at the entrance of the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival event this last weekend. I have not really even put my quilts into any competition because I make my quilts for ME. So, this was a unexpected, delightful, amazing surprise that I am still in disbelief. It’s not that I think that my skills are not up to the challenge, because they are! I have over 50+ years of history in stitching. But, when I make quilts for me, the style is not like what you see in competitive quilts. My quilts do not follow any pattern, they are original designs and I use all sorts of techniques and materials within the quilt. Generally, the themes reflect elements of my life or my style. I generally do not follow the current trends for My Quilts.
The Showcase Challenge quilt at KCRQF is chosen based on the current festival theme and only stitchers from one of the seventeen (17) quilt guilds are allowed to participate. The 2025 KCRQF theme was “Celebrating Quilting Journeys”. Join us to commemorate KCRQF’s 10th Anniversary, Midwest quilting roots, and your personal quilting journeys.
I have to share with you that I immediately decided to honor my Grandma Margaret Anderson somehow in this quilt. Grandma Margaret is the person who started me on my sewing journey. Grandma came to America as a Swedish immigrant, at age 15, with her Mother and Aunt. She came to America passing through Ellis Island where she changed her name. Margaret Anderson was born Greta Rydell and as she entered into the United State chose to change her name to be more “American”. This is when she became “Margaret Rydell”, later to be married to Algot and taking his name of Anderson.. I still ponder what would make anyone decide to change their name? Their dedication to become an American was strong! They were so brave to come to the New World. These three (3) women traveled with everything necessary and treasured in one (1) steamer trunk shared by all of them. They traveled west and settled into the town of Scandia, Kansas a town settle by Swedish immigrants.
I loved the summertime being out of school. And a time that me and my big sister, Kris, would travel to Scandia to spend a few weeks with our Grandparents. We were so lucky because all of Grandparents lived there. We would hop back and forth between their houses to enjoy the summertime and hugs from all of them. It was during one of these summer vacations that Grandma Anderson gave me a legacy of quilting.
My Grandma was an amazing seamstress!! She made her clothes, housewares, crafts and even crazy quilts for the local senior center. I loved to watch her stitching away on her Singer Sewing Machine. Now, from what I remember my Grandma was not immediately willing to teach me how to sew. I was eight (8) years old and I wanted to use her sewing machine and she did not want me to brake it. So, she started off teaching me to cut out my fabrics. I was to make 9-patch quilt blocks. I remember shopping her stash of fabric leftovers. (No new fabrics) Her collection included solids and prints, both cottons and blends. Each different fabric already came with a story of why she liked it and what she had made from it. My 9-patch quilt blocks began with a 4″ square that she cut from cardboard and then glued fine sandpaper to the back to keep it from slipping. I still have this cardboard square but I guarantee that it is no longer a perfect 4″. Carefully tracing around the square with a pencil. I cut and cut and cut out each square. Piles of solids and piles of prints gathered into a shoebox. Just when I thought I had cut enough, Grandma made me cut more! I really think she was just keeping me busy and putting off having to teach me to sew. But I loved it!! I continued to cut until my shoebox was full and then I begged her to “Let Me Sew!” And then the Magic began….
Hand-stitching was my start into sewing. Grandma would thread the needle and show me how to weave the thread in and out of the fabrics. The seamlines were drawn with a pencil to try to keep me in line. Actually I would have to admit that I did pretty good following the lines. I worked hard to handle the needle but kept my eye on that Singer Sewing machine. And after several days of stitching and many, many begging sessions, Grandma allowed me to stitch on her Singer. I was running out of summer vacation and wanted on that machine before I headed home. That summer is where my sewing journey began. It opened up my world and I came home and took over my Mom’s Singer and I have never looked back.
When I committed myself to entering a quilt into the Showcase Challenge I knew that I wanted to honor my Grandma Anderson but was not sure how. I thought I would use a silhouette of a women standing with a sewing machine or honor the state of Kansas by including elements of the Wizard of OZ. I started and restarted the quilt with so many iterations. Months went by and I was not sure that I was even going to make a quilt. But, I wanted to challenge myself to make this happen, to set a goal and follow through to the end. Then one day, when I was looking through my stash for fabrics for inspiration I found my box of 9-patch blocks. You see, I still had these blocks, each still just a 9-patch. I have kept these blocks and moved them to 4 different homes. I pulled them out to touch and hold them hoping for inspiration from my Grandma’s spirit to make this quilt. And then it hit me that I would somehow add these blocks into my quilt. But how?
I started with 9-patch blocks that my eight (8) year old self had handstitched and machine stitched together. Each was made from my Grandma’s scraps from garments and projects she had stitched. These fabrics were from 1960’s and early 70’s showing off their history. The prints and colors were bold and bright! They were recreated into Disappearing 9-patch blocks with many wonky seams. I dug into my stash and found a bag full of white and off-white scraps from Covid masks and decided to strip piece these into random 6″ blocks. I often love to recycle scraps into unexpected blocks. It gives me such satisfaction to give these scraps a purpose and use them up! These white blocks were planned to be a backdrop for a field of poppies. I laid all the components out onto my design wall and struggled with how to bring is all together? I wanted a sky and rainbow. I needed the silhouette of the women who inspired me. In some small way I wanted to create a Yellow Brick Road back to Kansas. I was missing something…
“I, Myself am entirely made of flaws… Stitched together with good intentions.” I have learned to let myself be open to anything. The creative universe will give me ideas, even if I don’t understand them, at first. I still must trust the process. As I stared at this broken quilt on the wall I also searched for inspiration, in the world on Pinterest, in books and everywhere. One of my current favorite artists is Robert Mars. He is fine artist that has a very unique style combining quilt type prints with graphics. Additionally, Luke Haynes, a quilting artist with a modern twist combining quilt blocks with portraits. These styles called to me and I wanted my quilt to have elements of their style. This is how I chose to add a portrait onto my quilt. I wanted to honor my eight (8) year old self by adding a photo of myself that was taken at that age. I know exactly the photo of me standing outside my childhood home on the porch in a cute dress, blonde hair and a little attitude. I remember this photo in great detail…. so I started the search to find that photo.
Trust the process…. be open to new ideas. I decided to proceed with stitching together the quilt blocks and worked to add a sky corner. I planned and stitched the sky corner three times. I wanted a rainbow but it wasn’t working. There was too much competition between the sky and the rest of the quilt. Then I was shopping at The Fabric Chic, my local quilt shop and spied a pillow that had a patchwork pattern that combined solid fabrics with pieces blocks. I went home to stitch it up …. and it worked! No rainbow. Now with a completed sky block, I completed the quilt top and proceeded to quilt it on my Innova longarm. I chose a stitch designs to reflect “weaving together”. I adjusted the size and shape of the design to complement the quilt blocks and completed the stitching. And then the biggest, scariest design challenge was opened up to me…. was I brave enough to follow my muse?
My search for the photo of my young self was not leading to success. I searched all of my photo albums and files. I called my sister to see if she had any childhood photos of me. I know exactly which photo I wanted to use! This quilt would not come together without it. What was I going to do? I just continued to work on the quilt without it until I had to have it. And then, it came to me, standing there on a weekend. Standing in front of me was Lily, my Granddaughter! Now she is eleven and too old for my vision but…. I could use a photo of her at eight instead of me. And it proved to be a lot easier to find a photo of her than me. This photo of Lily was the right age, blonde hair and of course, attitude! I converted it to black and white and ordered it enlarged onto fabric from Fabric on Demand. I chose to add stitching to Lily accenting the details of her photo. I layered the photo with batting and muslin and proceeded to quilt it to prepare it to be added to the quilt top.
I have to be Brave. “I’m not telling you to take it easy, I am telling you it’s going to be worth it.” Arthur Williams. I had the quilt top stitched, quilted and bound. And I was working to add Lily and other elements to finish my design. But, there was a design element that had to happen that scared me. If it messed up, it was over. The quilt would be ruined. I had decided to dye the entire quilt (before adding Lily) with an Indigo dye bath. So I reached out to my friend Ann Greenleaf, a textile artist in Kansas City who specializes in Shibori dye, to understand how to make this happen. Thanks to Ann, I had the knowledge of how to do it, now I had to be brave enough to do it! I used my washing machine as the dye bath. I added the dye and additives and then it was time to add the quilt. Here we go!!
I love buttons, old buttons. I have jars and boxes of buttons in my studio. I love to look at them and sometimes, I love to add them to my projects. This was one of those projects. I planned to create a field of poppies and add black buttons for the flower centers. I created three different Poppy shapes and cut out 100 to be added to the quilt. I also decided that I wanted words on the quilt. After much thought and research I came back to my original design of adding “She Sews” in letters to the quilt. Then I added the element of chenille trim. I added chenille around the perimeter of the quilt and to the letters to add 3 dimension to the words. This left me with putting on the final component… Lily. All of these layers and toppings coming together into a quilt that is now a honored collection of memories.
I made this quilt for ME. To honor my Quilting Journey and to honor my Grandmother, Mother, Sister and all of the stitchers along my way that gave me confidence and inspiration to continue to stitch, to sew, to create.