Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes

by Dawn Posted on October 19, 2025

Oh wait, that’s not right. This is more like it:  Hubby Needs a New Bathrobe.

And now he has one:

Yes, the Dear Husband has a new bathrobe to replace the last one I made him, which was completely worn out. I confess: it was more than worn out. The cuffs on the sleeves were so frayed that I resorted to turning the ends inside and stitching new hems as a temporary measure while I made him a new robe.

I found the perfect fabric at Montavilla Sewing Center in Lake Oswego where I teach: a honeycomb design on a midnight blue background, part of the “Patchwork Blue” line from Maywood Studio. It paired beautifully with the midnight blue blender (“Shadow Play,” also from Maywood) that I used for the front band, tie belt, and pocket trim:

My view of the DH reading the newspaper every morning at the dining room table just got better!

 

 

 

Posted in bathrobe, family, garment sewing, update | 4 Comments

Silver Threads Among the Gold

by Dawn Posted on September 27, 2025

The piecing of my current project, a holiday wall quilt made from my Season to Taste pattern, is complete:

Here’s a close-up of the top block with the accent strips added above and below:

You can probably tell that most of the fabrics in the kaleidoscope triangles have gold metallic accents but what you can’t see is that the background fabric also has a touch of metallic. This particular shade of white “Grunge” by BasicGrey for Moda Fabrics has a slightly yellowish cast in places that looks like gold but there are also silver metallic threads running all through the fabric that add even more sparkle. The effect is subtle but sophisticated.

I’m eager to get a backing made and get this quilted. Inspiration hasn’t yet struck on a name. The fabric line is “Enchanted Christmas” by Makower UK Fabrics so maybe I should name this small quilt Enchanted Forest in honor of the majestic reindeer inhabiting it. Just look at those gold filigreed antlers!

 

 

 

Posted in home dec, kaleidoscope quilts, snowball blocks, stitch-and-flip corners, table runner, update, wall hanging | 3 Comments

“Season To Taste” Update

by Dawn Posted on September 15, 2025

The latest version of my kaleidoscope pattern Season to Taste is coming along, albeit at a snail’s pace. Carving out time to spend in my sewing room when the garden is in full swing is a tough row to hoe. How’s that for mixing metaphors?

Here’s a shot of the first block, with my pattern shown for reference:

Finally I got the second and third blocks put together. It took an inordinate amount of time (i.e. a ridiculously long time) to settle on the final placement of the triangles in each block, especially the triangles containing the reindeer. Even though I envision this as a wall hanging with a definite layout from top to bottom, I couldn’t help but consider what the blocks would look like in a table runner. I wanted the reindeer to be well placed no matter whether the quilt was viewed as vertical (as in a wall hanging) or horizontal (as in a table runner). Crazy, I know!

So this is where we are:


No turning back now. I’ve sewn the white corner triangles on the blocks. They’re slightly oversized so I can trim them to exact size before sewing the strips between the blocks.

Here are close-ups of the other two blocks, first the middle one . . .

. . . and then the bottom one:

 

So close now! Let’s hope you won’t have to wait too long for the next blog post showing the completed quilt top.

 

 

 

Posted in home dec, kaleidoscope quilts, snowball blocks, stitch-and-flip corners, table runner, update, wall hanging | 2 Comments

A Near Finish and a Fresh Start

by Dawn Posted on August 20, 2025

My fractured image quilt, now officially named Fractured Ferns and Flowers, is all done (except for the label, that is):

I’m in a hurry to show it to you because I’ve already jumped to the next project (more on that below). Here’s a closer look at the quilting on my fractured image — random wavy lines stitched diagonally from corner to corner with a walking foot:

A close-up of one corner:

Can you tell I used two threads, a pale green and a medium blue? That wasn’t intentional. I started with the light green and quilted two curved lines. Then I tried a green variegated thread that I really liked but took out because it was a heavier weight thread and showed up on the fabric more than I wanted. I decided to test the blue thread after removing the variegated thread. I really liked the look of that and probably would have quilted the entire top in blue if I’d started with it. That’s when it occurred to me to use two different colors. Why not? Every third curve is stitched with blue. Not exactly random but the effect is random. By the way, Fractured Ferns and Flowers measures 31½” x 36½”.

I vowed to finish this project before starting another but . . . my resolve slipped and over the last several days I have been stealing up to my sewing room, cutting 45 degree triangles from the holiday fabrics I showed you in my last post . . .

. . . and playing around with their positions in kaleidoscope blocks:

There is one change from my original fabric pull: I replaced a dark green print with a medium light green print after discovering that three dark green triangles overpowered the block. Sometimes you just have to play around with color, scale, and value to get the right balance. That’s part of the fun — and for me, the challenge — of quiltmaking.

I’m still playing around with placement possibilities but I couldn’t resist going the next step: adding the sashing strips and sewing the the triangles together:

How festive is that??

 

 

 

Posted in fractured image, home dec, kaleidoscope quilts, single-fold binding, table runner, update, wall hanging | 4 Comments

Christmas in July

by Dawn Posted on July 30, 2025

If you’re a quilter who subscribes to quilt shop websites or has been in a quilt shop recently, you probably know that July is the month that holiday and Christmas-themed fabric lines hit the quilt shops. It may seem funny to be thinking about such things at the height of summer but when dazzling arrays of holiday prints start appearing in shops and flooding your phone and tablet screens — well, let’s just say some of those fabrics can be mighty hard to resist any time of year.

I’ve been tempted by several new collections but it’s a line of fabric from 2024 that caught my eye: “Enchanted Christmas” by Makower UK Fabrics. The Dear Husband and I took a little road trip to Walla Walla, Washington in June, which is where I came across these lovely fabrics at a quilt shop called Stash:

I could visualize these prints in a kaleidoscope quilt with the reindeer fussy-cut to show them off to best advantage. But I needed a few more fabrics. Back home in Portland I raided my stash and added these to the mix:

And then just a few days ago I found the perfect background fabric at the quilt shop where I teach, the Lake Oswego branch of Montavilla Sewing Centers:

That’s a creamy white Grunge from BasicGrey for Moda Fabrics — and it has gold sparkles in it!

And the kaleidoscope quilt pattern? It just happens to be one of my own:

I’ve already made a version of Season to Taste with holiday fabrics . . .

. . . but I wound up giving it as a Christmas gift to my twin sister Diane in 2021. Funny, I didn’t remember until pulling up the photo just now that it also has reindeer in it.

By the way, the name of my quilt pattern is a reference to making wall hangings or table runners that reflect the four seasons. Here are my four:

You can probably tell the order of seasons in the photo above is spring, summer, fall, and winter.

I’m so looking forward to cutting into my new fabrics but I won’t allow myself to begin until I’ve finished my current project. And just so you know, quilting has commenced!

Posted in family, home dec, kaleidoscope quilts, table runner, update, wall hanging | 4 Comments

A Pillowcase for Jan

by Dawn Posted on July 24, 2025

Today I visited a dear family friend I have known since I was six years old and delivered this sweet pillowcase as a surprise for her:

It was made using my own free tutorial.

Jan is now in her late 80s and living in a residential memory care facility. Fortunately, it’s less than two miles from my home so I’m able to stop by and visit her a couple times a week. When Jan was moved there last December, I gave her a quilt I had recently completed so her new home would have a splash of color:

Perhaps you recognize the Picnic Quilt, the first of three quilts I made last year from a free pattern from Cloud 9 Fabrics called Ribbon Box. I chose the fabrics for Jan’s pillowcase with the Picnic Quilt in mind.

Here’s a close-up of the pillowcase fabrics because the photo at the top of this post doesn’t do them justice:

The main body of the pillowcase is a leaf print from the “Garden Dreams” line by Amber Elliot for Riley Blake Designs. The narrow uneven stripe used for the bottom band is from the Tilda Classic Basics Collection. (The selvage information calls it “Pen Stripe Light Blue” but it definitely reads as aqua to me.) I bought those two fabrics specifically for Jan’s pillowcase — and I liked the fabrics so much I bought enough to make a pair for the Portland White House. The sage green fabric used for the folded flange is an older piece from my stash, designed by Barbara Brackman for one of the “Morris Tapestry” lines for Moda.

I’m delighted to report that 1) the pillowcase looks great with the quilt, and 2) Jan loves them both!

 

 

 

Posted in family, home dec, picnic quilt, pillowcases, Ribbon Box quilt, tutorial, update | 3 Comments

Floral Fracture: Framed

by Dawn Posted on July 21, 2025

It’s taken forever and a day (or so it seems) to get the folded flange and border attached to my fractured image:

I blame the weather. It’s been so sunny and dry in Portland since my last post that the Dear Husband and I have been spending an inordinate amount of time outside. Watering and weeding, weeding and watering. (Big sigh.) I shouldn’t complain because we’ve been enjoying the bounty our small urban garden is providing: rhubarb, raspberries, French filet bush beans, perfectly plump Early Girl tomatoes, potatoes, apples, and all manner of herbs. It’s ever so satisfying to venture out into the backyard and gather whatever herbs are going into our dinner. I’ve already made a big batch of pesto using basil, parsley, and sorrel — and now all three are begging to be picked again. Oh, and we are going to have an artichoke!

Now that my floral fracture is framed (so to speak), it’s time to make a quilt sandwich and get to the quilting. I’m auditioning a variety of thread colors by pooling them on the quilt top:

It’s rather hard to see the thread but that’s the point: I want the quilting to add subtle texture without it being the first thing you notice when you look at the finished product. I’ve decided to quilt simple wavy lines diagonally across the quilt. I may wind up testing the thread colors on a scrap to help me decide whether to go with green, aqua, or a variegated green/blue thread.

I’d really like to get this wrapped up in order to move on to the next project, which I am already dreaming about.

 

 

 

Posted in family, fractured image, update | 5 Comments

Floral Fracture, Before and After

by Dawn Posted on June 30, 2025

My fractured image is complete but before I show it to you, take a look at the original floral design:

Isn’t that gorgeous? It’s the focus fabric from Jason Yenter’s “Unusual Garden” line for In the Beginning Fabrics dating back to 2017.

Now look at my fractured image:

You’re getting the full ripples-in-a-pond effect that fracturing an image creates.

As I was looking at this on my design wall, I wondered what it would look like turned on its side:

Wow! I really like the look of that. Most floral designs have a definite top and bottom but Jason Yenter’s design is more versatile than that. Maybe that’s why he named it “Unusual Garden.”

Just for fun, I gave my image another quarter turn:

And then another:


I must say I like them all, even though I do have a favorite. (Do you?) Since this is going to be a wall hanging, I don’t really have to choose, do I? I could hang it any one of four ways. As my twin sister Diane (visiting from Georgia) pointed out, “You can’t lose!”

Following the lead of my friend Lynn, who fractured the very same image, I’m going to add a very narrow flange of mossy green and finish it with a narrow solid black border. Since this is so small I’ll quilt it myself. The next big decisions are what color thread to use and what quilt design to employ. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

Posted in family, fractured image, update | 6 Comments

UFO Sighting: Fractured Image from 2019

by Dawn Posted on June 27, 2025

A couple of weeks ago I was digging through a dresser drawer in my sewing room looking for a scrap of fusible interfacing to use in making a quilt label. In the process I pulled out a mysterious bundle, which turned out to be a folded piece of gridded flannel onto which I had pinned 143 — count’ em! — 3-inch squares:

Apparently I set this project aside in 2019 — the year I taught a Fractured Image class at Montavilla Sewing — and promptly forgot about it. Don’t you think it’s high time I finished it?

I started sewing rows together from the bottom up (for the simple reason they were easier to get to). Here’s how far I’ve gotten:

Can you see how the rather abstract medley of blossoms, leaves, and ferns is coming together to form a striking ripples-in-a-pond effect? It starts with an image cut from four repeats of fabric, and the magic is in the cutting and arranging of squares. Unlike a four-patch kaleidoscope block in which four layers are stacked on top of each other and cut into squares, a fractured image is created by trimming the second, third, and fourth repeats a certain way before cutting them into squares. When the squares are sewn back together, the result is a fractured image. It sounds complicated but it’s very easy.

Here’s a better shot of the rows I’ve finished so far:

If you look carefully at some of the squares, you should be able to see how any two squares viewed side-by-side or top-to-bottom share design elements.

I first learned about fractured images in a class I took in the summer of 2010 from Johanne Gibson in Sisters, Oregon. After getting back to the project you see above, I rummaged around in my sewing room closet and unearthed several projects I had fractured in the past, including some I had completely forgotten about.

Here is the result of that first class with Johanne:

No doubt the Kaffe Fassett fans reading this will recognize the fabric immediately. Using 3″ squares, my first fractured image measures 28½” x 34″. This could easily be transformed into a wall hanging by quilting and binding it as is. Or I could add a narrow border and finish it. Or it could be the centerpiece of a larger quilt. So many options!

With Johanne’s permission, I taught her method several times in classes at the Pine Needle Quilt Shop in Lake Oswego (now home to Montavilla Sewing). A blog post from 2012 shows a few more examples of images I fractured. You can see those images and read the post at this link.

Among the images I fractured (and forgot about) was this sweet one. . .

. . . featuring the pink colorway of “Hydrangeas and Raspberries” by Lakehouse Fabrics that was used in my 4-Patch Wonder quilt Framboise. This fracture started with 2″ squares and measures 20″ x 17″. I’m thinking it would make a lovely pillow to complement my Framboise quilt.

I’m also thinking it might be time to teach another Fractured Image class. What do you think?

 

 

 

Posted in 4-Patch Wonder, fractured image, update | 7 Comments

Berried Treasure Is A Wrap!

by Dawn Posted on June 1, 2025

Finally, a finish to report: Berried Treasure, the quilt I started at the beginning of this year:

You can read my first post about it here.

Have a look at the back:

As you can see, I made my trademark round label using a compact disc as a pattern and added a contrasting ring of the bright blue tonal fabric:

A close-up of said label:

Even though I used the “natural light” function on my camera phone to take the indoor pictures you see above, there’s no substitute for the real thing to capture the true colors in the fabrics:

Berried Treasure measures 68″ x 81″ but will shrink a bit after being laundered. After being dragged around the back deck, it definitely needs a trip through the washer and dryer.

Given that today is the first of June, I hope to be more productive during the remaining months of 2025. My mind is already racing with possibilities for my next project.

Posted in 4-Patch Wonder, faux-kaleido quilts, kaleidoscope quilts, update | 6 Comments