This quilt was started in the Karen K. Stone workshop that I attended during Genesee Valley QuiltFest 2022. It was a paper-piecing workshop using Karen's pattern "Wild Women Don't Get The Blues."

After I made a bunch of squares, I got bored with the paper-piecing, which is not my favorite technique. So, I decided to come up with a different setting from Karen's sample quilt (see photo below). My setting had the added advantage of providing a place to showcase some machine quilting. I really like my setting, especially the partial blocks I worked into the border. I worked with all commercial cottons for this piece. 

This is the first "show quilt" that I've quilted on my Bernina Q20. Before I started, I ditch quilted between the large squared with the walking foot on my 440 using Mono-Poly thread on top.

Then I went on to quilt the plain green squares with Glide thread. Next I added the spirals to the centers of the pieced blocks, and the straight rulerwork to the sawteeth. I decided the spirals needed more definition, so I went back and added more curved lines and the fill stitch in alternating sections.

Finally, I quilted the free-motion tooth feathers in the borders - they went so quickly compared to everything else!

At this point, I made the unhappy discovery that I'd quilted in some folds in the backing fabric where the pieced blocks met the ditch stitching. I went to JoAnn's in search of a ribbon or yarn I could use to cover the ditch lines and hopefully disguise the imperfections. I found a beautiful variegated DMC pearl cotton in the perfect colors, but it was not thick enough. Online I found a video on how to "braid" two threads together using a straight machine stitch. It worked great and really helped hide the imperfections. I liked the way it looked so much that I also did it along the edge of the binding on the front of the quilt.

Fabrics: commercial cottons
Top Threads: Glide Trilobal Polyester, Superior SoFine #50 polyester, Superior Mono-Poly
Bobbin Thread: Madera Premium Serger polyester
Decorative Thread: DMC Pearl Cotton size 5
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I'm pretty sure I started this in class, but I can't tell you where or who taught it. It was a paper-piecing Mariner's Compass class. Marsha remembers attending the class with me. She made a single mariner's compass block, set it in a square, and gave it to her husband. Carolyn thinks she also attended the class, but never finished the project she started.

I brought a wide range of fabrics with me to the class and decided to just make blocks that I liked as individuals and not worry about how or if I could combine them into one quilt. In the end, I think that is one of the things that made this quilt really successful - it doesn't try too hard to go together. 

It's also the thing that it made it a real challenge to complete. I remember taking the blocks with me on a Village Quilt Shop retreat at Watson Homestead and spending most of my time auditioning fabrics to go in between the blocks. I'm so glad that I finally hit on the idea of using a different color in each of these background areas. Those connector blocks are what unify the colors in the mariner's compass blocks and make it all work.

Once I had the center of the quilt nailed down, I drafted a pattern for the borders which I then paper pieced using the same fabrics from the connector blocks with a dark navy fabric.

I never get tired of looking at this quilt. It hung my office at work for several years and now hangs in our guest bedroom.

This is another unsigned and undated quilt. It was made from a pattern from MH Designs copyrighted 2000, so I know it was made around that time.

I recall starting this in a class, possibly at Village Quilt Shop. It is paper-pieced and the blocks are quite small - 4" square. So, the piecing involved lots of little bits of fabric.

I keep it with my Christmas decorations and hang it every year around that time.

This may be the only quilt on which I've done any decorative embroidery. Which reminds me of all the crewel embroidery I did when I was young. In fact, both my mother and I did a lot of crewel. I still have several of her crewel pieces framed in our closet.