Happy 250th Birthday, America!

Posted on September 10, 2026 by Jenny

Last year, our Quilt Guild talked about how we would like to have this year’s Peach Days show be a Patriotic theme because of America 250. I got really excited. I bought the book Traditions with a Twist, by Blanche Young and her daughter Dalene Stone. I was really excited about it because, while she has passed, I cherish a special spot in my heart for Blanche. She was in the same guild as me for many years, and her amazing daughter Lynette Bingham is the mastermind behind the Piecemakers’ Peach Days Quilt Display. I digress. I bought the book, and I determined that I would make a Double Irish Chain for the Peach Days show.

I finished the quilt in late spring.

Then, in late summer, some heck broke loose in my personal life, and a large number of stressful events in a short period of time lead to my brain function not being up to its usual par. I missed a few quilt guild meetings, and texted Lynette to get the form to submit my quilt. In reading the photo of it on my phone, my brain mixed up Tuesday and Thursday. I got my quilt all ready to submit and my form pinned in place on Thursday morning. When I arrived at work I realized, “It is Thursday. Always in the past we have turned them in on Tuesday.” I called Lynette, and sure enough, it was too late.

So this quilt, which I specifically made for the Peach Days patriotic quilt display in honor of America 250, did not get to hang with her homies in the show. I was pretty bummed out, but I posted it on social media, and I will post it here before it goes to its final home which will be a great secret for a few more months.

So without further ado, I give you “Sweet Freedom,” my celebration of our country.

I tried a new technique called graffiti quilting on the borders. I have been following Karlee Porter and buying her books to help me learn. She is awesome! Check her out.

I did three passes of the quilt so that the threads would blend with their own colors, red, blue, and gold on the white, with a few spots of gold for contrast on the blue.

The curves in the small blocks are called orange peel quilting.

A beginner attempt at graffiti quilting.

I feel like I learn new things with every quilt I make. With this one I learned, ALWAYS TURN YOUR QUILT IN ON TIME! Haha. I still enjoyed seeing all the wonderful quilts at the show immensely. There were many truly beautiful pieces there.

Zion National Park Quilt – Peach Days Peoples Choice 2024

Posted on April 19, 2025 by Jenny

This quilt took me about four years from when I started with the idea of it. I took this photo below in 2018, and I decided I wanted to quilt it.

I started looking for fabrics, and even started this quilt with a different sky fabric before I found the one I ended up with. To execute this quilt, I printed the photo in four 8×10 photos, and drew a grid of 1″ blocks on the back. I labeled them in alphabetical columns and numerical rows (A1, B1, etc.) Then I took each 1″ square and made an 8.5″ block (8″ finished) from each one.

The quilting reflects what part of nature is shown, with airwaves in the sky, rocky lines in the mountains, and swirls in the river. I used a fair amount of gold thread in sky and river, and the threads in the earth and greenery blend with those. I love Superior threads for long arm quilting, and I am sad they moved their headquarters out of my local county. Thank goodness I can still get their goodies online!

I decided to display it in Peach Days with the Zion Piecemakers Quilt Guild (my local guild) in 2024. The Guild’s Peach Days show is a peoples’ choice competition, and to my surprise, I won! I was a little humbled by that, because there were many wonderful quilts that were created with much more technical skill than this one in the show. However, Zion National Park has always been a breathtakingly beautiful place of spiritual renewal for me. I was very grateful to realize that the park that speaks to me also spoke to others.

What to do with Scraps – 2.5″ square edition

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Jenny

One of the best things about being in a quilt guild is getting exposed to all the good ideas of mature quilters. Years ago my friend Virginia Olson was sharing a trunk show with us, and in passing she mentioned that she cuts all of her scraps into 5″ or 2.5″ squares and 2.5″ strips. If it’s smaller than that, she throws it away. I immediately loved this idea of having a boundary around the size of scraps I wouldn’t keep.

I’m not always perfect at it, but since then, if I have middle or smallish scraps, I cut them into those sizes. This practice has swelled the number of little empty strawberry or lettuce containers full of 2.5″ and 5″ squares in my sewing room.

A little about me, I have four children, and my oldest just started college, so you can probably guess my age range. A year or two ago, a friend from college posted that she had a baby. I hadn’t even known she was pregnant. This was her first child, and I was absolutely thrilled for her. She is one of those friends who I will always think of as a close friend even if we lose track of each other here and there over the years. I knew instantly I had to make her a quilt.

I had been gifted a few bags of denim and have been experimenting with them in various ways. I thought, what if I made scrappy blocks and used the denim to neutralize them? I had bought a rose fabric that came in a strip pattern a few years back and always wanted to use it to border a quilt. All of these things came together in the quilt below for my friend and her baby.

I always say the quilt is for the mom, not the baby. We’ll see who ends up with it, but I couldn’t be happier for my friend to embark on the joyous journey of motherhood. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that little baby age and sniff a little head and cuddle a wee thing again. I guess I can just hope that at some point I’ll get to graduate to the esteemed role of Grandmum.

Mystery Grandma Quilt

Posted on April 5, 2025 by Jenny

Wow, it has been awhile since I sat down to add to this site. Hello friends! How are you? A couple of fun things have happened in my quilt journey over the last few years, and I will be posting about them shortly.

My aunt Kathy texted me a year or two ago asking if I would like a quilt top that she received around the time of her wedding. It is a star quilt, brown with a white background. I asked if she wanted me to finish it for her, and she said I could just have it if I wanted to finish it. Naturally I did! I asked if she could remember who made the quilt, and she couldn’t remember.

My parents divorced when I was 9 years old, and my mom’s mother was a very accomplished quilter. She made a star quilt for each of her grandchildren, and I have a pink and green one from her. She hand quilted it, and it is a treasure to me for that reason. Aunt Kathy is married to my dad’s brother, Todd. This mystery quilt makes me wonder if my dad’s mom commissioned the top from my mom’s mom. I don’t know if either grandma made it, but I like to think it may have been made by one or commissioned by one of them.

I finished it last year, and it won people’s choice at the 4th of July Toquerville quilt display. That made me feel so good! Here is a little picture of how it looked when it was almost done.

A little Quilting

Posted on September 22, 2022 by Jenny

The star in the middle of the geometric block.

I know it has been quite a while since I posted, and the sad news is I have not done much quilting. However, my friend Linda, who has had me do several quilts for her, told me she would be comfortable with me sharing my quilting on a quilt she pieced. It’s a floral appliqué with a more geometric block alternated. I didn’t get a good photo of the whole quilt laid out, but it just alternates those two blocks, and it is SO cute.

I’m happy with how the quilting turned out. It’s a pretty simple pattern, but it was quite a job thinking out how to do it without a ton of starts and stops. I really like how the back turned out, and I hope to do more experimenting in the future with this style of quilting.