What a busy Spring it has been with Lectures, Workshops, Quilt Shows, and quilting for customers and myself! This year, Illinois was treated to an extremely hot ‘summer’ duirng the second week of May! We went from cold to hot overnight! The weather did allow for my beautiful Rhododendron bush to bloom by Mother’s Day! What a treat! It is amazing how much taller, fuller and more beautiful this bush gets each year. Scott took a pic of me with the bush so I could enjoy it longer…which I’ve shared with you all (photo above). I’m so glad he did because during the sweltering hot week the bush dropped all its blossoms! Now we are back to Illinois’s regular Spring 60-degree, rainy, wet weather!
This year has been busy for me conducting Virtual and In-Person lectures and workshops in California, New York, Alberta Canada, Illinois, Wisconsin and then Illinois and Wisconsin again! I was able to participate in two quilt shows in April/May…one in Oregon, IL put on by the Country Crossroads Quilt Guild of Forreston, IL. and the other one was one of the guilds that I belong to here in Rockford, the Sinnissippi Quilt Guild. I hope you will take a moment to check out the many, many photos of quilts that were entered in both Quilt Shows by perusing their respective Facebook pages: Country Crossroads Quilt Show; and Sinnissippi Quilt Show.
Below is a photo of Lady Bug quilts created by Country Crossroads Quilt Guild students in my Lady Bug Art Quilt Workshop in Forreston, IL. We had a wonderful time together and many of the students told me they loved the fact that they were able to take home a quilt top that was ready to be quilted by the end of day!
Check out the variety of wonderful fabrics used by the students! The Lady Bug quilts all come together so beautifully! For a few of the students, it was the first time they had ever used the fusible adhesive technique with applique pressing sheets. They learned how fast and fun it is to create an element of a quilt all on its own using the pressing sheet and then simply placing that element in the location they desire on the quilt! See the Lady Bug element (below) which was created separetely using this simple technique.
When I was lecturing in New Berlin, Wisconsin, last week my husband took some photos of the evening… I’ve included one of those photos below. The Log Cabin Quilt Guild had asked me to present my Lecture: “Speedy Solutions to Cut/Organize Your Scrap Stash!” Many of the quilters came to me afterward expressing their excitement to get home and get their stashes cut, organized and ready to USE in beautiful quilts now that they had the knowledge of how to go about this task! It was wonderful spending time and sharing my love of quilting with the members of this Guild!
Over the last couple months, Scott and I have had guests visit us in Illinois. My sister, Lynette, and her husband, Ron, stayed with us for a few days in April. I gave Lynette a pot of Daffodils (her favorite flower!)… the photo below is of Lynette and me along with her daffodils! We don’t get to see one another very often since Lynette lives in Iowa, so it was a pleasure having them stay with us for a few days.
Earlier in April, my best friend, Jeanette Bussard, flew into Chicago. We had a wonderful time together. Jeanette owns a quilt/fabric boutique in Bluffton, SC. You’ll have to check out her shop website (Link HERE). Jeanette has created Kits which she sells in her Shop for my 2022 Lotus in Bloom BOM (Block of the Month)! Check out what she offers … Link HERE.
The photo below is a very precious one for me because I realized that over the 20-plus years that she and I have been friends, we haven’t really gotten many pictures taken together! Be sure to have pictures taken of you with your best friend! They are priceless!
If you have been a participant in my Art Quilt Lecture, you know how much I love creating “Nana” quilts…those are the little quilt-lets that I create from the precious drawings and paintings from my granddaughter. (Your Guild can learn all about them in my Art Quilt Lecture! Link HERE)
My newest Nana quilt is Zelda the Zebra which is made in the likeness of Dani’s painting that she gave me a few years back. In the first photo (below) you will see Zelda the Zebra after she has been quilted, no binding yet. You’ll see that I used black yarn to create the dark outlines that Dani had used in her painting (see the next photo of her painting…).
Below is a photo of Dani’s painting on the left and the quilt-let in process (on the right)
And below is the completed Zelda the Zebra Quilt-let!
In the last photo (above), you’ll see I added Zelda’s mane, her eyelashes and whatever that furry thing is that she is chewing on! (Only Dani knows what is in her mouth!) I did take the liberty of moving the butterfly to the left of Zelda’s face. Every time I look at this quilt-let, it brings a wonderful smile to my face as I think of my beautiful granddaughter and the care she took in creating this painting to share with me!
Over the last few months, I have also been very busy quilting quilts for customers. In the next post, I will share photos of a number of those quilts!
I hope you have been getting lots of quilting done this Spring! Don’t hesitate to share photos of your quilts with me! I would love to see them!
Happy Quilting! Lori Dickman