Have You Always Made Slabs?

After inviting open questions on today’s Quilters’ Playcation Adventure Sewalong, someone asked me if I’ve always made slabs (hi Gail). The obvious answer is no, but at the same time it feels like I always have.

I can remember the first ones I made. The girls were babies playing in the bath. I needed to watch them, but they managed their splashing about without me. So I took my plastic baggies of scraps and sorted them on the bathroom counter into little piles of colour. It was so motivating that I put the girls to bed quickly (and early) so I could go to the dining room and sew. I took one pile and sewed all the pieces together. Then another. My first slabs. That was in December 2009.

Slabs have become a life-force all their own since then. That first blog post initiated a conversation with Amanda Jean Nyberg. That conversation sparked a collaboration and then a book. That book launched our careers. Thousands of people have made slabs for themselves, for charity quilts, for joy. They’ve become a go to block for many, for many reasons.

More than 15 years later, yes, I am still making them. I love them. They are a perfect way to use your scraps as they are. No need to force the fabric to do something it doesn’t want to do and you don’t want to sew. I love the meditative aspect of sewing slabs. I wouldn’t say that I could do it in my sleep, but it does not require a lot of thought anymore; just action, muscle memory. I really like using my scraps, period. Slabs use them, really use them. I love the design possibilities of this made fabric and have not run out of ideas for their use.

Case in point, I’ve never quite used them like I am this year, on the Quilters’ Playcation Adventure Sewalong. All solids, for one. More importantly, truly as a fabric. Paired with Kona Snow they are one of the two fabrics in one of my sample quilts. And I am loving the way it is turning out! Quite a few others are also making and using slabs, and also discovering/embracing the possibilities.

So, no, I haven’t always made slabs. But I don’t forsee ever not making them.

Book Cover Quilts

Join me for this crazy little exploration in quilt blocks.

For each book I read in 2025 I am making a quilt block inspired by the cover. Not necessarily by the book or the story itself, but by the cover. So it is really a block inspired by the book designer’s work. And they would have been guided by the contents of the book. Sometimes the covers use original artwork, created just for this purpose, sometimes they pull from existing artwork.

Credit where credit is due - for both the book designers themselves and the woman who gave me the idea for this project. Margaret Fleisher did a similar thing for a 100 day project a few years ago. She is a great improv quilter! I was enamoured with her idea then and am doing my own version now.

I’m not here trying to make a literal interpretation of the book cover. Knowing that I am playing improvisationally I just try to capture the feel of the cover. Not every detail is included, and rarely is the text even referenced.

For example, for The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store above (amazing book by James McBride!) I used the illustration made by the designer Lauren Peters-Collaer as my started point. I picked fabrics from the scrap bin that were similar. To be honest, I debated going a bit more abstract as the human figure can be tough to translate, depending on the posture, and this posture is not an easy one. I am so glad I pursued the play! Of course, it is not exact, but it does have a clear relationship.

Don’t tell the others, but it is my favourite of the blocks so far! Probably also my favourite book of the year.

Someone on Instagram asked me if I was choosing books based on the covers. Nope! I read all sorts of books and choose them based on my mood more than anything. If you look at the books I’ve read this year I have memoir, literary fiction, historical fiction, cozy mystery, cozy Japanese, history, and more. I do consider audio books reading, so they might make the list too. Here are the books so far in 2025:

• Moon Road by Sarah Leipciger, cover art by Grant Haffner

• The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittle, cover design by Alysia Shewchuk, image by Xavier Noel

• Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock, cover illustration by Alessandro Valdrighi

• This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett, cover design by Robin Bilardello

• The Wager by David Grann, narrated by Dion Graham (this one is absolutely worth the audio book version)

• The Maid by Nita Prose, cover by Elena Giavaldi

• What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster, cover by Sara Wood

• The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr, cover by Ingrid Paulson from art by Janet Hill

• Crook Manifesto by Colton Whitehead, cover by Oliver Munday

• The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl, cover design by Charlotte Struck, with art by Billy Renkl

• The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, cover by Lauren Peters-Collaer

• The Blanket Cats by Kiyoshi Shigematsu, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, cover by Vi-An Nguyen

I’m not the kind of person who sets reading goals. As long as I read every day - even if only for a few minutes before bed - I am content. I usually keep a list of books read for the year and I finish about 20-30. So I am looking at the this list and kind of surprised I am already through a dozen!

For the blocks, I wait until I’ve finished 3 books, then I make the 3 blocks. It becomes a little afternoon of playtime and remembering the books. If you want to follow along a little more ‘live’ then make sure to check out Instagram. As for what I will do with the blocks? That remains to be determined.

A Year of Stitched Self Portraits

A year of Morning Make.

Each day, before tea and clothes and the news and my phone, I make. In 2023 I spent all the time making and remaking myself. Mostly figuratively, but the process required a lot of self reflection. It can’t not when you spend a portion of your day staring at yourself, stitching and making. Truth be told, I’m kind of sick of myself at this point!

Clockwise from top left:

• Embroidered line drawing, based off a painting I did of myself based off a pic from the beach in San Diego last March.

• Skiing selfie done in Tina Tarr’s Stitched Mosaic technique.

• Raw Edge Applique on a crumb background - this one feels the most me in terms of a quilt.

• First one I did, based off of the headshot here on my blog using Melissa Averinos’ Making Faces in Fabric book and her process.

• Cubist applique. Saw a video about a cubist artist and felt inspired. Just freehand cut shapes and stitched.

• Based off a selfie I took on winter hike, this time I adapted Tina Tarr’s technique for improv piecing versus applique. Hand stitched the whole thing to quilt it.

• Another one using the Melissa Averinos’ technique, but playing with a black and white photo. Nailed the values, but boy do I look dead!

Here and there over the year I would draw and paint too. Nothing to share there, just experimenting and exploring. Always self portraits.

It was a great exercise in self reflection. Not only did I fall in love with the dimple I never really noticed before, but I learned to look at myself without criticism. Not necessarily with love, but without criticism.

All of this was a personal exploration. I did nothing in the way of classes or lessons. Where it was someone else’s technique for the quilts I used a book or online class. What I did not do is actually learn how to draw or look at people. I also had a number of ideas for different kind of quilt techniques for portraits. That’s why I am continuing this portrait exploration this year as well. There is a still so much to do!

Only now, I feel somewhat strong enough to at least sketch some other people. Let’s see where 2024 takes me.

Back on the Road

This past weekend I went on my first quilting trip since the Pandemic. I’ve had a few in person events and the odd class, but this was my first get packed, get on a plane, and a hang out with quilters all weekend kind of trip. It’s been forever!

It felt so good.

As stressed as I get before leaving (always with a moment of regret for the commitment) I feel amazing once I arrive. This teaching gig gets me to some beautiful places with wonderful people. I am so lucky.

This particular trip was to Parksville, British Columbia. Parksville is a town North of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. In the summer it is packed with tourists because it has great beaches, beautiful parks, and a wonderful people. By this time of year the tourists are gone and the rain is settling in. Still absolutely worth the trip.

The Parksville Quilt House Guild is the largest guild on Vancouver Island and one of the oldest in British Columbia. Everyone I met was kind, full of laughs, and tremendously supportive. My hosts were incredible. I taught two workshops (Traditional Variations and Improv Lettering) and delivered a trunk show to over 150 people. At the workshops quilters brought treats for the group, fruit from their own trees, and made sure I had tea and medicine when an unexpected migraine hit. And, they followed my supply list and brought chocolate!

I’ve written before about how inspiring it is for me to be on these trips. I get to see parts of the country (or the world) but I also get to witness the creative acts of quilters. Both things inspire me so much. I get my own cool ideas as we all play together. More importantly, I get to witness the changes, ideas, and freedom many quilters feel in my events. Yes, I am tooting my own horn, but I see a lot of quilters leave my events brimming with ideas and with newfound freedom. No one has given them permission to play before and you can tell.

At the end of my trunk show I had one lovely women come to me and tell me that she is more of a “looker” than a quilter. She made her first quilts decades ago and while she was so proud of what she did she was judged by the quilt police and barely sewed after that, feeling like she couldn’t be good enough. After seeing my improv quilts, my bits of wonkiness, even my mismatched points when I am trying for precision, she felt so good. It’s not that my bad work made her feel better about herself. No, it was that she could see there was another way to create, and that the judgement of the past didn’t need to apply to her anymore.

That right there is why the stress before leaving is worth it. It’s always worth it. Rainbows over the ocean, bald eagles, and stellar sea lions are only a plus.