Author Archives: Becky Goldsmith

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About Becky Goldsmith

I am a quilt designer/teacher/author, a wife/mother/grandmother, and certified yoga instructor who is searching for balance, strength, and happiness in all things.

Aunt Millie’s Garden show and tell… #3

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Nancy Arseneault sent 2 photos of her almost completed Aunt Millie’s Garden. I love everything about this quilt! Notice the scallops inside the sashing… so cute! The background has a gingham-like appearance that, when combined with the sunny orange and grassy green, makes me think of a picnic on a beautiful day. Happy!

Nancy wrote:

I think it should be called The Long and Winding Road.

When Covid hit and I was secluded, this is the first pattern I grabbed. I made the blocks with prepared edge invisible machine applique and set them together. Then I set them aside to await a border.  A few months later, I was diagnosed with a serious disease which claimed the next 2 years of my life. No sewing for me at all.

Finally I pulled out the quilt and figured out a border that I could accomplish. The sewing was challenging but it brought me back to myself. I’m not able to manage the quilting part right now so I sent the quilt to Jan Hutchison to be quilted. I’m so happy with the way it turned out. Now I have only to block and bind it. Since I’ve so enjoyed all the photos of this pattern on your blog lately, I decided to show you this one in the works.  Nancy Arseneault, Santa Fe NM

Nancy’s story is not picnic-like, but there is joy in this quilt! Nancy, it’s nice to know you are sewing again!

Aunt Millie’s Garden show and tell, continued…

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Diane Kirwan sent this photo of her quilt, saying: “I so enjoyed make it Aunt Millie.  I felt it deserved custom quilting.”

I love the cool, calm, collected colors that Diane put together. I do not usually have this much self-restraint which makes me appreciate it even more 🤣.

This is Cathy Lucas’s Aunt Millie’s Garden quilt.

Cathy’s color palette includes all the colors in a thoughtful and balanced layout. Purple sashing adds visual unity to the quilt as a whole. Cathy writes:

Here is my version of Aunt Millie’s Garden. I loved making this quilt and seeing other people’s interpretations. My quilt won a blue ribbon earlier this year at our Pride of the Prairie Quilt Guild show. Your appliqué patterns are among my favorite and I’ve made several over the years.  Thanks for being here and being you.

It’s fun to see these quilts together. Each is wonderful in its own way. Thank you, Diane and Cathy, for sharing your quilts with us!

Aunt MIllie’s Garden is available as an ebook. Click here to find it.

Aunt Millie’s Garden show and tell…

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In my recent newsletter, I invited you all to send photos of your Aunt Millie’s Garden quilt. Nancy Bradford responded right away. Her quilt is so happy :-)! And I really like the strips in the top and bottom borders that lead your eye to the applique blocks. Nancy wrote:

My version of Aunt Millie’s Garden won a 1st Place and Best of Show at the 2013 Golden Needles Quilt Guild Show in Conroe, Texas.  I collected the fabrics while on a trip to visit a quilting friend in Minnesota with other quilting friends.

Amy Mitchell sent in the following photo of her Aunt Millie quilt top. The colors sing on top of the deep chocolate brown. And using 9 blocks instead of 12 make a very nice square quilt.

It’s nice that Nancy and Amy shared their quilts at nearly the same time because it’s great to see how the light and dark backgrounds change the look of the quilt. Both are lovely, but they are also very different. I will date myself and say… Cool!

Thank you, Nancy and Amy, for sharing your quilts with us. Happy stitching.

Lessons from an antique quilt…

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I’m in NYC and just visited the Folk Art Museum where a wide variety of old and new quilts are on display. Loved seeing Paula Nadelstern‘s kaleidoscope quilt in the exhibit… I wanted to tell those around me that I know her and how wonderful she is, but I just smiled and kept that inside because it is a museum, after all 🤣.

I spent time with this quilt top by an unknown maker. I love both the structure and the freedom of the design. Notice the way the applique fills most blocks, going right up to the seam lines. There isn’t sashing and there doesn’t need to be. And the leaves and stems are cut from only two fabrics. I wonder if she ran out of one green and had to switch in the middle of making the quilt?

The applique stitches are invisible but if it were judged today, some might find faults…

It is subtle, but you can see the vines and leaves shadowing through the white flowers, outer points on the ostriches are blunt. I like that the hand of the maker can be felt and I think she was enjoying her stitching. 

Hanging next to the quilt were some of the original templates which I find to be illuminating.

First, she drew on printed paper that was probably not stiff. She did not require “special” paper. I will say right here that I am happy that I can use heavier paper and I like that I can cover it with peel and stick laminate 🤣.

Second, it looks like she she drew at least some of the shapes by hand and then cut them out. Notice how she adjusted the outer edges to make the shape easier to sew.

The beak is blunt on purpose and the funky toes on the feet of the ostrich are the way she intended them to be. Now look at the block again.

So what are the lessons this quilt teaches?

  • One big lesson to be learned here is that we are way too judgmental of our own stitching.
  • We might be too judgy when it comes to other peoples’ stitching as well.
  • I am reminded once again there can be a lot of freedom in a design that has a tight structure.
  • While I love working with lots and lots of different fabrics, it’s good to be reminded that you can do a lot with just a few.

I hope you enjoy this quilt as much as I do. Happy stitching!

A quick explanation of my Photo to Fabric class…

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I wrote a post explaining the process for C&T and it is one click away :-). Click here to read it or use the following URL:

https://www.ctpub.com/blog/photo-to-fabric-with-becky-goldsmith/

Enjoy!

How much is too much?

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I machine quilted together two vintage tops to make one quilt. The trip around the world side (below) is very nice. The pattern is easy to read… it’s happy!

The quilt top I put on the back has alternating 3″ squares and 9-patches made from 1″ squares. There isn’t an underlying theme or color palette on this side. It is mostly prints, plaids, and stripes that are individually wonderful, but together are a hot mess. Your eyes have nothing to focus on.

Look at the two, together…

Your eye can rest and explore the trip around the world. There isn’t any resting when you look at the 9-patches. And more to the point, there isn’t any real pattern.

Generally speaking, when we go to the effort to cut fabric apart and sew it back together, we do so for a reason. I wonder if the maker of the 9-patch just wanted to sew and had no other plan… because that’s what it looks like. And I absolutely understand that because I have done that myself with equally questionable results 🤣.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t successfully test the boundary between pattern and chaos. I wrote about the quilt below, Carnival, made by Joan Goetteman and Audree Sells, in this blog post. It was my Judge’s Choice at the Chaska Fall Splendor Quilt Show in 2022.

Yes, there is chaos, but it is not total chaos. There is just enough pattern to keep your eye happily busy. You may not be drawn to this level of visual activity, but I still love this quilt.

If you are interested in making this sort of quilt, go for it! Here are a few tips:

  • When you find a quilt that embraces this sort of chaos, study it a bit to see what does and does not resonate with you.
  • Consider how to create some sort of recognizable arrangement/pattern.
  • Group colors in a way that enhances the plan you have in mind.
  • Play small and large prints off of each other.
  • Use a design wall!!!!

Happy stitching!