The Weatherspoon Museum at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro currently has an exhibit of African American quilts from the Southern U.S.

I went with friends recently and we enjoyed the quilts. Here are a few of my favorites.

Star Quilt, by Emma Russell, 1978

I particularly liked this next one because the label said, “Elizabeth Talford Scott was a recognized quilter who ate mischief for breakfast, just like her daughter Joyce”. Don’t you love the idea of eating mischief for breakfast?

Monsters, Dragons, and Flies, by Elizabeth T. Scott and Joyce J. Scott, 1982.

And I love the way some of the lighter colored pieces kind of disappear into the background in this next one.

Patchwork Stars Quilt, made by Decia Scott and quilted by Annie Dennis, 1984

Blue Log Cabin by Geraldine Nash, 2007

All Star, pieced by DeElla Pringle and quilted by Virginia Thompson, about 2000

I wondered about this next one, which appears to be bound on only 3 sides. It’s wonky enough that I was able to peek behind the right edge without touching it, and that edge was turned to the back and stitched down instead of having binding!

Improvisational Strip Quilt by Mabel Williams, 1968

Folk Scenes Quilt by Mary Mayfair Matthews, 1992

And isn’t this next one unusual? I never would have thought of this design!

“P” Quilt by Mary K. Williams, 1986

Finally, my favorite. I totally would have made this quilt (if I’d thought of it).

Triangle Within a Square by Christina Neely, 2007.

A lot of things about these quilts make the usual “improv” modern quilts look stilted and over-planned. The quilts in this exhibit seem so free by comparison. I think it’s another hint to me to “lighten up”.

Admission to the museum is free, and if you live in the Triad area this exhibit is worth the trip.

The Mid-Atlantic Quiltfest (MAQF), put on by the Mancuso company, is held in Hampton, VA, every year and sometimes I go since it’s only a few hours away. This year I had a quilt accepted in a challenge category, so I went to see the quilts and take some classes.

Since this show was the week after QuiltCon, comparisons are inevitable. The most obvious difference to me was that, despite the MQG (Modern Quilt Guild) commitment to diversity, there were many more people of color attending MAQF. Not sure what that’s about, because I think the MQG honestly tries. With regard to the quilts, of course there was more diversity at MAQF since the focus is not entirely modern.

Here are a few of my favorite quilts from MAQF.

First, one guild had a display of quilts made using African fabrics. Here are a couple that caught my eye:

Umoja (Unity) by Brenda Johnson

Colors of Spirituality by Eulanda Banks. I especially like the way the solid green makes the gold fabric stand out.

Of course I preferred the modern quilts, but there were plenty of traditional and art quilts as well. Here, in no particular order, are some quilts I especially enjoyed.

Fiesta is a throw size quilt by Mary Anne Fontana. It was hung behind a bank of chairs so I couldn’t get a straight shot of it.

Technicolor Dream by Susan Braverman won first place in the Mid-Century Modern competition.

This next one was in a vendor booth to sell a kit, but I thought it was extra pretty. I have no idea what the pattern is!

Cloverleaf by Betsy Vinegrad won Honorable Mention in the Mid-Century Mod category

Zion by Debra Nagelholt Newhall was inspired by Zion National Park

I thought Flutterby, by Betsy Vinegrad, was exceptionally well made.

I enjoyed the arrangement of the little blocks in Trinket by Kristine Byrn

I’m happy to say I took 3 good classes at MAQF, so I’ll tell you about those in the near future!

Along with doing the declutter challenge in January I decided it was time to bind a few quilts that have been “waiting”. Waiting for what, I’m not sure. Anyway, these were made and even quilted a while ago–not saying how long–but finally getting them bound makes them the first finishes of 2026.

Besties I and Besties II were made from a Villa Rosa pattern called “Besties”.

My first idea was to use one of those landscape fabrics and make the squares as windows.

I was thinking of using this to teach beginning quilting. However, after making the quilts I decided the design wouldn’t work for beginning quilters. It’s easy enough, for sure, but beginners typically have a terrible time choosing fabric (OK they may not be the only ones) and I thought picking an effective focus fabric for the block centers might be too much pressure. So these are going off to Ronald McDonald House the next time my friend delivers a load of quilts.

This focus fabric was more successful, but I still thought having to choose it would make students anxious

This was a quick and easy pattern, so I do recommend it if you have a focus fabric you want to use.

I almost never do mystery quilts for many reasons, but I have liked what I’ve seen and done from previous mysteries by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of Modern Quilt Studio. Of course, I signed up for those AFTER the quilts were revealed, so I knew what they would look like. This one, for example:

Here’s a Modern Quilt Studio quilt I made in 2024.

Last fall I was looking for something fun to end 2025 and signed up for Modern Quilt Studio’s Matchmaker mystery when it started–meaning it really was a mystery.

Well! I was only partly finished with my blocks when the final quilt was revealed and I didn’t care for it!!!  Here’s a link to one of the finished samples. Those rows were too lined-up-and-regular for my taste. The blocks were interesting, the quilt not so much.

So now I have all these beautiful blocks that I am NOT going to put into that design. And there are other blocks I didn’t even make.

The current plan is to combine some of these into composite blocks of various sizes and go from there. One of the things I recall from basic design class is that each component of a composition should be a good composition in itself, so I’m trying to make composite blocks that look good on their own. Then we’ll see how they go together. Here are a few block combinations I’m trying out.

I love these big dancing blocks, so will leave them as they are:

And here’s my initial idea for layout, primarily because I thought the dancing blocks could lend structure by going diagonally through the middle.

I thought it needed help, so some friends came the other day, and we worked on it some more to make bigger groups.

That’s still not it, but we’re getting there. I like the color choices and the individual blocks, so this will NOT be a UFO forever! Stay tuned…

We seem to be trying to have a real winter here in the south! We got about 10 inches of snow over last weekend, so you know what I did.

We got 10.5″ of snow!

I dug out these little blocks I had started as leaders and enders a couple of years ago. I had about 100 of them, but they finished at 4″, so I needed a lot more of something for a quilt.

These are just a few of the little blocks I had made up

When I finish a quilt I cut my scraps into strips of standard widths from 1.5″ to 4.5″ and store them in little drawers by size. I decided to use some of those to enlarge the blocks.

These blocks have the first round of additional strips; some blocks got two rounds

Eventually I ran out of precut strips in the purple and blue color family. Also, these blocks were looking awfully BUSY. So I decided to set them with alternate plain blocks.

Finished top, about 62″ x 72″

And here it is. This will go to my friend who quilts our tops for Flying Horse Farms. I’m getting pretty close to my goal on tops for them for the first half of the year!

We had snow toward the end of January, and thank goodness it wasn’t too much, BUT I got a couple of snow/sew days!

A friend of mine made the Smidge pattern, by Villa Rosa Designs, and I liked it.

So I drew a larger version, 60″ x 70″, to make it suitable for donation. I drew it in EQ8, and the program figured yardage for me.

Luckily, I had the necessary fabric left over from a previous project. For starters, here’s the previous quilt:

There are many chandelier quilt patterns out there, but this one was free on the Free Spirit website

And here’s one more quilt that used that same fabric collection. I guess I really liked that fabric!

Finished top is about 61″ x 71″

And here’s my version of Smidge, now 60″ x 70″.

I changed the name of this quilt to Blips for my version

This is just a top. It will be passed on to my friend who quilts our tops for Flying Horse Farms and then delivers them for us! This was quick, easy, and fun. I recommend either the original pattern or drafting your own version.

I’m taking part in Karen’s annual Declutter Challenge and have found a number of things to straighten up or get rid of. I’m a book lover, but I long ago joined my blogging friend Melanie in limiting the number of books to the shelf space available. Despite this I found about 30 books that will be passed on because I don’t use them any more.

See that almost-empty space? I got rid of about 1/3 of my books!

However! One of the other “declutter” categories was mementos and I had no idea I had so many. They’re little, so they’ve been stored in a dresser drawer too shallow for anything else and I hadn’t thought about them.

There were all these pins, mostly from QuiltCon in various years, though some from AQS shows as well:

And all these nice enamel pans from many other quilt conferences and one art museum:

I threw away the cheap button pins and put the enamel pins back in their box. I always think I should make a hanger to display them, so maybe this is the year for that project.

In the same drawer (different section) were my show ribbons, another thing I don’t know what to do with. I just left them for now. I know some people leave them on the winning quilts, but since I give my quilts away that’s not an option.

No, I’m not sure why they’re all “upside down” when viewed from the front of the drawer!

I’m enjoying the decluttering challenge. And now I need a decluttering plan for the rest of my clutter, not just the quilt room. Maybe start with my desk? (No, I’m not showing a photo!)

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions for my oval orphan blocks! I decided to use 4 of the 5 to make a quilt to for Flying Horse Farms, and here it is:

Finished top is about 61″ x 71″

There were some anxious moments before it came together, but I’m happy with it. Those prints, designed by Chong-A Hwang, definitely give it a punch. The top will now go on to my friend who quilts and delivers to Flying Horse Farms.

I saved out my favorite block to do something with later:

AND when I was cleaning up/putting away after finishing, I found an additional block!

Oops! I think it will just go in the orphan bin!

BUT all this means that I’ve finished my UFO for January! Woo-hoo!

These blocks are my first UFO (unfinished object) for 2026, and the big question is WHAT to do with them?

They are actually a DOUBLE UFO because I made them from orphan blocks as a way to experiment with my new (at the time) oval ruler.

These are big blocks, about 18″ square. My default use for orphan blocks is to combine them into a donation quilt top BUT these all have different backgrounds (using up scraps) so I’m not sure about that. Plus I’m thinking of taking that middle one on the bottom apart because I don’t like the orientation of the upper left quadrant…huh.

Here are the options I’ve come up with so far, but I would appreciate any ideas:

1. Finish one or more individually as art quilts.
2. Mount one or more individually on canvas as art quilts–some of my blogging friends have started doing this, but then what?
3. Cut them up some more! Always an option…
4. Make them into a donation quilt anyway, possibly with black sashing.
5. Put them back in the closet and choose another UFO–maybe another day will bring better ideas!
6. Make a lot more of them and then decide.

One more option I considered but will NOT do: take them apart and re-cut so backgrounds are all the same. Too much work for orphan blocks!

Help! Any ideas???