Sometimes I get ahead of myself when I am making a scrappy quilt. It’s the weirdest thing. I make a few blocks, pin them up on my design wall and start seeing problems. Not only do I start seeing problems, I begin to try to resolve them.

Hmmmm, what could be wrong with this picture? (Speaking of pictures, I’d love to show you one, but this is going in a book so you’ll have to wait a bit.)

I am working with the precut Honey Buns. Those are 1 1/2” strips. Each bundle or roll contains 40 strips of fabric and one gets every piece from a line. I love the pattern. The blocks are fun and quick to make.

So what’s the issue? I’m sure inquiring minds want to know.

The fabric line I’m using has wonderful colors. Reds, blues, browns, pinks, tans and beiges make up the color palette. I put together one of my blocks using the reds that were in the roll and the beiges. It’s a very pretty block . . . until I put it up on the wall with the others that are much darker. Now the block is screaming, “Look at me! Look at me!” I can almost see it jumping to the forefront instead of melting in with the others.

I make more blocks. In one of them I use the beige with dark blue. Now I have two blocks that want to be the main focus. My eyes go directly to those two blocks. Yikes!

(click on image to view)

The big area event this week is the AQS Show in Des Moines, Iowa. Okay, maybe "area" is a bit of a stretch, but I call anything within a 200 mile radius doable. Especially when it involves quilts and when a show is on this grand a scale.

I drove up to Des Moines yesterday for the show. When I walked in the door to the main arena, I was greeted with the sight of row after row of vendors. Toward the front of the hall was the AQS exhibit of Burgoyne Surrounded quilts. Quilters used that pattern as a jumping off place to create a new look.

At the back of the hall was an exhibit of quilts and the Artful Bra Project. I’m sure you know of the Artful BraArtful Bras Project but just in case you don’t, quilters from South Carolina decorated bras to bring awareness to the issue of breast cancer. Some deal with the aftermath, some with the loss of a friend or relative, some with enduring the disease. And like everything else in life, it helps to have a sense of humor. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to go see this exhibit. We also published Artful Bras: Hooters, Melons and Boobs, Oh My! A Quilt Guild’s Fight Against Breast Cancer to celebrate this exhibit.

It's that time again, where we're getting ready for our next My Stars book. We're up to Volume III already in the series! People just love collecting the old Kansas City Star patterns - can you imagine how cool it's going to be when we have these books all complete?! It will be the official guide to the historical patterns - you will have them all!

I have attached a pdf of the next patterns we're seeking. Please send pictures of the quilts you have of these patterns. We'll go through them, and hopefully yours will be picked to be published in the book! If it is selected, we'll send you a free copy of the book once it's complete!

Please send your photos to me at dmclendon@kcstar.com. I can't wait to see all the beautiful quilts again!

We all have relatives now gone that we never knew, right? In my case it was Aunt Rose.

Now, Aunt Rose wasn't my aunt per se. No, she was the sister of my grandfather, Luther Abraham Weaver. So she was my great aunt. Growing up, she, L.A. and brother Harrison lived in a small house in Windsor, Mo., which if you don't know is just south of Knob Knoster.

(Okay, that probably doesn't help much. Just know that Knob Knoster – a great name! – is the home of Whiteman Air Force Base, which houses the nation's B-2 bombers. No typical small town, eh?)

As I was growing up, I'd hear family members talk of "Aunt Rose" and mainly in the context of her quilts. You see, Rose's father, Easton, a farmer, died when she was only 6. Her brothers would go on to get degrees at the University of Missouri. But Rose hung back in Windsor to help her mother do quilts and embroidery to make ends meet.

Bill's QuiltIt had been years since I'd thought of Rose. But a couple of weekends ago, I was at the family cabin in Michigan. And my sister, Mary Ann, had brought along a quilt to keep warm. (The cabin's heat isn't the best.) I spied the quilt, and Mary Ann reminded me that it was a gift from Aunt Rose.

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The Original Sewing & Quilt Expo is in town. Vendors, quilts and dolls less than 10 miles from my house, how could I not go?

I met up with my friend Barb and her friend, Judy, from Columbia, Mo., at the KCI Expo Center around noon and we were off and running. Barb and Judy are art quilters.Some of my purchases Me, I’m as traditional as they come. So this was quite an experience for me.

I’ve not seen any of Judy’s work but she talked about doing screen printing on fabric. That’s an art medium I’ve not tried yet.

Now, Barb, I’ve known for many years. We raised our babies together and we had our own little sewing group over in Columbia before I moved to Kansas City about 25 years ago. That tells you a bit about this friendship that has endured.

When we first started getting together to sew, Barb was working on an Overall Sam quilt for her son Rick. She had started it when he was a baby, and he was around 8 or 9 when she picked it back up. She was determined to finish that quilt and accomplished that before I moved to K.C.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – Random thoughts about quilting while (and after) flying at 30,000 feet:

Sky quilts

Readers of this blog have commented about how Midwestern farm fields viewed from high above look like quilt blocks. And that is truly so. But I am struck as we
Doug and the quilt: Getting closer ...get ready to land in Traverse City, Michigan, how the north woods, aflame in fall colors, represent their own patchwork of vivid patterns.

Traverse City is a northern Michigan town on the south end of Traverse Bay, which connects to Lake Michigan. I’m up here tending to some family business. Bursts of red, orange and yellow pop through the evergreens, all the way up to the sandy border of the crystal-blue bay.

No, this “sky quilt” is not symmetrical like the farm fields of Missouri. But it’s a quilt nonetheless … a soft collision of vivid designs and hues, bunched and gathered, warm to the eye’s touch.

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