Some quilts you might not see–from Houston

I like to take pictures of quilts that really catch my attention when I go to the quilt shows.

Many of these are not prize winners but are certainly winners because they have made it to the “show.”

Here are some of the ones that caught my eye.

This quilt was made from blue jeans. I just loved it.

I am very interested in how we are going to start representing the new wind turbines that are beginning to dot our landscapes.

I really love quilts with houses in them.

I love it when friends win awards. Barbara Hartman is my friend.

So is Suzanne Marshall. Both so talented.

I’ll post a few more next time.

I remember the FIRST time I got to VOTE

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. I wasn’t there, but I do remember the first time I voted and what a thrill it was.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia




Women's suffrage or woman suffrage^[1] is the right of women to vote and to run for office. Limited voting rights were gained by women in Sweden,Britain, Finland and some western U.S. states in the late 19th century.^[2]International organizations were formed to coordinate efforts, especially the International Council of Women (1888) and the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (1904).^[3] In 1893, New Zealand became the first nation to extend the right to vote to all adult women. The women in South Australia achieved the same right in 1894 but became the first to obtain the right to stand (run) for Parliament.^[4][5] The first European country to introduce women's suffrage was the Grand Duchy of Finland—then a part of the Russian Empire with autonomous powers—which also produced the world's first female members of parliament as a result of the 1907 parliamentary elections.
In most Western nations, women's suffrage came at the end of World War I, with some important late adopters such as France in 1944 and Switzerland in 1971.^[6]

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote.


The 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution. 

Few early supporters lived to see final victory in 1920.
Beginning in the 1800s, women organized, petitioned, and picketed to win the right to vote, but it took them decades to accomplish their purpose. Between 1878, when the amendment was first introduced in Congress, and August 18, 1920, when it was ratified, champions of voting rights for women worked tirelessly, but strategies for achieving their goal varied. 

Some pursued a strategy of passing suffrage acts in each state—nine western states adopted woman suffrage legislation by 1912. Others challenged male-only voting laws in the courts. Militant suffragists used tactics such as parades, silent vigils, and hunger strikes. Often supporters met fierce resistance. Opponents heckled, jailed, and sometimes physically abused them.

By 1916, almost all of the major suffrage organizations were united behind the goal of a constitutional amendment. When New York adopted woman suffrage in 1917 and President Wilson changed his position to support an amendment in 1918, the political balance began to shift.

On May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives passed the amendment, and 2 weeks later, the Senate followed. When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920, the amendment passed its final hurdle of obtaining the agreement of three-fourths of the states. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920, changing the face of the American electorate forever.

For more information, visit the National Archives’ Digital Classroom Teaching With Documents Lesson Plan: Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment.

Women's suffrage has generally been recognized after political campaigns to obtain it were waged. In many countries it was granted before universal suffrage. Women's suffrage is explicitly stated as a right under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, adopted by the United Nations in 1979.

I HOPE WE ALL GET OUT AND VOTE  today, your voice DOES matter, and end this crazy campaign and get back to what really matters, QUILTING .

Have a great quilting day!!

Batting samples

Maybe you didn’t get to do a little retail therapy at Houston this past week. 

We had fun, fun, fun.

Besides being in my booth with Laura I also demoed in the Fairfield batting booth. I guess I got a little batting, ha ha, it being Halloween week and all.

I thought you might like to see the batting samples I made up to have in the booth with me for people to see what they look like quilted.

All of these designs are in my Machine Quilting Book that you can order on the books page of my website if you are interested.

Basic curly ques, swirls and what they can lead your quilting into.


Me, Me, Me, Bark and Stars designs. All basic designs to get you started with machine quilting.

Notice that I machine quilted the name of the batting along with the type of thread that I used.



I also left about 2” of the batting exposed on one side of my sandwich so I could refresh my memory; old age, and see and feel what it looked like.



I found that doing this exercise was good for me. I practiced a few new designs.


Like these free form Christmas trees.



And revisited this design that I used to use ALL the time and remembered how much I liked it and where I think I will use it in the near future.


I also glued the package info to the back of each sandwich for future reference. 


However gluing didn’t really work and I am going to go back and staple the
info to the sandwich. I am such a visual person, it helps me to see what the packaging looks like when I go to the store to rebuy more.

Working the stitch

I will demo machine quilting in the Fairfield booth #936 tomorrow from 11:30 – 12 noon. 

Be sure and stop, and if you are not in Houston with the rest of us enjoy this little video.

Machine Quilting

Hope to see you there. Be happy and remember  - “Where ever you go there you are.” 

I just read this blog post on Fear by photographer David duChemin and I thought of how much it applies to all of us.

Getting Ready

I like you have struggled being a better machine quilter.

I recently had a woman confided in me after being in my machine quilting class all day, that she had taken a ZANIX in the a.m. because she was so afraid of machine quilting.

I was quite taken aback. Isn’t this suppose to be fun, aren’t we doing this because we fell in love with fabric and wanted to make quilts?

Well it got me thinking about how and what I teach in my Frieda’s Fun Free Motion Machine Quilting class.

Let’s talk about what will help you be a better machine quilter.

First and foremost, in my humble opinion, start out small.

Don’t do what I did and start right in on a queen size bed quilt. This is overwhelming.

Start by making smaller projects, like one of my patterns, and machine quilt that.

But even before that make yourself some quilt sandwiches, like the ones I am doing here in anticipation of demoing at the Fairfield Booth #936 in Houston this week.

Start with an easy design like curly ques and swirls.

If you are anything like me you learned to write in school by making circles and sticks – OVER AND OVER again. I don’t think they let us write in cursive until we were in the third grade!!! We had to practice for two years first!!

Same with machine quilting. I am getting ready to demo machine quilting at the Fairfield booth in Houston. Fairfield is the type of batting that I use most often.

Here are just a few of the things I do before I start to machine quilt any project.

Hope I see you all in Houston.

Getting Ready to machine quilt

Things to keep in mind

Fairfield Booth 936 ARTFABRIK/FRIESYLE Booth 839
International Quilt Festival
Houston Texas
October 31 to November 4

I was thinking about all the things that help me while I am machine quilting that I want to tell people when they are standing there watching me demo.



Here is my list so far:

• Wash your backing fabric before using and while you are ironing it use some spray starch or spray sizing on the back to make it slide easier as you quilt it
• Use a super slider on your quilting surface to also help the quilt move easier as you quilt it
• Spray your quilting table with Pledge and rub it down to also keep the surface slickier
• Use some Neutrogena Hand Cream on your hands to keep your fingers tacky, this won’t effect your fabric and you won’t have to wear gloves AND it will make your hands so nice and smooth - put a little on those elbows too, they get so ugly looking.
• Make a test sandwich of the same fabrics as your quilt and then warm up on it first
• This also lets you test your thread tension before you start your quilting
• Always start with a new needle that is appropriate for the type of thread you are using
• Match your bobbin thread and top thread in color to help avoid any tension issues, it doesn’t matter what color your backing fabric is
• Clean your bobbin area on your sewing machine before you start any new project
• Listen to classical music or a book on tape. This is way better than the radio or TV AND not too loud.
• Pre-wind bobbins so when you run out you can just pop one in

• Start your projects in the middle and work out
• This keeps the backing fabric always moving outward and helps avoid any puckering on the back of your quilt
• Do easy quilting designs first then when you tackle something a little more challenging you will be warmed up and looser

Quilting should be fun not a chore.

If you are going to do some quilting today think about this list and see if any of these ideas will help you be happy in your quilting.

If your not having fun don’t do it!!

Happy Quilting

Houston Booth #839

Several years ago I took these videos in our booth at Houston.

Laura Wasilowski and I will be in the ARTFABRIK/FRIESTYLE booth #839 in Houston at the IQA show again this year.

We sure hope you will stop in and say hello as well as buy a few wonderful things to take home and work on.

We hope to see you there.

OCTOBER 31- NOVEMBER 4

Frieda in booth at Houston

Don’t miss all the fun!!
Happy Quilting