Monday this past week was the first meeting of Mimi Dietrich’s Grad Class for the new year. This year (2026) is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence – generally counted as the beginning of the United States. Mimi is urging us to make a commemorative quilt to mark the event.

She shared three small quilts for inspiration. The first one above is about three feet square – a smaller replica of a historic antique quilt made by Mimi.

The second (next photo) is a patchwork layout of (mostly) half-square triangle blocks. Her version (shown) is made with 3″ finished units.

She also shared the pattern of an historic applique block featuring an American eagle with flag and shield (no photo, sorry). Each of us got a copy of that pattern, too.

I was pretty inspired by the color palette and the theme so I found and bought a background print after the meeting (we get together at Springwater Designs quilt shop here in Columbia). I _think_ I am going to render the eagle applique as a bluework embroidery and set it inside the patchwork hst star design (my friend Barbara’s idea to make the patchwork base a 4″ unit has merit).

I have grave reservations about the state of our ‘democracy’ (right now it does not feel like one, truthfully, with a president intent on creating a fascist state) … but this idea of commemorating our country makes me feel hopeful at least – I tend to be an idealist, truly believing in the possibility of ‘all people created equal’, of ‘tolerance for the diversity that makes us strong’, of simple human decency.

In any case, it was a fun meeting. I’ve known most of the people in this group for more than 20 years and I deeply enjoy visiting with them each month.

The weather this past week was peculiar, though pretty normal for MD (we have a LOT of variation in our days). Very, very cold (for here) with high temperatures in the 30s until Thursday … when it got up to almost 50. Rain at least one whole day. I tried to stay home most of the week.

Friday I was dealing with my insomnia and sleep demons – did not go to sleep that early morning until about 5 a.m., waking up around 1:30 p.m. and lumbering around zombie-like most of the rest of the day. I stayed home from Sewing Together with my friends Barbara and Patty. Tears over that … but the flesh was weak. 😛

One positive thing I’ve been doing this week is participating in an online zoom class series called Collage Breakthrough by Catherine Rains. Paper arts are a real hobby of mine since early in the years when I bought Seminole Sampler quilt shop in ’99.

Our first assignment in the class series was to make small 2″ square collages with two papers each – one ‘patterned’ and one ‘quiet’. Many of the participants (there are around 2000!) have made their own artist papers while following a series of Catherine’s zoom presentations on creation techniques. I usually work with ephemera (collected images from magazines, old calendars, junk mail, quilt show programs, etc.) so that’s what I used to make my works.

Our second assignment was to use three papers in 3″ square collages, varying the value in each square with one dark, one medium and one light piece. Of course, as a quilt maker, I’m pretty familiar with using value to create pattern. 🙂 I really enjoyed making all of these samples – I tried to work quickly and with minimal forethought. Of course, I like some of these bits more than others – but I found the process pleasing and rather zen-like.

Today’s weather was odd, too. There were heavy gray clouds over the area like a river with the sun off to the south edge, shining nicely while it rained. The temperature was around 40 when I went out to run errands – there were ice pellets at one point and tiny but numerous snowflakes another time. The sun shone into this gray overcast from the low edge of the sky making for a strange light glittering in the wet trees all through my drive. (I had to pick up meds for my sweetheart and go see my brother for a proof-of-life visit). 🙂 By the time I started home around 5 p.m. it was full dark but still damp.

🙂 Linda