October, 2025

The California Zephyr; anti-bias bias; Iowa Quilt Museum; KC; a new cookie recipe; old movies; and more

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Greetings quilting friends,

The weather is cooling; the leaves are turning; spooky season is upon us; and the holidays are around the corner. It’s a time filled with anticipation. In case you’re filled with anticipation for my newsletter, let’s get to it!

David

These are facts about King David you could only learn from actual high school papers and exams!

David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar.

David fought with the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in Biblical times.

Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.

California Zephyr

One thing David never did was ride Amtrak. In late July, we said goodbye to Kate as we loaded her on the Amtrak train, the California Zephyr, for a solo trip to Chicago. She spent 6 days with her brother and his wife.

The primary focus of the trip was a weeklong dance intensive. The workshop was put on by Unfolding Disability Futures, the group that also puts on the weekly virtual dance class Kate participates in, and was taught by guest artist Douglas Scott, who runs a physically-integrated dance company, Full Radius Dance, in Atlanta.

Unfolding Disability Futures

Kate really values her weekly Zoom sessions with the dance group. She comes over for dinner and then logs on to see all her friends. It’s remarkable how much more graceful she is because of these lessons! Kate thoroughly enjoyed getting to participate in person with the friends she’s made online.

It wasn’t all dance, though. My three kids also attended the play, Billie Jean, about, you guessed it, Billie Jean King. It was a few days into its world premiere at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier. After the play, they watched the fireworks over Navy Pier.

Other highlights of the trip were Garrett Popcorn Shop, seeing the Bean sculpture in Millennium Park, and visiting the Chicago History Museum (Kate is a history buff.). Her favorite part of the History Museum was a display dedicated to the 2005 World Series champion White Sox.

Kate with the jersey of World Series MVP, Jermaine Dye

On the final day, Will took Kate to work with him, and then they walked to Union Station where he put her on a train for the return trip to Ottumwa, Iowa (home of Radar O’Reilly). We drove down to collect Kate, her big adventure over.

I must take a moment to sing the praises of Amtrak. When the ticket was booked, we could indicate that Kate needed special assistance. When we dropped her off, the ticket agent was fully aware of her situation. He personally walked us out to the train and directed Kate over to one of the porters who ensured that she would be seated in a section for passengers who needed any extra help. The same thing happened for the return trip. Everyone was courteous, kind, and efficient. We won’t hesitate to use the service again.

Iowa Quilt Museum

Museums are repositories of our shared and collective heritage. In these times of uncertain funding, my friend Marianne Fons reached out to me to ask if I would donate to the Iowa Quilt Museum. I happily agreed.

I gave $100 to the Iowa Quilt Museum. Who will match me?

The Iowa Quilt Museum in Winterset is a wonderful space dedicated to showcasing beautiful quilts. I mounted an exhibit of quilts there and have had quilts in other exhibits there. Winterset, which is the birthplace of John Wayne, is located southwest of Des Moines.

Three of my quilts hanging in The Iowa Quilt Museum

Perhaps you’ll consider joining me in helping to ensure the ongoing stability of this excellent museum. Just click on the link. If you don’t want to give one of the preset amounts, enter how much you’d like to give in the “$0.00” space. And be sure to tell them Judy sent you! Thank you for your generosity!

Iowa Quilt Museum Capital Campaign

The Bias Against Bias

While I have no interest in going back to the yabba dabba do days of penciling sewing lines around a template onto the fabric, cutting around these outlines with scissors, and hand sewing on the lines, there were some advantages to this approach that, sadly, are lost to most machine piecers today. For one thing, the same method served for any quilt. You didn’t need to take a class to learn how to make each new quilt. There were no tricks or shortcuts to learn. If you knew how to make one quilt, you could make pretty much ANY quilt. You knew a few basic things, and you could apply this knowledge to almost any quilt pattern.

Many quilters today limit their pattern choices because they have come to rely on shortcuts that are just elaborate ways of avoiding patches with bias edges. Quilt makers today can choose to piece on a paper foundation; to strip piece; to flip and sew; and to use any number of techniques to make half-square triangles, quarter-square triangles, and Flying Geese units. These methods are touted as “shortcuts,” but they don’t necessarily save any time. More than anything, they are workarounds for people who have not yet acquired the confidence to work with patches that have bias edges. Did you know that you can still stretch the bias when you join two squares along the diagonal? And that you cannot stretch the bias when you gently hold the whole triangle flat against the bed of the sewing machine as you stitch?

I’m gently holding the patches flat against the sewing machine as I stitch. Note the electrical tape is not my seam guide; it’s holding some stiff cardboard in place, which is my seam guide.

The bias grain is really no big deal. You are not likely to stretch it as long as it is flat against the bed of your sewing machine. Actually, bias is nothing to fear once your seam allowance is right. Most stretching comes from overhandling fabric, especially when you rip seams. You won’t have nearly so much seam ripping when you have mastered your seam allowances.

Here are the big ifs that will help you neutralize the bias threat. IF you trim points, you can see exactly how patches are supposed to align with their neighbors. IF your seam allowance is perfect, you can trust the fit. IF you pin seams and joints, you can be sure that you keep things properly aligned. IF you finger press rather than pressing with an iron, you can avoid stretching bias edges. And IF you don’t push or pull fabric as you stitch, but gently guide it along your seam guide as the patches lay flat on the sewing machine bed, you are not going to stretch anything out of shape. Repeat after me: “Bias is no big deal.” So stop worrying and make the quilts you really want to make. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Kansas City

All my travel this year has been with a purpose (a purpose other than just having fun and relaxing). With Kate gearing up to head back to work as the students began filtering into Grinnell, we decided to spend a weekend in Kansas City.

What do you do when you have 1 full day and 2 partial days in Kansas City? The down-and-dirty highlights were barbecue at Jack’s Stack, visiting the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, touring the Negro Leagues Museum, and seeing the White Sox take on the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

My favorite art museum is the Art Institute in Chicago, but you should never forget about the museums of smaller big cities. Nelson-Atkins has an excellent collection of Impressionists. Their collection of Missouri native Thomas Hart Benton is unrivaled. Benton and Grant Wood (American Gothic) were at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. All in all, we had a wonderful and exhausting time touring the museum.

Hollywood by Thomas Hart Benton, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is required viewing for all baseball fans. It chronicles the struggles of Black ballplayers to gain a toehold in organized baseball, and it celebrates the achievements of these men, both before and after integration. Regardless of one’s heritage, we are all diminished when we don’t allow everyone to participate fully in our society. That lesson is reinforced at every turn in the museum.

The ballgame was very hot and ultimately disappointing because the Sox blew a late lead and lost. But it was a ballgame on a sunny day. Can that ever be truly disappointing? Yeah, I don’t think so.

Keeping up with The Quilters Hall of Fame

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Over-Quilting

In my last newsletter, I discussed the trend of over-quilting, displaying remarkable skill in quilting while obscuring the other aspects that also make a quilt beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. Based on the emails I received, a lot of people agree with me.

Carolyn wrote, “I wanted to thank you for commenting about the heavy quilting we are seeing in so many quilts. My sister and I love to go to quilt shows, and I have been complaining about this for several years now. The quilts just ripple at the bottom and around the edges. They will never lay flat. Maybe that should be the first thing that is considered when being judged!”

Bobbie had this to say: “Thank you for the newsletter. I enjoyed it! I agree with the over the top quilting on the fabric of a masterpiece....It’s their quilt, though, and hopefully they enjoy it.”

Beauty is subjective. Talent should be celebrated. In shows dedicated specifically to quilting, the decorative stitching that binds quilt layers together, it makes sense to offer virtuoso displays of quilting to the nth degree. But in shows dedicated more generally to the art of making quilts, I’d like to see a greater emphasis on the harmonious combination of all the elements that make a quilt. That’s one woman’s perspective. Of course, as Sly Stone would say, “Different strokes for different folks.”

Brownies

Elizabeth offered this about my having to include raisins in brownies I was making for a contest: “My husband only eats brownies with raisins (!). I add nuts sometimes and call them ‘chunky brownies’ after the candy bar. The raisins keep the brownies moist, in my opinion. Regardless, I was happy to see a ‘scratch’ recipe. These days people I know make brownies from a box.”

Cake and brownie mixes are verboten in my house! I agree with Elizabeth about brownies needing to be moist. My brownies have a shortbread base to improve the structural integrity that really moist brownies often lack.

Triple Chip Cookies

Here’s a scratch cookie recipe I’ve been working on recently. Bag the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving and serve these instead!

5 Old Movies

Sometimes Steve and I want to sit in a darkened theater and watch an engrossing film on the big screen, but when we start browsing the offerings, there’s nothing we want to see. We have no interest in superhero movies. Horror movies don’t cut it for us. There are so many of them in October! It seems like there are too many sequels, remakes, and reboots. We usually end up staying home and investing our time in streaming TV series (and the occasional movie) on Netflix, Britbox, or PBS Passport.

Here are some older films I can recommend. Whether you can track them down or not is another story.

Gregory’s Girl is a touching and comedic look at an awkward Glasgow teen in the throes of first love. It was directed by Bill Forsyth, who later did Local Hero with Peter Riegert and Burt Lancaster.

Matewan is a beautiful film about a coal mining revolt in West Virginia in the 1920’s. It might be director John Sayles’ best film.

Being John Malkovich is a movie that dares to be different. Going through a portal behind a file cabinet takes you inside actor John Malkovich. It’s as good as it is weird. My son references this film in one of his songs. I hope he’ll include it on his next album!

Paint Your Wagon is the crowning achievement in Clint Eastwood’s career, though he doesn’t seem to realize it. It’s a musical (Yes, Clint and Lee Marvin sing!) about a woman in a gold mining town who has two husbands.

Jean de Florette is a French film about a pair of schemers who block a natural spring to try to bankrupt a farmer. Once you’ve seen it, hunt down its followup, Manon of the Spring. The lushness of the photography and the heartrending human story of both are incredible.

Jessie’s Sore Throat

Following the bit in my last newsletter about interesting definitions, Jessie wrote, “I once swallowed a book of synonyms. It gave me thesaurus throat I’ve ever had.”

I hope Jessie is feeling healthy (well, fit, robust, invigorated, hale, vital) now!

I hope you’re all feeling invigorated now! I know I am. Until next time…

Judy Martin
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