Quilt Showcase: A Village in the Woods

Once a month, we will try to showcase a quilt from one of our MPS members.  Whether we’ve been quilting for decades or are just beginning our quilting journey, we are a talented bunch; and we inspire each other regularly with the many wonderful quilts that are created.  So it seems fitting that we showcase a quilt in hopes it will inspire others.  (You can click on any of the images to see a larger view.)

A Village in the Woods

Sometimes quilts take us on journeys that are bigger than fabric, thread, and time at the sewing machine. For Dianne, her quilt A Village in the Woods began during one of the most unusual chapters in our lives—pandemic lockdown in 2020.

Her small group, Threads on the Edge, kept spirits lifted with bi-weekly Zoom meetings. At the same time, Dianne was spending precious afternoons on Zoom with her 8-year-old granddaughter, reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Add in the spark of a small group quilt challenge, and a creative seed was planted.

Armed with Jinny Beyer’s The Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns, Dianne set about hand-drafting house and tree blocks—13 houses, 12 trees—each one inspired by the idea of a community nestled in the woods. Drafting by hand was slow work, but also deeply rewarding, and with each block, the “village” began to grow.

Of course, as any quilter knows, the vision doesn’t come together without a few stumbles. Finding the right separator block was a puzzle until inspiration struck: cobblestones! Three ombre fabrics—Honey, Aloe, and Chestnut—from Jennifer Sampou’s Sky collection became the perfect backdrop to make each block shine. A skinny red border gave the quilt a spark, and a ring of flying geese set the village in motion.

The quilt even has a story on the back—extra house and tree blocks, plus leftover geese, found their home there. In 2025 (yes, five years later!), the quilt traveled cross-country to Teresa of TKos Quilting in Florida for custom quilting, and by spring it returned home to Oregon, to be bound and finished at last.

Now A Village in the Woods lives where it belongs—on the bed waiting for Dianne’s granddaughter, now a teenager, when she comes to visit. Five years in the making, this quilt is more than a challenge met. It’s a memory-keeper, a reminder of patience, perseverance, and the beauty of slow stitching.

Because sometimes, the quilts that take the longest to make are the ones that stay in our hearts the deepest.

Do you have a quilt like that—the kind that took years, a few detours, and maybe a little extra patience, but turned into something unforgettable? We’d love to hear your story! Share your “slow quilts” with us in the comments below.  After all, every quilt has a journey, and those journeys are worth celebrating.