Reconnecting with the Universe

After a long absence from writing blog posts, I'm beginning the journey of staying in touch once again. I'm also figuring out how to link these posts in a newsletter sent out from my website to those who have signed up at trunk shows or online. I promise not to overwhelm you with lots of emails. At this point I'm hoping to send something quarterly and, IF I get into a rhythm, it may be monthly. 

After a slow start and a late freeze, we are finally enjoying the gorgeous peonies lining the north and west sides of our yard, along with more iris than we expected after that freeze. I'm taking some time to play in the garden and am planting shade loving perennials in the backyard where nothing has grown in years. Between the tree that shades that corner and the shed that was there when we moved in and was removed after a big wind storm, along that fence is bare ground. As I told my cousin today, I'm mostly spreading packets of seeds as it's cheaper to replace a seed packet than buy more plants. My thumb is not always green, but I have hopes the plans will come to fruition with a lovely wildflower perennial area near the bird feeders where we can relax and enjoy time on our patio with a more colorful view. 

In quilting news, I've added another topic in my list of available trunk shows, added a couple of new classes, and have an online class that is now ready for signups! I'm also continuing to create new quilts, do my own FMQ, am learning to quilt pantographs on one of the machines at Quilters' Paradise, and have several patterns that will be released (hopefully) soon. I guess there is plenty to share and talk about.

Trunk Shows in 2027 and Beyond 

Please consider scheduling a Zoom Trunk Show for your guild. All of my trunk shows have an accompanying PowerPoint that can be presented easily via Zoom. As many of you know, Les and I only drive to wherever we go--we don't fly. I guess our ages are showing as we prefer staying closer to home, but with Zoom presentations available as an alternative, I can travel virtually almost anywhere! Regional in-person trunk shows are still available for scheduling in 2027 and beyond.  

The newest trunk show is Passion for Valor Quilts. Being part of a Quilts of Valor/local veteran quilts program, as well as making valor quilts for family who have served in the military, this has become my favorite outreach program. Being able to share why it means so much to me, and sharing many of the quilts and their stories feels very special. In Baldwin City since 2015, over 100 quilts have been made and gifted in person to area veterans. Starting in 2025, we expanded our area to include not only Baldwin City, but also Douglas County and the adjoining counties where members of the Kaw Valley Quilters Guild and Quilt Capital of Kansas quilters live. On Veterans Day in 2025, 21 quilts were gifted to area veterans. Most of the quilts were presented at an open ceremony with family, friends, and community members invited to participate. Several quilts were presented at a local assisted living to older veterans. There have been very generous donations made, both in-kind with patriotic fabrics and monetary donations that have helped us purchase backing fabrics. Our small group is working to turn all that fabric into quilt kits that can be made by area quilters and returned to us for quilting and presentation. We are also always seeking names of veterans, young and old, for future presentations. Just contact me or call Quilters' Paradise in Baldwin City, KS, and provide the name of your veteran and/or active duty service member, branch of military, years served, and a good phone number and/or email so we can contact them before the next presentation date. Also be sure to include your own name and contact info in case we have trouble reaching them later in the year.

The other trunk show topics include:

• Adventures with 60 Degree Triangle Quilts
• Think Small for the Wall Eclectic
• Confessions of a Quilt Starter: UFOs, Orphans, and More
• Dancing with Thread: Liz's journey learning to free motion quilt
• Passion for Valor Quilts 

Scared Stitchless to Quilt Your Quilt: An Introduction to Free Motion Quilting on Domestic Sewing Machines or Sit-Down Quilters is now available as an online class that will covers everything you would hear and do in my in-person 6-hour class, only once you sign up, you have six weeks to complete the course at your own pace. 

This class has sections on threads and needles, marking tools, batting choices, preparing your quilt for quilting, and more, plus demonstration videos showing the process of pinning your layers, and marking and quilting your first free motion sampler on a domestic sewing machine--both a modern Brother and on a Singer Featherweight. Everything included would also apply to any sit-down quilter, i.e. HandiQuilter Sweet 16, Babylock Tiara, Bernina Q20, and others.

A second online class is currently in process as I make new videos for the Hexified Panel Quilt class that has been so popular for over ten years. As soon as it is ready and has an active link, I'll be sure to let you know! 

I continue to teach classes locally in Baldwin City through the Quilt Capital of Kansas initiative, a cooperative endeavor between Quilters' Paradise and the Lumberyard Arts Center. The classes are all listed on the Quilters' Paradise website for online registration and held in-person at the Lumberyard Arts Center. It's an amazing partnership that continues to grow and evolve as new events and classes are added each year.   

We are wrapping up a 6-session Quilting Basics series that has met monthly since January. The new quilters continue to amaze me with the blocks they bring in using the techniques we practice together in each class. This series will begin again later this summer.

Earlier this year I taught a Stained Glass Quilt technique that is fun and easy. Each student makes their own design using freezer paper and fat quarters. Every quilt is unique! This week I had a group of quilters come to the Lumberyard Arts Center for an in-person class to make the Two Fabric Bargello quilt, pattern design by Susie Weaver. Using an ombre and a focus fabric, you can make a dynamic quilt that isn't nearly as difficult as it looks. I'm sure these classes, and others, will come around again in the future! 

The 2-day Hexified Panel Quilt class will be held on Sundays, May 31 and June 21, through the Quilt Capital of Kansas. There are still spots available if you'd like to join in the hexie fun. You can sign up here: https://www.quiltingfabricsupply.com/module/class/491488/hexified-panel-quilt-with-liz-granberg-jerome. There are always new kits to pick from as fabric lines come and go. The 2-day class has you layering and cutting, and learning to chain piece your units at the first class, and creating a layout and sewing it together at the second class. 

Keep an eye out for the new summer class list that we are working on now and will have posted in the new few weeks. If you have a suggestion of a pattern you would like to make together in a class to get pointers in the process or a technique you'd like to learn, be sure to reach out and let me know. 

On a sad note, for those of you who met my dear friend Cheryl Lowrance on our travels over the last 7 or 8 years, she lost her years-long battle with long Covid on October 30, 2025.  

We first met in 2017 at the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival where I was teaching an earlier version of Scared Stitchless in a classroom filled with HandiQuilter Sweet Sixteens. She signed up for all four of my classes that week and we hit it off from the beginning. It turns out, our daughters, Jeni and Jessica, were good friends in high school in the mid 1990s. In fact, Jessica used to spend the night at my house on occasion. Cheryl and I had never met during that time and only discovered the connection after she friended me on Facebook and found Jessica commenting on my posts. Our adventures took us across the Heartland through multiple states. She became the navigator who found the quilt shops we would stop at along the way. Cheryl became my champion saleswoman who handled the sales of kits, patterns, and notions, and during workshops was the self-proclaimed Color Coordinator who assisted my hexie class students in matching fabrics to their mini panels to complete their class projects. 

I admit that getting ready to travel again this year feels different with her gone. We had some wild adventures looking for shops that weren't where the map said they should be. Most memorable was the time the GPS told us we had arrived, when in reality we were at a dead end with a locked gate in front of us with goats behind it! Our last big hurrah was our nearly 2-week trip to Ohio in 2024 where I spoke to and taught classes for two different guilds, plus taught a class at a quilt shop on the weekend between. On that trip Cheryl arranged our itinerary and planned stops to include shopping time at Hancock's of Paducah and a visit to the National Quilt Museum. By the end of that trip, I knew she was getting much worse and the few adventures we had in early 2025 were much closer to home. We listened to audiobooks on our drives, talked about anything and everything for hours, and were surprisingly well suited as travel buddies! 

We also traveled together to quilt retreats in Oklahoma and Kansas together, often stopping for ice cream treats along the way. We both had our favorite flavors at Braum's! As a best friend, she was one of a kind. When Les had his two major surgeries, Cheryl was there with me in the waiting room for however many hours it took so I wouldn't have to be waiting alone. I was able to take her to several procedures and appointments as she dealt with the loss of her left eye. It didn't matter if it was quilting related or personal, we supported each other as best friends through life's ups and downs. Cheryl will be greatly missed.

That's all for this edition... Keep stitching 

Liz