AM250
18″ x 22.5″
Designed, pieced, hand embroidered and quilted by Sue Hickman Berryville, VA 8/2026
One simply cannot have too many patriotic quilts! I made this one with scrap squares left over from Freedom 250. I hand embroidered the dates 1776 – 2026 in the 1.5″ square featuring a flag, and in the lower right corner I hand quilted ‘Am250’.
Being ‘simple’ and small in no way diminishes the impact of this patriotic quilt. I hope it will forever remind my Grands of this historic year! Happy 250th Birthday America!
Freedom 250
79″ Square
Pieced, longarm and hand quilted by Sue Hickman Berryville, VA 8/2026
I first have to give credit where credit is due… this wonderful quilt layout was that of QuiltinGirl57, Shanon, who gave me permission to recreate her quilt (made earlier this year). I loved it from the moment I saw it!
She also shared square and star&stripe block size insights that got me started, and 3 fabrics from her own quilt that made it into 6 squares near the center of my quilt. She kindly offered additional insights/assistance, but I needed to figure it out on my own.
This is a quilt I will never sell! This quilt embodies the season of my recovery and is a testimony to my persistence and my brain’s post-stroke efforts to form new neural pathways… thanks go to God!
There are 2,356 strategically placed scrappy 1.5″ squares in this quilt. Sure, piecing squares is ‘easy’. and I’ve sewn without a pattern for years, but sewing them one at a time to create this layout was very challenging, and therapeutic. Getting the outside squares to diagonally line up with the quilt’s center was like figuring out a puzzle. Piecing this quilt top helped boost my machine piecing confidence!
All fabrics came from my scraps and stash. Which fabric made it into which diagonal ‘row’ was in part determined by how much of each fabric I had to work with. (For example, I only had 2 squares of the fabric that found their way into the upper right and lower left corners.)
Tea for Two – A Tilda Doll Quilt Swap 2026
Each 14.5″ Square
Designed, pieced, appliques, and quilted by Sue Hickman Berryville, VA 8/2026
Thanks go to Leanne Harrison, StitchingPixie, for this fun swap!
It gave me a chance to ‘play’ with these beautiful Tilda fabrics I’d collected over the years. This is my first quilt made using Tilda fabrics.
As I surveyed the bundle of blues, this sweet teacup featuring an iconic Indian elephant carrying an umbrella with her trunk and a monkey on her back seemed deserving of being a key feature of this doll quilt.
I thought Duncany and I would enjoy sipping a cuppa Himalayan Darjeeling Tea with our swap partner… And until time to swap, we enjoyed looking at this sweet quilt.
At the center are four log cabin blocks placed on point with darker logs to the outside. The teacup is appliqued in the center. Various borders fill the corners making it square again. (I used all of the elephant border stripe that I had for my swap partner’s quilt, so mine has something different in its place.)
Next, I surrounded that with some flying geese blocks and used simple floral squares to fill the four corners.
My ‘design as I go’ method helped to grow new neuron connections (post stroke) where those creative connections had been struggling. It was good therapy in many ways!
Little Works of Art
Each about 5″ square
Embellished with free motion thread painting/quilting by Sue Hickman Berryville, VA 6/2026
Given as a token of my heartfelt thanks to my 4 physical therapists who worked with me in my post-stroke recovery.
Happy Birthday America – My ‘Sister’ Doll Quilt Swap 2026
16.25″ x 18.75″
Designed, Redwork embroidery, pieced, appliqued, and hand quilted by Sue Hickman Berryville, VA 5/2026
As is my custom, I made a second of the doll quilt made for my swap partner… this one for me to keep.
Duncany and her patriotic friends approve!
Fancy Four Patch – A Challenge Quilt
13.5″x 18.25″
Designed, pieced, and hand quilted by Sue Hickman Berryville, VA 3/2026
This doll sized quilt was created for ReproQuiltLover, TarynFaulkner’s, Fancy Four Patch Quilt Challenge.
Most are making larger quilts, but making this one doll sized was perfect for me right now. fabric choices for mine were inspired by scraps left over from the baby quilt below.
A Baby Quilt
Designed, pieced, and quilted by Sue Hickman Berryville, VA 2/2026
Back-in-the-day, as they say, I began quilting by learning the basics and rules. Once I’d mastered those like a pro, I was free to break them like an artist. Ever since, I rarely use a pattern without adapting it in some way to ‘make it my own’.
Like I so often do, when invited to a ‘shower’ I bought fabric to make this gift without a pattern or plan.
I cut into it and began piecing, but that was before my stroke.
As my energy began to return I tried to make sense of it all. That was challenging!!! I tried a few times without success, then finally I had energy, clarity, and focus enough to create something that made sense… probably not what was originally intended, but it’s soft and sweet with the hope Mom and Baby will love it. Thankfully, with simple loop-d-loops, longarming came easy enough. I was glad to deliver the completed quilt before Michelle delivered baby Brooke.
Happy Birthday America – Doll Quilt Swap 2026
17″ x 19″
Designed, Redwork embroidery, pieced, appliqued, and hand quilted by Sue Hickman Berryville, VA 2/2026
There’s something about Redwork that has always captured my heart. It was most popular from the late 1880s through the 1920s and, whether old or new, it always looks vintage to me.
Many, many slow stitches went into the making of this quilt, including embroidery, appliquick applique, wool applique, and hand quilting… and those restful days slow stitching were just what the doctor ordered. In December, just before Christmas, I had a stroke.
I used to be able to do those skills practically in my sleep, but (post stroke) this past month this quilt has allowed me to re-train my eyes, hands, and brain to these tasks.
When assigned a swap partner for this year’s exchange, my thoughts returned to a vintage redwork baby quilt I’d purchased in Feb 2024. On that quilt is a sweet block featuring little boys marching and carrying a banner that says, ‘The Little Army’. So patriotic.
A search for patriotic redwork quickly took me to the Redwork Plus website (A division of McRady Enterprises). Their Redwork BOM July pattern provided me with the inspiration I needed.
I’d have bought their pattern, but their design was too big for this swap’s rules, so instead I fashioned my own version that reminds me of the spectacular America250 show illuminating the iconic Washington Monument. It was a joy to witness it in person as my Grands ran about playfully on the Mall.
I found inspiration for the eagle in the 1991 Great American Quilts book compiled and edited by Sandra L. O’Brien. The image in the book had to be greatly scaled down to be the appropriate size for this quilt.
Heartfelt thanks to Linda Collins for putting together this wonderful international quilt swap!
I’m often asked what the ‘big deal’ is with doll quilts, and my answer is easy. First, Linda brings together some of the most creative and skilled quilters from around the world who I thoroughly enjoy getting to know online… their quilts are inspirational and a joy to watch come together with their swap partner in mind. No one knows who is creating for them, so we all watch for update posts and celebrate each one’s progress eagerly anticipating the one that will arrive in our mailbox. The other reason I have grown to love making these doll quilts is that there are SO many quilts I’d love to make in my lifetime, but since I can’t make them all, it is wonderful to be able to make some small.
