3 New Quilts - Actually Completed before HP

This is "A is for Aubrey"  I made this one for Laura's niece.  Turned out very cute - and I used corresponding fabric.  Oooooo.  It is machine appliqued. Machine quilted, with decorative stitching.

 This is Holly's Mariners Compass.  These blocks are pieced, and then appliqued to the back ground fabric.  I quilted this on my home machine.  Between the stars it is free motion quilted, and the border and edges are stitched in a zig-zag fashion.  I also put some strategically place prairie points in few places around the border.  I re-learned those at the Olathe quilt guild meeting.  But I remember doing them as a child, with my mom.

 

 This little quilt was made for Faith, my co-workers daughter.  I also machine quilted it, and used decorative stitching.  My favorite part though is the felt flowers with pink button centers.

Harry Potter Rules

I finally finished my Harry Potter quilt.  It is done rather in the style of a Weasley.  My kids tell me that I am most like Mrs Weasley - so why not go all the way.  I think it is rather fun to go through each appliques piece, and figure out its link to the movies.  Keep in mind, many of these designs were done prior to the movies being released, so they done all match the movie.  I love this quilt.  It is very bright, interesting, and heavy.  Almost all the fabrics are fancy fabric, either satins, brochades, or drapery samples - oh and velvet.  This is a very tactile quilts.  And crooked.  I don't think the Weasley's would mind how crooked it is, so I am not fixing it.  The fabrics are quite slick - thats my story and I am sticking to it...I think I like Hedwig best, or the snitch.  And yes, the sword of Gryffindor looks more like a dagger - just adapt, that is my logic. 

Seans Quilt

Well, I finally finished another quilt. It has been a long time since I have had anything new to post, but I like this one.

I made Sean a Jayhawk Crazy Quilt and used my new Janome to quilt it. It is not a NEW Janome, its my new Janome, but I am very happy with it. Especially as I get a little better with it. I did some straight machine stitching for quilting as well as quite a bit of Free motion quilting. I only ripped out about half of it. Could probably have ripped out more, but at some point you just have to go on.

Dad's Quilt

Here is the quilt top as it stands that I am making for my Dad. It is about a queen size - I think. I call in My Kansas Sampler. I made the blocks to represent things to me. There are 3 stars, for each of his kids. And the pieced blocks in the right side represent: the circle is a tire (for the Station), the one to the right is the Kansas Combines, the bottom left is the view driving out to his house, and the the fish - well, they are fish. There are also a variety of other blocks that I just played with that I liked, and in the center is a pheasant in flight. He is applique, on the botton left corner there are also 2 bobwhite quail. All of the fabric in this quilt is from Gramma Jo's stash. I love stash busting!!!

I have decided to also include a few pictures to show the disarray of my sewing room, it is a total disaster. It is amazing I can find anything in there. Remember though, this is only temporary, my shelves are in process now.

Baby John's quilts

This is a quilt that I made for my other BFF Julie and her baby boy John. I actually had the quilt made in time, but forgot to get pictures of it, so I am just not getting it posted. I do like the applique with a satin stitch, especially for the playful quilts, however I am experimenting with traditional applique on a quilt I am making for my father. I still have at least 8 quilts sitting out ready to quilt, but slowly one by one, I will get them finished. I am quilting a flannel one on my home machine now. But the drive to start piecing a new quilt frequently out-passions the desire to machine quilt. And machine quilting anything over a baby quilt hurts my back after a while - although, technically, none of my quilts are over baby quilt size - so that excuse fails.

I read somewhere that you should always use stripes in your quilts, Yeah, I like it. I also like the stair step pattern that the yellow and purple blocks make.

OH! Baby Quilts

I seem to be in a little bit of a pattern here, I recently completed 3 baby quilts. Of course, I still have 3 hanging ready to finish, at present I have about 11 UFOs - the deal with my UFOs though is that they are all out, piled around my room, in stages of disarray. The is no rhyme or reason to which quilts I am working on at any given time, some days I just feel like piecing, some days ironing, some days hand stitching, and everyday - I design. With all these designs I just keep starting new quilts, and then there are new piles, and new UFOs!

I have worked out a deal with the shop teacher at South....he is going to have his students build me new cabinets/shelves for my sewing room. I drew them all up. I spent all Christmas Break figuring out the perfect design, and once I handed over the plans, and changed my mind again. I hope to add some counter space, and some space to put each project in its own basket, I hope to get organized. And all it is going to cost me is a cheesecake a month for the rest of my life. Relatively small price to pay for sanity wouldn't you say.

"Sammy" is for my BFF Laura - her little boys room is Safari - so I had to do this. The other animal quilt is just an extra, I'd sell it if you want to buy it. The little girl quilt is just an extra too - but I think I love it too much to part with - at least not for now.

Finally Finished my Ode to Asia

I started this quilt last year, and finally finished it yesterday. The design is roughly some pattern I once saw in a quilting magazine, but I have since lost the magazine, and then I just made it all up. The back is almost as perfect as the front, actually, I do rather find it more interesting. The ladies at the quilt guild always show there quilts, then they turn them around and show the back, and say "oh I just threw the rest of the fabric together on the back..." Well laudeedau for them. Piecing that back easily took longer, and definitely more Math skills than the front ever did. I had the piece quilted by Kathy Gyles and I think she did a great job. The larger squares have lotus blossoms - and the rest is bamboo.

Kati's Quilt

This summer I bit the bullet and finally started working on Kati's quilt. This is a drawing that I had Kati due when I was in a textile's class at KU. After she made the drawing on a large sheet of butcher paper, I traced the image with black resist on cotton. Between the 2 of us we then painted it with thickened dyes. From the start I loved it. I loved it so much I was terrified to work on it. With the help of Kris Barlow, I put together the top, and decided to quilt it on a long arm. Kris taught me how to long-arm, and together we used the same drawing ideals that Kati used, and I quilted it. Yeah. Somewhere there is video - but that is on a memory card that has briefly taken a vacation from my posession.

I even really enjoy the detail that shows up on the back due to the different color of threads. There is a lot of thread on this fabric, but I feel that it doesn't lose the quality and stories of Kati's mark making.

It has been a miserably long time since I have posted a blog, and the horror of it all is that there have been many things of which to post. First. Gramma's auction. What an event, amazing that a woman could have that much loot left after she was convinced she had gotten ridden of everything. I did walk away with a ton of quilting materials so I shan't complain. And my mom's high school yearbook. It was a fabulous day, and I spent it with great people. Atleast 5-6 months after the even I am pretty sure that is how it went.....

Later for more.

Heading South

Well, it's official...next year I will be teaching at Olathe South High School. I bet Bill is really excited about moving all my crap. Oh, it'll be good for him. This move is a mixed bag. Yes, I want to go, but it will be hard leaving CST behind. But CST will not be the same place next year, all the 9th grade teachers are moving up, and with budget cuts, all extra teachers are being moved around too, so time moves on. Really?

OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!

OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!
That quilt show was sooo much fun. Too late to turn back now....... People actually liked my quilts.

My Quilts will be Displayed at the

Kaw Valley Quilt Guild Show

April 24 and 25

Douglas County Fairgrounds

Lawrence, KS

10:00 - 5:00

Admission: Adult $5, Under 12 - Free

Fosters is Finally Finished

Well, on the road to Grampa Dixon's I finally finished the binding on the Foster's quilt. My bindings are getting better I think. I really love the free-motion stitching on the Foster's Friends.

Doni picked a few of the primary fabrics, and I threw the rest together out of the fabric I had on hand. The owl fabric and the polka-dots are the only fabrics actually purchased for this project. Once again, I am just using up scraps of fabric - Doesn't everyone have purple velvet and leopard print fur on hand.

This quilt was part of her Christmas present, so I suppose it is a good thing I finally got it done. I know that as soon as it comes off the wall, she will be bundling up with it. I hope it will always be a hug when she needs it. Oh so sappy....

Oh My Goodness

I almost forgot. I finished one of my little painted fabric quilts. I really, really wish the color was better. I absolutely love this one, except that the binding is uneven and the corners look funny on the binding....but with therapy....

I did free motion embroidery on the painted middle section, then the double border simply has a stitch in the ditch.

I am planning to enter a quilt or two in the Kaw Valley Quilt Show, what are your votes? I think I will go with the Geisha for sure...but then maybe a more traditional quilt..... I would definitely enter Scrabble, but it is currently in Oklahoma, so, that is okay.

Aunt Mary Ann wrote today, she has quilt fabric for me. I think I will print some pictures and send them to her, so that she can see I really will use it. I think she rather thinks I was just being polite when I said I would love to have it.....Never know what gems I will find in her lot.

Now I am starting to collect fish fabrics - SHOCKING - I want to do a fish bowl quilt.

Oh, and hope to have Doni's Fosters finished this week. Here is a little teazer for that one......J

More on the quilt trial

So, over Spring Break I had to say good-bye to three different quilts, it has been quite an emotional journey.....

I finished the Jayhawk for Connie, so it went to live at her house. The good-bye wasn't so hard, since it was the 3rd Jayhawk quilt I made. Oh, and save your comments about March madness, it seems rather like Mayhem to me. My favorite Jayhawk is still Papa's though....

(I finally delivered Kaye her quilt. Let me tell you, that one was hard to give up. The kids want me to make another one, but I can't do that, in my world, the quilt is made for the owner...maybe I will just make one similar....)

and finally, I completed and delivered the Scrabble quilt. Yeah, it turned out pretty cool, and I am sure the bride and groom (Martha and Alex) enjoyed it. It looked really good, and I love the humor in it. In case you didn't know - Martha rather proposed to Alex in a game of Bananagrams - but I played off the scrabble aspect. The entire wedding reception followed the same theme so I was "right now!" or some other cool phrase.

I also finished Ian's quilt. I particularly liked the bright colors. Ian wanted a quilt for his "Duckie" but decided he was going to keep this one. He told me that my other quilts were nice, but this was my best one... okay it was adorable the way he said it, but didn't translate to blog very well.

Another Pair of Quilts

Here are another 2 quilts that I just finished. They by no means are related to each other - I have just had time during Parent Teacher Conferences to finish the bindings. I know I would have time on my hands, so I have been saving up.....

The Geisha quilt is based on one of mom's drawings. She did several in a series, so I think I will do a couple more similar. There is one of a samurai in one that Bill is particularily interested in.

The other is the first quilt I have made based on a pattern and it was rather challenging. It didn't help that I used cotton velvet for much of it, and it has a greater thickness that regular cotton quilting fabric. But I like how it turned out. This is another one where I dyed all the fabrics for.

Both have free motion quilting/emboidery - whick is absolutly fabulous in my opinion.

Feel free to leave feedback. Jen

Yep, yep, yeppers, here is another addition. Most of these fabrics are hand dyed on Kona cotton - which is absolutely fabulous. I never know when I use my "special" fabrics how much quilting I should do, I don't want to draw attention away from the fabrics. Such a quandary.

Here are a few more quilts, including the one I made for Baby Eva.


And Papa's KU Quilt









There are a few more that I need to get photographed and posted. But I am thinking that I am pretty happy with what I have done. Any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to let me know. Oh, and Jamie, if you send me a picture of Braden's, I would love to add it to the posts.

Oh My! A Quilt Attack

Well, I created a quilt for my friend John (actually, his new baby girl) in Sept, and got rather addicted. At this point, I have made 2 full size, 2 throws, and 3 wall hanging quilts. The goal, besides that it is just fun, is to use up my fabric stash. And quite honestly, 6 quilts latter, and I still have crap-loads of fabric, but I think I have made some fabulous quilts. I even joined the Lawrence Quilt Guild - hoping to learn some new tricks.

I also have 4 quilts in the makings - but I ran out of batting, so I am just completing new tops - I will finish them as soon as I get more batting. I am doing some art quilts using all my hand dyed fabrics, and making applique projects (like Doni's Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends quilt.) I am also taking some of mom's drawings and turning them into quilts - this one is one of my favorites, but its not finished yet, hopefully this weekend.

I have posted some pictures on Facebook - and I am getting offers to buy them, and have one that I am making for a co-worker - She wants one just like Papa's KU Quilt.

And - check this out - I have learned to use a thimble, I hand stitch the bindings, and my fingertips had begun to loose their fingerprints - so I had to learn.

End of an Era

So, on February 13, 2009, Gramma Josephine Denton passed away. She was my mom's mom. This was another hard time for me. I can't really say that I have recovered from Mom's passing, and now I have to say Good'bye to Gramma Jo. She and I had a complex relationship. I knew her when she was young enough to take me to World's of Fun, and she was there as an extra parent through high school and college, and she had become a source of inspiration for my marriage and parenting. And for some reason, I seem to be the only person in the world that she did not fight to pay for lunch or dinner.

The funeral itself was difficult because the topic of many conversations was condolensces for my mom, as well as for Gramma. But I made it through, and really enjoyed the time that I got to spend with my family. I really do have a great support group, though I rarely let them know that I need them. I need to work on that. The attached video is one that I made for the visitation. It shows how alive the woman really was. Well, I need to go for a bit, chat later. J