A couple of years ago I showed you a photo of a quilt in process and I am happy to share with you the final product.

As a little background, Charlotte Warr Andersen and I are best friend and have been so for well over 20 years. She and I met back in the very early 1980’s when we were both starting out as quiltmakers. For the record, Charlotte took her first quilting class from me…… and that is the last time we were equals!

Anyway, back to my story, during that first meeting we realized that we were practically neighbors (just a half mile apart in location); our oldest children were the same age and in the same elementary school class.

We became fast friends and supported one another in everything from school car pools to swapping recipes to walking buddies to, most important of all, a support and sounding board as we plotted our separate careers as professional quiltmakers. And even though Charlotte’s chosen quilting techniques are innovative and mine are traditional, we have found common ground in every aspect of our lives.

When I moved away about ten years ago we both felt a great void in our lives. But with so many easy ways to stay in touch, we have. Charlotte is always the first one I turn to for advise and/or sympathy when things get tough.

Back in 2008 Charlotte was working on a new book, One Line at a Time. Its subject is Charlotte’s own innovation on how to mark and stitch complex geometric designs for machine quilting. She asked me to supply her with a quilt top (traditional, of course) for her to quilt and to be included in the book to show that her designs work well on traditional as well as innovative quilts.

So my Steeplechase quilt top went off to Charlotte. She completed the quilt and the book. She has kept the quilt since then as an aid in promoting her book.

 There is now a new book in the works and Steeplecase has returned home to me. I got the quilt back a few weeks ago and I am still in awe as I look at the skill and fine workmanship Charlotte consistently exhibits in her work.

And now I own a piece of it! What an amazing gift from a long time great friend.

P.S.  My Journal has been behaving badly for quite some time, i.e. rejecting comments and making posting most difficult, but now my web designer (Charlotte’s daughter I might add) has updated Jeana’s Journal with a new version of Wordpress and it is working like a charm. So feel free to comment, it should be easy now.

I’ve been away from my blog for quite some time and I apologize. It seems I am not a good blogger. Life runs so fast at some times that it is hard to fit everything in. 

In addition to my work with the needle side of Foxglove Cottage, which is quite a load this time of year, here is very brief summary of what you missed while I’ve been away…..

A visit out of town to see some of our grandkids in March was great fun and it was far too short. The photo above is of all of our grandchildren, taken just last Saturday. I was not there for the fun, but it is great to see all of our kids together and enjoying each other.

Next, for quite some time I have been on the lookout for a nice piece of furniture to fill a very large empty space on the wall behind our front door. I was looking for either a hutch to hold dishes, or a cabinet of some kind to store quilts. I have collections both and I don’t have enough nice storage for either of them.

Then, quite by accident, I found the perfect piece. It was in a local gift/antique store. Here it is alongside the antique oak table that originally belonged to my husband’s grandmother.

A previous owner had cleverly installed temporary shelves in the long side of this wardrobe and they are perfect for storing quilts. I lined the shelves with white cotton sheets and stacked my quilts on top.

The two bottom quilts on the left side were made by my mother for my husband and me. They don’t look like much, but I love them and I rarely use them because I do not want them to be used up, even though that is what she intended. The afghan on top of the quilts was made for me by one of my sisters. The blue tied polyester large gingham check quilt on the right side was given to us as a wedding gift from the Relief Society (church ladies group). It has been used constantly through our almost forty years of marriage. It is now threadbare and yet it still lives on…..

You will probably be surprised to see that the antique quilts I collect are 1930s era quilts. I love to live with these quilts because of the cheerful, light colors but I am not likely to be tempted to make a grandmothers flower garden or double wedding ring quilt anytime soon.

I do have a few antique appliqué quilts, but at the moment they are packaged in a suitcase for a trunk show I am presenting next week. I’ll tell you later, in another post, about why I don’t collect many nineteenth century quilts.

And last of all, I have neglected this Journal because I have had a flurry of new ideas for quilts and my spare time has been used in pulling these ideas together. I have learned that if I ignore new ideas they will fade and, in my mind, these new ideas are too good to let go.

The Christmas quilt pattern is getting closer. I have not abandoned it nor have I forgotten, just been too busy to do it all!

Also, I have been asked about a topic that you may be interested in, so check out the Sewing Room for a new post about how to plan an appliqué border that is appropriate for a pieced quilt. You may be surprised at what you learn there…

For the past year I have been teaching a class based on my Old Voices book, research, and unpublished patterns that are a part of my Old Voices project. Each month the students receive several patterns and a quote with each pattern from the Nineteenth Century. These quotes were written by women who experienced the event described.  Many of the quotes I find come from Journals or letters written at the time the events occurred.

I have recently noticed that, for the most part, much of what I read was written by young women who were unencumbered by the responsibilities of a family to care for, or they were written by older women, whose families were raised and who now had the luxury of time to write remembrances of their earlier lives.

This past week I found two journals kept by young women who wrote descriptively in real time about their experiences on the trek west—one to Utah and the other to Oregon.

The quotes I am sharing with you today are from the first days of their individual trips. The whole experience was new and exciting to them. You will feel their excitement in their words. Their descriptions are vivid and charming as they describe a time and a part of history that is long gone.

The photos show here were taken in Utah at a time of the year when these two journal-keepers would have arrived at their destinations.

Journal of Emiline B. Wells
February 27, 1846. Mrs. Whitney, Sarah Ann, and myself crossed the river to go to the encampment of the saints. Br. Lot and his wife took Mrs. W. and myself in their carriage. We crossed the river a part of the way on foot, and then went on to the encampment about 7 miles beyond;
We reached the destined place about sunset. When we came in view it looked like pictures I have seen of the ancients pitching their tents and journeying from place to place with their cattle and their goods.
We repaired immediately to Br. H.C.Kimballs tent, took supper, and slept for the first time on the ground. There was a snow-storm without yet all was peace and harmony within.
Tues; March 3, 1946. This morning we arose early…After breakfast Loenza Maria and I took a walk in the woods. Just behind the tent we found stems of strawberry leaves; green-and fresh. I intend to keep them as a memorial of this time.
From the village we had a very bad road. It was so dreadful muddy and crooked….It was after dark when we came in sight of the camp and dismal-looking it is. The tents are all huddled together and the horses and wagons are interspersed. Some are singing and laughing, some are praying, children crying, etc. Every sound may be heard from one tent to another. It is late and I must retire.
Journal of Abigail Jane Scott
“April 2d 1852; Leaving home, home friends and home associates in Old Tazewell, we are this evening snugly quartered in the open prairie 15 miles from Peoria…. Have had but little difficulty in our journey so far; – crossed the Illinois river ( for perhaps the last time) with but little difficulty and in a word have had no trouble at all except what has been occasioned by bidding farewell forever to those with whom most of us have associated all our lives; and to me it was a great trial to leave the home of my childhood…….,when I came to know more thoughtful days I have loved to silently muse over the varying vicissitudes of life and loved to wander alone to the sequestered grove, to hold communion unseen by mortal eye with the works of nature and of God.

But here we are, and here I am seated by a blazing fire with Heaven’s canopy over my head trying to compose my mind and trying (almost in vain to see how form my thoughts into writing by the flickering and uncertain blaze of the large wood fire; all with us is animation (and not a little confusion) and all are quite anxious to go to ahead.”