First, and most important, the long awaited An Old Fashioned Christmas quilt pattern is DONE! I will pick up copies “hot off the press” on Thursday before Spring Quilt Market opens in Salt Lake City on Friday.

For those of you that have followed my doubts and dilemma about publishing this pattern over the past few years, you will be happy to know that all of my reservations have been satisfied. I am very pleased with the result. They were:

1)   Pattern vs. book format….it is a pattern booklet. All of the patterns are there, full-sized and held together in a book form.

2)    The quilt is highly detailed, my dilemma was how to produce a pattern that will give the close-up views that are necessary for you to reproduce the patterns? Answer: The pattern booklet includes a CD-ROM with close-up views that will fill your computer screen!

I am very pleased with this production and I think you will be too. It will take a week or so for me to get the information to my web designer and for her to get it up and listed on my Store, so please be patient. Or, you are welcome to call next week (I will be gone all the rest of this week and the office is closed) to place your order over the phone: 435-462-9618. The cost of the book & CD is $30.00, plus postage.

The second thing I have been working was suggested by one of you. In my last post, I showed a picture of a pattern I had designed, stitched, and rejected for use in my new year-long quilt class. I teach these classes in person in Salt Lake City once a month. This reader wrote to me asking if she could join my class even though she could not attend.

My response was, “Why not? I could conduct an online monthly quilt class for those who cannot attend. And, just as my Salt Lake students do, invite my online students to an “in person” class here at the end of our one year class. I think it will work!

So, as soon as I can get the information to my web designer, I will post more information under the “Retreats” heading on my website. Class will begin August 1.

Wish me luck at Market!

Last fall, while teaching at the AQS show in Iowa I bought an amazing quilt. I believe it was made in the early twentieth century. Usually I admire old quilts and look for ideas to use in my own work in them, but I don’t buy. However, once in a while, when the price is right, I am captured by the work of an earlier quiltmaker and I am compelled to bring her quilt home with me. This Pickle Dish quilt is one of those quilts.

I feel that when you take the time to examine a quilt and look closely enough you will find aspects of a quiltmaker’s personality in her work. To me, this particular quilt is bursting with the personality of its maker. On close inspection of this quilt, this is what I believe about this quiltmaker.

I believe that the woman who made this quilt was probably elderly, but very confident in her competence as a quiltmaker. She liked detail, the more the better. She was frugal, had limited resources, and she had a no-nonsense approach to quiltmaking, i.e., the only reason to make a quilt was for its usefulness. She did not take herself too seriously: she was not making a masterpiece, she was simply having fun and making something useful. Most of all, however, she loved making quilts and that is why I brought a piece of her home with me.

Here are some closer looks to show you what I mean. By the way, if you measure from tip end to tip end of the “pieced melon slice” the size of her quilt block is just over SIX INCHES long. These pieces are tiny!

First of all, her workmanship is loose, her stitches large and a bit haphazard caused in part by the bulk of the many layers. When she is able to make a straight run of hand quilting stitches in a plain area her stitches are even and regular showing an expert hand. I think she was elderly because the stitches are large, yet formed with confidence. Also, who else would have the time, the depth of years shown in her scrap collection, and attempt such an intricate, small pattern if she did not have the confidence of years of experience behind her.

This is truly a scrap quilt. Fabrics are randomly chosen and placed in what appears to be a haphazard way. Yet there is charm in the combinations that I would guess came straight from her scrap basket.

She was using up fabric in a most efficient manner, the large plain pieces between the lines of patchwork were probably cut from flour or sugar sacks (one of my students suggested diaper flannel).

Large calico pieces went into the plain space between the curved pieced units. Pieces that were a little smaller went into the corner squares, and all the remaining bits went into the intricate “pickle” patchwork.

Her approach was efficient and I would imagine it was visually stimulating to see how the different combinations looked with each other.

I never tire of examining this quilt and I am still pleased that I get to live with this quilt and its maker every day.

One of the difficulties of hand piecing, especially if you are “planning” a “scrap” layout for your blocks, is keeping the pieces laid out until you have time to complete the hand stitching. When I started my Old Voices quilt this was one of the first problems I encountered.

Way back in 1995 I designed and made this sewing kit/hand piecing organizer to solve my dilemma. Now that I am working on Old Voices again, using all new reproduction fabrics, this sewing kit is back in constant use. I thought you might like to see how it works.

Once you untie the ribbon closure and open the flap. (Notice that the “cover” of the kit is two layers of woven plaid fabric. I used heavy weight fabric to support the size of the kit. One of my students used a quilted placemat for the cover of her kit…great idea.) In the front is a zippered pocket for keeping all of my hand piecing sewing tools and threads.

The pocket is nice and large to accommodate all of my tools. The zipper is 12 inches long. The 2 pieces of fabric that make the sides of the pocket were each cut 12” x 12”. Each 12” square was folded in half and the folded edge was sewn on one side of the zipper.  Once both sides of the zipper were sewn, the flat pocket was folded inside out and the 2 side seams were sewn shut.  Turn the pocket right side out again (zipper on the outside). The open bottom of the pocket was sewn to the sewing kit cover using a flat-felled seam and instantly a complete tool pocket is formed.

However, the best part of this sewing kit is the “pages” for laying out pieced blocks. There are six pages in this sewing kit and it works like this.

A quilt block is cut out and arranged on a thin batting page. Once it is complete the layout placement is saved by covering it with a previous “page” of light-weight batiste fabric.

The light-weight fabric will not adhere to the cut out pieces. When ready to work on a block, simply lift the light-weight (batiste) fabric to reveal the block laid out, ready to be sewn.

Laying the block out like this is also a guide in stitching the block together. there is no need for a paper diagram to show how the block is constructed since the arrangement of the fabric pieces is a diagram itself. 

The batting/batiste scenario that I have used for the pages in my sewing kit  is not the only option for the sewing kit. Other combinations of fabric layers such as muslin or flannel in place of the batting and satin or drapery sheer fabric (anything that will not “stick” to the cut out pieces when it is lifted open) can be used in place of the batiste fabric.

The “pages are made by layering batting and thin fabric that has been cut 18” long and 12” wide. There are three layers of batting & batiste in my kit. They are attached to the cover by stitching down the middle, through the cover and the page layers. When this machine stitching is complete, and the sewing kit is folded in half, the number of pages in the sewing kit is doubled.

The final addition to the kit is to add a 1” wide ribbon to the spine at the back of the sewing kit to tie the kit shut and to make it into a portable size for taking along to work on in odd minutes.

Here is one last tip for convenience in working on each block. On each “batting” page of my sewing kit I have attached a threaded needle and several pins arranged along one side of the page. (Seen on the right side in the photo below.)  This way they are easily available when the sewing kit is open and I am working on a block.

My finished blocks are 5″ square and this size of sewing kit is perfect for these small blocks. If you are working on large blocks you will want to increase the size of your sewing kit.  Enjoy!

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.

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…

 

 I promised a few weeks ago to show you pictures of the doll quilts I made for our daughter’s children. The three older girls have American Girls dolls. For Christmas they received a bunk bed with a trundle underneath for their dolls to sleep in. At my daughter’s suggestion I made quilts for each of their beds.

The colors for each doll quilt were chosen to match the bed-sized quilts each girl sleeps under every night—which also portrays their personalities.

 

 I started first with this Economy Block quilt. The tiny squares are each finished one and one-half inches square.

When my husband saw me laboring over the tiny quarter-square pieces. He kindly suggested that larger pieces would go together faster. I reminded him, however, that this quilt was for a doll and that scale made a difference.

 

  The top went together fairly fast, but the machine quilting on my trusty little featherweight Singer was difficult. It kept skipping stitches on the thick intersections. So for the remaining quilts I purposefully planned designs that did not have such thick intersections.

 

 Quilt number two was a Log Cabin. This quilt went together very well and quickly. Each Log Cabin block is 3″ square with each log measuring one-half inch when finished.

 

 Accuracy, as you know, is always a problem with log cabin quilt blocks, but I squared up each block with each log addition and that kept the squares accurate.

I finished three outside edges of the doll quilts with rick rack. The rick rack allowed me to avoid hand sewing a binding onto the quilt and it’s placement indicates the top and bottom of the quilt for easy reference when “tucking in” the dolls for the night.

Next I made the Steeple Chase quilt for our oldest grandaughter. Again, the quarter sections of the main quilt block were one and one-half inches square, with the completed block a 3″ square. Since it was late Thursday night and I had classes in the City for the next two days, I prepared the blocks to hand applique the curved smaller piece onto a 1-½” square instead of trying to machine piece those tiny curved seams. That way I could work on the blocks when I was away.

 

 It worked like a charm. After the small corner piece was appliqued onto the larger square, I trimmed the excess larger square fabric away from behind the small curved piece. It was a fun quilt to make and I was sorry when I had to move onto the next quilt.

 

 In my hurry to wrap these gifts last Monday I neglected to take a full quilt picture of my grandson’s quilt. His quilt is much larger than the girls’ quilts. It is a 34″ square. The Four Patch Unit (including the corner pieces that square it up) is 4″ square. The sashing between the blocks is 1″ wide.

 

 I intentionally planned to make a larger quilt for his toy dinosaur, but it grew bigger and bigger as I put it together. In the end, he is happy with his quilt anyway.

 

 Then, finally, for our littlest granddaughter, I made a dress for her new Bitty Baby doll that Santa brought her for Christmas. Since the doll came with her own quilt, a change of clothes seemed like a good idea.

 

 Whew! And I thought I was through making doll accessories when our daughter became a teenager!

It’s picturesque quality and natural beauty with so many springs in the area, that keep it green even during dry summers, have attracted many artists as full and part time residents. In the autumn the Spring City Art Council organizes a Plein Air Art Competition and Show.

Last Wednesday this year’s competition began. Over fifty artists participated. Anywhere— along dusty country roads, paved roads in town, and the highway leading to town—for several days it was common to see artists with their easels set up, gazing and painting at a particular view of interest.

Today was the big event, the contest was judged, prizes awarded, and over 200 paintings were for sale all documenting the last three days in our local town. It was a big event.

In conjunction with the Saturday festivities our local quilt group (about 10 members) was asked to hang a quilt show.

This is our third such show. The Spring City Quilters were born just over two years ago and the quilts exhibited today were made in the last two years by our members.

The log cabin quilts were a group project. We meet weekly at the local elementary school, but once each year we have an all-day event. Two years ago we decided to do a fabric exchange for making a log cabin quilt.

  Each member purchased five different one-half yard pieces of brown and beige fabric. We each cut our yardage into 2-1/2 inch strips. On the quilt day we put all of the brown strips into one very large bag and all of the beige strips into another bag. We then exchanged fabric by passing the bags around with each quilter drawing out one strip of fabric each time the bag was passed to them.

 

We went home (after a great lunch and an afternoon of sewing) with lots of different brown and beige fabrics all cut and ready to sew into a log cabin quilt. As you can see, depending on the accent color that each person added and the setting she chose, the quilt all turned out different. 

 

Many of these quilters were brand new to quilting and they rose to the occasion making lovely quilts. It was a pretty good show for such a small group of quiltmakers.

Over the years I have learned that the creative process cannot be controlled. New ideas cannot be called up at will. In fact, they often appear at the most inopportune times. Worse still, if a great idea is ignored, or pushed aside to be developed late, it will disappear altogether into the recesses of the mind.

Many years ago a wise friend gave me a bit of advise that still echos in my ears when a new quilt design appears and I begin the debate inside my head about ignoring yet another quilt or adding it to my list of unfinished ideas.

At the time I was on a deadline for a new book and the idea for one more quilt that fit perfectly into the book came to me. I was agonizing between comfortably coasting the end of an easily completed book or adding one more quilt and over-extending myself to meet a looming deadline.

My friend, Marion, very kindly and wisely said, “To ignore an idea is to deny the art that is within you.”

I took her advise and rushed into one last quilt for the book. The process was painful and a couple of “all night” working sessions resulted from that decision. Interestingly enough, the quilt that I had considered ignoring turned out to be the most popular quilt included in my Backyard Garden book.

I learned a great lesson from my friend and since then I have rarely ignored a new idea. If nothing else, I write it down and sketch out the design. Sometimes quilts stay exactly there—on paper–and are never taken any further. Sometimes I go as far as pulling fabric and beginning to stitch only to be pulled away by more pressing responsibilities. There are many good quilts/ideas half developed and carefully stored in my basement until I find time to return.

For the past two weeks I have been arguing with myself again. A patriotic pieced quilt with an applique border is on my mind.

I have more than enough ideas that I am actively thinking about and working on these days—five to be exact. Adding to my dilemma is the fact that seasonal quilts are just that…..seasonal. Is it worth my time to make a quilt that will be hung for just one month out of a year?

Finally, yesterday, due to the persistence of the thoughts about this quilt, I gave in and have pulled the fabric. Red, white and blue.

Blue, as many know is my least favorite color, and here I am considering a quilt with blue as a major player. Am I nuts or am I simply honoring a idea that has been given to me?

Time will tell.

I have been thinking lately about time and how things have changed so much in such a seemingly short time. Today’s post is about following up on things mentioned earlier in my Journal and how they have changed.

We will start with the best first. Do you remember when our last little granddaughter was born in December of 2007? Well here she is now, looking all grown up and very pleased with her life. Her mom is thinking along those same lines too, don’t you think?

When we moved here we started with lots of bare earth (well not really—it was covered in weeds and it still is for the most part). In June 2007, I posted the beginnings of some of our plantings. Here is an update on the things I showed back then.

The front flower bed is now full to overflowing. The rocks in the “Before” picture are still there buried under all of the growth.

The first rose bush did not make it, so we have started again this year. Unfortunately, we have found that is often the case when trying to “tame” uncultivated land.

The line of cottonwood trees are all still with us and growing. In my mind’s eye I can see them towering over the house and making lots of delicious shade. There I am in a lawn chair sitting beneath them and peacefully stitching. Can’t you see it too?

And finally, a progress report on the Christmas Quilt.

The applique is finished on An Old Fashioned Christmas and it has been mostly machine quilted. I am now hand quilting the individual applique squares. Five done. Eight to go.

I have decided to publish it in pattern form and you will have the option of buying individual blocks, or the whole quilt. More details later…..

Many years ago I began collecting books for my quilt library. The ones I purchased were what I call “picture books”. They are books on quilt history that are illustrated with photos of antique quilts.

Since old quilts are my primary resource for quilt design ideas and I live far out west, where antique quilts were mostly used up from necessity, viewing actual antique quilts is difficult.

I found that books written about quilt history was a close second to seeing the real thing. Books written for state quilt document projects and catalogs published for special quilt exhibits were just what I needed for learning about old quilts and for being able to see them.

Thus my quilt library has grown over the years to include many books that were printed in limited numbers and available for just a short time.

An unexpected bonus of collecting such quilting books has been the increasing value of those same quilting books. It turns out that the historical books I collected not only increased my mental wealth, they were a great financial investment.

Last week I could not find a book that I knew I had purchased years ago. Out of frustration I checked online to see if it was available to be purchased used. To my astonishment, a small book that I had originally purchased for $10.00 to $15.00 was available all right, but the price started at $55.00 and went up to $200.00!

I am telling you all of this because there is an exhibit catalog now available that I believe will increase in value not only because of the quilts shown there, but also because of the historical information it includes on chintz applique (sometimes called broderie perse). Chintz applique is a type of applique quilt that has received little attention until now.

The International Quilt Study Center (IQSC) in Lincoln, Nebraska has a current exhibit of chintz applique quilts. Accompanying the exhibit (for those of us who cannot attend in person) is a 64-page book of historical information about the form of applique the preceded, and ultimately led to the Baltimore quilt era. It is a great and informative read as well as full of color photos of remarkable chintz applique quilts.

The Chintz Applique catalog is just $19.95, plus $5.00 shipping. To order you may phone the Museum gift store (402-472-6500) or email calicohouse@neb.rr.com to place your order.