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It’s been a fun week – I got to got to go to an actual live County Fair, I’m at a turning point on my quilted jacket, and I got a good head-start on my Houston kits. The Amador County Fair was held over the weekend. I knew from trying to attend another recent local fair that people are hungry for such things and I’d better get there early. Indeed I did, and when I left 90 min later the line of cars to get in was a mile long! They really decked out the fairgrounds too: And there was…
It has been a scattered kind of week, a real luxury. I didn’t have to focus on some deadline or project, just work on what I wanted to! I’ve long wanted to work up this muslin, which will be a prototype of a jacket I want to make from this failed quilt. It is actually a gorgeous quilt but it has too many issues to resolve. I’m going to eventually make it into a quilted jacket and it will be gorgeous! I’m using a tried-and-true pattern: I’m making view c, the green one. I suspect I will need to petite…
Yes, my Grandson (and his parents) came for the weekend! I won’t post full photos of Little Man but look at those dimples? I’m a first-time Gramma so indulge me. They are just so stinkin cute at this age. He is starting to pontificate just a little bit. His Dad did that….still does:-) And my youngest son from Tucson came for the weekend too! We had him for 3 days, Little Man and his parents for one. Such is life for busy parents. It filled my Mommy heart to have my whole family here. Here is the frig post-apocalypse…
NOTE: I’ve got two posts this week. It just didn’t make sense to mix them together so I’ve got another post here about quilting density. Gimme a minute and we’ll get to the blood thing, okay? It’s been a teaching kind of week, a fabulous one! 25 engaged, prepared and enthusiastic students joined me from the Charlotte Quilters Guild for a Saturday of Start With a Square. Hubby and I lived in Charlotte for 4 years when our boys were early elementary, 1995 – 1999, pre-Jenny quilting days. It brought back great memories of our time there. Sometimes I get a…
NOTE: I’ve got another post this week here. I’ve been working on this white silk quilt for some time, maybe a year on-and-off? I recently restarted it and I’m doing fills around the feather tips. This is a great example of how much impact dense quilting can have on what it surrounds. Those feathers are looking pretty blah, like they are going to fade into the background. But I’m not done! BTW, those dots are trapunto’d. Filling in those tiny areas really makes an impact. See how those feathers tips pop with dense quilting next to them? That is a…
If you are of a certain age, you may remember the book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“. It was first published in 1974, just as I ran out of money for college and entered my hippie chick years. At the time I remember feeling influenced by the book, yet I don’t think I really did much with it other than think I was cool because I read it, I had a motorcycle and I maintained my own motorcycle. The young 20’s mind is soooo deep. A little bit of background to understand how this all fits into…
I took a great class this week from South African quilter, Telene Jeffries, aka Lady Jane Quilting. Telene is a superb and delightful instructor and patient with inept students, which I was in this class. The class was live on-line “Couched Applique as you Quilt“. I have not previously been successful with couching despite repeated tries. Yes, I know you need just the right kind of yarn/cord/thread and I have tried many. So I was excited about this class! Telene is primarily a long-armer (Handi Quilter) and oh by the way, one of her quilts will hang at Houston this…
NOTE: I have two posts today. My other post is about my Really Big News! Be sure to read!! I finally made a SAQA Auction Donation Quilt that survived my abuse! You may want to review previous fails here and here. So here it ’tis in all its glory: Its title is to be determined. It is a very dimensional quilt, I hope these photos give you a feel: The dark/light areas switch places as you walk around the quilt. The air wash-out pen marks are still showing a bit in this photo. I hope these give you a feel…
UPDATE: IT’S LIVE! CLICK HERE to go directly to my course! You know that on-demand course I keep writing about? It’s going live this week! Here ya go: My on-demand class, Yes You CAN Free Motion Quilt! should roll out this week! It is a comprehensive beginning free motion quilting class on the Creative Spark platform of C&T Publishing, publisher of my book. I. Am. SOOO. Excited! It was a ton of work but something I have longed to do and I am truly so proud of my product. On-demand classes let you watch as many times as you…
I should have known better…it was red, it was next to white, it was silk, it was me. I really thought I had pre-washed it: And I even forgot to take a photo of it before I soaked out the blue wash out markings. It really was pretty; the pristine white cotton next to the glow of the flaming red silk. The quilting created a wonderful visual texture – line and shadow that sculpted the surface. All was well until the soak, sigh. I knew to use Vicki Walsh’s dye bleed removal technique. It is the gold standard in the…