Blog

Juried in!

By Jenny | December 31, 2015 |

What a way to end the year-“Prairie Afternoon” was juried into an international Studio Art Quilt Associates exhibit: “My Corner of the World”. The exhibition will open at the Stratford Perth Museum, Stratford, Ontario, Canada. I am over the moon excited! The concept of the exhibit as described in the Call For Entry follows: My Corner of the World invites you, the artist, to examine your world – the world, real or imagined, that represents what is important in your life.  It might be where you reside, work, or grew up. It might be a favorite place from any point in your…

Polka dot obsession

By Jenny | December 24, 2015 |

I’m working now on a quilt that I was compelled to make. My inspiration came directly from this book: I know, I know, it looks suspect with its generic title and a Foreword by Martha Stewart. But this book is filled with exquisite quilts made with skill and artistry and it is an inspiration for any kind of quilter: Modern, traditional, art, contemporary. (I have no idea why all the photos in this post are not “clickable”-sorry!) And here it is, the source of my obsession. I love this quilt in a way I cannot fully explain. It sounds overstated, but…

Change ahead

By Jenny | December 17, 2015 |

  I am absolutely a project-oriented person. I am a little embarrassed to admit that only recently did I even begin to understand the world of process-oriented people. I just thought they didn’t finish their projects. It never occurred to me that process-oriented people are completely content with UFO’s. They want to play with the process and once that fun is over, they move on. What a concept! Giggle-Fall leaf speared by my cactus I did a Google search and this is odd: process/project-orientation articles focused almost exclusively on children, formal education or, get this, the dating and mating world. Oh…

In search of the “perfect” quilt sandwich

By Jenny | December 10, 2015 |

Detail- “Emerge” Preparation is key for beautiful quilting. Before you take one quilting stitch, you have already made a lot of decisions that have a huge impact on how easy it is to quilt that quilt. Your quilt sandwich carries with it a set of decisions that are set for the duration of your quilting. So a lot of factors go into that “perfect” quilt sandwich and it’s best to make mindful decisions about each part of that sandwich. I finally I think I have found the best combination for an easy-to-quilt quilt: Terial Magic + Misty Fuse + batting of your choice…

Craft Napa and a $500 Giveaway!

By Jenny | December 3, 2015 |

I am passionate about free motion quilting-have you noticed? I am also passionate about teaching/enabling others to free motion quilt their own work. And I am so excited to be a part of Pokey Bolton’s brand new art retreat, Craft Napa. This week I’m part of a blog hop with my fellow teachers and there is a big grand prize drawing that happens at the end of the hop-a $500 gift certificate to eQuilter! Simply leave a comment on this post and you’ll be entered into the drawing! If you followed the whole blog hop and commented on each one,…

Houston Quilt Festival 2015-Part 4-The Quilts

By Jenny | November 26, 2015 |

I hope all my American friends are enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving! This is my final post on Houston. I have a couple of comments: I don’t generally post photos of the big prize-winners. I figure you can find excellent photos all over the web for them. Also, as usual, some of my photos of lovely quilts were just not fit for print. If you want to see some great photos of the quilts at the Houston show, hop over to Pamela Holland’s blog here. Enjoy the last round of photos:   Peeper, Phyllis Cullen Shall We Dance?, Jan Reed Wonky…

Houston Quilt Festival 2015-Part 3-The Quilts

By Jenny | November 19, 2015 |

I’ve got more quilts for you from the Houston show. I will be posting just the quilt and its maker except this first one. What a story: This quilt is jaw dropping in person. But the story of the quilt and its maker is even more amazing. This is Angela’s first quilt! Her husband travels a lot for work and they do not have children yet, so Angela was looking for something fun to do. She decided, hm, quilting would be fun. So she bought a small Janome to start with. She thought she would start out with the square-in-square blocks. She kept on…

Houston Quilt Festival 2015-Part 2-The Quilts

By Jenny | November 12, 2015 |

Now, the quilts! Today I’ve included photos from Viewpoints 9, two of the SAQA exhibits: Wild Fabrications and Balancing Act, Modern quilts, and 3 quilts that are simply my favorites. I have seen several other posts by others with photos of amazing quilts that somehow I missed. You must know that my tour of the quilt floor was done in fits and spurts. I would start a category and get distracted with a conversation or the need to rush back to class, not realizing that I had missed part of the category. But it was a great show! I am pressed…

Houston International Quilt Festival-The Experience-Part 1

By Jenny | November 5, 2015 |

I’m overwhelmed, in a very good way, and it’s hard to know where to start. Maybe with the numbers: 8 days, 5 full classes except one (5 short), a Sampler and Machine Quilter’s Forum (hundreds at each, multiple instructors), 2 Meet the Teacher events, at least 5 countries represented in my classes, countless renewals of friendships, many miles walked with over 20 pounds of quilts and product on my shoulders, hours slept-hmmmm, number of items purchased at vendors-2! Apparently I was not the only one overwhelmed. I can’t tell you how many times I saw a conked out quilter sleeping on the…

I’m at the International Quilt Festival in Houston!

By Jenny | October 29, 2015 |

I’m in Houston at International Quilt Festival now so I’ll post more next week. It’s fun to see visitors enjoy my Morning Breeze. I’ve taught 4 classes and have 5 more events to go. What a show this year! More posts about Houston to follow.