The Wedding Quilt

Everyone has their own personal style and way to utilize the internet for purposes that best suit them. One of my favorite things is to draw inspiration. My dear daughter in law Meg does the same. It was she who found an idea of a wedding quilt where family and friends could write a message.  Here's the finished product --

 

 
It takes a long time to comment on each photo so I'm not going to do that. If you really care to see or read the messages, you'll probably have to click on each photo to enlarge it. Yes, as the few who have seen it yet have commented, it was a lot of work but I think well worth it. I gave myself a deadline that I would have it done for Kyle's birthday and I did it!  It gave Meg a little fun for his birthday too.

Prayers for Ray and Doug, for Pam, Denny, Dennis, Cara, for all who are challenged with serious illness.  For the recently departed and those who grieve.  Love you all.

P.S. The quilt pattern (sometimes I get asked) is Pandora's Box from the book Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam & Nicky Lincott.  A good book.  I got mine at Jackmans a few years ago, not sure that they still carry it but you can find the book (and a preview!) at Amazon.  ... Or check the library, you can borrow a lot of amazing sewing books there.  I do all the time. :)

Catching Up Once Again

Oh my goodness, I did it again.  I have once more fallen behind in updating this blog.  But as I see the date of my last post, I notice that it was exactly when the present craziness in my life began.  I am going to try to make this brief so as not to bore anyone, I know that most of you who read this are probably aware . . .

About that time, I got a call from Pat at Jackmans.  I had been scheduled for January to do my first 'Demo Days' presentation and was excited about that opportunity.  Her call bumped that up to the first weekend of November -- wowsa!  We had planned fabulous projects but all of a sudden those things that had been on the back burner were priority, like needed yesterday!  I lived out of the sewing room for a couple of weeks.  It was worth it tho . . .

This is one of my favorite quilts ever - but I always say that, don't I?!

I had the quilt half-finished before I realized the significance of the red bags.  Am I slow or what?









Here's a close-up of the sheep - do you see the texurized wool?  I was demo-ing Texture Magic, a backing product that creates that effect.  This started out as regular, flat quilting cotton.

Kyle the Crocodile is minkee with Texture Magic - he got a LOT of attention.  (Wasn't Pat nice to let me make him in honor of my son KYLE!?)

So . . . the Demo Days were a huge success.  I told my baby sister the crowd which surrounded me at the St. Louis store was reminiscent of one of our After-Christmas shopping bonanzas many years ago, with throngs of customers eagerly grabbing what they were excited to buy!

By the time I finished with Demo Days the latest and greatest crazy development of our life was underway.  I don't know how else to say it but to blurt it out -- we are moving.  I know I had hinted at that just before the 'Great Tragedy'.  We had been talking for some time about downsizing since we are officially 'empty-nesters'.  Suddenly the ideal opportunity was upon us but we knew we had to move on it quickly -- so we will close this week on a remarkable ranch style home - what I consider to be craftsman style, an older home but WAY ahead of its time in terms of design.  It has been home for the past 35 years to an incredibly lovely couple from our church who recently passed away.  I had the honor of spending two full days of this past week with their daughters at the home, helping them to prepare and have an estate sale.  It was a blessing to come to know the girls better, I came to more intimately know and appreciate their lovely family - they even gave me the honorary title of 'sister'!  What an honor.  I think their parents must be so proud of them (and their brothers) and I hope they will bless our coming into their beautiful and dignified home.

I finished another project in the early hours this morning; I promise I will post again very soon (maybe in the next day or two).  In the meantime, if you know anyone in need of a 4-bedroom 3-bath home, send them our way.  I truly hate to leave our own beautiful home - I will miss this special place which has been my home longer than any other (more than half my adult life!) -- not to mention its gorgeous wooded setting and all the wildlife. But I console myself in knowing it will make some family very happy. 

So many prayers this time.  Eternal rest grant unto Brenda, Adelaide, Tim and Rowena, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.  Continuing prayers for Dave, Mark, John, Betty and Jack, and for David-B, his bride and unborn babe.

May God bless you all in a special way today.

Love, J

Little Girl Baby Quilt

This will be a quick post, just to show off the baby quilt that I mentioned my sisters-in-law were interested in seeing.  My step-son Tim & his wife Jamie are expecting their second child, a girl, in October. 

One of the blogs I follow is Piece and Quilt, and I fell in love with Natalia's Modern Baby Quilt some time ago.  (Click on the link to see her wonderful tutorial.)  As always, I did some improvising; I had some green bias I wanted to use for swirly flower stems and it was much narrower than Natalia's version.  I also revised the picture panel in the lower corner.  That adorable little dear is from Cricut's Cindy Loo cartridge.  You can cut fabric on the Cricut, but I prefer to use my Cricut marker to draw the image onto fusible web, then cut by hand.  You can use a much lighter fusible this way and for a quilt I want to keep it light and soft.  If you do this, don't forget to use your flip button to make your design a mirror image.  That is, if it's important to you -- and essential if you are doing text.  So anyway . . . here's the quilt:

 

These are my" colors, I love the pinks, yellow and turquoise blue.

And of course, this tiny dear is my favorite part. Isn't she precious?!


It was a great way to use some of my precious scrap pieces.  I just love this quilt (hope they do too) and I'm sure I will be making it again.

Prayers today for Larry, Brenda, and Dave.  For Emily, Leslie, Karen & John.  God bless you all.  Love, J

 

Tis the season

. . . to sew and make gifts! I haven't done nearly as much as I want to. I'm still in _s_l_o_w_ motion. On Tuesday I thought I was getting better but I was mistaken. Anyway, enough of my whimpering.

Here are a couple of my Jackmans projects I mentioned in the last post. These are for kids' classes coming up over the Christmas break.

6-pocket tote. When the coordinator suggested making this in a kids class I was thinking, hmmm (I mean, this is age 8 and up). But this will be fine. It's such a simple bag that anyone can do it.
The second class will be this slumber party set. A pillow case and a duffel bag to carry sleeping bag and other necessary stuff. I love this fabric collection.

Kids classes are hard work but I do enjoy it. I can't imagine how thrilled I would have been to have taken a sewing class when I was a kid.

In the back of my mind I had thought that it might be nice to try to complete a small quilt for Preston while he and his parents are staying with us. When his mother Jamie expressed an interest in "learning to sew" while they were here, I found some fabrics, dusted off my Yellow Brick Road pattern and helped her do the piecing. Then I quilted and binded it. I thought it came out cute. As you can see Preston wanted to help too. Of course! He's almost 2 you know and 2 yr olds have to be in on all the action.

And lastly a fun paper project. Jamie's birthday was actually in October but we had her gift waiting when they arrived in November. Golly, that was a long time ago. I have been out of touch haven't I?!


It's such a simple card but I like the way it turned out.


Hope you are snuggled in, warm and protected from this frigid weather. Blessings to you and yours.

Sewing, Paper crafting?

I love to do both! And I've done a bit of each lately.

I am still learning my Cricut but having so much fun with it. I need to get a birthday card in the mail today so -

I found inspiration for this 3-d flower on the Cricut message boards, specifically
'Katy'. This isn't the only great idea I got from Katy. Stay tuned!

Here's another card I made a couple weeks ago with Cuttlebug dies.

Had I done this card now, I could have used the Cricut to add green grass . . .

Here's the doggy sentiment.

And on to the sewing room . . . last night we had dinner with the sweetest little widow ever. She loves to cook and has us over occasionally for a delicious meal and delightful visit. She is strong-minded and totally insistent that no one can ever bring anything. Oh my!

So to ease my conscience, I whipped up a couple of potholders in her favorite patriotic color theme. She fawned over these of course. She's a sweetie!

And last but not least, the second project in my sisters' quilts series. This one went to my sister-in-law Pam. Pam favors darker colors and does her home in a home-spun antiquey decor. Challenging for me -- but I found some traditional calicos lurking in my stash.

Some of my quilty friends will recognize this Yellow Brick Road pattern. It's very cleverly designed to use fat quarters. My first time to do this quilt but I've gotta say - Love that pattern! I'll be doing this one again . . .

the back . . .

And quilting close-up.

Now if this isn't a hodge-podge of colors, themes and varied projects! I need to post more often and avoid photo overload. :)

Have a blessed day wherever you are!

Welcome Baby!

The baby shower was a huge affair - gifts like you can't imagine! It was fun to see friends and relatives and to get to meet more of Anthony's family as well. But on to the goodies --

Here's what was in our welcome package.

















A Baby Quilt - going for the boyish look in chocolate and sea foam green.



I think the hand embroidery really added something, don't you?

Most of the design images are from a Nancy Halverson book, Whimsical Baby, I believe. I added the monkey and some of the words myself. :)


















I love the back almost as much as the front -- let me tell you, it was really hard to part with that fabric. Those classic images of puppies, kittens and bunnies are so adorable. It's a good thing I love you so much Lynz!

And a few useful items to round out the package.

Aunt Linda reminded Lyndsay that those burp cloths and wet wipes actually serve a purpose - babies aren't all coos and sweet smells! If you know Lynz, you will understand that she may not have realized that! Tee-hee.

I made some other goodies for my parents to gift. I'll show you those in another post, I don't want to overload you in one day!

Have a great one!

Honorable Mention

It's been a while since I said it but THANKS once again to all of you kind folks who leave such sweet and inspiring comments for me. I am always touched that you lend me your attention.

Along those lines, I can't tell you how excited I was when I recently visited Paula Prass's blog Show & Tell to find I was featured there - it totally took my breath away!
Paula is a fabric designer for Michael Miller Fabrics and creator of the beautiful Flights of Fancy collection. Of all the lovely things being made with her fabrics, I am incredibly honored that she chose to include my magazine sized totes ("mag bags") on her blog. This was several days ago and I'm still reeling! To have a fabulous designer such as Paula recognize my humble work makes me feel as if I've been sprinkled with stardust.
Thank you Paula, what an honor!

Here are the featured bags.

And another, later creation from the same line.

Switching channels now, I got another little thrill this morning when I got see my quilt block stitched into place on one of the Project Improv quilt tops over at Jacquie's Tallgrass Prairie Studio. Jacquie and her helpers are working to transform these donated blocks into lovely work-of-art quilts for charity. I am so grateful for their hard work and proud to be a part of such a meaningful project. What a nice start to my day. :)
Can you find it? Center row, far right.

Happy Birthday Debbie Doo!

I'm ashamed of the lack of attention I've given this blog lately. Oh I think about it plenty, it's just I've been really busy. I've spent a lot of time in the city this past week. I taught my last two spring classes at Jackman's. Actually it was one class, two sessions -- the first class filled to capacity so I was asked to do another. That made me feel good! When I have been home, I've been scurrying around trying to take advantage of every moment I have here before we leave. Six days and counting!

I've been deep cleaning, sewing of course (there are so many projects in my head), also making cards and wrapping gifts as birthday season is in full swing around here. We have eleven family birthdays between Jan 30th and April 14! All three of my sisters and my mom are within 30 days. Here's something that's been hiding in the wings for sometime now.

This is for my Sister Deb. My "other" Sister Deb, that is. I have my own Sister Deb - Debbie Diane; I inherited Debbie Kay through my husband. Confusing, I know. Get this - I also inherited "Pam" and I already had one of those too! Anyhoo . . .

Deb loves earthy greens and antiquey farmhouse decor so I took advantage of some classic calicos I had on hand.

A little piecing makes the back more fun.

Close-up of the free motion quilting that I love to do! Don't look too closely, this is only my second go at it.

And to all my other dear sisters, please don't go thinking, "I didn't get a quilt for my bday!" You gotta remember, Deb has seniority - she is the oldest sister I have. (You liked that didn't you Deb?!) Your turn will come. If your turn is not now, that means you're too young. Hmm, it got kinda quiet in the room, didn't it?!

Gifting -- you gotta love it, so much fun!

Tomorrow is my niece Lyndsay Kay's baby shower.

I can't wait to show you what's in this package! Stay tuned. xoxo Janis