July 2017 Sisters, OR Class With Rosalie Dace -- Project #1

This year (thanks to my friend Nancy!), we went to the Sisters, OR Quilt Week for the first time and had a wonderfully fantastic time. Our first class was two days with Rosalie Dace, called "Confident Color For Quilters", and our first assignment was to make something with black, white, and one other color ... so of course I chose yellow (my favorite color)!! Rosalie tells a funny story about one of her students whose advice about quilting creativity was that, "if you're ever stuck, just make a chicken". Well, I have adapted this advice to my other favorite meme, "just put a bird on it":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHmLljk2t8M

Seriously though, we love corvids -- My Mom collects all things crow & raven, and has a neat Pinterest Board dedicated to corvid art and inspiration. And of course we avidly follow Canuck The Crow, and I have scientific interests in urban wildlife. So I turned my classroom assignment into a small art quilt wall-hanging (13" x 20"), as a gift for my Mom.

My art quilt features a lot of impromptu/random piecing, inspired by Rosalie's quilt art, which included practicing how to piece in tiny slivers of fabric (a technique that was taught in the class). I also tried piecing some gentle curves, using Rosalie's methods. And also inspired by Rosalie's art, I incorporated a circular element plus some silver and gold elements that included specialty quilting thread, ribbon, and a vintage gold-tone feather brooch. I used Spunbond craft fabric for the batting (which we discovered at C&T's warehouse sale near us last month), to get a very flat & stiff piece overall. I rather like the results, and am calling the piece, "Corvid Night Life In The City".

"Corvid Night Life In The City", a small (13"x20") art quilt.

Back label on "Corvid Night Life In The City"

Seasonal Miniature Quilt, For "Our" Kestrels

The Kestrel nestbox in our backyard.

Dad Kestel, with lunch.

We have a tabletop stand for hanging miniature (12"x12") quilts, and I've been gradually making a mini-quilt to display for each month of the year. I just finished another one, to commemorate the American Kestrels that have been nesting in our backyard nestbox each of the past four years. They are a small falcon, and we have so enjoyed getting to see them up close. The Kestrel pair usually starts to interact in February, with chicks arriving in May/June ... so I'm not sure yet what month their quilt will be displayed!

"Our" Kestrel chicks (two boys and a girl), fledged June 06, 2017.

(Female) Kestrel-themed mini-quilt. I used a fabric with a print of tiny mice for the top and bottom borders. ;)

Back of the Kestrel-themed mini-quilt. I found this fabric in Honolulu, HI (of all places; there are no Kestrels in Hawaii!!)

"Spring On The Straits" Carquinez Strait Stitchers Quilt Show, Benicia

We so enjoyed our guild's show this weekend -- along with friends who came to visit! My Mom and I had six pieces in the show:

1) This year I finally made a quilt for my own bed. I collected these luscious tropical-green batiks for a number of years, and then arranged them in 5" squares. I got the idea for the light-toward-the-center arrangement from a magazine pattern. I adore Hawaii's plumeria flowers, and used machine applique to add them. The long-arm quilting was done by Anna MacAllen, echoing the flowers and adding a wandering vine reminiscent of Maile Lei. For binding, I chose a fabric with a color and pattern like lauhala mat.

Plumeria quilt, by Holly Jessop

Holly's new bed quilt -- "Hawai'i Flowers"

2) Holly's wedding quilt for Carla and Joe deVille:

1920's quilt made as a gift for a coworker who got married last May.

Close-up of Carla's quilt, by Holly Jessop

3) Holly's "Molly Bag":

"Molly Bag" by Holly Jessop

4) Holly's "Bodega Bay Memories": This is a wall-hanging art quilt that incorporates pictures (printed onto fabric) from some of our many trips to Bodega Bay. We'd had this set of coordinating beach fabric for a long, long time ... and when I saw it used in a book on bargello quilts ("Instant Bargello", by Susan Kisro) I thought it was the perfect project.

But, when I made the quilt it did not come out straight (I think because I made the mistake of not alternating my seam sewing and pressing direction)! Also, it seemed kind of plain (I wasn't confident enough to do more than just stitch-in-the-ditch quilting). So, I turned a mistake into art: I separated the lower half from the upper, and rejoined them higher up such that it would hang straight, and incorporated a piece of drift wood decoration along the join.

I still felt the piece needing something ... and I happened to flipping through one of the books that we got at a C&T Publishing warehouse sale (held annually near us in Concord, CA) entitled, "Innovative Fabric Imagery For Quilts", by Cyndy Lyle Rymer. Her "Virtual Family Reunion" quilt was the perfect inspiration! So to make the piece more interesting I added the pictures and embellished them. There's ribbon, beads, shells, rocks, drift wood, and a sailor's knot that my Dad tied for me.

My other lesson from this piece was regarding use of fusible for the pictures -- with it, they show the quilting seam that's beneath. Instead, it would have been better to sew the pictures pieces on around the edges. I'd also like to press the piece a bit before it gets hung in our family room.

I was honored that they put this quilt at the top of the stairs, at the entrance to the show.

"Bodega Bay" wallhanging art quilt by Holly Jessop

"Bodega Bay" close-up. The picture is my Dad with our Ginger when she was a puppy.

 5) Anita's Ocean wallhanging:

Ocean wallhanging art quilt, by Anita Jessop

6) Anita's Sunshine & Flowers wallhanging:

Sunshine & Flowers wallhanging art quilt, by Anita Jessop

Anita showing her Sunshine & Flowers quilt.

Recycling "extra" quilt fabric into bags

To be able to match the border pattern in Molly's quilt, I had bought extra fabric (Molly's quilt was made for a friend's 35th birthday in 2010, with Julie Paschkis fabric I had found in a quilt shop in Michigan). It's a fabric that I still absolutely LOVE, and I finally found something to do with it: Another shoulder bag! I think it came out super-cute. It's a little bit larger than the shoulder bag that I made last month. This one has a pair of inside pockets, a magnetic closure on the flap, and "feet".

"Molly Bag", by Holly

Little Mr. Aerie Parrot sometimes like to sew with us. Here he is "helping" his Grandma-bird. Despite lots of input from him on the fabric selection and sewing, she managed to start and finish this pillow case in one evening(1) -- which is another "extra" quilt fabric recycling project.

Aerie Parrot and Mom sewing a pillow case, 8/24/2016.

And finally, we are making lots of shopping bags, which go together quite quickly now that we're familiar with the pattern. They are fully lined, with straps that go completely around. We're mostly using our long stored away "trash fabric" (cotton/polyesters), which should wash and wear well.

Shopping bag made by Holly.

We are WINNERS! ;-)

This year we (Mom and I) finally 'got our act together' and entered some of our projects in our Solano County Fair, which was held July 27-31, 2016 in Vallejo, CA:

This year's Fair theme: Play It Again Solano!

Holly with her quilted Owls vest (on right), which won a 1st Place ribbon.

Mom's black-and-white pieced jacket won a 3rd Place ribbon.

Holly's pieced Owls jacket won a 2nd Place ribbon.

Mom's Sunshine & Flowers quilted wall-hanging won a 3rd Place ribbon.

Holly's All-About-Birds T-shirt quilt. Each birding T-shirt is surrounded by a coordinating bird-themed fabric. The quilting is a bit distracting (although it looks better in person) ... but, I think I will have future T-shirt quilts long-arm quilted a bit differently.

Long-awaited finished bag project

After a long absence from sewing, I felt inspired this weekend to work on some quilted bag projects. My Mom had purchased and started this kit, about ten years ago, and today I finally finished it (another UFO converted to a FO!). I quite like the pattern (once I figured out the crazy directions) and may make more of these!

A large purse-sized bag, with three exterior pockets in each side.

The interior has one side with pockets, divided into three sections. Next time I might add some zippered pockets, and/or pockets on both sides.

The button is a whimsical piece out of fused glass, with lots of black knobs all around.

1920's Wedding Ring Quilt

My coworker and cubicle neighbor (i.e., the person I spend the most time with!) is getting married this May, so when she decided on a vintage black-and-white 1920's themed wedding I immediately started looking for a historic quilt pattern. We have a large stash of patterns, which we keep in binders using hole-punched sheet protectors (a storage tip for other pattern-hoarding quilters out there!). So this one entitled "Wedding Ring" of course jumped out at me.

"Wedding Ring" vintage quilt pattern.

Upon further research this vintage pattern is also called "Crown-of-Thorns", and was made as far back as the early 1800s. And, I found a number of these "Wedding Ring" quilts that had been made in the 1920s, on The Quilt Index (examples here, here, and here).

Robert Kaufman fabric line "Beau Monde"

Her other wedding theme is feathers (in lieu of flowers), so the art deco inspired "Beau Monde" fabric line by Robert Kaufman also caught my eye. My Mom and I made a special trip to our nearby quilt store, Cotton Patch, in Lafayette, CA to pick out the remaining coordinating fabrics from this line. The white and black fabrics in the blocks have metallic-shimmer polka dots, similar to what's in the feather fabric. The black border and binding is a matte black.


Six months and many, many tiny triangles later (!), the quilt is now finished:

Art deco "Wedding Ring" quilt, by Holly Jessop, May 2016. Blocks are 10" and the quilt measures about 75" x 75".

Art deco "Wedding Ring" quilt, by Holly Jessop, May 2016. Blocks are 10" and the quilt measures about 75" x 75".

Quilt label (with imagery taken from wedding announcement), and gift bag.

I gave Carla & Joseph their quilt as a workplace wedding shower gift on May 11, 2016:

Workplace wedding shower May 11, 2016.