Jane Sassaman quilt artist, fabric designer, author and teacher

When I returned from Houston Market and Festival there was a stack of mail waiting to be sorted through. Among them was a package from Renaissance Ribbon, always exciting! It contained the new colorways of the Wild Child Ribbon! And it is beautiful!!

After ten days of being away from the studio I was itching to make something, so I whipped up these little gift boxes. First I painted three brown cardboard boxes from Hobby Lobby to match the ribbon. The rectangular lid had a small window that was the perfect size to feature the Morning Glory ribbon. Then I wrapped three sides of the bottom half with the same design and painted the green dots on the lid.

For the oval and round boxes, I fussy cut some leaves from the Flower Fiesta fabric and decoupaged them on the lids and then glued striped ribbon around the edge. Next I carefully attached coordinating ribbons to the bottom halves. Since the ribbon is practical polyester you can keep the edges from fraying with the heat of a flame or burning tool.

Now they are ready to nest a precious little gift… a piece of chocolate or a pair of earrings, perhaps. Oh yes, the fabric they are sitting on is called Brocade and is from my new FreeSpirit line, Sweet Lady Jane, which will be available in stores this January!

The transformation has begun. Nights temperatures are in the 50’s, the air is very clear and the fields are changing color a little each day. In our yard the sedum is turning pink, but all the other blossoms are yellow and gold.

As you may know, my studio is gold, too. I find the color both comforting and stimulating. It is a color that appears in my fabrics quite regularly, too. And since I love combining contrasting colors, gold and blue or yellow and purple are a dramatic duo in many fabric designs. I am also a push-over for black! Black makes the other colors brighter and adds still more drama through contrast.

In this studio shot we are featuring both current and vintage Sassaman fabrics with these color mixtures. The chair is covered by the Teasel and Lace design from the Prairie Gothic line. The sachel in the chair is of the plum border print from Early Birds. The fabulous coat (Folkwear Pattern #118) and “Whole Cloth” quilt are both made with the current Wild Child collection. Love that electric blue, too!

The Whole Cloth pattern is a recipe from Patchwork Sassaman Style. It is the easiest recipe in the book! Here we are simply letting the fabric to the work… art by the yard! Just like a picture with a mat and frame. There’s no need to cut a print with so much personality. Let it stand on its own.

Surprise! The Whole Cloth is actually the back for this Thousand Mountain quilt! This pattern is simply made of 45 degree triangles sewn into strips. Each triangle is 10″ high, finished. Half of the triangles are cut from the blue Gaillardia fabric. The others have been strip pieced with jelly-roll strips, 2″ finished, of other fabrics in the blue colorway. I threw in an occassional 1″ strip of solid blue for a little breather from all the pattern. Thousand Mountains is a pattern I have made many times with much success and it is a recipe which is also included in Patchwork Sassaman Style.

I like the way the triangles seem to disappear and reappear. It is the strips with black that blend and create this illusion.

PS… there are some new Renaissance Ribbon colors coming soon! Stay tuned!

There have been lots of wedding and baby showers this summer. Consequently, I have noticed that the wrapping outside can be just as exciting as the gifts within. So this week we have created our own spectacular party packaging.

It all started with a 10″ wide brown paper hat box from Hobby Lobby, which I painted white. Then I cut a circular yellow fabric disk large enough to cover the lid, its sides and fold under the lip. I spray glued the lid before I centered the fabric over it. Next I clipped tabs to fold the fabric around the sides and secured them with Tacky Glue inside the lid.

I also cut a blue panel to reach around the body of the box and fold over its top edge. This I secured with spray glue on the outside. Again tabs were cut and folded and Tacky Glued in place.

Next came the rosettes for the top. There are three rosettes stacked on top of each other. The smallest pink one started as an 28″ X 4″ fabric panel, folded in half lengthwise to make a 2″ X 28″ piece. Then the ribbon and rick-rack were stitched to the folded side and the ends sewn together to form a continuous band. I hand stitched a running stitch with pearl cotton thread on the raw edge to create a ruffle. This process was repeated for the next two rosettes… blue 28″ X 6″ and yellow 28″ X 8″.

After poking a hole in the center of the lid, I stacked the rosettes with a painted yellow foam gasket and screwed them to the lid of the box with a ceramic knob, also from Hobby Lobby. Next I glued ribbon on the side of the lid, as well as ribbon and rick-rack on to the box itself.

As a finishing touch there is a small ribbon trim just inside the box, too. All the fabric is from The Early Birds collection for FreeSpirit and the ribbon is from the new Wild Child line for Renaissance Ribbon. I’ve almost decided that this project is too pretty to give away!

It is so HOT here this week. We are watering the plants early in the morning and hibernating inside for the balance of the day. It’s wonderful weather for tomatoes and for working in the cool studio. In fact, today I am shipping out my new designs for next spring’s FreeSpirit Collection.

For this weeks blog I wanted to show you one of my favorite quilts to come from the current Wild Child line. It is also one of the starkest and easiest to make. This graphic quilt was made from jelly roll cuts (2.5″ strips) of the red and white Masquerade fabric mixed with a solid white. It is constructed as a giant log cabin block starting in the center and building outward.

It is a wonderful study of “white”. The red and white diamond fabric looks very white in the bolt, yet when I set it next to a solid white from my stash the difference was amazing. Since this quilt is meant to be fun and funky I thought the mismatched whites added to its naive quality.

This is actually the back side of another quilt, so the quilting was dictated by the composition on the other side. But I think it works well on both.

Here is the same fabric used, again, to great effect. This stunning bag for a sizzling summer was made by the marvelous Melissa Peda. She has also used some of my new Renaissance Ribbon as a perfect contrast to the large print. She lined the bag with red Peony fabric. To read more about this project and see more of her wonderful work visit her 100 Billion Stars blog.

And finally, congratulations to Dragon Threads Publishing for being a finalist for the Indie Book Awards!

Look what the Easter Bunny left at our house!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Quilt # 5 by Rhonda Pearce of Oregon is the winner of the Ocean Waves Contest! She lives 50 miles from the nearest quilt store so she leaned into her fabric stash for this happy quilt top. Congratulations, Rhonda! Your vintage Sassaman fabric bundle will arrive soon.

I am very pleased with each and every entry. They each have their own charm and character. Remember that all the entries will be eligible for the final grand prize.

This week in the studio I was so tired of all the intense computer work that I took a break to work on a little abstract project that has been waiting in the wings. It felt SOOOOOO good to sit down at the sewing machine. The choice of colors may surprise you. But this rich color combination has been nagging at me. The fabrics are mostly luscious hand dyes. It’s nice, too, to work on a piece that actually fits on my ironing table.

Here are the February entries for the Ocean Waves Challenge! Thank you all for taking the time to stitch up a top to share. Your vote is cast by leaving a comment below. We will announce to winner here this Friday, March 1. I, personally, am delighted with the varied personalities of these projects.

Quilt #1 by Eunice Merritt, above

Quilt #2 by Fran Douglas, above

Quilt #3 by Patti Baymiller, above

Quilt #4 by Rebecca Finch, above

Quilt #5 by Rhonda Pearce, above

Quilt #6 by Sara Roche, above

Quilt #7 by Sue Turner, above

Quilt #8 by Suzanne Walcott, above

Good luck, everyone!!

This week we have been making some Sassaman Style kitchen accessories for the holidays. I have decided to use the large red/pink and white Cheeky Checks (Early Birds, Strawberry) for my main table dressing. It is a contemporary interpretation of old fashioned gingham and I think it lends a clean, bright and classic Scandinavian feeling. The Early Birds collection has several fabrics that combine traditional Christmas colors but with a contemporary look. We used some of these to make a variety of fun holiday oven mitts and pot holders. The two designs above both have double pockets for extra usability.

These classic little pot holders are simply quilted and bound with colorful bias tape. They are almost too pretty to use! We used rich red terry toweling for the reverse sides.