Archive for the ‘quilts’ Category

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Garden Glories Quilt

Sunday, August 4th, 2013

Sassaman Garden Glories Quilt

This week has been a heavenly string of beautiful summer days, both mild and sunny. In the yard the day lilies are in bloom and the dahlias are standing proud. In the garden the corn is over my head and the tomatoes are beginning to blush red.

So it seems like the perfect time to share this pretty little quilt that I call Garden Glories. The one above is made from the Pink colorway of the Wild Child collection of FreeSpirit Fabrics. It is made according to the Fancy 9 Patch recipe from the Patchwork Sassaman Style book.

Sassaman Morning Glorie Quilts

It can also be made in the Red and Blue colorways. It is 46″ square, so it is a nice size for a baby’s blanket or for hanging on the wall. The sawtooth border really adds the final punch and it was made with the diamond fabric which I have shown in previous posts…  “cheater cloth”. This is a very easy pattern to make. As always, it is the fabric that make it look complicated. Here is a PDF with the yardage and sewing directions so you can make one of your own. It will take a few minutes to download. Jane Sassaman- Garden Glories-1

Styl'n Sheep

Since it was such pleasant weather we took time out to visit the animals at the McHenry County Fair. Here is a surprising scene from the sheep pavilion. Perhaps this is what they mean when they refer to “sheep’s clothing”. A new use for Sassaman fabric?

Posted in Book, Patchwork Sassaman Style, quilts, Wild Child | 2 Comments »

Happy Colors on a Gray Day

Tuesday, July 30th, 2013

Sassaman Wild Child Log Cabin Quilt 1

Today is a very still, cool and cloudy day; the kind that makes colors glow and pop. So we headed outside with the camera to take advantage of nature’s sublime lighting. All of this weeks projects share one of my favorite contrasting color schemes…red, yellow and blue. This is a combination that always makes me think of European folk art.

Hanging on the portal to our mysterious forest is a bright little lap quilt made with the red colorway of the Wild Child collection for FreeSpirit. This is a quilt that Little Red Riding Hood could use to make her spirits bright and keep wicked wolves at bay.

Sassaman Wild Child Log Cabin Quilt

It is made in a traditional log cabin technique, building from the center outward. The finished medallion in the center is 11 1/2″ (cut 12″ square). The yellow strips are 1″ finished (cut 1 1/2″) and the wide strips are 4″ finished (cut 4 1/2″). So the finished quit measures 53 1/2″ square.

The rows alternate dark and light with yellow sashing between. The quilting is simple wavy lines of top-stitching thread.

Sassaman Wild Child Quilt Back

The back is Amish Bars, one of the easy recipes in Patchwork Sassaman Style. I love the zip that the striped binding adds.

Sassaman Ribbon Blue Shoes

Little Red Riding Hood could tip toe through the daisies in style with these electric blue shoes decorated with bows of Wild Child ribbon. But in my garden they are used as sculptures, as my high heel days are at an end.

Sassaman Ribbon Shoes

These slippers are more my style… practical, pretty and straight from the Land of Oz. Click your heels together and repeat, “There’s no place like home….”

Posted in accessories, Book, Dragon Threads, quilts, Wearables, Wild Child | 2 Comments »

Wild Child in the Garden

Thursday, July 11th, 2013

Wild Child Petunia Garden

After a week of sticky summer weather, it is now quite comfortable outside. The garden enjoys the hot days more than I do. This year we have an abundant crop of raspberries which are best plucked warm with sunshine and eaten right in the garden. The bee balm has just opened and the clematis are very happy. In the evenings the fireflies are like golden stars floating above the cornfields. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes are plentiful, too.

Sassaman Wild Child Petunia Quilt

So this week we are featuring a perfect little summer quilt project. It is constructed in the broderie perse technique. This simply means that you are fussy cutting characters from printed fabrics and rearranging then into your own creation. In this case we are using the Pink colorway of the Petunia fabric from the new Wild Child collection for FreeSpirit.

I especially designed this fabric so that each flower is whole… without overlapping any of its neighbors. This way each flower can be fussy cut and applied to any number of crafting projects. In this quilt the entire bouquet is a single section of fabric. Here you can see the design in the Blue and Pink colorways as well.

Wild Child Petunia Blue & Red Fabric

The frame (Gaillardia in the Pink colorway), background and flowerpot were constructed first and then the bouquet was appliqued on top. The black background square matches the floral background so they blend easily together. I also added some extra leaves for interest. There is a detailed description of this technique in Patchwork Sassaman Style.

Sassaman Wild Child Petunia Quilt 2

The black background was quilted with a decorative stitch to suggest wallpaper, thus putting the flowers in a domestic location.Sassaman Wild Child Petunia Quilt 3

This is also a nice project to practice your free-motion quilting skills. The finished piece is 24″ X 26″, a perfect scale for home display.

So until next week… don’t forget to take some time to fondle your fabric.

Posted in broderie perse, flowers, Patchwork Sassaman Style, quilts | 1 Comment »

Quilters’ Connection Creations

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

Boston-Sassaman-Suns and MoonsWorkshop

All heads were in the stratosphere this weekend for the Suns and Moons workshops hosted by the Quilters’ Connection guild in the Boston area. Here you get a glance of the “glorious mess” of creativity!

Boston-Sassaman-Suns and Moons-WorkshopQuilts 2

Even though everyone was using the same motifs each project was quite unique.

Boston-Sassaman-Suns and Moons-Workshop

The choices of color, pattern, fabric and proportions each created a different atmosphere. This is just a sampling of nearly 60 quilt tops that came to life over threes days. Some folks got to stitching and other opted to keep perfecting their compositions. As always, I look forward to seeing these projects completed and posted in my inbox someday SOON!

Posted in quilts, workshops | 1 Comment »

President’s Day

Monday, February 18th, 2013

Happy President’s Day! To celebrate this holiday we are revisiting the most patriotic project I’ve ever done… the Folk Art Flag. I usually shy away from such overt patriotism, but I just couldn’t resist once I realized that the Early Birds collection contained such an obvious combination of colors and graphics.

It’s nice to see all that greenery! It is the opposite to how it looks on this gray winter day. But it’s encouraging to know this opulence is a few months down the road. If you are feeling a twinge of patriotism you can order a kit for the quilt and the pillowcases in our online store.

This has been a week of making final decisions and tying loose ends for the autumn fabric line. Now the designs are all labeled, printed and packaged and ready to mail to Westminster. Phew!

But the nicest surprise this week was the announcement of SewCalGal’s nominations for the Golden Quilter’s Awards. It is an honor to be named among this prestigious group of the quilt worlds finest designers, stitchers and writers. Many of the nominees are personal friends and nicely represent the talent, devotion and enthusiasm in our industry.

Any one can vote, so to add your voice just go to the SewCalGal blog. The voting deadline is Feb. 28.

PS… The Patchwork Sassaman Style quilt top contest is Feb. 25. Go to the Dragon Threads Open Book blog for details.

Posted in Dragon Threads, Early Birds, Patchwork Sassaman Style, quilts | No Comments »

Madeline School of the Arts is a Gem!

Sunday, April 1st, 2012

This summer I will be teaching at one of the brightest new venues in the arts and crafts workshop world, Madeline School of the Arts in La Point, Wisconsin. It is located on a historic renovated dairy farm in the middle of an island surrounded by Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands. The school is accessible only by plane or ferry.

The tranquil campus is situated in a prairie meadow with orchards, gardens and walking paths. The word is spreading about their state-of-the-art, spacious and light filled classrooms. I will be teaching Abstracting from Nature, my favorite class, so this will be an ideal spot for nature’s muse to inspire us all.

I have heard nothing but great things about this new learning center and I’m looking forward to seeing some of you there. I am, also, hoping to have the Illinois Album quilt, above, finished and ready to share
with my classmates in July.

Posted in quilts, workshops | 3 Comments »

Madeline School of the Arts is a Gem!

Sunday, April 1st, 2012

This summer I will be teaching at one of the brightest new venues in the arts and crafts workshop world, Madeline School of the Arts in La Point, Wisconsin. It is located on a historic renovated dairy farm in the middle of an island surrounded by Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands. The school is accessible only by plane or ferry.

The tranquil campus is situated in a prairie meadow with orchards, gardens and walking paths. The word is spreading about their state-of-the-art, spacious and light filled classrooms. I will be teaching Abstracting from Nature, my favorite class, so this will be an ideal spot for nature’s muse to inspire us all.

I have heard nothing but great things about this new learning center and I’m looking forward to seeing some of you there. I am, also, hoping to have the Illinois Album quilt, above, finished and ready to share
with my classmates in July.

Posted in quilts, workshops | 3 Comments »

Stormy Weather

Sunday, February 26th, 2012

After a very busy week in the studio we were rewarded with the second real snow storm of the winter. I was out of town for the first one, so this was a welcome event for me. The snow came in the evening and watching it by the yard light was like watching buckets of white ribbon whipping and dancing by the bedroom window. The next morning was so still and white I hated to be the first to disturb it as I wondered down to the studio. But what better place to hang out in the winter?

I showed you this sneak preview a few weeks ago. The piece is finished and I will share it with you now. It is almost a whole cloth quilt, but not quite. Sometimes a fabric is so pretty that it deserves to be left alone to make a statement all by itself. So the body of the quilt is a selvedge to selvedge cut of the plum Primrose Posy fabric from the Early Birds collection for Free Spirit. The print is large and graphic, but also very feminine.

So I simply framed it with apple green sashing and a border of the Strawberry Serenade, also in the plum colorway. The circular quilting is the icing on the cake. It turns a very simple quilt into an elegant one.
On the chair is another “whole cloth” quilt made from another selvedge to selvedge cut of the Potato Vines and Rose Hips fabric from the Prairie Gothic line from a few seasons ago. Hopefully these will encourage you to dig some of those big beautiful prints from your stash and give them a chance to shine in one of your creations!

Lots to do this week, too, since I have some big teaching adventures coming up soon. Check my schedule… perhaps I’ll see you in class!

Posted in Early Birds, quilts | 6 Comments »

Stormy Weather

Sunday, February 26th, 2012

After a very busy week in the studio we were rewarded with the second real snow storm of the winter. I was out of town for the first one, so this was a welcome event for me. The snow came in the evening and watching it by the yard light was like watching buckets of white ribbon whipping and dancing by the bedroom window. The next morning was so still and white I hated to be the first to disturb it as I wondered down to the studio. But what better place to hang out in the winter?

I showed you this sneak preview a few weeks ago. The piece is finished and I will share it with you now. It is almost a whole cloth quilt, but not quite. Sometimes a fabric is so pretty that it deserves to be left alone to make a statement all by itself. So the body of the quilt is a selvedge to selvedge cut of the plum Primrose Posy fabric from the Early Birds collection for Free Spirit. The print is large and graphic, but also very feminine.

So I simply framed it with apple green sashing and a border of the Strawberry Serenade, also in the plum colorway. The circular quilting is the icing on the cake. It turns a very simple quilt into an elegant one.
On the chair is another “whole cloth” quilt made from another selvedge to selvedge cut of the Potato Vines and Rose Hips fabric from the Prairie Gothic line from a few seasons ago. Hopefully these will encourage you to dig some of those big beautiful prints from your stash and give them a chance to shine in one of your creations!

Lots to do this week, too, since I have some big teaching adventures coming up soon. Check my schedule… perhaps I’ll see you in class!

Posted in Early Birds, quilts | 6 Comments »

Winter Color Fix

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Photography for the new Dragon Threads book, Patchwork Sassaman Style, continued this week. The skies have been heavy and gray, so it has been nice to be absorbed in so much color indoors. Here is a picture of a new quilt made with the Early Birds Fabric. It is a traditional Cross in a Diamond design.

It uses two colorways of the Strawberry Serenade fabric, one with a dark background and the other with a white ground. They are five and a half inch finished squares divided by 3 one inch strips of the Curlicue fabrics, for a 14″ finished block. The border is made from the Berry Patch Border design. It was quite the perfect subject for Valentine’s Day photography.

Posted in Dragon Threads, Early Birds, quilts | 2 Comments »

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