Maypole

Posted on May 30, 2016 by jeanswenson

Maypole
May 2016

The quilts I make are not traditional “quilted” quilts. I like to refer to them as quankets (pronounced ‘kwang-kits’). Quilted quilts are when the patch-worked top is then “quilted” onto a backing piece of fabric, with a layer of batting in between. This is typically done using a long arm sewing machine (which I don’t have) or by hand (which I don’t have the patience for). I love the aspects of piecing, and backing my quilts with blankets allows me to focus on piecing, while not stressing (or spending a lot of money) towards having them professionally long arm quilted.

It has never been my intention for my quilts to be works of art: they’re pretty, and that works for me. I find that by not undertaking each quilt with the notion that it has to be a work of art, it liberates me to explore new ideas, and experiment with colors, patterns, and textures – I LOVE textures. In Maypole, the white fabric is a polyester that I inherited from Granny: no doubt, fabric she had intended for a pant suit – Granny loved her polyester pant suits! It has a fabulous line and texture detail. I have had this fabric on my shelf for years, shying away from it for a quilt project since it is polyester. But, it is super soft, and after experimenting with wool in my Virgie’s Wagga quilt, I figured that I should give the polyester a try.

I follow several blogs, and many bloggers lament the market for quilts, and how overseas mass production has made selling homemade quilts more difficult. I am fortunate that I have the time, resources, and ability to make and donate quilts. I only hope that more quilters out there, that are ‘stuck’ in the place of not knowing if they should quilt for profit, artistry, or charity, choose the later 🙂 Don’t let unused quilts lie in your studios, hang on walls, unused, perhaps in the hopes that they will some day be a work of art. Just donate them – the act of letting go is so fulfilling!

This was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, for a foster child in June 2016.

Baby Bear

Posted on April 25, 2016 by jeanswenson

Baby Bear
April 2016

Baby Bear is the final quanket in my Three Bears series, and I am thrilled to have it finished in time to include it, along with Papa and Mama Bear, in this year’s Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge.

I have had little time to spend at the sewing machine over the past few months, however I did take some time recently to better organize my scraps. While I am not quite as organized as other quilters in cutting my scraps into commonly used sizes, I do keep my scraps together by colors. My prior method of keeping them in plastic bags was beginning to get out of hand and needless to say, it looked tacky. So I purchased some cute photo boxes that were on clearance, and have now organized my scraps into these. They look much cuter on the shelf and work much better than the plastic bags did. During the process of organizing, I found that my blue scraps were overflowing, which is what inspired the fabric selection for Baby Bear.

Designing a scrappy quilt, while challenging, is fun and rewarding. Challenges include finding enough scraps in similar or complementary color values and/or saturation, and designing the layout. For me, the layout is usually dictated by the amount of scraps I have that work together. In Baby Bear, I had a lot of country blues – leftovers from the 80’s – and darker blue leftovers from my quanket, Celebration. Using a design wall is great for exploring options in how to arrange blocks, sashing and borders. My design wall is a closet door covered with felt which works great, as it lets me place pieces without the use of pins. For pieces that have more seams, it seems that a pin is needed, otherwise I end up with a pile of pieces on the floor in front of the closet door!

Help Make a Difference in a Foster Child’s Life

Posted on March 22, 2016 by jeanswenson

Over the past week, the media here in Southern California have brought attention to Lexi, a 6 year old little girl who has been taken from her foster family. Lexi has been with the Pages, her foster family for nearly five years, and she knows them as her family.

The reason that Lexi has been taken from the Pages is because she is 1.5% Choctaw, Native American. The State of California and Los Angeles County are “moving her to Utah to live with a non-blood related family who aren’t even members of the Choctaw tribe”. Unfortunately, the state and county can do this under the Indian Child Welfare Law. While the intention of the law seems good, the execution of the law in this particular case does not seem to be very well thought out.

The Page family is devastated and have begun a petition which you can view through the link below. I have signed it. Will you?

Click here to sign the petition to keep Lexi home

Mama Bear

Posted on February 14, 2016 by jeanswenson

Mama Bear
February 2016

Mama Bear began with a color idea that I saw in an Indian Sari. Indian Saris are beautiful and their colors are so inspiring. I love the combination of purple, orange and pink. And while I try to do different quilt designs as much as possible, I wanted to do another Bear’s Paw quilt to go with Papa Bear.

Another source of inspiration for Mama Bear began this past Thanksgiving. At the cabin we stayed at in Big Bear for Thanksgiving, there is one bedroom that is decorated in the Three Bears theme – how fun is that? Since Thanksgiving, I have had the plan to do three Bear’s Paw quilts: Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear. Baby Bear is up next!

This quanket, along with Baby Bear and Papa Bear are being donated via the Hands2Help Challenge 2016 and will go to the Yukon Women’s Transition Home in Whitehorse, Yukon. I am inspired by these words on their website, “Kids deserve to feel safe“. These are words that fuel me to make and donate quilts for kids.

A Chaotic Start to a New Year

Posted on January 23, 2016 by jeanswenson

A Chaotic Start to a New Year
January 2016

Today is the first weekend I am spending at home since the beginning of the year, and I am finally getting some time to sew. On January 5, my daughter and son-in-law’s home was flooded – who even thinks of flooding in sunny Southern California? El Niño rains flooded the street they live on, and ultimately rose above the sandbags they had in place to keep the water off of their property. At its peak, they had just over 9 inches of water, mud and debris throughout their house. Paul and I have spent the past two weekends with them, cutting drywall from interior walls, and cleaning dried mud off of everything – including her sewing machine.

These old Singer machines are great! Hers is a vintage 1950’s machine, and is almost identical to the one I sew with, which was my Granny’s – my sewing mentor. Luckily the mud hadn’t guncked-up the mechanics and after cleaning the mud from inside and out, I put it to work in contributing a block to the quanket that is getting started on my design wall.

To follow-up to my last post, Re-purposing for a Purpose, there were a total of 75 fleece beanie caps in the basket. Some have gone to a local chemo center, and the rest will be donated to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

p.s. Julie I will send you the hat pattern as soon as I can!

Re-purposing for a Purpose

Posted on December 31, 2015 by jeanswenson

Stack-o-hats!
December 2015

After three years of making quankets, the scraps of fleece were starting to overflow – 2 bins to be exact! I needed to get things under control and decided to re-purpose the scraps into fleece beanie caps to donate to patients undergoing chemo therapy. Since the scraps were varying sizes, I made caps in all different sizes, and as you can see, in all different colors.

So, how many beanies do you think I was able to make? Here is some info to help you in your guess:

Over the past three years, I have made 63 quankets – 6 for friends and family and 57 to donate to foster kids. While I oftentimes have scrap fleece when making a quanket, it usually isn’t a big enough scrap to yield a hat.
The size of the basket they are in is approx. 24″L x 16″W x 9″H.
There are two layers of hats in the basket.
I have been working on this particular project for about two weeks now, spending a couple hours each day on them (minus Christmas weekend).

I would love to see your guesses in the comments section! I will post the actual number of beanies that were made in my next post – so stay tuned! Also, if anyone is interested in how to make these, drop me a note in the comments section, and I will send you my pattern.

Lastly, happy New Year to everyone that stops by to read my blog. Your visits and comments mean a lot to me, and inspire me to continue on this journey.

My Favorites from 2015

Posted on December 28, 2015 by jeanswenson

As 2015 winds down to an end, I am pleased to have donated a total of 19 quilts to foster kids this year, and each done in a different design! Choosing my 5 favorites is difficult, but here they are, in no particular order:

Flower Power – August 2015

Marigolds – November 2015

Papa Bear – December 2015

Flamingo Floyd – May 2015

Celebration – March 2015

Papa Bear

Posted on December 22, 2015 by jeanswenson

Papa Bear
December 2015

I recently read a quilter’s comment that there are “so many quilts to try and so little time“, which I can totally relate to! Papa Bear marks my 57th quilt donation – not counting the numerous family and friends quilts I have made over the years – and this is the first time I have done a Bear’s Paw quilt design.

The inspiration for the name and color palette came from a family trip to Big Bear over the Thanksgiving holiday: the crisp blue sky, the evergreen pine trees and the snow that fell all day on Friday. Living in Southern California, it is a treat to be able to drive only a few hours and to enjoy a few days in the snow. Yes, we are spoiled. The majority of the fabrics were pulled from my scraps bin and represent too many past projects and pieces of the past to list here. Overall, there is a lot of good mojo that is at work in this quilt!

This quanket, along with Baby Bear and Mama Bear are being donated via the Hands2Help Challenge 2016 and will go to the Yukon Women’s Transition Home in Whitehorse, Yukon. I am inspired by these words on their website, “Kids deserve to feel safe“. These are words that fuel me to make and donate quilts for kids.

Marigolds

Posted on November 29, 2015 by jeanswenson

Marigolds
November 2015

In October, during a road trip around Oregon, I had the opportunity of visiting the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center in Tillamook. If you are a quilter, and are visiting this area, this is certainly a “must see” for the itinerary. The museum includes beautiful quilts on display, as well as numerous other textile arts. They also have a gift shop where I acquired the centerpiece for this quilt.

The cross-stitched sampler centerpiece had an identical twin, each measuring about 12″x12″, and while the orange and brown stitching was complete on both, the background had not been finished. Like my Lovely Flower Baskets in the Window quanket, I was amazed at the time someone must have spent on these, and wondered at their plan for them. As a fan of re-purposing, I knew that these were destined to make their way into my Love Hugs (Pieces of the Past) quilt project. So, I scooped up these beautiful little treasures, and figured I would finish cross-stitching the background.

I chose to do this as a medallion quilt, as I wanted the cross-stitched center block to be the main attraction. The Fall-colored leaves material used in the last large border and throughout, was a leftover from my sister Lynn’s donation for my Country Fair quilt, and the large gold triangles was material I had received for participating in the 2015 Hands2Help Challenge.

This quanket was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, for a foster child in December 2015.

Virgie’s Wagga Rug

Posted on November 16, 2015 by jeanswenson

Virgie’s Wagga Rug
November 2015

I am intrigued by hexie quilts, but doing a Y-seam or paper piecing method intimidates me. For this quilt, I used the 60-degree angle method, although I think I conceptualized it a bit different than how I have seen others use the 60-degree method. I cut my pieces so that I could work with blocks, since I am so accustomed to block quilting (shown in pic below). If you are looking for a good hexie tutorial, check out Kim’s blog over at Magnolia Bay Quilts.

The fabric I used is wool, which I do not consider to be a very traditional quilting material – I suspect this way of thinking is perhaps influenced by my American upbringing. I had come across TheEclecticAbuela’s blog a while back, and was thrilled to learn that it is not uncommon to use wool in making quilts. And, the story and origin of Wagga Rugs is fascinating.

Years ago when my brother-in-law’s mom Virgie passed away, I had been given stacks of wool that she had planned to use in making men’s suits. Over the years, I had used some to make a pair of slacks and a jacket for myself, but I still have stacks and stacks of this beautiful wool. I am so excited that I can put this wool to use in my Love Hugs project, and I suspect that Virgie would be excited as well that this quilt will give a foster child warmth and comfort. I was amazed by the finished weight of the quilt, which is considerably heavier than the usual cotton blend quilts that I make. I look forward to making more Wagga Rugs from Virgie’s wool!

Virgie’s Wagga Rug quanket was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services in December 2015.