Last Quilt

The last quilt of the year is a quilter's delight, 

lots of open white space.

 

This quilt was embroidered by volunteers for the benefit of the Latimer and Quilt and Textile Center. The title is American Ships and includes 12 different boats seen in America over time. 

It will be the Center's raffle quilt for 2015.

I am filling the white spaces with pillars, acanthus leaves, 

scrolls and anchors.

This quilt will be complete and raffle tickets available at the Latimer Center after the first of the year. Watch for upcoming info on machine quilting classes by Denise in March.

Happy quilting.... Denise

Modern Quilt

Looking back over summer projects, this one was a special challenge because it was one of my first "modern quilt" projects. The top was made by Carol Berkey. It was her first "modern quilt", too. 

She pieced the top with fabrics and a pattern that her daughter chose. 

The challenge was to create quilting motifs 

 that complimented the geometric fabrics.  

We were both pleased with the finished product. I hope her daughter liked it, too.

Since completing this "modern quilt" I have quilted several. Traditional or modern I love them all!

Summer thoughts

Well, the NVA show at the end of August was a great success. Artists from our local area came together to share our work inspired by the beautiful Oregon Coast where we live and work. 

      

Thank you to all the friends who came by to say "Hi". It was so fun to visit with old friends and make new ones, too.

Baby Quilts

 Fabric Post Cards 

and Talking Pot Holders 

were the some of the 

week-end favorites in my booth.

Now I'm busy with lots of customer quilts and

making another indigo quilt... details coming soon.

Summer time and.....

Oh my goodness... it's been so long since I have written...too many things going on... places to go, people to see, things to do. One of the first events this summer was Slug Soup - a local summer art camp as they say "Art for Young People with Uniques Tastes"

                                           

I had a bunch of wonderful youngsters in two classes. Calligraphy and quilting were our subjects of study. 

What an adventure we had. 

Working with these children was a pure joy!

On Memorial Day Week-end we attended a 

family wedding in Seattle and were happy to add 

a lovely young lady to the family.

The rest of the summer has been spent on Road Trips in our little TR6. A surprise trip for me was to the Oregon Caves and a night at the Chateau there. The next day was a visit to the gracious Magnolia Inn B&B in Jacksonville. Since then the little car has gotten an all new brake system and we are ready for the car show in Tacoma.

In my spare time I've been quilting up a storm. These two quilts were entered into the Tillamook County Fair by their owners. The first was the beautiful "Words to Live By" pieced and appliqued by Gail DesJarlais and the other was the bright pastel quilt piced by Karen Downs. My customers give me the most beautiful quilts to quilt! 

Both took home ribbons. Congratulations ladies!

The next big event is the NVA show in Pacific City.

Saturday & Sunday August 23 -24, 10-5pm

Come see us at the Kiwanda Community Center 

for great local art and artists and my friends.

An Alaskan Frontier

Finally finished, a big quilt with a big heart, brought to me for quilting by Betty Gordon. She created this quilt, for her sister, with fabric suggesting Alaskan motifs. 

 

The pieced central medalion is surrounded by four black ravens and bordered by the theme print.

When Betty and her friends came to pick up the quilt, the photo session became an adventure as a gust of wind almost turned the quilt into a sail. 

Thanks Betty for allowing me to be part of this project.

Happy quilting

Denise

Checkerboards and Drawings

While sorting photos, I ran across a #Children's Quilt made in a class that I taught at the Newkowin Valley School last year.

Students K-8 learned about American quilts and how to sew pieced blocks. The children chose their own colors and volunteers helped either by sewing the blocks or teaching them how to use a sewing machine.

These blocks were made by 

sewing 2-inch strips into sets of four,

slicing the sets into 2 inch strips,

mixing up the strips and sewing four of them into a checkerboard. 

Their drawings of local plants and animals were done on another day. I stitched the blocks together and quilted the finished top. I love the finished product and the children were very proud.

Pastel Kitty Quilt

Here is another #Children's Quilt or I should say "young lady's quilt". It was made by Julia, a very special granddaughter of a favorite neighbor and quilting friend.

She chose this lovely pastel pallet to match her new bedroom design and with the encouragement of her Nona pieced purrrfect points on the kitty's ears.             Great job Julia!

Denise quilted this quilt for Julia, because she didn't have time to do it herself, before she went back to school. She quilted her first quilt on the APQS longarm machine along with our granddaughter Carrie several years ago. We pinned one large backing fabric on the frame then layered polyester batting with two small wholecloth Noah's Ark scenes on top. The girls took turns quilting them with puffy clouds and outlined animals. When they finished one row they rolled the two quilts and then quilted straight across, then rolled again. When they were finished they cut the two quilts apart. They were very proud to donate their finished product to our local quilt group The Tuesday Stitchers. The quilts where then donated to our local Caring Cabin. This is an organization that provides retreat facilities for families of children who are receiving cancer treatment. Its a great place for them to rest and recuperate. The Tuesday Stitchers are always happy to stitch with grandchildren of members who come to visit during the summer. It's fun to watch their skills grow. 

Graduation Quilt

Thanks Barb Stinger for sending this photo of you and your grandson Kyle and his very special graduation gift. 

It was great fun to quilt this unique memory quilt. We are very happy to add it to the growing list of T-Shirt Quilts quilted by Denise and Bobbie. 

Quilting With Children

After spending a week with our other granddaughter, 

I thought I should share photos of the quilt we made in her pre-school class a few years ago.  First we looked at a few sample blocks and discussed the traditional names, like Spinning Star, School House, Snail's Trail and Ship of Dreams.

Then each child was given four purple triangles and a white square of paper that had already been folded into quadrants. Together we assembled house blocks, pinwheels and "Birds in the Air". Next they chose their favorite design, glued the triangles to the paper and signed their names.

In the studio I pieced some of the blocks and fused the creative blocks made by the students that didn't go with the one-in-each-quadrant plan. I lettered their names with the wide end of a permanent ZIG marker on each block. The teachers' names were lettered with a flat brush and acrylic paint. The finished quilt hung at their school the rest of the year for the whole school to enjoy. 

This was such a successful project that I have used it twice in the children's summer art camp that I have taught at for years.

It's called "Slug Soup - Art For Young People with Unique Tastes" and is scheduled for June 23 – 27, 2014 at Nestucca Valley Junior/Senior High School. 

By the Sea

Just completed, an original design
 by Charleen Hakala. 

Local scenes glow in sunny coastal colors. 

Watch for this quilt in person

 at the Tillamook County Quilt Show in May.

This beauty was a joy to quilt.... Denise 

New From the Hen House

      Cee Stadtler did this collection of roosters proud                in this colorful quilt. 

                     Inside their chicken-wire borders                        you can practically hear them crowing. 

                                Precision pieced by Cee                                  and machine quilted by Denise Clausen.

Postage Stamp Quilt

    On a recent Saturday my daughter Bethany and I were antiquing in Portland, which is one our favorite things to do. As quilters we always look at quilts and hope to find just the right buy. Bingo! Bethany found this wonderful PostageStamp quilt top that was very colorful with lots of fabulous fabrics. Another wonderful feature of the quilt top is it had been hand pieced. I can't imagine the hours that went into piecing this top. We both hesitated to look at the price, and when we did we found it was only $69. needless to say we did not hesitate to purchase it. The owner of the antique store told us that the elderly lady who brought it in was clearing things out and knew the quilt top would find a good home.

      Denise and I both looked over it thoroughly, and decided we had truly found a gem. We judged the fabrics to be from the 1950's to the 1060's. Of course we don't know when it was quilted, but felt it was some time ago. I machine quilted it in straight rows and it is safe and sound on my bed.

      We often sell vintage quilts after rehabbing them, but I loved this one and couldn't let it go. I'm glad my daughter and I found this treasure.

      Always Treasure Hunting

      Bobbie Hunter

T-Shirt Quilts

Speaking of T-Shirt Quilts, over the years Bobbie and I have quilted a bunch of T-shirt quilts. They are fun to quilt because they are each so unique. The first was a collection of drawings from each year of a young man's life and his sport T-Shirts in honor of his college graduation.

I quilted environmental-themed quotes in the empty spaces. 

Bobbie quilted a T-Shirt quilt that still hangs at

 McMinnville High School. 

Other quilts have included teams, cars and even Highland games. At first I thought they would be hard to quilt, remembering the old days of stitching on polyester double knits, but not so. It turns out that when the T-Shirts are properly mounted on lightweight, fusible fabric that they are easy to quilt. We commonly use polyester batting to keep the weight down. 

#T-Shirt Quilts make great memory quilts and are so cuddly!

News from Bobbie

I just had the privilege to quilt a #T-shirt quilt for a friend at work, Mardi Mileham.  Mardi commissioned our friend, Shelly Sanderlin, to take T-shirts that belonged to her husband and make a quilt for her. Sadly Mardi lost her husband suddenly two years ago. Shelly and I are so glad that she chose us to make this memory quilt for her.  I know Mardi will always cherish the quilt that holds so many memories of her husband.  

Civil War Quilt

Another January quilt is a one made by Bonnie Eberly. It is made with reproduction Civil War fabrics and is the first of that kind that I have quilted. Before starting I researched the type of handquilting that was done during that time period. The two major sources that I used was Barbara Brackman's 
Quilts From the Civil War and the online Quilt Index. From these sources I decided to quilt straight across all three boarders and sashings with pairs of lines about an inch appart. Each 12" block is quilted differently using "elbow designs", diagonal pairs, tripple lines and a small fan. I have two more #Civil War quilts in the queue so watch for them in the near future.

Children's Quilts

Blogpost #1 - draft was dated 2010. 
      You just can't know it all before you try something new....so here it goes.
This BLOG is intended to be the breaking news for creative quilting and related activities from the InPensAndNeedles Studio. Denise Clausen and Bobbie Hunter have been custom quilting on an APQS machine for 7 delightful years. Early on we named it Rosey Deen in honor of our mothers... largely because then we couldn't swear at her in frustration. Fortunately Rosey Deen has been most cooperative with our sewing adventures even though we've challenged her many times.
      I guess the best place to start is with the first quilts completed this year. 

These are two of my precious granddaughters who were here for Christmas. Carrie and Elisabeth quilted these quilt tops for a charity project of my local quilt guild. Can you tell how proud grandma is?

      Well, that is enough for today..... Happy quilting to you all..... Denise 4 Bobbie 2