First Quilt of the Year

After spending Thanksgiving with one son and his family in Oregon, we spent Christmas with our other son and his family in Massachusetts. 

One of the highlights was teaching our youngest grandchild to sew.

All of the other grandchildren have sewn and quilted their own quilts and now the littlest one is on her way. You can see her serious concentration as she sewed.

 I have learned, from many classes with children, that sewing short strips together is the fastest way for them to learn to use a sewing machine.  #Children'sQuilt

 

For her first project, my Granddaughter chose to sew just one row of strips. Her next project is sewing checkerboard patches. 

Can't wait to see her first finished block.

Best of luck with your sewing projects

for the New Year.
Happy quilting
Denise

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.

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. 

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.