Back to School and the End of Summer

Its been a while since i wrote here but life has been busy and when I put pressure on myself to write a post and it doesn’t usually happen. I have good intentions of blogging more. I’ll give you a quick update of some of the things I have been up to recently and exciting new offerings coming up.

MY Sloth for the 2021 SAQA Benefit Auction

MY Sloth for the 2021 SAQA Benefit Auction

This small 12” x 12” quilt is my donation this year to the SAQA Benefit Auction. The Studio Artists Quilt Association holds this fundraising event every year and its always fun to see what my quilt will sell for and who buys it. I usually purchase one small quilt a year from a quilt artist.

Sandra Bruce, Heidi Emmett and myself AKA Artistic Alchemy

Sandra Bruce, Heidi Emmett and myself AKA Artistic Alchemy

This was the week for our annual retreat at Zephyr Point Conference Center but due to the Caldor Fire near South Lake Tahoe it was cancelled. This was a shame but with recent fires the air quality had been horrible at Lake Tahoe and ladies were cancelling left and right! We did get together this week to divvy up the giveaways and raffle prizes to those that missed out. Our generous sponsors were C&T Publishing, Quiltfolk Magazine, Mistyfuse, Marcia Derse, Turtlehand Batik and Dharma Trading. Thank you.

Temperature Quilt

Temperature Quilt

This year I decided to make a Temperature Quilt. If you haven’t heard of this it was started by members of the Modern Quilt Guild. Everyday I record the high and low temperature for that day. I chose a Drunkards Path block with the high being the main fabric and the low is the corner. I started this on April 1st and try everyday to add the next block rotating it depending if the temp went up or down. My plan is to add grey tones when it rains. Check back for my progress!

Simple Layered Stitch Projects

Simple Layered Stitch Projects

During Covid I have taken to hand-stitching in the evenings and it has mostly been along the theme that is pictured above. I have made a large piece that I call my Crazy Covid Stitching 2020, a sampler strip stitched on linen and these two projects; a journal cover and small purse. Its a class I plan on teaching in the future and I’ll be making kits that will be available in my shop soon.

Pet Portait WIP

Pet Portait WIP

Much of my time has been spent teaching or making custom memory quilts and so my collage work has taken a back seat. Recently I did get to finish this portrait of Rigby. Coming up in October I will be teaching Pet Portraits at the International Quilt Festival in Houston and also a 3-day Pet Portrait class at the Road to California event in January 2022.

Foothill Quilters Guild Block of the Month

Foothill Quilters Guild Block of the Month

I have never done a Block of the Month before and when I heard my local guild was going to be using scraps and making quilts from the book Little Handful of Scraps, I decide to join. Little did I know it was making miniature quilts! And this means cutting, sewing and pressing all has to be super precise and perfect. Not something I had really strived to do before, “perfection is over-rated!”. I have learned I have to slow down, embrace this way for quilting and try my best. You never know I might learn something!

Sunflower Photo by Jane Haworth

This photo I took as one of my sunflowers was opening up. I call it my ‘Shy Sunflower’. Pattern available in my shop. They now are looking shriveled and dry as summer comes to a close. The weather is still hot, we had some rain last night but I feel Autumn is on its way.

Check out my shop for other patterns and kits I have for sale, my calendar for my teachings schedule and teaching page for classes that I can teach to you guild or group either in person or on Zoom.

Thanks for reading along.

2020 My year in Review

The year is coming to a close and what a crazy year it has been for us all. So many swerves, changes, adaptations which have challenged us and made us stronger. No longer will we take for granted the small freedoms we once had. We’ll go into 2021 with more patience and appreciation.

Gathering outside is our new normal!

Gathering outside is our new normal!

At the end of each year I like to summarize what I have done over the year. Its always a bit of a challenge as I’m not great at keeping a list but I do my best.

2020

I taught at Craft Napa, The Granary Quilt Shop in Sunnyvale and at the Dubai International Quilt Show.

I made 26 T-shirt quilts, 5 necktie quilts, 3 custom quilts I quilted, 4 custom Pet Portraits, 2 quilts I donated to SAQA and 3 to my quilt guilds community service, 14 Art Quilts, 8 hand stitched bags and 400+ masks.

I had to embrace teaching online, making videos and all that that entails! I began by writing my first On-demand workshop, presented 5 online lectures and had 9 days of online classes.

I had thought I would have time to tackle UFO’s and quilts that need quilting but I think I just added to that pile. I just counted and now have 12 to quilt and finish.

Pink Cosmos This was a new class that I developed for teaching online.

Pink Cosmos This was a new class that I developed for teaching online.

Heading into the New Year I like think about new challenges and quilts I will make. I am wanting to make some changes. I have been teaching my fabric collage classes for about 4 years now and I just want to try something different. I am excited to play with new techniques but feel overwhelmed and freeze. I don’t know where to start. Does anyone else feel like that?

Written January 2020. Goals for the year.

Written January 2020. Goals for the year.

Although this isn’t fancy I did write in my sketch/notebook goals for 2020.Reading these again I sort of achieve many of them! My goals for 2021 feel different. These ones I can put behind me. My newsletter plans are starting in 2021. No cruise. No plans for a book but more online classes. Hopefully the exhibit in Oct 2021 will go ahead. I did use my stash for mask making, check! And finally I did use my sketch book, a little.

The fabric cover for my 2021 note/sketchbook.

The fabric cover for my 2021 note/sketchbook.

My goals for 2021

These include working in my sketchbook, doing more drawing and painting, writing more On-demand workshops, finishing all those quilts that need quilting, blogging more and developing some new collage patterns.

Big Frank, 49” x 69”

Big Frank, 49” x 69”

Big Frank was one of two large quilts I made this year. I wanted to challenge myself to making a large pet portrait using colors that are less natural. I used a photo I found on Pinterest of a Bedlington Lurcher called Flossie. I eventually received the owners permission but that is a story in itself!

One of my best memories for the year was going to Dubai, attending and teaching at the International Quilt Show. Looking back I was so lucky to have squeezed that in before Covid and lockdown happened!

Frangipane Mince pies

Frangipane Mince pies

Finally my last bake for 2020 were these Frangipani Mince pies, a recipe sent to me by cousin. They’re delicious. So if you find mincemeat in the store, its common in England at Christmas, give the recipe a go.

Old family recipe

Old family recipe

Finally I have started my newsletter that I will publish at the beginning of each month. If you wish to receive it in your inbox go to my website and the pop-up menu will appear for you to sign-up. I will not use your email in any other way and if you wish you can easily unsubscribe at any time.

I will give updates about classes coming up, new items in my shop and updates about what I’ve been up to. So look out for Threads of Inspiration.

Monthly newsletter header

Monthly newsletter header

Best wishes for 2021. Lets be creative and healthy

Jane
































Going Virtual

Its been a long time since I have blogged! You would think with the “stay at home” orders and having all my teaching gigs cancelled I would have more time!

I made my trip to Dubai to teach at the International Quilt Show Dubai from February 23rd to March 1st. As I had been traveling internationally my next teaching and speaking engagements got postponed or cancelled. Dubai was an amazing experience such an incredible, modern city. I experienced wonderful hospitality and teaching my amazing students at this show was not to be missed.

Exploring Dubai

Exploring Dubai

Now with time at home I thought I’d have a chance to catch up on those custom t-shirt quilt orders that I had going back to the end of 2019. So I jumped on getting those done. Then I thought I could spend a week just free-motion quilting quilts I had collaged but not finished! I was about to start those and then came the whole demand for masks!

Mask making March 2020

Over two full days a friend and I stitched (social distancing of course) and made over 200 masks for a local care facility. They needed them asap for their care workers. I made more for family and neighbors, 100 for a local restaurant and am now taking a break!

In April the whole conversation about teaching online, virtual quilt shows, and presentations via Zoom came to surface on social media. I initially thought that isn’t for me, I wanted to sew! Then I was approached by the San Francisco Quilt Guild in May as I was due to do a presentation to them on May 19th. I knew it was coming and I said yes. Now was the time to look into Zoom.

Hand stitching solace.

Hand stitching solace.

My local quilt guild made the hard decision in early March to cancel our show slated for April and late in May people started to discuss should we meet via Zoom. It seemed now was the time quilt guilds were going virtual. Switching over to keep members involved was the best solution. Enthused I am slowly getting into Zoom! Then with many requests on social media, I realized people still wanted to learn from me. So after a bit of research I decided to write up a course on how to make pet portrait quilts from home.

Making videos for my online class.

Making videos for my online class.

I chose a platform called Coursecraft and really appreciated how easy it was to navigate. My initial two week project took nearly 6 weeks. I am happy to say its available right now at the sale price of $50, going up to $65 later in July. Once you register you have lifetime access to 10+ lessons, step-by-step photos, descriptions and 80+ minutes of video.

Love of Pets Header.jpg

So if you are interested in finding out more this link Love of Pets will take you to my course landing page.

Thanks of letting me catch and and soon I will announce the fabric collage classes I will soon be teaching virtually.