Where has the Summer gone?

August 25, 2023

I have had a busy summer which started with a 2 week trip to Costa Rica, which looking back seems so long ago. Costa Rica is an amazing country, if you never have visited, somewhere I highly recommend for its beauty, wildlife and bird spotting, flora, and fauna. We had so many sloth encounters that seemed to get better over the trip, something I had not expected. And spending a week in an amazing house in Manuel Antonio was one of the highlights.

BIG NEWS My book ‘Capture your own Life in Collage Quilting’ Making unique quilts and projects from photos and imagery, will be released on September 19th. It is available to pre-order from Amazon. here. I am very impressed by the work of my publisher Landauer Publishing, part of Fox Chapel Publishing. The quality of the book, the paper, images and clear layout, I couldn’t have been happier. So if you are wanting to dabble in fabric collage it is a reference and idea guide with patterns you can use or instructions on making your own.

Front Cover showing some of the project ideas inside. The book has 12 projects, 7 patterns, 150 pages and is priced at $24.99

Over the next 3 months I have a busy travel schedule coming up, heading to quilt guilds and to teach at quilt shows. Today I am heading to Denver to the Colorado Quilt Council for a lecture and Sunflower workshop. After that I will be visiting Tucson, my first time there, Sunnyvale to the Granary Quilt shop, PIQF in Santa Clara and finally to Quilt Market and the International Quilt Festival in Houston. It will be my first ever visit to Quilt Market where I will be signing books and hanging out in the Fox Chapel booth, so stop by if you will be there.

The other big event this summer was that I headed to my homeland for a couple of weeks to visit family and friends and to visit and teach at Festival of Quilts. Again if you have never been this is a great destination quilt show that should be on everyones bucket list! The show is huge. Its located at the NEC in Birmingham, about 2 hours north of London. Staying at one of the NEC’s hotels makes a nice self-contained visit with an array of restaurants, all walkable was perfect. The quilts I saw were different (in a good way!) and vendors were also different from what I am used to seeing in the US.

There was plenty of seating everywhere, the Prosecco Bar was amazing, and wonderful small exhibits too. I taught 5 classes, 4 being Quick and Easy Classes (90 minute) which worked out great and a lecture in a small theater. My students were amazing and really appreciated all the kits, fabrics, patterns and quilts I had lugged out in my suitcase!

If you want to see where I will be teaching next this year or next look up my calendar here on my website. I continue to sell patterns and kits from my shop there. I have PDF content that can be purchased and downloaded from anywhere that you will print at home.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of the summer,

Jane H

Maddie's Quilt

February 15, 2023

I spent much of January working on a very special quilt for the family of a very special girl, called Maddie.

In 2022 I was contacted by Maddie’s mom, Leslie, who had clothing and other special items of her daughter’s that she wanted made into a quilt for the family. Maddie had passed away in October 2021 at the age of fifteen and a half. Leslie had spent a long time looking for the right person to make the quilt. When she chose me I knew I was the right one. I knew it was hard for them to let go of these items when they planned on driving from Southern California to my home in Northern California to drop them off. I wanted to create a meaningful and truly, special memory quilt for them using Maddie’s things.

Once Christmas was over and another project was completed, I felt I had the time to focus on this quilt. I used my bedroom floor to lay out all the items as I knew this would be a large quilt. From the initial layout of folded clothes I was able to measure, cut and join the blocks using clothing and fabric for sashing to create larger blocks. After making these blocks I would work on creating other units in other areas, always measuring to make sure these units would eventually join together. I think of this process almost like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

When it came to finishing the quilt I included Maddie’s quilted bedding for a border and the duvet cover for the quilt back. I felt it was a perfect solution for this special and unique quilt. The quilt finished at around 98” square and included all of Maddie’s precious clothing items, hats, socks and her well loved blankets. Last week I shipped the finished quilt and all the unused fabrics and clothing. I was excited for them to have Maddie’s things back.

Here’s Leslie taking Maddie’s quilt to visit her school friends and teachers.

As soon as Leslie received the quilt she took it to show Maddie’s school friends and teachers at Agape Village Day Program in Valencia, CA.

You can read more about Maddie’s story on Leslie’s blog at maddiesjoy.org You can also donate to Maddie’s Joy, a fund set up by her parents to honor their daughter Maddie’s memory and to serve children with special needs.

With such a large quilt it is hard to get a great photo of the whole quilt but I love how personal it is including her favorite blankets, hats, shirts, dresses and bedding.

I feel honored to have worked on this special quilt, and hope that by sharing my talents using these fabrics will help this family heal and celebrate Maddie’s life. Even if it helps in just a little way.

“…fabrics transcend their function and became symbols of peace and better times.” Quote from Haptic and Hue.

Bringing 2022 to a Close

December 30, 2022

Its been another busy year! I think I always say that!

In 2022 I continued to travel to quilt guilds and quilt shows around the country. But Zoom is also a great way to present to guilds. Without the need to travel to the guild location I was able to present a lecture from vacation in Hawaii and conduct a Zoom workshop from my hotel room at Heathrow Airport. So its a win win situation.

I started last January traveling for Craft Napa, Road to California and to the Peace River Quilt Guild in Florida. That trip was one of my favorites as I got to attend and teach at their retreat in the beautiful Florida countryside and then travel to Punta Gorda and teach again at the guild meeting. The hospitality was wonderful and I had a lot of fun hanging out with my new Cape Coral friends.

I like to summarize at the end of the year with my achievements and work load! It’s a good comparison for past and future years. My main focus for this year was working on a book that will be coming out in Fall 2023 with Landauer Publishing. I won’t be sharing too much about it here but I have been working on a number of new quilts and patterns for that. My deadline is mid January and I will be relieved once everything is complete and submitted. I am very excited to share this with everyone.

My achievements for 2022 include 21 art quilts of various sizes, some commissions and donations. I have 4 quilts in traveling quilt shows. I made 17 new quilts of various sizes for my book. 14 custom quilts, either t-shirt, hanky or necktie quilts, actually 7 were necktie quilts. I am trying to faze out this custom works but I do still get asked to make them and still have about 4 orders I haven’t yet fulfilled.

I traveled to 8 locations to teach workshops including the International Quilt Festival in Houston. Also taught 12 times on Zoom either workshops or lectures. I sold ‘Wildflowers and War’, my bunny quilt at IQF Houston. I donated 3 different quilts to SAQA.

Taking my teaching to England and doing a Zoom workshop from my parents house and then a hotel room at Heathrow Airport

I shipped Big Frank quilt to the Festival of Quilts show in England this summer and he caused quite the stir! I also received a Judges Favorite quilt award which is an honor. Hopefully next year I will have more time to work on some of the quilt ideas I have in my head and am excited to get started!

Julia Mcleod visiting Big Frank in England.

Finally if you are interested in taking my On-demand (work at your own pace) pet portrait workshop I have it as 30% off, using the HOLIDAYSALE promo code at checkout. That is until Jan 5th.Click on the link below.

Best wishes for 2023, for a Happy and Healthy New Year.