Thursday, January 23, 2014

Happy Logs

My friend Eve (she is actually first a friend of my former Managing Editor when I was Editor-in-Chief of QUILT magazine), made this quilt using the 12" Log Cabin Trim Tool  www.jeanannquilts.com - This Creative Grids® tool - CGRAW-2, is available on my website. 


The quilt only needs six 12" blocks to make a baby quilt. The borders are fashioned from a floral fabric and scraps left over from the blocks. I especially like the rick-rack printed gray fabric and the bright red center squares. Good job Eve! Happy quilts...happy babies!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

the real sewing studio

A few weeks ago I posted a photo of what my sewing studio looks like when I organize my fabric strips. Remember....I used a flatware tray to sort and hold all of my cut strips in place by color so I could sew my hexagon blocks in a neat and orderly manner.

Last week, when it was only 5° in Atlanta and I was therefore housebound, I made another strip pieced quilt; one of four pieces I have just finished making for a one woman quilt/art show that I will be having at the Paulding Fine Arts Association starting February 1st, ending February 28. http://www.pauldingfinearts.org/calendar.html The show is in Dallas, Georgia (that's Dallas GA not Dallas TX).

Here is how my studio looked when I finished stitching the quilt top. It's a little scary, isn't it! Left over strips look like they have exploded all over the room. You will be glad to know that I have cleaned it all up and organized the strips into color families once more.

Here is the quilt top I made. It is one of four in a series, each depicting one of the four elements. This one represents AIR. I haven't named it yet...the air moving like the wind from one side of the quilt to the other. Any suggestions for a name?

The colors in the photo aren't as true as I would like but it is the best I can do with my ipad camera. The colors are blue, gray, and white with accents of sunny yellow. It is made of 8" improvisational log cabin blocks with narrow color wedgies breaking the straight lines of the strip piecing.

The top isn't quilted yet because when it is 5° it is too cold to leave my warm house and go out back to the garden house to do the longarm quilting. I do have a small reverse air conditioner out there for heat but it doesn't work when the weather hits single digits.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Jigsaw mystery

I love working jigsaw puzzles. Lately I have been working online puzzles on my computer. There is a great website, www.jigsawplanet.com. I recently discovered how I could find quilts as a specific category. What fun! Here is how you do it. Go to the website, in the menu at the top of the page select the drop down menu Explore - then select Popular Tags - Then type "quilts" into the box labeled Jump To.

This will take you directly to pages and pages of quilts to work as jigsaw puzzles. I was skimming through the pages and was surprised...shocked...delighted...mystified?...to find my own quilt titled Roundabout. I did not put it there and I don't know who did, but I am working the puzzle now. It is on page 4 of the quilt puzzles. Here is the quilt image and the direct link to work the jigsaw puzzle:
http://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=34b1e8db0f3e&pieces=289


Roundabout by Jean Ann Wright

Friday, January 3, 2014

Downton Abbey for quilters

Last Spring I was invited to design one of the quilts for the Downton Abbey fabric collection by Andover Fabrics www.andoverfabrics.com. The folk at Andover requested a Crazy Quilt pattern. I designed the quilt designing one block each out of the five different collections named for the women in the series that make up the entire fabric collection. Here is the quilt I designed.


I repeated the blocks in the quilt and turned them this way and that to add to the crazy quilt design effect. The pattern for this quilt and the 11 other Downton Abbey quilts are free and downloadable from the Andover Fabrics website. Here is the direct link for my Crazy Quilt Design.

Look for the Downton Abbey fabric collection at your local quilt shop or check out this website for Lady Fingers Sewing Studio to order the fabrics online: http://ladyfingerssewing.com

Let's all watch the first episode of the 4th series in this wonderful Masterpiece Theater presentation this Sunday Night, 5 January, on our local public television station. I can hardly wait! What will Mary do now that she is a widow with a new baby? How will poor deceased Sybil's husband cope with his new job, his new life and his own baby? It looks like Edith is falling in love again...and again with someone who is entirely inappropriate for a young lady of her social station. And...they are going from straight laced Edwardian dress and manners to fast and sassy flapper fashions. This is going to be good.