On the Road - Washington DC

Here I am in Washington DC visiting my daughter and granddaughter for a 6th birthday celebration. Yesterday I had the luxury of spending the day at various Smithsonian museums. I visited three, the American Indian Museum, the Modern Art Museum and the Air and Space Museum where my daughter works as an Exhibitions Designer.

I took lots of pictures at all 3 museums. The first set of photos I want to share are exquisite hand made dolls by contemporary doll makers that were featured in the American Indian Museum. The dolls are from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection at the American Indian Museum http://nmai.si.edu/home/

A visit to the website will give you more detailed information. Here are photos of the dolls that I liked the best. The dolls were in glass cases so there are some reflections in some of the photos. Each doll was about 18" tall. There were several dollmakers and all of the dolls seemed to be made to a standard scale. 

Many quilters also make or collect dolls so I hope you enjoy these as much as I did. It is worth a visit to the museum to see them in reality. My photos don't do them justice. The detail on each doll was amazing.

Circle of Nine - back by popular demand

Our original Circle of Nine book is not being reprinted. Instead Janet Houts and I have written a brand new second edition featuring this innovative setting. We have learned much from teaching workshops at the Houston Quilt Festival and other venues using the Circle of Nine setting. We designed 12 great new quilts for you to make and lots more info on choosing and making spacers. Here is a sneak peek of one of the quilts that I made for the book. It is called Rondelet.

Rondelet Quilt by Jean Ann Wright

Fabrics by Westminster

More sneak peeks to come...

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is officially May 31, but it is always celebrated the last full weekend of May...which happens to be this weekend. Memorial Day is the day we remember those who have been killed in one of the many wars that America has fought in. It is a day we visit the graves of our brave soldiers, clean the grounds and plant a flag.

I live walking distance from a National Cemetery in Marietta, GA. This week little flags are flying at each and every grave. The cemetery is on a hill with many trees providing shade. It is a peaceful setting for those who served their country at great risk and in times of great danger. At times I have attended services there on Memorial Day. But mostly I remember my uncle, Ronald Havers. Uncle Ronald was awarded the purple heart for injuries received in the battle of Bouganville, Solomon Islands; recovered and sent back to his unit. The unit was sent on to the Phillippines where he was killed near Manila in 1945.

Ronald Havers, US Army, killed in battle 1945

I can't plant a flag on my uncle's grave because he is buried in the Phillippines http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ml.php. So this year I made a flag quilt in his memory. There are enough flags flying in the border fabric to be placed by his grave on memorial day for centuries to come. 

Flags A-Flying

Jelly Rolls - my new book

I have just finished book #3, sent it off to the publisher and crazy or not, I am starting book #4. This will be a book with fewer pages (48 page count) and it will focus on patterns and projects.

It's interesting how this book came about. Since January I have been buying fabric Jelly Rolls. I have never been tempted to buy jelly rolls even though they have been around for years, but all of a sudden I just couldn't help myself. As my column of jelly rolls grew and grew until it was about 36" tall (I stacked the rolls one on top of the other on my cutting table) I had no idea what I would be doing with them.

The Jeramy Landauer, the owner of my publishing company, Landauer Publishing Corp www.landauercorp.com called and asked if I would be interested in doing a book featuring fabric jelly rolls. YES! I said.

I have been working with fabric strips for years. Here is a quilt that I made in 1988 using strips that I sewed into vertical rows, holding a few brightly colored strips back to applique over the top. I cut out the border along the edge of the curved design and appliquéd to the top on one side and left it free form on the outside. Next I cut out some of the little figures in the fabric, scattered them over the surface and appliquéd them in place. I called it Move Over Miro. It's the first art quilt I sold and sometimes I am sorry I no longer have it.

Move Over Miro by Jean Ann Wright

Fast forward 25 years for my second venture into sewing random strips together to make a quilt. Yesterday I finished making the quilt top for the first quilt in my coming Jelly Roll book. I have been intrigued by the "1600" methods of sewing strips together. I wanted to do something a little bit different so after sewing one long strip I used a formula to cut and sew the strips in units, cut the units up then sewed them together again and made this quilt. All it needs now is quilting and binding. Yumm!

Sweet "1600" – Mixed Berries with Mango

I'm back!

Where have I been? I have been recovering from pneumonia, at home, but still not feeling too good and sleeping a lot. But at least I am better and getting better every day.

This afteroon I am off to Rome (that's in Georgia, not Italy) for my granddaughter's graduation from high school. I am really looking forward to it.

I'll be back tomorrow and ready to start a new mystery quilt. I planned to do one every other month, and May is the month to start. This will be another easy one. I am really into easy quilting these days!

I haven't sewn anything for the last two weeks – before that I was really into Pineapple quilts. I designed a new Pineapple ruler that works on the same premise as the Log Cabin Trim Tools. The Pineapple ruler and patters are available on my website www.jeanannquilts.com along with four patterns. Here is the ruler and one of the patterns.

Here is an ad for the Pineapple Trim Tool plus a corner peek of 3 of the patterns. 

Here is my newest pattern: Pineapple Salsa. A little fuzzy as I am not a particularly good photographer.