Studio Visit

Last week I decided to totally rearrange my studio so the space would work better for me. Here are the photos of the new arrangement. It took all day last Friday to shift the large, heavy, cumbersome pieces of furniture around. Then I had to refold and stack all the fabric on Saturday. Sunday a film crew from The Quilt Show came to film a studio visit. The segment will appear sometime after Nov 1, 2015. I will let you know when as soon as I know. It was an exciting event.

Step into my studio, this is how I store my fabric, Ikea cubes with fabric wrapped around my 8" Creative Grids© ruler, then slip off the ruler, fold in half and stack. Easy and efficient.

This is the first vignette you see when you enter the studio. My sewing table is in the center of the room with my computer in the corner by the window. The ironing station is between two windows looking over Connecticut Avenue (the view is mostly of the traffic). The quilt hanging over the ironing station is Columns and it is in my Curvy Log Cabin Quilts book. www.jeanannquilts.com

Another view of my sewing, shipping, computer station. The pie safe is my shipping department holding all of my Creative Grids© rulers. The Hoosier cabinet holds office supplies. The 3 quilts on the wall use my 8" log cabin rulers. The shelf over my computer holds some of my stitch birds that I have collected over the years. Jelly Rolls fill in the open spaces. Quilts are stacked everywhere.

Here is the cutting station. Notice the fabric stored neatly in boxes. Also the TV in the corner for entertainment and the rulers in their ruler racks so everything can be accessed easily. The log cabin quilt was made with my 12" Log Cabin Trim Tool and it is the cover of my second book,

Quilting A Circle of Nine. www.jeanannquilts.com

What was my dog Chloe doing while the entire studio was rearranged? Napping on the sofa of course. Here she is on her vintage quilt, resting her head on a vintage redwork pillow. Chloe always sleeps with her head on a pillow. Some days I wish I was Chloe. Except Chloe can't sew.

Capital Quilts Workshop

I had my first teaching gig at Capital Quilts in Gaithersburg, MD www.capitalquilts.com on Tuesday. The shop is the closest to my new home in Washington DC. And it is a very nice shop with lots and lots of fabrics, a Janome dealer to service my machine, the ability to rent time on their longarm quilting machine as I had to sell mine before I left Georgia. I am very lucky to find a quilt shop that meets all my needs and it is located so close to home. Another plus, the owner Alison, and the staff and other teachers are very friendly and welcoming.

I taught the Rainbow Swirls curvy log cabin project. In just 3 hours all of the participants managed to make 8 blocks. Of course they did their homework, coming with their fabric cut according to the supply list. They were ready and eager to rev up their sewing machines and start stitching after a short demo on how to sew the strips and trim the blocks.

Hilary is chain piecing her blocks

Feli and Pat are chain piecing their blocks

Feli is trimming her blocks

Another day...2 more quilts

Here are the quilts that were finished on Tuesday. Actually 3 quilts got their binding but you have to wait to see the big reveal of quilts 3 and 4. I got ahead of myself a little bit, by putting the binding on a quilt for scheduled for Wednesday.

Back to Tuesday. newly finished is Hex-A-Dizzy, named for Dizzy Gillespie the great jazz musician.

Tuesday afternoon the Ragtime quilt was bound. I have often said that when a quilt top is pieced together it is just a rag until it is quilted. This one especially looked like a rag before it went to my longarm quilter, Susan Bentley of www.suzquilts.com. Believe it or not it has only 3 different blocks to create the overall design. It may look complicated, but putting it together like a puzzle proves it very easy to make.

After making the hexagon blocks I realized the same jelly roll fabric collection was used for the hexagon quilt on the cover of my previous book, Jelly Roll Jambalaya. All I can say is this, "If you have a fabric you love, stick with it!" It looks like a winning hexagon duet. The first book is still available from my website www.jeanannquilts.com but supplies are getting low.