New Year and New Projects

Posted on March 11, 2022 by janehh22

This is Jane and I know its been awhile since I added a post!

January was a very busy travel month for me and it seemed that many of those in-person quilting events that had been postponed for 2 years where all happening in January. And guess what else was big in January Omicron! I traveled, I taught (in a mask), I met loads of new quilters and I did not get sick!

Peace River Quilt Guild, Punta Gorda, FL

I went from Craft Napa in Napa to Ontario, LA to Haines City to Punta Gorda, Florida. It was an exhausting month but such a treat to be out teaching again. I do love the enthusiasm and dedication of my students whether its approaching something that is totally new for them or working on a project that was started and never finished. Just recently I have received many photos of finished work by students and photos of quilts in shows getting ribbons.

With all the craziness going on in the world right now and me feeling kind of helpless I decided, as I have a few sunflower patterns, I would try to help Ukraine in any little way I can. I am offering my Shy Sunflower collage pattern for $5 and I will donate all the proceeds to the World Central Kitchen who are feeding refugees at the Polish border.

I took this photo last summer when I went out into my garden to check how the sunflowers were coming along. I was looking at some others turned around and saw this one 3/4 open! It just looked so perfect I had to get my camera and take a photo. My sunflower class and kits continue to be my most requested and popular offerings. When I have time I am excited to make my own collage using this pattern and am looking forward to seeing other peoples interpretation.

If you like this pattern please order it from my website the link is below

https://janehaworth.com/shopping/shy-sunflower-pdf-pattern

A few days after I returned form Florida there was a quilt call for entry due that I was keen to enter. It’s an exhibit called Prism Play and its what Sandra talked about last month. I have 2 color cards I agreed I would make quilts for. One I had started and the other I had an idea. Luckily I got them made and entered on time. Happily I heard they both were selected!

The first is called Bias Tape Beauty inspired by some giant succulents I saw outside of the Monterey Plaza Hotel in Monterey. The other is called Meadow and is made of layers of unusual and vintage fabrics.

I have been developing some new classes to teach both online and in person. One theme is using various wildflower patterns interpreting them in different ways. I will be teaching three online classes for the Mancuso Virtual Schoolhouse 2 May 11-14th. Wildflowers, Three Chickens and Vases with Succulents, all fabric collage classes.

Finally I will just share a few photos from Florida. I was hosted by Becky at her beautiful home in Cape Coral near Punta Gorda. She introduced me to manatees and burrowing owls. And I will say I think I say a little gator at the Lake we stayed at during the Peace River quilters retreat!

Finally if you read the latest edition of Quilting Arts magazine you will have seen my Simple Layered Stitch article. In this Part 2 I talk about using your small hand stitched blocks to make a journal cover or small bag. Hand stitching is something that has kept me awake in the evenings and my hands busy over Covid!

February was my birthday month and a pretty special day as it fell on 2-22-2022. I seemed to spend the whole weekend celebrating with family and friends which was nice

Best wishes to you all and I’ll be back in a couple of months with my last projects and travels. Enjoy quilting and lets show all the support we can for the people in Ukraine.

It’s August Already!!

Posted on August 6, 2021 by janehh22

This is Jane. Can you believe its August already! I felt last week that it was just the end of June but oh no it was the end of July. We have just one week left of summer vacation before James goes back to high school! It will be different this school year as he will be going back to in-person school. My husband still does his job via Zoom so not quite the house to myself yet!

I must mention the horrible situation that dry California is in right now. Yesterday afternoon the River Fire began around 2:15 at a campground about 15 miles from where I live. I was outside taking photographs of fabric (another story) and noticed many low flying large planes overhead. A short time later I heard about this very explosive fire that had started. Heidi and Sandra would have been receiving alerts about possible evacuations. It is a horrible situation, scary and makes you think, this could easily have started in my neighborhood. Being packed and ready to go is the new normal for summer in California.

Placer County Artists Market at the Roseville Galleria

A few weeks ago I took part in an artists market at a local mall in Roseville. As a Placer County Artist I signed up for a booth, that was free of charge. I spent the day doing collage and talking to people about quilting and art quilting! I didn’t sell much but felt I did a good job promoting and educating people about textile arts.

These are samples for my evening program at the Zephyr Retreat.

In the evenings I like to hand stitch. Recently I’ve been working on these small bags and samples for a class I’ve called Simple Layered Stitch. This will be my evening program at the retreat and I will have kits available with all the materials needed to make the outside of the bag. It is a pattern by KZ Stevens called a Japanese Rice Pouch. I have decided I am in love with linen and similar fabrics. Now all those inserts from neckties come in very handy!

Mark-making using a variety of found objects and block printing ink.

In preparation for the retreat, that starts in a months time, I am beginning to play, gather supplies and create some samples for my students. Using black markers, textile paints and block printing ink I created a variety of patterns and shapes. Next is to play with paint, color and finally a variety of printing techniques. This will be fun for me and my students, creating our own fabrics. I do still have room in my workshop so if you are ready for a last minute, creative getaway look on the workshop page for more details and contact me.

I thought I should include this as in a previous blog post I talked about starting a temperature quilt. Here is my progress from April 1st, top left block, snaking down and up to the end of June. I do make one black a day and include the lowest temp at night and highest temperature of the day. The blocks rotate depending if the temps rose or fell from the previous day. So far I have included one gray block to indicate rain and that block was made back in mid April!

Photos from our recent trip to the Northern California Coast

Since my last post we took a week long road trip up to Oregon and came home via the Oregon and Northern California coast. We got to visit the Lava Tubes National Monument, Crater Lake, staying at the lodge, we zip-lined near Klamath Falls, saw the majestic Redwoods on the coast and were blown away by Fern Canyon! Next week before the end of school vacation we are off to Cayucos on the Central Coast and my plan is to do as little as possible. I will pack some books, my sketch book and paints and some hand-stitching.

A recent book finish and highly recommended

At the end of 2020 I did a summary of my favorite books of the year. This one I just finished and would highly recommend. The description is funny as its about some horse riding librarians located in Kentucky!

This Fall I will be teaching at the International Quilt Festival. Houston. The classes I was scheduled to teach in 2020 were all pushed forward to this year and despite fewer teachers and workshops I will be teaching five. The sample above will be part of a Colorful Dogs and Cats workshop that comes with a variety of kits for students to choose from. I make the kits and ship them to Houston prior to the class so after my vacation that is what I’ll be doing for sometime.

What a lot of fun stuff I’ve been up to! My days are never dull with the challenges of custom quilts and new samples to make. I have also started to make items that will be available at my shop at the retreat. For anyone attending the upcoming retreat I have been sourcing giveaways from some very generous companies in our textile industry. I know people are just going to love our evening programs this year.

If you want to join us at this final Artistic Alchemy retreat there are just a few days left to sign up. Please contact us now. We will soon be putting together room assignments and sending out the itinerary, We will let you know all the up-to-date, required Covid protocols at that time. Email Heidi, Sandra or myself if you have questions and see you soon at Lake Tahoe.

Balancing Summer with Quilting.

Posted on June 25, 2021 by janehh22

This is Jane. Summer is here and I have been thinking about how to combine my quilting business with taking time off. Whilst running a quilting business from home it is too easy to spend all your time working and not taking a break. My sewing space is located at the front of the house, so its very easy to slip in and get sewing! My high school aged son is still home so I want to do fun things with him this summer. We are currently planning a couple of road-trips so really when I’m not traveling I can work. It’s about finding the right balance.

Camping at Long Lake June 12th 2021 Photo by James Haworth

Since Covid I have received many custom orders from customers around the USA. They send me t-shirts or neckties to make into quilts. Although I am trying to cut down on this type of work it still flows in. Ideally I would love to have more time to spend developing new ideas for quilts, playing with fabric and making new work to enter into exhibitions or quilt shows. Writing this I am sure that is what many of us crave.

Part of my workshop at the Artistic Alchemy Retreat this year is a day of mark-making. I plan on spending time this summer exploring the various mediums and techniques I will teach at Zephyr. I think it’s all about having the materials at hand and inspiration to kick start your creativity. One of the materials I will provide will be gelli-plates so we can explore how they can be used. In the photo above I gathered leaves to print in layers.

This small quilt is the 12″ x 12″ donation piece I submitted to the SAQA Benefit Auction that happens in September every year. This piece I called ‘Keep Calm and Sloth On’ I have been meaning to make a large sloth quilt but “have no time!” and so at least I started with this small piece. It does include a lot of messy stitching, hand stitching and unusual materials. I used leaves I had leftover from a 2011 reptile quilt, some silk necktie off-cuts and threadwork I made using ‘solvy’, a dissolvable interfacing.

Often I will look at Pixabay.com for copyright free images for subjects that I aren’t able to take myself. Otherwise I will look over my own photo library for ideas. This picture I took at my neighbors house while letting out her dog. I love the contrast in colors and textures. This would be a great image for a fabric collage.

In the same way this photo would be good for a fabric collage. I would probably crop it a bit. Again there are nice contrasting textures and lines and then the focal point KitKat, my cat. If you wish to start your own fabric collage of any subject or my favorite topic; pets and animals, think about signing up for my workshop at Zephyr Point. It will be my last year teaching here but I am looking forward to attending at a later date when I can work on a project like this.

I do love making quilts for customers using their saved clothes or ties. It is meaningful for them to preserve those memories especially of loved ones that are no longer around. For the first photo I made three of these lap quilts for three sons from their dads old polo, flannel and button-up shirts. I still have a pile of fabric left that I intend on making a surprise quilt for the lady (mom) who sent them to me. The middle quilt is a king-size necktie quilt that I am still working on and the last a t-shirt quilt made from a husbands collection of old rock music shirts.

We recently spent a lovely weekend camping, hiking and backpacking with family and friends. It was a time to enjoy nature, friendship and life returning to normal. This spot is just an hours drive up I80 from our home into the Sierra Nevada mountains near Donner Summit. The hike is just over 1/2 a mile so we were able to take in extra supplies that normally when backpacking you couldn’t take! From our camping area we had amazing views of Devils Peak and could relax by this cold body of water.

I have spent this last year teaching online classes for the Mancuso’s at their various online quilt shows. This was the last workshop I taught called Big-Eyed Chameleon Fabric Collage. These photos include the inspiration photo, my sample and student work by Gayle. I love what she did and I think hers is better than mine. Hopefully that’s a sign of a good teacher! I have just a couple of online classes on my calendar and I believe as the Mancuso shows happen in-person they will still continue to host a portion of the show online, as requested.

My set up for the Road to California online event in May.

Although I do enjoy teaching online and students are able to get a great view, use their whole stash and favorite sewing machine etc it will be great to meet in person again. On Saturday I am teaching to a local guild which will be my first time in about 16 months. I hope i’m not too rusty!

Student work from my on-demand Love of Pets workshop.

My first in-person gathering was at the Carson Valley Quilt Guild in May. I got to speak at their guild meeting and share my quilts. I was very happy to see so many members brought in their animal quilts that they made after signing up for my on-demand class. In 2020 my workshop Love of Pets was cancelled so the guild signed up as a group and took the class online. The link is here Love of Pets

Demonstrating mono-printing using Botanicals.

It was a nice break this week to gather with the Mountain Art Quilters for an outside meeting in a members beautiful backyard. This was our first in-person meeting and was a chance to breath, relax and enjoy time with other creatives. This reminds me of that feeling I get when at Lake Tahoe at the Artistic Alchemy Retreat. I love the quiet of the lake early in the morning, the buzz in the dining hall when you chose new friends to meet and sit with. Heidi says they have a new chef so thats something to look forward to! Seeing what people are working on and how creative they can be is always inspirational.

Thanks for following along with my post this month and if you are interested in the retreat there is still time, so reach out to Heidi, Sandra or myself with any questions.

Five New projects.

Posted on May 14, 2021 by janehh22

This is Jane

I am coming to you from an unseasonably hot Spring in California. How I know this? Its because daily I check on our current temperatures as I have started making a Temperature Quilt. If you have never heard about these do a google search and you will find many examples. It was something started by members of the Modern Quilt Guild and they will be having an exhibition of Temperature Quilts at the next Quiltcon in February 2022.

Chosen fabrics sorted for my temperature quilt.

Project 1. Temperature Quilt

I started by figuring out the range of temperatures at my home over the year. Using one fabric per 3 degrees seemed right, so from my stash, I chose about 20 fabrics to use. I also decided to use the Drunkards Path block and made them 4”. Now each day either taking data from our weather station or Weather Underground online I choose the correct fabric for the high and low temps of that day. Getting the right data has been my biggest issue but now I have settled into it. I just have to remember to make one block each day.

Progress so far of my temperature quilt using my daily notes and fabrics

I did decide to add data for rain days or nights by using grey through black fabrics. So far we have just had one rain day since I started on April 1st. This will fun to see the progression of this quilt and how many days of rain!

Project 2. Social Justice Sewing Academy Quilt

As a volunteer for the SJSA I was asked to make a Quilt Of Remembrance for a family in Minnesota. The person being memorialized was Matthew Tuhkanen, a dad of five kids who lost has life by law enforcement. I was given some photos to print onto fabric and details of his kids names, favorite colors and activities he liked.

Progression from quilt blocks to filling in the layout on my floor.

As I had no clothing to work with I started by printing the photos and photos referencing his hobbies. His favorite colors were blue and grey and I pulled orange from the basketball reference. I gathered my fabrics and began making smaller blocks and rows using Maria Shell’s book Improv Patchwork. You will see in the photos my progression as the quilt came together on my “design floor”. I think the quilt was colorful and will be a wonderful memorial for the family. Here is their email.

Making memory quilts is special to me, I think that is why I make so many Quilts from Clothes.

Project 3. Pet Portraits

Finding time to work on my pet portrait collage quilts is hard when I am working on making custom quilts and teaching online. Recently I got a customer order form a man who had watched me on Quilting Arts TV and wanted to buy the purple and yellow Tilly Quilt. This quilt was used on the cover of the Quilting Arts magazine so I couldn’t sell it! I am now in the process of making another one. It’s fun to make it again and since I don’t have all the same fabrics it will be slightly different.

Beginning progress. Always start with the eye.

Anyone wanting to sign up for my Mark-making and Fabric Collage workshop at the Zephyr retreat in September is welcome to bring a photo of their pet or favorite animal and work on that. We start by making the pattern, choosing fabrics and then working on the collage. It really is an addictive and freeing technique. I have plenty of space available in the workshop and I’m looking forward to getting away to Lake Tahoe in September.

Project 4. Vignettes Quilt

I am a member of the MQG Modern Quilt Guild and have never yet attended a show but this year as it was online I did sign up for a workshop. I really enjoy improv piecing so the class I found was taught by Heidi Parkes and was called a Vignettes Quilt. Th idea was to make a quilt focusing on using the Elements of Art, the Postmodern Principles of Art and Art Vocabulary. This meant we had to include line, shape, color, texture, value, space, form, economy, appropriation, text, representation, gazing, obsessive, juxtaposition and more.

Details of my hand stitching and hand quilting

It was perfect for me as I was able to use many of those saved textiles, quilt blocks, clothes and fabrics that I already have. Heidi Parkes hand-quilts all her quilts and I am proud to say I stitched half and hand stitched half.

I love this quilt and am already planning a couple more.

A few examples of my hand painted wildflower cards.

Project 5. Watercolour Painting

Finally my last project to share is watercolor painting. I tried to do the 100 day project by doing a small painting a day but only lasted about 5 days! I have all my supplies out and have been drawn to paint some of the wildflowers in my yard this Spring. We have lovely lupines, blue dicks, fairy lanterns and more. I did challenge myself to paint some of these using my non-dominant hand which takes away some of the fear. This would be my excuse if it didn’t look so good! Actually I was quite pleased with them. I am now working on making these with fabric or including them in my quilting.

Work-in-progress Wildflower table runner!

I hope I have inspired you to try a new project or have a go at a non-dominate hand painting. And don’t forget to sign up for the retreat if you haven’t done so already. Having had my vaccine I am excited to get away and share my time with other creative friends.

How Things have Changed!

Posted on November 20, 2020 by janehh22

This is Jane. A year ago (to the day) I was on Rhode Island visiting Newport and taking a tour of The Breakers. I was hosted by the Narragansett Bay Quilters Guild and taught two different one-day workshops. I keep thinking about all the unique opportunities that being a quilt teacher has given me. But now in our new Covid/Zoom world I am getting new but different opportunities.

What a beautiful day, it was so unexpected. I will say my next three days were not so perfect as it rained, a lot!

Before my visit to Rhode Island I knew nothing of “The Mansions” and The Cliff Walk but was highly recommended by my host from the quilt guild. The Breakers is a Vanderbilt mansion built between 1893-95 and is worth $12.8 million today. The footprint of the building covers 1 acre and stands overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. During my visit it was decorated for the holidays and was just exquisite.

Workshop photo from my Travel Journal Quilt class.

See I really was working!

So now we are settled into our Covid/Zoom lifestyle I will catch you up on some of the things that I have doing and share some new opportunities open to us all. This morning at 7am I was the guest teacher for a quilt group in Massachusetts who usually host a Cape Cod retreat. I was honored to be asked and will be up bright and early again tomorrow, to continue my workshop.

My on demand workshop https://coursecraft.net/c/loveofpets/splash

My on demand workshop has had a steady stream of new students sign up and I am planning on putting together a new course in the New Year. I know Sandra has just released her workshop called Material Matrix and she must be feeling happy and relieved after all the effort putting it together. Her link is https://coursecraft.net/courses/z93eK I know Heidi is also working on one too. We know this does not replace an event like the Artistic Alchemy Retreat but it means our teaching is available to people who probably could never have attended an in-person event. Next years retreat will be Sept 6-10th 2021.

For those of you looking for online classes that you can sign up for independently of a quilt guild, look up Global Quilt Connections. It’s a great resource, put together by Sue Bleiweiss and Lyric Kinard. Here you can see quilt teachers from around the world presenting via 3 minute videos online classes they have available. Yesterday I presented my Coursecraft Pet Portrait workshop. Its hard making your own videos about yourself but I guess this is one of those new experiences I’ve had to get used to!

Through social media I found out about a November sketchbook challenge presented by Laura Kemshall on a website called Design Matters. It contains a wealth of videos and tutorials on surface design, crafts and quilting too. Laura and her mother Linda have been making online art and craft classes for over 15 years and are from Herefordshire, England. The workshops are very reasonably priced and given the time I would love to try more of these. I did join the sketchbook challenge!.

As a full time quilter and teacher my days are filled with either making custom t-shirt or necktie quilts, collage quilts, or prepping materials for new online classes. Over the last few months I have managed to squeeze in time to make these quilts to memorialize this time.

Another small project I’ve been work on in the evenings is making these Asian inspired bags, postcards and wall hanging (in progress). I find hand stitching calming and keeps me awake!

These pieces are made using the stabilizer from neckties, craft felt, linen, Asian fabrics and sashiko cotton threads in blue, navy and cream. My stitches are simple and repetitive. The Japanese rice bag is a pattern from Kzstevens

Even during lockdown I have stayed involved with my local quilt guild, Foothill Quilters Guild who switched to a Zoom format in July. I am co-ordinating a group effort to make these house blocks for their opportunity quilt 2022. The pattern is Villages by Pat Sloan and if you search online the free pattern is available.

This is my latest custom quilt order of a dog called Daisey. I’m not sure of her breed but my customer told me how she is known for lying in this pose with her paws crossed. I have since quilted it which gives a different look as it helps to blend the fabrics.

After no summer vacation I did get a short getaway with two of my children, James and Lucy during Fall Break in October. Pinnacles National Park has been on my radar for a few years after I read about it in Sunset magazine. From my home it was an easy 4 hour drive to Central California. It is an amazing, small National Park that has incredible vistas of beautiful colored boulders and rock formations at every turn. The weather was incredible for October. At the end of our 4 hr hike up to the Pinnacles, around and over the boulders, down the ‘high and narrows trail’, it was 92′. We even got to see Condors! I highly recommend a visit and during weekdays camping reservations were easy to secure.

Finally, it seems covid lockdown is taking an effect on us! My families bi-weekly chat has grown quite hilarious as we try out the special effects on the messenger app!

From Heidi, Sandra and I best wishes for a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. I’m sure many of us will be celebrating via Zoom. Hang in there as it won’t last forever. Stay creative till we can safely gather together again.

Going Virtual is our “new normal”

Posted on July 10, 2020 by janehh22

This is Jane. Can you believe it is July! When I think back March, April, May they all seem to have blended into one. Last week I released the online workshop ‘Love of Pets Fabric Collage’ that I have been working on for the last six weeks. In my last post I had just started working on this project.

Being a creative person, used to making and using my hands it was hard to be on the computer for much of my time. I was craving just to sit at my sewing machine and work on making a T-shirt quilt!! There was one week where I worked on my samples, took photos and didn’t actually work on the class.

This is Duncan who is featured in my workshop in a timelapse of his construction.

Right now the workshop is on sale at an early bird price of $50 and will be going back to its regular price of $65 at the end of next week. Below is the link for the workshop.

Love of Pets Landing Page This is the page where you can see a welcome video, details of what you will learn and table of contents for the workshop. This would be at least a 3 day workshop and is divided into 10+ lessons, 80+ minutes of video and then descriptions and photos.

Have you tried the Layout app? Its a must for a quilter. How you may be asking?

You can take one photo or a number, up to 9, and make them into a grid or other layout. Using 4 you get a four-patch or 9 a nine-patch. Then you save that layout block and then use it again to make another layout grid. Above I selected 4 photos of pizza our friend Zac made us, then I repeated the image 8 times using a mirror image layout. You can also rotate the photos.

Here I took a 5” string pieced diagonal block and made a four patch with it but I rotated two of the photos so it produced a diamond. Then I saved this image. For the next photo I repeated that same block nine times, as in the nine patch and saved it again. Then below I used this same image that I saved and made a four-patch. It is great to see how if you just make one block you can see how a full size quilt will look as it is repeated.

This whole repeat began with one 5” string pieced block in the Layout app.

I usually use this app to show photos of my work or students work so that I can just upload one image which features nine pieces of art. The image below I combined nine different eyes and was a very popular post when I shared it on social media. Its also in the “Its all about the eyes!” lesson in my workshop.

Nine different pet eyes combined into a nine-patch.

This week I presented at a virtual Meet the Teachers event that the Northern California Quilt Council put on for teachers, quilts guilds and quilt shops. NCQC has done an excellent job during these difficult times for quilt guilds to help them to adapt and continue using Zoom. They have put on a number of virtual events of education, sharing and connecting guilds and teachers. I have heard from other teachers on the East Coast and there is nothing similar and guilds are just on pause with teachers being cancelled. What is nice now is that guilds can invite teachers nationally and internationally to share and teach without any of the travel expenses!

This is my teaching/demo set-up for filming and Zoom.

Next week I will be doing a studio tour and trunk show of my latest work to my guild, the Foothill Quilt Guild and also sharing my trip to Dubai. Then the following day will be my first online class which will be a practise run for other virtual classes I’ll be offering via Zoom. I have been invited to teach at the Mancuso Virtual Quilt Show that runs August 12-15th. The classes will be announced mid July.

I call this workshop Pink Cosmos Fabric Collage and is about a 20” quilt that could be used for a wall hanging, bag or pillow.

We spent July 4th weekend up at a friends cabin in Serene Lakes, CA which is up on Donner Summit. We spent 3 days exploring trails, hiking and generally relaxing, which makes a change for me! The wildflowers up there are incredible, the trails around the Royal Gorge Cross country ski resort quiet and well maintained.

Incredible wildflowers on Donner Summit right now.

Finally I almost forgot last week I took my son James and Zac for a hike in the Auburn Confluence area. We were hiking the Lake Clementine trail to the left of the American River and there we noticed down across the river a mother bear with her two cubs playing in the water. It was a true David Attenborough moment! We watched for a long time as the cubs exited the river, climbed up onto the trail on the other side and then disappeared into the tree growth. A once-in-a-lifetime sighting.

Black playing with her cubs in the American River

Check out my workshop if you are interested since sadly no retreat this year and keep inspired and creative.

Changing Times. Embracing Technology!

Posted on May 29, 2020 by janehh22

This is Jane. My blog post this week will start from a message from us all.

It is our utmost desire when having our retreats at Zephyr to give you the optimum experience….where you are able to learn, laugh, and enjoy the company of the other sewists in the beautiful setting of Lake Tahoe. We three, Jane, Heidi and Sandra have been in constant communication with Zephyr, and between ourselves, about the fate of the September retreat in light of the Covid virus. We want, more than anything, to be able to go forward there in safety and assurance of a positive experience for you all. When we were in discussion about this issue we came to the ultimate conclusion that we cannot assure these objectives. In many ways it is out of our hands and for that reason we are postponing our September retreat until 2021. Your safety and positive experience are our primary goals.

We know how disappointed you are, as are we, but you surely understand where we are coming from in postponing the retreat. Please email us for any questions you may have. This is unprecedented territory for us, and we pledge to be fair and equitable going forward. We want 2021 to be a fantastic year with a retreat that is the best yet.

Lake view from Zephyr Point

It makes us sad to have made this decision but I feel we can all now move forward and focus on the retreat for 2021. As a traveling quilt teacher I have just about written off 2020. I still have a few things on my calendar but I shall have to wait and see if they go ahead. As I said in my blog title, even I am now having to jump on the technology bandwagon, something a few weeks ago I just wasn’t interested in doing.

Fabric Journal, one of the samples for Artistic Alchemy retreat

As for technology I recently presented my lecture ‘Living a Creative Life’ to the San Francisco Quilt Guild using Zoom! My Power Point lasted 30 minutes, followed by Q & A, and went down well, I believe! We had 138 attendees and all stayed till the end. I will say I did miss the audience reactions and participation though.

Pet Portrait Fabric collage Jane Haworth

Precious

And I am now working on putting together an online class called Love of Pets Fabric Collage. This wasn’t something I had considered but as time goes on and reality sets in I know I won’t be teaching in person for a while. When I think about the opportunities that this opens up, its pretty good. Quilters from all around the country and world will have the chance to take my class.

Fabric selection ideas for Love of Pets online class

The good thing that has come out of this pandemic is reconnecting with family, and friends using either Messenger video groups, Instagram Live or Zoom. I come from a large family, all of them in the UK and for the first we have been catching up virtually. Pokey Bolton has a daily chat with quilters and artists on Instagram Live at 1pm pacific time and I was on with her a few weeks ago talking about this very subject, teaching cancellations and ways to move forward. Then lets not mention the funny glasses my close friend Ronnie and I found on Messenger video!

Porch time during lockdown

Staying at home I think is made easier by creating routines. I will work in the morning, have a family lunch and play Yahtzee on the iPad, listen to Pokey’s 1pm chat, work the afternoon till about 5 when its “Beer O’clock”. This is our family time for a beer on the porch and daily card game challenge! Our favorites are Wizard, Knaves and Phase 10.

Big Frank 46″ x 69″

Now that I have had more time for sewing I will share what I’ve been working on over the last couple of months. With the deadline to enter the World of Beauty quilt competition at IQF Houston coming up, I decided to make a couple of large quilts. I always think a quilt needs to be big to look impressive hanging in a quilt show. So Big Frank was created! I’m pretty happy with him and am now working on Little Frank and perhaps pattern I can share.

Detail of the eye, approx 9” x 6”

Here is a detail of his eye and really I don’t think it looks as impressive close-up as you just see the different fabrics I included. Some are pretty random! When I started this quilt my intent to use scraps and those old fabrics I have but never use. Pretty much the ugly ones! I started with a grey, brown and blue palette but as the quilt grew I would get bored with using these same fabrics and so I’d look through my stash and grab a bunch in another color. So now as he progressed I added those greens, ochres and even pinks!

Notes of Hope 81” x 61”

This is the other large quilt I have been working on and just finished. I made it in response to the Mountain Art Quilters Spring challenge. The category that spoke to me was ‘Colors of Emotion’

Small ‘messages of hope’ attached to the railings on the Foresthill Bridge, CA

The story behind this quilt. In 2018 I remember hearing on the news that a lady from Auburn, Brittney Hendricks, organized for volunteers to make ‘Notes of Hope’ that they attached to the railings on the Foresthill Bridge. This bridge is located just outside Auburn, CA is the highest bridge in California and fourth highest in the USA and has been the scene for 90 suicides since it was built in 1947. These ‘messages of hope’ attached to the bridge are an attempt to convince people that life continues to be worth living. I walked the bridge with my son James in the new year and took many photos.

These photos I printed onto fabric sheets and then Improv pieced everything together. Starting with the words, the dark black fabrics around them, included a small colorful border and then more black border. I will say it was a little tricky to square it up!

This little ‘Yorkie’ quilt is one of many samples started whilst demoing in the classes I teach. Having more time now I want to work on these. Once the collage was finished it was time to choose the background. I put these photos on my new Facebook group Fabric Collage School asking for opinions and although I love the busy background on the left I settled with the more restful blue one on the right. Its so fun to get peoples ideas and opinions while you are still working on something!

Time to clean this machine!

After spending a month making masks, and sewing everyday I finally decided it was time to clean out my sewing machine. I have a Juki 2010Q which is a straight stitch semi-industrial machine and I love it. Its a workhorse. Everyday I oil my machine and clean out around the bobbin but it has this little hatch underneath that was last cleaned out around Christmas. I think it was time!

Now its time to get back to sewing, video taping my work in progress for my online class and entering my quilts into World of Beauty. Although sadly we won’t be holding our retreat I do want to devote some time to fabric play and mark-making and come up with some great samples for next time. Out of interest is anyone up for some kind of virtual Artistic Alchemy event?

Staying Creative during a Pandemic!

Posted on April 17, 2020 by janehh22

This is Jane. Heidi, Sandra and I have been communicating about the retreat this September and we still feel hopeful. We will keep you in informed of any news we hear from Zephyr Conference Center. Lets keep fingers crossed and positive thoughts during these crazy times. We are still taking reservations, if you feel like holding your spot.

What strange times we are in! When I am told to stay home, with few other commitments to fill my day, what better excuse is there than to SEW. I have spent the last few years trying to catch up with projects and custom orders so having few distractions its good for me. Saying that, I am finding it hard mentally, to stay focused but I tell myself I have time, plenty of time.

Living through this pandemic is hard. But living here in Northern California I appreciate how lucky I am and we are not suffering as hard as many people around the globe. Lets appreciate what we have and quit complaining about hair and nail issues.

Now the weather has improved I have enjoyed the time I spend walking my neighborhood with my son James. He needs to log daily his PE requirements. We like to take photos, look for wildflowers and local wildlife.

Lupines along the NID

I am lucky enough to live close to one of the NID (Nevada Irrigation District) canals and it makes the perfect three mile hike.

As I said I am using this time to catch up! I have some custom quilt orders from 2019 that needed completing! I am down to finishing my last two. The two photos above were made using T shirts on both sides of the quilt. I have avoided doing this in the past as I was concerned about the stretch when quilting and what kind of quilting pattern to use.

Completed queen sized T shirt quilt, Notre Dame University

Actually they both turned out amazing, very drapable and soft. I made the back a little larger, taped it to the floor before layering with the batting and quilt top. I then used many safety pins to hold the layers together. My stitching pattern was a large meander for the quilting and had no problems with stretch. I will definitely do this again.

Fabric collage pet portraits by Jane Haworth

Fabric Pet Portrait, Buddy the Labradoodle

The collage above was a commission I received from one of my Craft Napa students. She wanted me to make the collage and then I sent it to her to stitch and complete the quilt. My plan is to finish many of the pet portrait samples started as demos during class when I teach.

A lot going on in my quilt making studio

This is a photo of my sewing space right now! I am working on a T shirt quilt, have a couple of projects ready to quilt and also supplies for mask making everywhere!

This was another commission I recently received for a Beagle called Teddy. I am thinking a fun way to focus on my work (as I do have trouble with this) is to set aside a week just to work on a theme. This week has been to complete all the T shirt quilts! Next week is for pet collage and another week will just be free-motion quilting. And then of course there are old UFO’s! I’ll let you know how it goes!!

Fitted face masks April 2020

I have plenty of work I could work on but about 3 weeks ago into the mix came mask making! To begin with I wondered is there a real need for this. But after a few days it became clear that local healthcare workers needed our help. I had fabric I could use from my stash, my trusty Juki 2010Q and I was ready to help.

The first appeal came from a Pediatric doctor friend who needed face masks for colleagues and outpatients. So I made a couple of batches for her with the help of my sewing friends. Then my friend Annie, who hasn’t sewn since school, received a request for 300 masks for a local senior care service. With little time it came down to us to make them. So with social distancing in mind we set up a small production line and banged out 200 masks in two days! The last 100 she did at home with contributions from other sewing friends.

First day of Face mask making 100 masks

I must admit I was a little burned out after that but now it is hard to go a day without making a few masks while the need is still there. I emailed my neighborhood association and my husbands colleagues saying I would make masks for a small donation. I have enjoyed getting to know my neighbors and these monetary donations will allow me to fabric shop and replenish my stash when the time is right.

Inspired by the honey pot for a stitching design

I will just share a few of the projects I am working on. This is a sketch for a hand stitching project I am just starting. I do enjoy hand stitching in the evening when I can hang out with the family, be creative and not fall asleep!

These are two projects I recently finished. The Kookaburra Bag is hand stitched onto felt and the Boho Bag is hand stitched on top of various fabrics that cover a flannel foundation. Both were patterns I bought at IQF Houston. Patterns by Wendy Williams for Flying Fish Kits

This quilt (waiting to be stitched) are beetle designs that I started a year ago. I placed the bugs onto old linens and other unusual neutrals and when piecing them together I reversed the seams so I have the raw edges on the front. If you’ve ever tried this its harder than you think! This is a new series of collage designs that I will have available perhaps for a new class.

Artistic Alchemy Retreat 2019

Here is a photo from last years Artistic Alchemy retreat and lets keep our finger crossed that we can all meet up again in September. We are still taking bookings for all the workshops and open studio. If you wish to send in a reservation form and deposit this will ‘hold your spot” I am imagining in September we will all be in need for some creative time and company.

My workshop this year 2020 is Mark-Making and Fabric Collage. Students will have the opportunity to spend at least a day playing with mono-printing, painting on fabric, carving and stamping and creating some one-of-a-kind fabrics to use in collage.

Lino Printing and mark making Jane Haworth

Lino Cutting and printmaking

Keep sewing, keep healthy and lets use this time to be creative.

Kicking off the New Year with Creativity

Posted on January 17, 2020 by janehh22

This is Jane and what better way to kick off the New Year than a few days away at the creative arts retreat ‘Craft Napa’ I am in Napa! This retreat was founded 5 years ago by Pokey Bolton. Pokey is founder of Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors magazines, and founding host of Quilting Arts TV on PBS. More recently she started Crafting a Life and the Craft Napa retreat.

January 2019 Cruising by CIA at Copia in Napa with Lyric Kinard and Lynn Tubbe after a delicious lunch at the Oxbow Market.

Craft Napa celebrates the crafts of quilting, sewing, surface design, art journaling, and mixed media. It happens early January when we are all looking for a creative kickstart to the beginning of our year. The events location is at the Embassy Suites in Napa, CA and all the workshops, socializing and networking happens in the fountain courtyard around which the classrooms are arranged. Tentative dates for 2021 13-17th January

Jennifer Sampou, fabric designer and quilter, and husband displaying her quilts during her lunchtime lecture.

Including the workshops Pokey organizes various events; a welcome dinner, wine blending, and a speakers luncheon. Last year we watched ‘Tim’s Vermeer’ with the inventor Tim Jenison who was present for Q & A afterwards. Then Friday night is always the Makers Market. This event, open to the public, includes tables from many of the teachers selling unique products and works of art, as well as the work and products of other local makers.

Selling my handmade products at the Friday night Makers Market

I have attended Craft Napa for all five years since its inception in 2016 and highly recommend it. It can be pricy but I give myself an early Christmas present when I sign up in May or June. Sharing a room at the Embassy Suites with their breakfast included and their popular happy hour really helps to keep costs down.

This year I am taking two workshops by Joanne Sharpe and Pat Pauly as well as teaching two classes Pet Portraits and Beautiful Bovines. This year 2020 Craft Napa runs from January 15-19th and I will be there when this post goes out.

As part of my prep for my two classes I have been making samples to inspire my students to let them see the steps involved in fabric collage, hands-on . These samples are made using 8” x 10” photographs. The projects in this workshop are smaller and so hopefully students get finished or close to in the 6 hr class.

Ruby, a sample of one of my cow patterns for the Beautiful Bovine workshop.

Once I’m home from Craft Napa I have two focuses; my upcoming workshop ‘Faces’ that I am teaching in Dubai at the end of February at the Dubai International quilt Show and then prep for the Artistic Alchemy 2020 Retreat announcement when registration opens in early February

Over the Christmas break I got to play with surface design with my daughter Lucy. We painted, stamped, carved lino-blocks and generally had fun with fabric paints and fabrics. Here are a few photos of what we made.

Lino Cutting and printmaking

Applying paint in a loose manner results in beautiful fabrics

From this collection of fabrics I am going to use them in fabric collage. I really like the layered look of collage on improv piecing. It a great way to use pieces and scraps of fabric you have already or have handmade yourself.

Succulent Love Fabric Collage

I have started another project with my small sewing group, Sierra Sisters. We have decided to make a shared wearable piece of art. We all submitted a piece of clothing that will be cycled around the group giving us each a month to work on the piece by adding some appliqué, hand stitching or whatever takes your fancy. It will be fascinating to see how these pieces turn out near the end of the year. I hand-painted this apron dress that is pretty wacky to start off!

Best wishes to all for a creative and inspiring 2020. I like to encourage people to drop fear and just create. I will leave you with a photo from Serene Lakes taken around 9pm on News Years Eve. Its our tradition to head up the hill and as part of our New Year celebrations watch the fireworks on the Serene Lake.

View from Serene Lakes, CA on New Years Eve 2019

Keep enjoying the blog and in just a few weeks Artistic Alchemy will be announcing our workshops for the 2020 retreat. How exciting!

Summertime Fun and Inspiration

Posted on July 5, 2019 by janehh22

This is Jane. Its only a month into summer and I have been active; camping, backpacking, and living on a desert island! Now July is here I’m hoping to have more time to catch up with some sewing projects, prep for the Artistic Alchemy retreat in early September before I start teaching again in mid August .

If you are still considering coming to the retreat I still have openings. My workshop Pet Portraits will cover making patterns for fabric collage, the technique itself, choices of fabrics and using value in collage. Please consider the workshop if you want to explore other kinds of art quilting. At the moment I am open to working with my students on other projects too, including making T-shirt quilts.

Consider working on a T-shirt quilt

When I’m not making art quilts I have an Etsy shop where I make custom T-shirt quilts. Quilters love or hate them! So if you have a project that you have been putting off, the retreat could be your chance to get it off the ground. Contact me if you have questions.

Packing into Point Reyes

This travel journal quilt I was working on at last years retreat before my appearance on Quilting Arts TV. I just entered it into a SAQA exhibit called Stitching California and I am happy to say it was accepted. I know one of my students in my workshop this year wants to work on journal quilts.

My recent trip to the Florida Keys with the Boy Scouts of America

I said I had been living on a desert island, actually off the Florida Keys. I was lucky enough to accompany my son and some other scouts from his troop for an outer island adventure on Big Munson Island. This was a once-in-a-lifetime trip that I thoroughly enjoyed but I will say it might not be for everyone! We were able to snorkel with a 300lb Goliath Grouper, go deep-sea fishing 25 miles out to sea, swim in 700ft water, canoe 12+ miles in Polynesian war canoes and live off the grid for 5 days.

With no phones aka cameras I took my sketch book and preserved my memories in that way. It was refreshing not to worry about capturing every new sight or event. Also having no sense of time was something I got used to but loved. We learned about sargassum! It was shocking to start with, we grew used to it but never loved it! This was especially true as our conservation project was gathering and moving it to be used as mulch. Look up the link and see how warming ocean temps and climate change are making this a real problem in our oceans and coastlines.

Enchanted Hill

Before taking my break in June I was working on a couple of quilts to enter into juried exhibitions. This one ‘Enchanted Hill’, Hearst Castle I made for the Stitching California exhibit but unfortunately it didn’t make the cut. This quilt I painted as a whole cloth, glued on fabric appliqué details, free-motion quilted and hand stitched.

Gentle Giant, Nubian Giraffe Calf

This quilt I recently finished for another exhibit called Better World which was juried and by invitation only. Unfortunately this didn’t make the cut either! It is hard to spend a lot of time working on these projects, when you are busy anyway, and not reap the rewards. I feel it happens to many quilters but I know I will enter them into other quilt shows so they can be seen.

Detail of Gentle Giant

When it came to appliquéing the tail I decided to make it 3D. So the hairy end of the tail actually hangs loose from the quilt. Fun little detail that you need to see in person! I support the Giraffe Conservation Foundation GCF and as I did with my Melman (my large giraffe quilt) when I sell this one I will again donate half the proceeds to GCF.

Catching up on my travels! While camping in Bodega Bay we got to explore the town of Bodega, hike the coast to Goat Rock Beach, eat oysters and watch the local wildlife; actually otters not turtles but I loved that painting!

Backpacking Jane Haworth

Grouse Ridge Trails

Camping by Island Lake

On our overnight backpacking trip to Island Lake on Grouse Ridge we enjoyed beautiful views, peace and quiet and a lot of snow!

Chicken Class with the quilters of King City

Before all my adventures I was teaching plenty of fabric collage classes including this one in King City. A place I had never visited before but really grew to love.

My pet portrait fabric collage class really is my most popular as it gives students a chance to work on something personal. Its just not another class sample! They learn the technique and hopefully will take it home, finish the quilt and maybe give as a gift to a loved one. Here are a few examples of works in progress.

Student work Jane Haworth

Pet Portraits by Jane Haworth

Student work

Class at leals Coop Auburn

And the “pet portrait” class does not have to be of a cat or dog

Pet Portraits by Jane Haworth Student Work

or in a realistic color sceme. I am really enjoying work “outside of the box” and mixing up my color choices in some of my newest projects.

B for Bovine

I hope I have inspired you to start a new quilt project, look at trying a new technique or sign up for my workshop at the Artistic Alchemy retreat at Zephyr Point, Lake Tahoe this September 2-6th 2019. Contact us as space is still available in my workshop or with Heidi or in Open Studio. Our deadline has closed and full payments are now due but we would hate for you to miss out on the fun. And Lake Tahoe is beautiful in September.

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Category Archives: pet portrait quilts