"Nan", My Latest "Frame it With Flowers" Project

 

"Nan" 

I'll be teaching the embellishment class, "Frame it With Flowers" twice in the next 8 months. (See the My Teaching Schedule tab, above.)  This has given me wonderful motivation to create a new piece, to be used as my current class sample.

Nan...that was the name my mother's closest friends and relatives gave her. The picture above was taken a few years before she died in 1976, and is my very favorite of her.  Framing this image has been such a joy--I've gotten to look into those eyes  all the while I stitched!

All the techniques here will be covered in class. 

Below are some more Framed loved ones created in past years...

"May"

 It all started with our cat May in 2010.

"Allers, 1961" 

A similar piece commemorates my husband's family.  It cracks me up how "engulfed" his dad looks!

"Abe and Faye"

My sister-in-law asked me to make this commemorating her parents' long marriage.  This was taken right after Abe got home from Europe in WWII.  Pure happiness!

"Elle, Dave, and the Girls"

This picture was taken a few months before my niece and nephew-in-law's twins were born.

 "Pete and Katie"
To celebrate my nephew's engagement. ;-)

"Tammy"

      My wonderful neighbor who loves her garden.

"Max and Esther"

This was taken in the courthouse moments after they were officially pronounced man and wife by the absolutely sweetest judge.  I love everything about this picture, especially their wedding clothes!

I've used this format for two of the three dedication pages of my books, too.

 This is from Allie Aller's Crazy Quilting, C & T Publishing, 2011.  Again, it is my mom--she would have been so proud of me to publish a book!  This was her senior college portrait; you can't see the jeans and saddle shoes she was also wearing.  ;-)

"Man of My Dreams"

This is the Dedication page of Stained Glass Quilts Reimagined, C & T Publishers, 2017.

It just struck me as funny and so us, that I would choose this picture of my husband, Robert, to frame and honor in my book.

Every Frame it With Flowers project is different, and each student's take is such a joy for me to see.

       I hope you will try this sometime....

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My mom taught me gardening, and to frame my life with flowers.....

"Jersey Girls" for the Quilt Alliance

Every year the Quilt Alliance hosts a contest/fundraiser, where people create 16" X 16" quilts around the theme for the year.  The quilts are auctioned off after winners are selected by a panel of judges, and tremendous prizes given!

I have loved making these quilts over the years, and have learned a lot from them as they are small enough to free me up for great experimentation.  For a detailed overview of my Alliance quilts, check out this post on their blog for lots of process and pictures:

https://quiltalliance.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/growing-quilts-harvesting-support/

This year's theme is "Animals We Love".  The contest rules are here.  You still have time to enter!  Deadline is May 1.

Most of you know I spent ten years as a dairy farmer and I still love Jersey calves the best...I miss them!
So I loved making this quilt, "Jersey Girls", because I could look down on their sweet faces the whole time I stitched.

I started by printing up a photo and playing around with the lay-out.  Those white flowers were crocheted for me by my daughter-in-law, Esther, for Christmas.  I really love them and had to use them.

The antique block was perfect, cut in half, to make part of the frame.
I ended up using the lace a different way, though.

Here we are midway through. I've quilted around the calves' faces before appliqueing the photo to the background fabric and surrounding it by trim.
Those little green dots you see are stuffed velvet circles...

...that became the centers of silk ribbon flowers, made with 13mm RiverSilks.  I had to really restrain myself on the frame, not overdoing it or making the colors too bright.  I wanted all the attention to be on those darling girls.

This was a quick 3 day project...you don't have to always spend a lot of time to realize your vision..or enter the contest!