JEN-mini June

Besides all of the celebrations and participating in the Luminous Layers QAL, my June plans also included finally finishing the two Jen Kingwell Flimsy Mates, Wensleydale and Mazed made last Summer. I thought it would be fun to give a little twist to Jen’s name since these quilts are somewhat twins both made with Jen Kingwell(JK) fabrics, it’s the month of Gemini/June and I do like alliteration in my titles. Looking at these two quilts together, it represents the gamut of my quilting style from time consuming/difficult to fast/easy. No surprise that I’m also a Gemini. I have to mention that the Master Quilt Holder is experiencing some sciatica pain unrelated to quilt holding and the Apprentice Quilt Holder who lives next door at the GP House was able to assist in holding up the Wensleydale Quilt.

With my blessing, you've may have already seen my Wensleydale Quilt on Grace and Peace Quilting Blog since Nancy did a wonderful job of machine quilting. She really put the WOW into this quilt and I appreciate it so much. The Wensleydale flimsy was finished last summer and it sat while I was thinking that I was going to handquilt it like Jen Kingwell and others’ did like my tormentor from downunder, who introduced me to Jen Kingwell’s patterns, Sue/PatchworknPlay. I even purchased bamboo batting but still the flimsy sat on my cart. Meanwhile, I always see the lovely machine quilting Nancy does and finally realized I needed to send her my flimsy. Even though I’m happy to machine quilt with my easy straight line and wavy quilting, my Wensleydale deserved much better since I spent almost nine months foundation piecing it. Nancy already has machine quilted two of my quilts and I knew I could trust her with my labor of Jen Kingwell. As much as I love clamshell and wishbone quilting, I wanted angular lines and was happy to find Diamond Dance pattern on her list. Nancy was even kind to do a test run of this pattern on one of her own quilts. Plus while machine quilting Wensleydale, Nancy found two blocks whose seams were opened, probably from removing the foundation paper, and avoided a major disaster if the foot would have been caught under it.

Here’s a collage showing all of the fabrics used in Wensleydale, maybe a few were added later, which were mostly Jen Kingwell fabrics and a few blenders from my Tula Pink and modern stash.  Wensleydale is the fourth JK pattern (Gypsy Wife (Modified), Flutterby, Smitten) I’ve made and the first one using her fabrics. Just for my record, I’m listing all of the JK fabrics used: Gardenvale, Looking Forward, Low Volume/Behind the Scenes, Lollies, Grainline Woven, Wiki-Pops, Remix, Speck, Circulus,  Fine & Sunny, Beach Road, and Lookout, did I miss a few? I didn’t realize all of the fabric lines I purchased, either by precuts (charm packs, jelly rolls and one fat quarter bundle, can you guess which line) and yardage-I love how well they went together.

Here’s a close-up of some of the blocks which each one used five different fabrics. When planning this quilt, I made sure half of the sixty blocks included black/gray fabrics and that some of the blocks were on the quiet side to offset some of the “show-off” blocks. I considered making more blocks and good Quilt Friend Carol who started making Wensleydale at the same time offered me her leftover foundation paper but I politely declined. I need to find out how many of her blocks she finished since she is part of the reason why I made Wensleydale.

Another collage so you can see the backing, which I will admit I did not match and the wonderful machine quilting using Glide-Nickel. The binding was a black/gray stripe by QuiltGate which nicely accented all of the fabrics in Wensleydale. Of course, I had to hand sew the binding which really didn’t take too long and another way to enjoy looking at the fabrics some more. Another added bonus, when Nancy does the machine quilting, are the lovely photos she take of your quilt on her deck. Be sure to check out her Post so you can see more photos of my Wensleydale, She really helped to make this quilt a treasure which will soon be hanging on my wall.

After my Wensleydale flimsy was finished, I made my Mazed quilting using a JK jelly roll of Fine and Sunny along with a few of her gray and black prints. The Mazed pattern is designed by Running Doe Quilts and I did make it larger by increasing the size to 60”x84”.

I really love the Mazed pattern which can be purchased from Villa Rosa Designs (not an affiliate link), especially because it useds 2.5” strips. It was the perfect pattern to sew-recover after Wenslydale.

The backing used was yardage of purchased in Maine last year and was just perfect for Mazed.  I have been wanting to machine quilt with just straight vertical lines which is what I did 3/4” apart using Aurifil silver thread. I quilted the straight lines using the seam lines as a guide and eye-balling the other lines since my ViviLux laser light didn’t sit right on Jinny Janome, which is why my straight lines are really wonky. The Robert Kaufman black and white pin dot fabric was used for the binding.

I had an epiphany when I was taking studio pics of Mazed that this was the fifth quilt I made with 2.5” strips of JK fabrics, a Kingwell Kollection I would say. I wouldn’t be surprised if I made these quilts after finishing a JK pattern, especially seeing the first Ernie quilt was made after Gypsy Wife. I used the term “Fear of Jen Kingwell” before and now can coin “Recovering from Jen K (say it like Jedi).

I had to do a collage of the four quilts made with Kingwell patterns (three are Jen, Gypsy Wife, Flutterby and Wensleydale and one by her daughter Lucy Carson Kingwell). This brings another realization that I must be a big fan of Jen and don’t quite acknowledge it with making four patterns, one waiting to be finished (Glitter) and five quilts with JK fabrics. I’ve made six different quilt patterns and a total of at least ten quilts designed by Kelly Young, My Quilt Infatuation and I like them because they look intricate but are quick and easy compared to Jen Kingwell with five different patterns, mostly intricate and definitely not fast and easy and almost ten quilts also. These two designers do represent the gamut of my quilting style.

I still have quite a bit of Jen Kingwell yardage and scraps in my stash, enough for another project. I swear the stash keeps multiplying by itself much like my 30’s reproduction stash. I thought I should take a brief respite from anything JK but these fabrics are calling me to do another project. 

I did consider maybe doing Wanderer’s Wife or another Smitten but I’m pretty sure I heard the Squirrels screaming “No” and Eunice announcing me “crazy” so  I chose to do Shooting Star. Foundation paper has been ordered which is the only way for me to sew a JK pattern. I give Kudos to those who can sew a JK pattern with templates. This will be a nice project for the GP House and definitely be slow-sew going and a Rambling Rows Quilt of 2.5” strips is already planned. BUT, I really should finish Glitter first.

It’s only the middle of June and hopefully I can finish three more projects I have planned, one of which is the final project for the 2023/24 Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. I’ve already made my list for 2024/25 and may be having second thoughts. I may be needing a break.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

A Week Down Under

A little fun with the Post title since it doesn’t refer to traveling to Australia but to the time I spent in my sewing space which I named Studio UP (Underground Palace) which is the finished basement where most of my quilt joy happens. One of the disadvantages of sewing done under are the spiders who are not spinning me fabric but instead are annoying me with their nasty webs and sometime appearances. One of the ways I deal with these unwanted studio mates are with “Spider” Balls. After spending this past week down under,  I decided I needed to replenish my supply after I made two flimsies which you will see below. They’re quick and easy to make with the leftover skinny fabric strips made when die-cutting, which I hate to discard, and the never ending batting scraps. I fold a 2” batting square in quarters and then wrap at least a 20” x 1/4 wide strip around the batting square. I do add a spot of glue before and after wrapping to hold the strip in place and trim any fabric frays. They are not round as balls and remind me more of oyster crackers but naming them spider crackers just didn’t appeal to me. Like moth balls, my Spider Balls are repellants once I add a few drops of peppermint essential oil. I could use white cotton balls but these are way more prettier. I put the Spider Balls in glass jars, group them in lids or push one in a water bottle cap which would also make a compact pin cushion. I do have to refresh them with the peppermint essential oils every few days but I see it as exercise since they are placed all around my 20’x30’ studio and it does make my studio smell good. As you can see, my latest batch of Spider Balls  filled an empty oatmeal container and were made while watching TV upstairs. I will admit that the Spider Balls don’t deter the spiders entirely and in which case I have to use my voice activated Spider Man system which is my screaming and Hubby running down the stairs. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work when he’s not home.

The Spider Balls were made mostly from trimmings from Jen Kingwell (JK) fabrics, another reason for the reference to Down Under, used for the two flimsies finished this past week. The top quilt is the Wensleydale pattern designed by Jen Kingwell, the Down Under Quit Extraordinaire, a foundation pieced project, which I started last October and finished sewing all 60 sixty blocks in early June. The bottom quilt was made with a JK’s Fine and Sunny Jelly Roll plus some of her other fabric lines in order to make the Running Doe Quilts Mazed pattern larger which I’m definitely going to make again. Once these quilts are a finally finished I’ll do another Post. And to add to the Down Under vibe is while I was sewing these two flimsies, I was listening to one of my favorite authors, Kate Morton’s latest book Homecoming which is set in Australia.

We’re heading to the GP house where Hubby is finishing the basement and planning a studio space for me. I know when that happens I’ll definitely will make more Spider Balls which I already have the makings needed and way more courage since I still have not gone down under there still after four years. (For those who don’t know, the GP House is the Grandparent House which we purchased this 100 year old fixer-upper and is next door to the darling Granddaughter. It is our second home where we visit every other week. I have avoided the basement after Hubby found some meat hooks hanging around and I don’t like horror movies). I would rather fly to down under and I don’t like to fly despite claims from my menfolk that I fly on a broom, than go down to the GP basement.

Happy Sewing wherever you sew!