Jen's Pen

Hi

We had a short summer holiday over the first weekend of August.  We love to go up to Lake Ontario to visit family and this time we camped at Golden Hill State Park.  They have 30 Mile Point Light House in the park and our campsite was just to the East of this light with a view of the water.  How much better can it get?

Here is a view of the lighthouse from the campsite.

Here is the sunset.  Very pretty country in up state NY.  I think this is calling out to be a quilt.

Here’s Breakfast….

This is farm country and we were there just as all the summer crops were being harvested.  We came home with yellow beans, tomatos, watermellon, 6 pounds of blueberries, 1/4 peck of peaches, 1/4 peck of peppers, summer squash, cucumbers, 2 dozen ears of corn and more…  You really get the feeling of the seasons.

I have been making stuffed peppers, peach blueberry pie and corn chowder.

Here is another photo of the Wolf family farm from my father in law’s garden. 

A nice relaxing visit was had by all…. topped off with this lovely sunset.

Hope you all had a great summer……Now I am back quilting, Jennifer

Hi

This summer I have gotten into creating flowers in vases.  You can make flower bouquets over and over again no two will look alike.  I use silk flowers and fuse them in place using 606 Spray and Fix.  It is a great product for this kind of thing.

This one is made with silk flowers.  I made the one below with spring silk  flowers in different sizes.  It was on display in Istanbul at their show in May.

During the Vermont Quilt Festival I worked on a new on done with fussy cut raw edge fabric flowers.  I love the colors in this one.

The one I am currently working on is a vase of flowers with semi presious stones in the centers of the flowers.  I really like the added interest those bring.  I will take a photo when I get more done for my next post.

In the meantime – here is a sample board of other things I have done with the 606 Spray and Fix.

Thanks for visiting with me, Jennifer

Here I am back again.  After all the traveling this spring I am finally getting back to updating everything.  April 30, 2010 was Queen’s Day in Amsterdam and I had a great visit with my friends.  Here are some fun photos showing the kids sale blankets on the streets and lots of orange on Queen’s Day.  A favorite color of the Dutch as The House of Orange is the royal color.

Here’s my favorite Dutch House but I could not bring it home so I took a photo.  Really dutch shoes outside and bicycles all around. 

While in the Netherlands I went to the Open European Quilt Championships.  It was a very nice show.  Vist www.oeqc.eu for info on next years show.  Well worth the trip.  Nice location with hotel rooms on site.

It was tulip time.

After Holland I was off to teach in Istanbul, Turkey at a quilt show held every other year.  Here are some photos of the visit.

The city on the Bosporus, the river between the Europe and Asia continent.

My class doing woven fabrics.  I had students from Istanbul, Athens Greece, Kagoshima Japan.  A truely international exhibit.  Visit www.wowarts.org to see more quilts from the Turkish quilters in the WOW (women of the world) Friendship Quilt Art Exhibit.

This is the leaf I used to represent Turkey in my WOW quilt.  It is called Red Bud Tree.  Beautiful flowers in the spring.  Visit www.wowarts.org to see more challange quilts.  Below is my entry.

On our last day we went shopping.  Shopping in the Grand Bazzar is always fun.

Istanbul is full of colors and patterns.  Lots of  ideas for quilts…..

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  Jennifer

This year we had a lot of changes in Lancaster.  AQS took over the April show in Lancaster, PA.  There is still a show / vendor mall at the Centennial Inn out on Rt 30 across from the Host Hotel.  It was as nice as ever and the weather was great.  The Amish community was very active during weekend an there were buggy’s everywhere.  I think everyone who visited both shows had a lovely time, and it will be even better next year when all the bugs are worked out.  Here are some photos from the area.

There were lovely farms getting ready for the season.Sunday services.  Everyone arrives in buggies or on bikes.

We stopped for lunch on our way to Lancaster and look what we found.  Lovely paintings by a Hex Sign Painter, Johnny Ott.  It was great fun to have lunch and enjoy the folk art all around us.  What a find.  Agreat find was had by all.

Hi

We taped for Quilting Arts TV earlier this month.  It is always lots of fun.  I will show you the project we did and then some shots of the studio and green room.

This is Sunset flowers.  Made with Flower napkin paper images, antique lace between the windows and a small ribbon boarder in the frame.  These are all fused in place with 606 Spray and Fix.   The Fusible 606 spray makes this a fast project.  You spray the back side of the window rectangle with 606, spray the paper front and back with 606.  Place on the sunset background, cover with parchment paper to protect your iron and press 30-40 seconds to fuse in place.  Add the boarder then I also fused the ribbon and lace in place.  Now your are ready to baste with 505 and quilt.

Here is the green room where you get ready for your segment.  These are Pokey’s outfits for the season.

You can watch others taping on this TVand the room is really green.

Here is the control room.  This is who makes everything work.  They have mics in Pokey’s ear and can tell her what they are seeing and what needs to be done.

Here I am on set ready to introduce the project. Complete instructions for the project will be on Quilting Arts website in the summer.

Hay…We made the local paper…Click this link below…

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1380&pag=460&dept_ID=157523

Hi

At the end of last month I arranged for a Hands On Sunday Brunch for local shopowners and teachers.  They learned about all the Spray and Fix family of fabric friendly spray adhesives and then everyone made a landscape postcard.  The class went well.  Everyone was given a kit with a photo printed on paper and learned how to cut that photo apart and used the pieces as templates.  Since the templates are in color it also helps to pick out fabric colors for each piece.

Here the Quilters Corner in New Milford, CT are working on their landscape.

Newtown Quilts in Newtown, CT with their quilt top almost finished.  They just need to add the lighthouse on the land at the back right and do some decorative stitching to add interest.  

Here are samples of different types of landscapes showing the photo, then the photo cut up and the final quilt at the bottom of the row.

This went over so well that I was asked to teach this at a local guild last week.  I did a lecture on “Travel Memory Quilts” and then this class on “Fused Landscapes using 606 Spray and Fix”.  Each students used their own photo.  

Here are the Southford Fall Quilters with their landscapes in progress.     

This is really easy and a fast way to work up an individual quilt.

Stay warm we have snow just like everyone else.

Hope you got some quilting in while you were snow bound.

Jennifer O’Brien

Japanese gardens are beautiful in all season.  We visited in December in the southern island of Japan, Kushu so the weather was similar to late fall in New England.  There were no flowers however the garden were beautiful with the fall maple leaves changing and evergreen trees along with the water elements and the walking paths.  Here are some photos of the gardens we visited.

          Entry Gate in a private garden.

           Iso Garden in Kagoshima City Japan.

          Maple leaves in the fall.  Kagoshima City Japan

                  I love the shape of the trees.

        Ishi Doro (stone lanters) are very popular in Japanese Gardens.  They add a relaxing feeling and soft light in the evenings.

I think I will do a few quilts featuring Ishi doro.  I did one (below) is very simple but everyone enjoys it.

Hope you like it, Jennifer O’Brien

Here are some inspirational photos from my trip to Japan.  The school kids are so cute.  I asked to take their photo and they were more than happy to have me take a photo.  The kids say Ni (two) instead of cheese and show two fingers.  I love the hats they all wear them.

We went to the onsen (hot baths) at the base of Sakurajima Volcano.  The hotel was very nice and the hot baths were lovely, outside and nest to the ocean.  At high tide you can sit in the baths and put your hand in the water.  It was really special.

After lunch we had a special tea with the manager of the hotel and the tea bowl were just lovely.  I think some of the patterns might be fun to use in a quit project.

I loved these orchids in the home of a friend.  They are amazing.

I love the roof lines of the Japanese building and the patterns and decoration used on the roofs.    These are family crests.  

These are roof lines of an entry gate.

I am going to do a project using the roof lines and family crest circles.  I like the idea of the lines and the circles.

Thanks for visiting my bog.

Enjoy your day, Jennifer

Hi Everyone,

I am back from Kagoshima Japan.  It was a fast trip but lots of fun.  I went with a friend from High School and just having her on the trip with me was great fun.  I can not remember the last time we spent time together like that.  The WOW Quilt Art Show that we at JT Trading are sponsoring went off great.  All the 32 quilts, 8 from each country – Japan, USA, Australia, Turkey, are very interesting and everyone loved the Friendship sentiments that went with the theme of the exhibit.   The team coordinator from Australia, Cathie Uno, was also visiting. 

Here are some photos of how a show goes in Japan.  It is interesting to see that no matter where a show is held it goes up the same way -

Sakurajima Volcano in the harbor of Kagoshima City welcomes us -

Beginning set up -

Some walls are moved into place -

Now we break for Lunch.  This was the lunch box we had.  Really good.

The Kagoshima Quilters Association created a lovely show poster and also sent out postcards of this same image -

To open the show they always have a formal ribbon cutting ceremony.  From left to right – Kagoshima City Representative, Cathie Uno from Australia, Hiroko Matsuda – Kagaoshima Quilters Association-Japan Host, Michele Rocray from USA, Jennifer O’Brien (me) from USA, Head of the facility where the show was held.  

Here is the WOW (Women of the World) Quilt Art Display hanging in Kagoshima Japan

We even made the paper.  In the paper they tell everyone your age.