CQJP 2012 January block finished

Okay. I finished my January block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012 (CQJP 2012) just in the nick of time. I  hope this doesn't bode badly for the rest of the months.

This is an 8 inch block as all will be.

Since I learned that the winter holidays origninated with ancient people celebrating the return of the sun, I have loved the idea. Well, in 1965, the sun's return heralded the arrival of my son, Joe, on the 28th. I think he began yelling and kicking before he was born. He was a difficult one to raise, but also a charmer. Hence all the meanings of "ka-pow" came into my life. I'm happy to report he became a responsible adult and the sun still returns to my pleasure in January.

Crazy Quilts are Quilts, Too

www.pigtalesandquilts.com is having a Crazy Quilts are Quilts Too online contest and show. I didn't enter a piece in the contest, but I'm doing the "linky" thing. Here a picture of my latest finished piece, Green Apple Flutter.

It is 14 inches square. It started with a 6 inch square block I made to experiment with the colors orange and lime green. I decided to enlarge the piece to take to the Crazy Quilt Adventure retreat in Connecticut last April for a work piece. I decided to include some plastic stickers I had with uplifting words to go with the bright colors: grow, play and bloom. I used a fair number of new to me techniques on the block, including stumwork wired butterflies. My friend Susan brainstormed to help me chose a new name for it, Green Apple Flutter. I had been calling it red orange and apple green block. That didn't exactly flow.

I've been crazy quilting since a few months after I retired in 1997. I wanted to make a quilt and was looking through old ideas and patterns I had kept. I was struck immediately by a crazy quilt pattern, ca 1960s and started on a full sized quilt I called "The Sampler." I read that a spider and web on a quilt is good luck. I remembered the big garden spiders that built their webs between the corn rows on the Iowa farm where I grew up. I made a "corn rows" block with a spider in the middle that is 3 1/2 inches long from including the legs. She was published in the first issue of Quilting Arts magazine.  I finished the quilt in 2001.

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During that time I joined the Crazy Quilt group on Quiltropolis and found a great community for learning and friendship. I participated in a number of round robins over several years. I enjoyed them a lot, but have given them up because I want the time to work on my own projects. As various new crazy quilt groups have formed, I've joined them, too. Can't say enough about how valuable they are for promoting our art.

I've made two other full-sized quilts: one for my friend Maggie:

Since Marguarite means daisy, the quilt was full of daisy motifs and "silkies." It was made of cotton fabrics from my stash in purples.

And another for my sister: Bells and Butterflies for Betty



This is  blues, her favorite color and features the objects of her collections, bells and butterflies.

I've also made blocks for donations, ornament and toys over the years:

These are some examples. As I look back through my pictures I see I've had a lot of fun with my crazy quilting needle.