KneeDeep in Quilts and Stuff

2010-03-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

This little teddy is a One Of A Kind handmade Original "Jami" Bear.
I have been creating these little Gaffers off and on for many years. They have been a hit in my Etsy Shop and have traveled as far as Belgium and Australia.
This summer a whole bunch of Jami Bears will be taking a trip to Avalon New Jersey. Avalon is a small village of around 2000 residence, that swells to around 40,000 during the summer months. The Jami Bears will be vacationing at Summer Studio Gallery in Avalon. While at Summer Studios each Jami Bear will be hoping to be adopted into new loving homes.

What have you been up to?

2009-11-09T06:50:00.000-08:00

Well, it's time to get this blog spot going. I am going to be posting more often to get myself if the habit. Then I will maybe get a little more interesting. :)

The quilt image above is my latest WIP (work in progress) The inspiration for this quilt was a pair of Vintage pillowcases. The quilt is called THE DASH, Years ago I read a poem called The Dash, by Linda Ellis, and for some reason I felt it was to be matched with this quilt. I must look it up again and give it a good read.

I'll be back soon.

Quilts will get a new home

2009-04-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on why I have been so quiet on my Blog. I am very very busy painting and cleaning my HUGE commercial building. My hubby and I are setting up our businesses in the building, until such time as we get a new tenant or a buyer. Maybe if we are lucky we will win a million dollars, or an investor with lots of money will come along and I can turn the building into the artist studio mall that is my dream. I have had this dream for many years, I wanted to create a space where artists and craftsman could come together and share the energy that over flows from all artists from time to time. I wanted this community of artist to include an element of recycle/reuse, a place where, One mans garbage is another mans gold.
For now the building will be mostly empty, with an area for my Commercial Quilting business, and an area for Hanson Hydraulics. Now isn't that an odd combination.
Well I better get at it, More painting and cleaning, painting and cleaning.
It's nice to be busy and it is great to see the changes.

American Country Music Awards

2009-04-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

Reasons to watch the ACM Awards: Miley Cyrus, Carrie Underwood's 'lava' dress and more

See The LA Times Blog For Great coverage of the ACM Awards, Super photos of the Country stars.
2009 ACM Awards: Sugarland Win Top Vocal Duo, see ACE SHOWBIZ.COM

ACM awards, That's Entertainment

2009-04-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

Sunday April 5th,

HEIDI NEWFIELD
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Heidi Newfield goes into Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards with five nominations. It's more than any other female, but she still considers herself the dark horse -- and in many ways, she is, especially since she's up for top female vocalist against such heavyweights as Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift.

For much more see CNN.COM

Designer Quilt

2009-03-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

How many quilters can remember a time when choosing the colours for your quilt was an extremely daunting task? With each successful project we gain a little confidence one quilt piece at a time. Maybe?
Some years ago I was talking with an interior decorator and I asked her,"How do you know where to start when picking the room colours, let alone the colours for the entire home?" She then told me a designers trick. First she told me to pick a fabric from her lovely swatches. I took some time to choose one that I was particularly fond of. After making my choice my designer friend gave me the confidence I needed, by pointing out to me that, If I loved the way the colours looked in my lovely chosen swatch?, which I truly did, then I would also love those colours together in my home. She then told me to use that fabric swatch to begin choosing the colours for the different elements of my room decorating. I chose a colour for the walls, one for the carpet, one for the furniture, etc. etc. I had decided on my room colours in no time. The last information my designer friend mentioned was this, "Designers study for years and years to learn how to put colours together in such a pleasing way!, Why try to improve on that?" When my room decorating project was complete, It was pleasing to the eye and a comfortable palette to live with. In the end I never even used the lovely fabric that had been my inspiration, but it sure did a good job.
So back to colours in quilting, as you can see this little decorators trick can help you to chose colours for any project you may be coordinating, a quilt, a room, a new home, even how to dress for the day. Just remember this, "If you like the way the colours look together on your little swatch, then you will like them together in many applications.
Designer Quilt, Room,Home,Dress.
The Designer knows best

Lindsay Bouvier's Work

2009-03-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

This is one of my lovely (Hardworking, Starving, Artist) Daughters paintings, Check out her Blog, @ http://www.lindsaybouviersartandstuff.blogspot.com/ I think she is headed in the right direction. It might take her a while, mostly due to finances, but I think she will be earning money some day Coloring the world.

Much to busy

2009-03-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

My blog is very new so putting up info is a bit challanging for me. I am having to handle some of life's tuff stuff at this point in time. I am hoping to limp along with my blog for a while and then when things settle down I can focus on building. In the remote chance that you should stop by........Thank You, please maintain your link to me and we will keep an eye on each other.
Smiles
Jami

Rose Quilted Wallhanging

2009-03-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

The rose Quilt in the introduction to this blog is a quilted wall hanging.
I remember a time when I said, "A quilt on the wall, What the heck would you want to put a quilt on the wall for? Oh My, I have had to eat my words a few times in my life. I have sense learned to say, " That is not where my interest is at this time." (Smile) I now know that I may be drawn to try something, that I might never have thought I would find myself doing, at any point in time. So is the Creative, Artistic nature of the beast.

I took a course a to do this Rose Quilted Wall Hanging. The course was called tessellating hydrangea,(How did I get a rose out of that?) I got a little off course I might say, (smile) which is pretty common for me. When the creative juices start to flow you never know where they will end up. The Tessellating Hydrangea, was a basic Basic tessellation, created by using sets of four small blocks and four protruding points that blended one quilt block into another(If you look at my quilted rose wall hanging, you may still be able to pick out a set of four small squares, that seem to look almost like a four leaf clover)(I see one just below the flower center and slightly to the right). The groupings of four blocks and points are intended to create the impression of the small flowers of a hydrangea, the bunches of small flowers make up a single hydrangea head.
What I did was treat each block and triangle point as an individual piece, I then arranged them on a quilters design wall to create the impression of a rose. This was a very good exercise for me, as I have always been caught up in to many details, This way all I had was small squares and triangle points, and with those my goal was to create the impression of a Rose. I had a lot of fun arranging and rearranging the bits and pieces, then moving away and squinting, back and forth, playing with each piece like it was a brush stroke of paint. I was in the zone, creating art for art sake. Just writing about this artistic process makes me want to go play with my Fabrics

Me on my Wedding day

2009-03-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of me on the day of my second wedding. I was married for the second time on June 28th, 2008, I am married to a very unique sweet man. My first marriage was also to a very unique man, he lost a 17yr battle with cancer in Jan. 2001. I concider myself very fortunate to share my life with both of these men.

My First Blog

2009-03-11T08:06:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,

My name is Jami,

It would be very safe to say that I am not very seasoned at understanding the world wide web. However some things are made pretty simple for us, and seem to make sense at the time...?..... So I thought I would give this blogging thing a go.I have an education from the school of hard knocks, majoring in the Arts (Mostly just spending money on art stuff, that I never get finished) I am passionate about Knitting, quilting, and painting. I currently am a home based entrepreneur (Head down Butt up) Long arm quilting services for others. I been in this business since 1999, and was the brought the first long arm quilting machine to our town. I wouldn't even begin to guess how many quilts and quilted wall hanging I have stitched my doodles into. I only know I am sorry that I do not have a photograph journal of my works. I have only ever done the freehand custom quilting, I am artistic and I need an outlet for my creativity, when I am asked how I do it?, My simple answer is,"I doodle all over the quilt with thread, just like you would doodle with a pen or pencil, only I am using thread.

Smiles

Jami