March is National Craft Month and National Quilting Month, and here at Quilters Newsletter, we’d like to spend March celebrating the craft of quilting by celebrating you, the quilter. At the end of February, we asked our readers to submit a photo of themselves with a quilt they made with information about themselves and their quilt for a chance to be a featured quilter. This week, the third week of March, we’re featuring the third set of two quilters who submitted photos: Jeannie Zimmerman of Middleburg, Florida and Jerry Luschen of Texico, Illinois.
Christmas side of Reversible Door Quilt by Jeannie Zimmerman
Halloween side of Reversible Door Quilt by Jeannie Zimmerman
Featured first of our week 3 quilters is Jeannie, who sent in images of two of her quilts. Above is both sides of her reversible holiday door quilt. Here’s what Jeannie had to say about it: “My husband spotted a skeleton quilt panel at a quilt show. Halloween is his favorite holiday, so I promised him a quilt with it. We found the black/white owl fabric at the same show. Then I thought, why not make it a two holiday quilt. I had a drawer full of Christmas fabrics in my stash and decided to make a Christmas tree panel with gifts under the tree. Once I rough sketched the layout, I used only a rotary cutter and long ruler to cut and sew the front and back. The batting I used was rayon and bamboo, for a Southern weight. I basted the sandwich with safety pins and hand quilted the layers, mainly echo quilting the skeleton. For the gifts under the tree, the packages and ribbons are pieced and joined to the upper section. The bows are stitched like flaps to add depth. The ornaments on the tree are hand stitched to the tree, with red ornaments placed to run new ribbon “garland” through each year. I added hanging loops to the top in each side so that we can slide a dowel through. It is about the size of my front door where we hang it for holiday gatherings. We really like this quilt. I hope you get ideas from it , too.”
T-shirt Quilt for WIll, by Jeannie Zimmerman
The second quilt Jeannie sent an image of was a t-shirt quilt she made for her second cousin, Will. Here’s what she had to say about it: ”This quilt was made from selected t-shirts of his from t-ball through adulthood. I bordered the shirt panels in 3 fabrics. He loves the outdoors and is a nature photographer, so that guided my fabric selections. The bottom was a close up of printed grass blades; the middle was a distant, dark pine tree forest on mountain sides; and the top was a dark moon sky print. I had it longarm quilted at Calico Station Quilt Shop, in Orange Park FL, and they did a great job. I added the binding myself. The attached photo was taken the night I presented it to him. It was a surprise for him. I was a little nervous that he would be angry that I cut up his special shirts, but he seemed very pleased.”
Barn Quilt, 48″ s 48″, by Jerry Luschen
Our second featured quilter for week 3 is Jerry, whose wife, an avid quilter, and trips to Kentucky where they enjoyed viewing the barn quilts there, inspired him to make barn quilts for their area in Southern Illinois. Above is his first barn quilt, and below is his third. Here’s what he has to say about them: “I recently retired and have always enjoyed working with wood. My wife has quilted for several years, and we may have to build an addition for all of them, so I decided to try to do it with wood. Right now I’m just using oak and pine but want to start to use others woods including old barn wood. The one we are doing now will be 2-dimensional with a color background. Basically, I’ve been looking for patterns that I think would look good in wood.” Jerry also says his wife’s quilt guild has been giving him a lot of praise and encouragement, and he’s been enjoying making barn quilts so much, he may have to come out of retirement to make them as more than just a hobby.
Barn Quilt, 24″ x 24″, by Jerry Luschen
Want to be a featured quilter? Send a photo of you with a quilt you’ve made to QMNsubmissions@fwmedia.com with your name and location as well as any details you’d like to provide about your quilt and quilting career.
Need some inspiration for that next quilting project? Check out our these digital quilt patterns from Quilters Newsletter:
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