Jenny Doh

Quilts for Uganda :: A Call for Donations

This is my amazing friend Tracy Schultz who recently visited Studio Crescendoh to share with me the news about her upcoming trip to an orphanage in Uganda.

Tracy is an ambassador of sunshine. Salt of the earth.

Where is Uganda, might you ask?
Here's a little map that shows this small country in East Africa. It is bordered by Kenya, South Sudan, and the republic of the Congo.

In late November, Tracy will be traveling to an orphanage in Uganda with a group called Hopeline Africa Mission. When asked what they could bring to bring to the 50 children in the orphanage, they requested quilts.

Tracy would like to try and bring 50 handmade quilts, one for each child.

If you want to, I hope you will join me in making one to give to Tracy that she can take to a child at the the orphanage. Tracy will take pictures of each child and the quilt he or she receives and bring them back to share. I join Tracy in believing in the power of handmade and how the children will feel the extra love knowing that someone made them a quilt of their own. Here are some answers to questions you may have:

Q: Is there a size requirement?
A: No. You can make it any size.

Q: Is there a design or materials requirement?
A: No. You can make it as plain or fancy as you like, using traditional motifs or made up ones. You can keep it very very simple like this one. You can make it out of fabric or you can knit/crochet one with yarn!

Q: What's the deadline?
A: November 5th (If you live near Orange County, California, Tracy will make arrangements to go and pick up the quilt from you. If you live far too far for Tracy to pick up the quilt, you can make arrangements to have it shipped to her by contacting her via email at [email protected]

I'm excited to be able to donate to this meaningful project, which I know will be executed beautifully.

Free Motion Stitched Log Cabin Square

Here's a little free motion sttiched work I did on a vintage log cabin quilt square. As much as I like the way it looks on the right side ...

I also love the way it looks on the back side. So cool.

And with a little metal clip, I can enjoy either side.

 

You will hear thunder

You will hear thunder and remember me and think: she wanted storms
The rim of the sky will be the color of hard crimson
And your heart as it was then
will be on fire.

ANNA AKHMATOVA

Waves of Obsession and Some Free Motion Stitched Explorations

I've been doing lots of explorations in the studio. During these last few days, for some unknown reason, I've been doing a whole lot of free motion stitching. Not sure how long this obsession will last. For me, obsessions come in little waves. And I've learned it's a good thing to just ride them out and see where they take me.

So this free motion stitched face is my latest exploration. Before it looked like this ...

it looked like this. And before I started this, I used ...

this earlier sketch as a point of reference. And this sketch was being made while listening to Cat Steven's beautiful version of Morning has Broken.

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird ...

Here are a few additional pieces I've free motion stitched.




This last one actually sold recently and so it's no longer with me. Sort of sad but happy that it's going to someone who adores it.

So I've been asked are all my works for sale? Well, some are and some aren't. One of these days, it's my goal to try and upload some of my originals onto my etsy shop (which has been vacant for a long long time ... just not enough time in the day) ... but in the meantime, what usually happens is that when a person likes what they see on my IG or FB feed, they let me know. And then we go from there. So if there's something that speaks to you, by all means, feel free to write me at [email protected]. I'll let you know if it's available or not. And one of these days, like I said, I'll load a bunch up in more of an official manner on etsy or something like that.

Free Motion Quilt Tutorial :: 2012 Stencil Hop with Balzer Designs & The Crafter's Workshop

Yipee! It's my second time to be part of the very fun Spring 2012 Stencil Hop with Balzer Designs, featuring the wonderful new stencils designed by Julie Balzer for The Crafter's Workshop. The stencil that I have used for this project is the Peek a Boo Stencil. And with it, I made a couple of free motion stitched art quilts. So fun.
I first used a water-soluble marker to trace the peek-a-boo shapes onto muslin with the stencil. The pen goes on blue and disappears with just a dab of water.

I layered the muslin with batting and another piece of backing muslin fabric and then brought the layers to my sewing machine. I lowered the feed dogs, put its darning foot on and free motion quilted the traced shapes.

So cool, huh?

I free motion quilted little frames around them and also free motion stitched some words. After that, I dabbed the blue pen marks with some water to see them disappear.

For this one below, I also added more stitching to the small crescent shape ... little doodle stitched flowers.

I cut the excess fabric layers away from the frame and then added watercolors to the crescent shapes.

Many thanks to the talented Julie Balzer for inviting me to be part of this stencil hop and also to the good people at Crafter's Workshop. Check out other cool projects using the Peek-a-Boo stencil by these talented participants:

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
hhttp://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2012/05/stencil-hop-peek-a-boo.html

Joanne Sharpe
http://joannezsharpe.blogspot.com/

Ronda Palazzari
http://rondapalazzari.typepad.com/

And check out the entire line of kickin' stencils from Crafter's Workshop here.

Announcing PROJECT HOME EC in Studio CRESCENDOh

I am super excited to announce a brand new monthly class in Studio CRESCENDOh titled:
Project Home Ec
Make • Mend • Alter

Project Home Ec will meet approximately once a month in Studio CRESCENDOh. It will be a place to make, mend, alter, and gain ideas for creatively making do. It's a place where you can bring:

• the  jeans that need mending
• the quilt that needs finishing
• the garment that needs altering
• the knitted scarf that needs to be cast off
• and the linen that needs to be embroidered ... and more.

For each session, Project Home Ec will configure the studio with tables, sewing machines, notions to share, stash fabrics and yarns to share, and expertise aplenty to help you start and finish projects in the spirit of Home Economics.


Regularly on hand in the studio will be Cynthia Shaffer, Tracy Schultz, and Jenny Doh ... available to support projects related to sewing, quilting, fiber arts, altered arts, and needle arts. In other words ... all the great stuff that used to be taught in Home Economics classes.

You can come and just work on your own projects or participate in a special project led by either Tracy or Cynthia or Jenny ... like ...

• how to sew on a button
• how to hem pans
• how to free motion quilt
• how to cast on and cast off for knitting
• how to make a double crochet
• how to read a sewing pattern
• how to make a French knot
• how to bind off a quilt
• how to add a denim collar to a dress ... and the list goes on ...

Project Home Ec will also coordinate special and fun activities like Pre-Owned Accessories Trades, and other artist-driven projects.

Everyone is welcome and no experience is needed.

The first Project Home Ec takes place Sunday, February 26th.

Enroll here.

See you in the studio. :)

Free Motion Quilted Memory Game Tutorial

You remember playing the memory card game, right? Here's a set that I made using free motion quilting and watercolors.

First you free motion quilt a bunch of circles with a sandwich of muslin, batting, muslin, cut them out, and color them with watercolors. You want to make sure that you use one color to paint a pair of circles so that you have two blues, two reds, two yellows, etc.

Here's how the circles look before they are cut and colored.

Let them dry and then flip them so that the colors are facing the table and start playing the memory game. Hmmm ... I wonder where that other blue circle was ...

Put them in a little pouchy pouchy or embellished box to store or give away as a gift.

Happy creating. :)

Funny Free Motion Doodle Art Quilt Tutorial

Isn't she adorable?

I started by free motion doodle quilting onto a layer of muslin, batting, muslin. I used my pen-to-paper doodles as inspiration. Check out JENNI. So funny, right? Every time someone asks me, "Are you Jenny with a Y or Jenni with an I?" I have this vision of this girl with an EYE named Jenni.

The thing about free motion doodling is that it just comes with practice. I didn't sketch anything out before I started. I just started with the eyes, then the nose, then the mouth, then the rest of the face and hair and body ... much like a regular doodle. Just lower the feed dogs on your sewing machine, put your darning foot on and go for it. Remember that practice is the key.

Next, I took my watercolors and colored certain parts of the art quilt.

Then I cut the stitched and colored character, and backed it with another layer of fabric, batting, fabric, and free motion quilted a frame with black thread. Then I free motion quilted the circles with white thread.

Tracing Wheel on Fabric with Lettering and Stitching Tutorial

Check out my latest.

Started first by making dit dots with acrylic paints using a tracing wheel on a piece of drill fabric.

Then I lettered the words using a bamboo dip pen.

I made a second one that I attached strips of fabric and paper to.

And finished with some free motion stitching.

Happy. :)

Vinyl Reverse Applique & Free Motion Stitching Tutorial DIY

I've been wanting to experiment with vinyl and so I picked some up at the local fabric store. They sell it just like fabric ... cuts from a bolt.

So I free motion stitched a piece of vinyl onto a piece of drill fabric.

Then I cut the fabric within the stitched area to reveal the vinyl.

I sandwiched a crocheted flower in between another piece of drill and the stitched drill and then used red thread to free motion stitch everything together.

Then I added some more accents with white gesso

So cool, right? I'm definitey hooked on vinyl. For now.

Happy creating. :)