August 19th, 2025

Hard to believe, I am posting again in the same month. Boy what a busy month it has been!!! I have 3 more Fairs, one this month and 2 more in September, all with different pieces obviously. Stay tuned to see how it all works out!

My big accomplishment this month was finishing my Japanese Memories quilt. Since several wanted to know the back story of why I did this quilt, I thought I would just post it here. 

We spent 4 years, 1957 to 1961, in Japan, due to my father being Air Force. I have so many fond memories of growing up there, from 6 years old to 10. 

My mother had been an artist since a child herself, and learned oils, acrylics, water color, and charcoal when we were stationed in Japan.

Here's her artwork in my house:

Here in my classroom, two of my Under the Sea framed, along with one of her charcoal drawings.

Her beach pictures were always my favorites, as they were with the tourists that visited every year.  So I photographed the above picture to make the embellished piece below.

 

She also loved to paint pictures of my cats over the years!

She could literally paint on anything!

So one year when visiting, I had some Aida cloth with me, and asked her to paint some beach scenes on it!

One of my favorite treasures, a FB private message popped up, can't remember her name to find it right now, but she said she was sure they had one of mom's paintings, and would like to give it back to the family!!!! Was I ever surprised. So I paid for the shipping, she didn't want any money for it.

I had never seen any of boats by my mother, but her signature was on it!!!

The small hanging crazy quilt is done in seer sucker fabrics, front and back by Sandy's mom, which we didn't know she knew crazy quilts till after she had passed. Oh, the hours we could have had fun together stitching!

Some memories of Japan:

My inspiration for the color of this piece:

Here's mom's drawings from PowerPoint:

Below is a picture of one of her brochures that she passed out when doing street shows in Florida,

So, because her original drawings are large, many 14" by 17 ", I don't have wall space to frame them all. The next best thing I could think of is to put them all in a wall hanging quilt. I was originally going to do it in hexies, but then the pictures had to be too small. So I decided it had to be squares. Hexie will be another day!

So I will post each individual block first, and then the finished piece, with the backing. Starting with the right side, middle and then the left side. 

Top of middle row.. 

Top of left side:

Notice, that the faces all face to the inside ward of the quilt, with the middle row, facing you. That was purely accidental!!!

My mother also loved to garden, especially designing her own Japanese Garden!

So that is the whole story...it will be entered into the Lewiston Fair in September, so I will post how my quilts due at the end of the month!!!!

Now a memory quilt is floating in my head about my dad!!!

Happy Stitching!  would love to see you following me here!!!

BJ Sandusky

follow my Flickr site also: https://www.flickr.com/photos/60882932@N06/

  

Hard to believe summer is half over!!!! How did that happen?

Well, my stitching passion started early in the year with the first County Fair in our area, in Asotin, Washington. I had never put anything in their fair before, so this should be fun. I entered four items that had never been entered in any other fair before.  All four items received
a First Place ribbon.

This first one is for St. Patrick's Day...one of my favorites, great fun with greens.

Here's what it looks like without the plastic over it.

Some of you will remember my Patriotic piece...We will never Forget.

Then on the wall facing, is April Showers Bring May Flowers! Then below is the stocking I made for Sandy, my husband!

So not a bad way to start off the year. Of course I have been busy, and will have more to submit later this year.

In June I found myself drooling over Jennifer Clouston books, though I have all four of her books, I found that the two on Foolproof Freeform Embroidery, being slightly thinner books, I had them spiral bound together by a office store.

I wanted to work with really vivid, Jewel tone colors, that I call Boho colors!!!

I purposely chose mostly solid print fabrics, some of these didn't even get used. I knew I wanted to try my hand at Jennifer's stitching ideas, so I didn't want patterns to interfere.  I wanted to do this piece as a whole cloth piece, but I divided it up into 6 blocks of 10" by 10". I had stitched all pieces by hand. 

So below you can see I have added 5 blocks with only one left to do.

One thing new for me, Jennifer talks on her videos about backing her fabrics with a stabilizer. The only one I had on hand, had a thin layer of batting. So I decided to use it anyway. I did it on my practice piece, a wooden spool!!

 It actually main stitching through it a real breeze, and I love the effect. So I thought I would use the same idea of the bigger project!

If you haven't visited her you tube site, you are in for a treat. Just type in her name on You tube.

Although, she doesn't teach on her site, she does do some demonstrations, but she also shows how to use her books. What a brilliant organization in her books!!!! So I have watched them all, and had her voice on when stitching. 

This is the top left side of the quilt, with the title being, "Jesus talked to Apostle Paul, why don't we listen."  And how to denote "listening" but by using talking bubbles!!!! I use PowerPoint on my computer, you can choose from different shapes and sizes, choose your color, font, etc. I chose the Bible quotes I wanted to use (all from King James Bible).

This one below is the top right side of the quilt. Some of the square blocks are taken from Memes on the net. Many are also Bible quotes.

Below are the bottom left and then right side of quilt.

Another new technique, was not to just embroider the seams, but to allow my stitching to travel across more than one block!!!

Another thing, I learned several new stitches. I really love the Chain Feather Stitch, on page 76 of her Foolproof  Freeform Embroidery book. It is now a favorite of mine! 

I finally mastered the Colonial knot...but I cannot do them as fast as she does!!!!

Feathered Twig stitch, page 79, still challenges me. But I love the look of it. The Knotted Feather Stitch is also still a challenge for me.

I did do a lot more ribbon embroidery than I normally do. I have taken classes, so I just needed to make myself do more of it.

Jennifer, do you see my little water jar? Couldn't believe I found mine, had it since 2014! I knew it was in my sewing rooms somewhere!!! I also learned to love the ZZAdgcr Chako Ace Pens that are washable....What a difference in making my stitches go where I want them to!!!

Time for backing and adding to the front. I even watched some videos to fine-tune my mitered corners, not perfect yet, but getting better!!! I did a blind-hem stitch all the way around to attach.

Then I did a button-hole stitch all the way around the quilt.

I always make my label for the back. Title, date, my logo. Of course, when I put it in the fair, it is covered over with fabric.

And now the finished quilt hangs in our entry way!!! In September, I will enter it with a few other items into our County Fair. Will post again then.

Also, I have several pieces, that have never been entered into fairs before, so in September I will be entering 5 pieces in Coeur d'Alene Idaho State Fair. And then I have 6 pieces to enter into the Spokane County Fair. So stay tuned to see what happens. Wish me luck.

Well, that's enough for this blog. Hope you enjoyed learning how I did this project. 

Don't forget to visit my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/60882932@N06/

It documents my 28 years of Crazy Quilt Journey!!!

Happy Stitching!

BJ Sandusky

Sew Crazy For You!!!!