Daily Blog

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"Pineapple Queen" Jane Hall is sharing her quilts with TQS.  Jane's notes on each quilt are shown below.  Star Members can watch Jane in Show 1709: From Pineapples to Photorealism.

1.  Dawn Stars: classic pineapple block, colored to emphasize “windmill” designs. Cherrywood hand-dyed fabrics

2.   Etoile de Bordeaux: inspired by an inlaid wood floor at La Maison de Bordeaux, France

3.  Flying Geese Pineapple: variation on classic block, where the diagonals are identical half-square triangles

4.  Glorious Lights: made for current Houston show, special exhibit for Celebration. All I could think of were skyrockets (!)

5.  Golddust: pineapple variation, inspired by an antique at the Shelbourne Museum. Made with gold and black batiks

6.   Hope: piece made for a 9/11 exhibit. Green is the color of hope, and I quilted feathers into the crazy patched blocks. Label has Emily Dickinson poem about “hope is that thing with feathers…..”

7.   Indigo Lights: pineapple variation, inspired by an antique quilt from the Shelbourne. This was the first one I made, and it’s the cover quilt for one of my books.

8.   Detail of Indigo Lights.

9.   Indigo: Mariner’s Compass design with long skinny points. Original border (which took as much time to piece as the blocks)

10. Detail of Indigo

11. Los Ventos: Mariner’s Compass made with only two fabrics, different dyelots however

12. Nebula: Pineapple variation, one of my series of “colorwash” pineapples. Was a cover quilts for Quilter’s Newsletter

13. Piko Haleakala: my first quilt, hand stitched Hawaiian quilt. Blue Ribbon at an early Houston show

14. Princess Feather and Rising Star: hand appliquéd, hand quilted. Inspired by a quilt in the Newark NH Museum

15. Provence Pineapple: pineapple variation with strips split in half to make very skinny ones. Used some of my stash of French fabrics

16. Shards: off-center pineapple variation. New graphics from changing shapes within the block

17. Sunset Trees: classic pineapple, colored to create interior/secondary designs

18. THE Pineapple: classic pineapple with only one section of each block colored, to create a “real” pineapple. Hand appliquéd leaves

19. The Ultimate Pineapple: inspired by an antique wool quilt that I coveted and couldn’t afford. Made with cotton but antique-looking fabrics. Won blue ribbons everywhere it was shown

20. Vinas Viejas: (Old Vine wine) One of the color wash series, using Cherrywood hand-dyed fabrics, blocks placed in off-center Barn Raising set.

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We caught up with Lessa at IQA Houston 2015.

Meet Lessa Siegele, the designer of the TQS 2016 BOM "The Rajah Quilt Revisited."  Teacher, judge and quilt maker Lessa has been teaching quilting since the mid-'70s and has enjoyed every moment of meeting and sharing her knowledge with quilters around Australia and abroad. She is a Life Member of the Quilters Guild of South Australia and was awarded an OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia) in the Queen’s Birthday honors in June 2002, for services to the art of quiltmaking as a teacher. She was presented with the Rajah Award at AQC (Australian Quilt Convention) in Melbourne in 2007.

Lessa Siegele has a passion for historic Australian quilts and teaching.  One of her favorites is the Rajah Quilt, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. It's a huge quilt, approximately 128" inches square.  Made in 1841, it was sewn by women convicts on board the ship Rajah, which left England in April 1841 and arrived at the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land (now known as Tasmania) that July.  The original quilt bears the following inscription:

This quilt worked by the Convicts of the ship Rajah during their voyage to Van Diemen's Land is presented as a testimony of the gratitude with which they remember their exertions for their welfare while in England and during their passage and also as proof that they have not neglected the Ladies kind admonition of being industrious.  June 1841

Lessa recreated the Rajah Quilt in a quarter scale with fabrics from her stash.  She used many different scraps, imagining that's what might have happened when the orginal quilt was being made.  She loosely followed the colors of the original quilt, and tea-dyed fabrics that didn't look old enough (you could also use reproduction fabrics).  The TQS version is more contemporary, using Cotton + Steel fabrics.

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***BOM PATTERN IS A FREE STAR MEMBER BONUS***

Photo by Gregory Case Photography

Join us on a TQS exclusive 12-month historic journey recreating the historic Rajah Quilt, sewn by women convicts on board the ship Rajah, traveling from England in April, 1841, to the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land (now known as Tasmania).  The original quilt measured approximately 128" x 128," but Lessa Siegele recreated it in quarter scale with fabrics from her stash, loosely following the colors of the original quilt, and tea-dying fabrics that didn't look old enough.  The more contemporary-looking version being offered by TQS is made from Cotton + Steel fabrics.

Along with each monthly installment, we will share with you historic facts about the women and the amazing journey of this celebrated quilt.  We hope that as you work on it, you will find inspiration, while being transported back in time.

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Pam walks you through her process of taking an image and transforming it into a piece of textile art.

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One very lucky TQS Member (who has posted a quilt in the Quilt Gallery) will win a Ricky Tims Rhapsody quilt when the Gallery reaches 36,000 quilts. Your fellow TQS viewers would love to see your quilts. Yes! Yours!  

Keep the quilts coming. Upload photos of your quilts today. Each TQS Member can enter up to twelve quilts. They do not have to be your quilts; they can be an antique quilt that came down through your family, or a top that you proudly finished.

TQS wants to have the largest online quilt gallery in the world!

To enter a quilt, select MY ACCOUNT from the top navigation bar, then select MY PROFILE, then click PHOTOS and UPLOAD PHOTOS. It's as easy as that. While you are at it, don't forget to enter a little bit of information about yourself as well as your quilts.

Here's just an example of the wonderful quilts you can find in the Quilt Gallery. It is Ehrnst Rhapsody by keeper.

Click here to learn more about the quilt.

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Pumpkin! Doesn't everybody love pumpkin in the fall? We usually associate it with treats and sweets, but it can be added to savory dishes as well, like these crockpot enchiladas that I want to try. 

If you're like me, and love sweets but try to make things that are on the healthy end of the spectrum, here are a couple of my favorite pumpkin recipes. Pumpkin Protein Snack Bars are a healthified version of a very high-calorie cake I had at work one day. This one has only 150 calories, and 8 grams of protein per serving. 

For an old standby, there's nothing better than Pumpkin Custard, which is just pumpkin pie filling without the crust. I know, the crust is REALLY GOOD, but for 100 calories, I can enjoy a hint of pumpkin pie :)  If its still warm where you are, this same recipe has instructions for making  the custard into a pumpkin protein smoothie!

Stay warm and eat pumpkin!

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Angela Walters gives you three tips to help you improve your echo quilting.

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While enjoying lunch at PIQF, quilting expressions were being projected onto the surrounding walls - some profound, some funny. We particularly liked the definition of a "fabricologist." Do you use any of these?

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TheQuiltShow.com contributes the prize at Houston in the "Art Painted Surface" category. Here are the quilts. Pick your 3 winners and keep it to yourself. You will not know the artist until after the winners are announced on Tuesday night. (We don't know the winners yet either.)

Of course, you can't get up close and touch the quilts or see the amazing quality of the stitching, just decide in your own mind which are your favorites. Later this week we will give you the names of all the artists, their quilt description, and the actual winners.

Click on the picture below to start. When you get to the pictures, click the arrow to start the slideshow. Then use the manual arrows at the top to move through at your own speed.

Can you name any of the artists?

Special Feature to try. When you are in the slideshow, look for the magnifying glass underneath the picture. Click on the magnifying glass and the slideshow will load a zoom feature to get you even closer to the picture. Try it out and let us know if you like this approach.