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Guest Designer Spotlight: Jennifer Tanner

designed by Jennifer Tanner
click on image for pattern

After a long time without a Guest Designer Spotlight, I’m proud to say that I have a brand new sewhooked Guest Designer to introduce: Jennifer Tanner! Jennifer answered some questions about herself for us so fans of her patterns can get to know her a little better.

First name and where you’re from: Jennifer Tanner; Zimmerman, Minnesota

Website/blog/online store or other place where your patterns or photos of your work can be found? I do not have a website & I hardly think you could call my Live Journal account a blog! But I am going to do my best to learn how to use it. I will keep passing on new designs to Jennifer though, so you can always find them at www.sewhooked.org on the Guest designer page! (Many thanks to Jennifer for creating this part of her website!)

How long have you been paper piecing and/or quilting? The first quilt I made was a baby quilt for my husband’s cousin. I do not remember the exact year but I think it was somewhere in 2001 – 2003. I didn’t start paper piecing until November of this past year (2009). I decided that I was going to get going on the Harry Potter quilt I had wanted to make since 2001. I started to get pretty downhearted when looking for Harry Potter material because it was OUTRAGEOUSLY priced on eBay. I then did a Google search & found Jennifer’s website. (HURRAY!) I had only heard of paper piecing once before so I wasn’t sure this would work either. With the help of Jen’s tutorial & another gal’s YouTube video, I gave it a whirl. Needless to say, I loved it!

What do you use own your blocks for? I am using my HP themed blocks for my Harry Potter quilt top. I designed a Christmas tree for a table runner, a Mickey Mouse outline for a pillow for my son, & a pirate square that hasn’t been tested yet. Once I am done with my HP quilt I would like to make a book bag using some of the HP patterns.

click image for pattern

When did you start designing? I designed my first block December 2009.

Was there a particular inspiration to draw your first pattern? Do you remember what your first design was? Seeing the fulfillment Jennifer got from her own designs inspired me to just go for it. My first block was a Christmas tree. My next block was a train engine that I drew up for my sister after not being able to find a pattern I liked online. That is what led me to design my Hogwarts Express. I just kept going from there.

Do you have a favorite among your own designs? I am equally in love with my Hogwarts Castle & Durmstrang ship. The ship is available for download on Jennifer’s website, www.sewhooked.org, but I decided to keep the castle as my own block.

How has the online community changed the way you craft/quilt/design, etc.? Where do I begin!?! God just blessed me with the crafty online community this fall & it has helped me so much! I would not be designing today if I had not discovered this community. Not to mention I probably would not be making my HP quilt right now either! I can go to YouTube & watch tutorials if I’m stuck on something; Jennifer has been amazing in answering so many questions that I’ve had about paper piecing & designing. The compliments people share with each other is so encouraging. It has inspired me to be a better crafter. I enjoy being able to share something I love with others who share the same passion! And I’m so happy to have found paper piecing. 🙂

What do you use to design your patterns? Paper and pencil, a specific software, etc. I hand draw all of my patterns using pencil & a ruler. I’ve tried & tried to get the computer drawing down. I can get the picture drawn, but can’t figure out how to get the seam allowance in there so old fashioned drawing it is for me!

find more of Jennifer Tanners’ patterns on the sewhooked Guest Designer page

Happy Quilting!

vlog: TTMT – Hats, Blocks & Sue

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In which I share lots of hats, Christmas Cottage Swap blocks, a few ornaments and an update on Operation Save Sue!

If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.

vlog – TTMT: CinnaYum

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In which I talk about swaps, gum, paper piecing classes, Batiks on Black and crocheting for The Linus Connection!

Honey Bee Quilt Store
The Linus Connection
Twilight Crafts

vlog – TTMT: Swaps, Super Secret Guest and Halloween!

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Lots of updates on completed swaps as well a Super Secret Guest and some Halloween photos!

Cauldron Pin Cushion Tutorial

Honey Bee Quilt Store

Honey Bee Blog post mentioned in the video

Maylee’s Garden for vegan natural soap

If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.

Jennifer Rogers Ofenstein

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Batiks On Black 6″ Paper Pieced Block Drawing

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I can only ponder an idea for so long before jumping on it and making it a reality. Maybe that’s why I have don’t ever get quite enough sleep!

Introducing The Batiks On Black 6″ Paper Pieced Block Drawing!

How to participate:

Make a 6″ (6 1/2″ unfinished) paper pieced block, any design, made with batiks on a black background. Send that block to me via snail mail. It will go into a pot and on the December 15 January 19 Talk To Me Tuesday, a name will be drawn from all entries. That person wins ALL the blocks sent to me between now and December 15 the week of January 12, 2010 (deadline extended!).

What patterns?:

Blocks must be paper pieced in order to participate. You can use any pattern you’d like, but here’s where I sweeten the deal. If you use a sewhooked pattern, you will receive 2 entries instead of 1. Nice, eh? If you use a sewhooked pattern AND post it to the sewhooked Batiks on Black flickr group, you will receive 3 entries. Even nicer!

Size:

Blocks need to be 6″ (6 1/2″ unfinished). You can use a smaller pattern (most sewhooked patterns are 5″) and add sashing, or you can size it up, as long as you follow the Batik on Black theme.

The Paper On the Back of This Block:

Ordinarily, I’d say leave the paper on your blocks. However, since this is a drawing and there could possibly be loads of blocks, I think it would be much nicer to the winner to remove the paper. SO, either use sashing to lock in the possibly bias paper pieced seams and then square it to 6 1/2″ OR make a 6 1/2″ paper pieced block and then staystitch the block 1/8″ from the outside edge and then remove the paper before sending.

Ready to Send?

When you’re ready to send, email batiksonblack@sewhooked.org and I will send you my mailing address. What? You didn’t think I was going to post it here, did you? 😉 When you send your block, be sure to include your name, mailing adddress, email address and user/screen name (optional). Only your first name or screen name and location will be posted if you win!

Why should you trust me?

Well, I’ve been organizing swaps and challenges for several years. I spent almost two years as the Swap and Challenge Elf at HarryPotterCrafts Yahoo! Group, have organized challenges for the Livejournal communities: hp_paperpiecing, paperpieced, and both challenges and swaps for twilight_crafts. I also have hosted a monthly drawing on hp_paperpiecing for the last two years, giving away fabric from my own stash each month for participation. I promise I won’t keep your squares, no matter how tempted I might be!

Link to this post!

Text boxes do not work on WordPress.com, where I host this blog, so I cannot include copy & paste html here. Please feel free to grab the icon of your choice for your blog or website and link it back to this post OR you can grab copy & html from the sewhooked home page.

Batiks On Black 6″ Paper Pieced Drawing!

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Large Icon:

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The more blocks, the bigger the pot, the bigger the pot, the bigger the quilt the winner will be able to make!

Now, have fun sewing!

vlog: TTMT – Pigtails!

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In which I have pigtails and show loads of crafty goodness!

In this video:

Me ~
sewhooked
sewhooked blog
Fan me on Facebook!

TTMT
Explanation on the sewhooked blog
LJ community
On ravelry
On Facebook

Cauldron Pin Cushion

Christmas Cottage Swap

If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.

vlog: TTMT – Hattitude

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If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.

Quilting: Bloggers Quilt Festival

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I just heard of the First Annual Blogger’s Quilt Festival yesterday and my first thought was “why didn’t I think of that?!” What a great idea, bringing quilting bloggers together by sharing photos of our quilts.

The idea is to post photos of your favorite quilt that you’ve made and tell it’s story. Excellent idea, huh!

My Magical Lens, designed, pieced and quilted by Jennifer Ofenstein

My all time favorite quilt that I have made, absolutely hands-down, is my Harry Potter quilt. I embarked on this project in early 2006. My family had long been fans (we started reading Harry in 1999) and I’d been quilting for a few years. After discovering what so many HP crafters now know, that licensed fabric is out of print and nigh on impossible to find (and expensive if you do!), I decided to try to design my own.

The very first HP block I designed was Hedwig, though not the one that ended up in the quilt (you can see it in the photo below…bleargh!). It was pretty dreadful, too complicated and just bad, bad, bad. I’d only ever designed simple blocks before, so I changed gears and started with a broom and a lightning bolt. The stack of blocks began to grow. All through the process, I was sharing on the Harry Potter Crafts Yahoo! Group. Members started asking if I’d share my patterns, and before long, my little craft site, then called Jen’s Crochet & Crafts, grew into sewhooked, full of all kinds of crafts, crochet, and now paper pieced patterns.

I went to Lumos in Las Vegas in 2006 and took my HP blocks with me to share with my online craft friends. By this time I was a Moderator at Harry Potter Crafts. Sharing my designs and other projects I’d made with them for myself and friends, on top of the fact that I knew HTML, led to a year and a half as a Crafty Witch at The Leaky Cauldron where I made truly amazing friends. The quilt that wasn’t a quilt yet was already helping me to connect with people.

In the fall of 2006, I decided to attend Phoenix Rising in New Orleans which, like Lumos, was a Harry Potter fandom conference, and was scheduled to take place in May 2007. Even though my quilt wasn’t even close to done, nor was I close to having enough blocks designed for a whole quilt, I entered a mock-up for consideration in the Phoenix Rising art gallery, and was, to my surprise, accepted. With a deadline looming, I started churning out patterns and blocks, finishing up the quilt in March of 2007, just two months before it was to be shown in New Orleans.

This quilt is more just a million bits of fabric stitched together. It represents all the years I’ve loved Harry Potter and some of my favorite things about the series. It has brought me friends, and fans, and brought more quilters that I can count into the wonderful world of paper piecing. In the fall of 2007, I started hp_paperpiecing on Livejournal as way to share more with other Harry Potter quilters than just patterns. I’ve posted over 100 unique HP themed blocks there and have in the process met a lot of awesome quilters and designers, many brand new to paper piecing.

The mock-up submitted for submission into the Phoenix Rising art gallery (complete with horrible Hedwig).