Geisha Garden

The Wisteria and Cherry Blossoms are silk ribbon. The large flowers and Geisha are raw edge applique.

Close ups of the Chisos Mts. in the Big Bend Quilt

Some of you asked for close ups of this quilt so you could see the fabric texture better. Here they are. Dean

Multnomah Falls in Oregon

This is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The falls is in the Columbia River Gorge East of Portland. I have spent a lot of time here, just sitting and writing or sketching or just doing nothing but enjoying the beauty of the falls.

Winning the Marie Osmond Quilting Challenge

AND THE WINNER IS!!!!!!!!!

This has been a very exciting day. I found out this am at 4:30 that I had won the challenge. I just sat here for about 15 minutes waiting for it to soak in. I am very thrilled to be the winner and it will be fun getting all that "stuff" A woman wrote me today and sent a list of all the negative things about the Janome 11000 she could find. They may all be true, but hopefully they won't be. Some were having problems, some were not. I will keep my fingers crossed that their problems are human error.

Many of you voted for me, and I want to thank all of you. I could not have won this challenge without your support. I appreciate you all.

Hugs to you all,
Dean

Class Today

I am sitting here thinking about the challenge when I should be getting ready for my class. It is out of town, guess I had better get it in gear and get ready.

I forgot, if anyone wants to vote, here is the address.
http://www.marieosmond.com/Contests/tabid/76/Default.aspx

Marie Osmond Quilt Challenge

Well, I made it to the top ten. How exciting is that. I took a short workshop at the quilt shop and sewed on the new 11000 Janome. It is an awesome machine, and I wouldn't have any problem at all winning one. I may or may not win, but I feel I have already won, just to get this far. I am having a lot of fun, but hate the waiting.

The Wedding Dress Crazy Quilt

Back of quilt.

Marie Osmond Janome Quilt Challenge

This Challenge had winners at local levels through the Janome dealers, then the winning quilts go to Marie. She picks ten quilts and post them on the inter net and the public votes. The winning quilt wins mega prizes. $17,000 worth, including a new 11,000 Janome. I won at the local level here in my area. My prize was a Marie Osmond Janome Machine, and she autographed the back. It is a wonderful machine to take to classes. No to heavy, but by no means their cheapest machine. I was so thrilled. We had to use Marie's fabric. I made four cq blocks just alike and turned them every which way but loose to see how I wanted to put them together. This arrangement seemed to be a good choice. I used left over fabric for the back. Enjoy

Kim's Wedding Dress aka Crazy Quilt

My Daughter’s Wedding Dress Crazy Quilt
Dean Deerfield © 2008



Twenty years ago my daughter announced her future wedding plans to me. The plans included me making her dress, cake, and everything else that goes with a wedding. I told her to find a picture of a dress she liked and we would do something similar, but keep it simple.. The picture below is the result of that search.

I was lucky enough to find a fabric store that carried fancy fabric. They did not have the lace, but had a place in France where they could order it, and the price was $125.00 a yard. Thank goodness Kim was very small and I didn’t need very much lace. The dress in the picture was silk dupioni. I made Kim’s dress from a nice bridal satin.
The two pictures below are the end result of the dress I made for her.

After the wedding, the dress was hung in my closet, and that is where it stayed for years, until I started cleaning out my house. I retired, sold my house. and moved to another city. I called her and ask her what she wanted me to do with the dress. We decided to make the crazy quilt. I was unsuccessful in finding the attendants’ dresses. My plan had been to make it blue and white, but it turned out more colorful. The choice of color came from a very old piece of variegated tatting my sister had made. It had blue, pink, purple, green, and yellow in it.
Each block has a piece of lace from the dress. Family memorabilia is used in the embellishments. A few of the bows from the dress are left in tact.
If I had this choice to make again, I would make the whole crazy quilt in the white satin, and embellish it with one color, the color blue she had in her wedding. The quilt would look more like a wedding dress quilt, but it still turned out to be a pretty quilt.
Below are pictures of the quilt. It still is not finished, but almost. I have a few three more blocks to embellish, then I can finish. You can see the quilt in the photo below.

Kim's wedding dress aka Crazy Quilt

Houston International Quilt Festival

The Houston quilt show was wonderful and I had such a great time. One of the guilds I belong to gave me a $500.00 scholarship to take classes. That helped to make the trip enjoyable. This was my first time to take classes and I really enjoyed the classes I took. I was there from Tuesday until Sunday, leaving early Sunday morning. I have already started saving for next year.

There were people there from some of the chat sites and it was fun to meet them and have a face to go with the names. I am still looking for a package of dye and a bag of droppers. I hope they show up and didn't get lost in the shuffle.

I made a point of sewing on the new 12 needle Baby Lock felting machine. It is great and they had an unbelievable special show price on it. Did I buy one, what do you think. Hey!!! it was less than half what they retail for. What else could I do? Naturally the next thing was to find roving. I only have a trash bag full already, but I did find some wonderful natural roving with the most amazing color and patterns. Then there was the curly tags that were to die for, and had to have some of those. One thing just leads to another.

I helped a new young mother with her triplets for two months to make extra money for the trip. They were the cutiest little things and I fell in love with them. Three little boys, and the smallest one was so precious. Austin was his name, and I will post pictures in a day or so.

Finished Block of the Month Crazy Quilt

Tracy's Wedding Shoes

Tracy's Wedding Shoes

Art Quilts

This quilt is done from a picture I took

of the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park at sunset. When the sun hits the mountains in the evening they take on this crimson color and are beautiful. The Rio Grande runs at the base of the mountains and the cacti is blooming in the foreground. This quilt is about 28" x 34". Each year at one of the quilt guilds I belong to, we purchase a packet of fabric to use in a challenge the next year. This was our 2008 challenge and I am thrilled to report that I won first place.

Yucca with two blooms. All pieces in domes are about 13" high. I have some nice pieces packed away that I don't have pictures of. I am having so much fun with this blog I might have to go unpack them and take pictures.

This picture is not great, but it is of three pieces. An old post gate with yuccas, Ocatillo, and a fence corner with yucca and prickly pear.

This well is about 13" tall with prickly pear, yucca, and a dead tree. The glass dome it is under has a little glare.