Take a look at this beautiful quilted jacket…a piece of art! It was made by my dear friend of many, many years, Jeanette Bussard, who has created so many works of art in clothing and quilts which have truly been an inspiration to me!
She has been my teacher, confidante, mentor, encourager and most definitely, my inspiration in my sewing and quilting life! Jeanette is a couture seamstress who has been sewing gorgeous tailored clothing for many years. She has been sewing since she was a young girl in 4H… She grew up in Indiana where her 4H instructors taught her the fundamentals of sewing. Her skills continued to expand as she took classes and challenged herself with every project.
This past summer, Jeanette and I had the chance to go to the American Sewing Guild Conference in St. Louis in mid-July. It was an extraordinary trip. We spent the day driving south hitting every quilt shop imaginable! The Conference was filled with great classes taught by professional teachers from all across the U.S. We attended classes on everything from making tailored jackets to sewing lingerie to the basics on how to turn your hobby of sewing into a business!
In the crazy picture above, Jeanette was helping the St. Louis Gateway Arch to stand up straight… seemed a bit crooked in the pic, eh? We had a wonderful time exploring the downtown area of St. Louis on this trip…found some great little places to eat and a unbelievable park in the middle of the city where we walked to get in our 10,000 steps each day!
We stopped in the historic village of St. Charles, Missouri, to go through the antique shops and have a bite of lunch. Here Jeanette is pictured perusing the menu of a quaint restaurant where we were seated upstairs on the balcony! Great meal and fellowship!
We also went to Jackman’s Fabric shop (spent a bit of money there!!) and continued on our search of every quilt and fabric shop we could uncover on our road trip north to Sycamore and Geneva!! We were tired, but satisfied in our quest for finding all the fabrics and notions we needed to add to our stashes!!
In December I took a picture of three of our Guild members at our ASG Neighborhood Guild Christmas party. They were laughing about the “Crackers” that Jeanette brought to the party. “Crackers” are used in England to celebrate the Christmas holiday…You can see a gold and red tube in the hands of the members in the picture, plus one “Cracker” is on the table in front of Aileen (center). Jeanette (right) is explaining how we are going to pop these crackers! They were a hit with the Guild Members! We each went home with candy and a toy!
In the picture above, Jeanette has created a beautiful applique on a wool jacket. She used a periwinkle wool for the leaves, along with couching yard (for the stems) and applying beads. She demonstrated how she created these wonderful applique leaves during our ASG Retreat held in January for our Guild. She found the technique in a Threads magazine. Jeanette is always teaching and inspiring me to try new things… new ideas… new techniques! I will get a pic of the entire jacket and place it on here… you will love it!
At that same ASG Retreat, Jeanette began work on wool applique blocks for a quilt. She used felted wool (she has an wonderful stash of felted wool! You can often find her looking through the racks at thrift stores for 100%-Wool garments; buying them to take home and throw in the washer & dryer so they become felted!) She used gorgeous shades of embroidery thread to machine applique each piece onto the quilt square. Here’s a close up of the block…
Over the years, Jeanette has taught me so many things. She has challenged and encouraged me. She is a dear friend! I can only hope that each of you have found a friend so dear… friends are such an important part of life! Cherish them!
(Picture below of a beautiful Scrap quilt made by Jeanette.)
