Red-Headed quilter here with a home-based business named “Just Hatched Productions” and a studio for wayward stitchers known as STUDIO JHP. Addicted to all things quilting and machine embroidery. I’m a retired Pastor by trade so mix it all up and well...Fabric, friends, faith and family; the topics might wander but you’ll always find me here – one hand on a rotary cutter, the other on the keyboard…
Here in Studio JHP we love searching out excellence in the handmade, upcycled, artisanal world of fiber arts. From hand-painted silk ribbon hailing from Oxford, England, to unique digital art that comes from a small town in Wisconsin, my goal as a teacher is to open my student's eyes to the possibilities of it all! Here is a sampling of what has come into the studio in the past few weeks.
Come on in... the stitchin's fine, the laughter's free and oh MY what you can create! Here is a sampling of the quilts that I have been working on this past winter and spring, along with a few shots of the studio...
Many of you may not know that JHP has a long history of designing church textiles; banners, altar paraments and things of that nature! This banner is a recent commission from a church in Lombard for a new baptismal banner. Many thanks to Vicki Welsh from Etsy for the beautiful custom dyed and painted fabrix that turned out exactly as I needed!
Here are some of my baptismal banner designs along with some of the larger banners I've done for Lutheran Church of the Cross in Arlington Heights, IL.
Life used to be...I don't know... simpler, i guess. More "Mr. Rogers" and less "Kill Bill". Did any of you grow up NOT knowing your next door neighbor's? How about the one's next to them? Anybody remember block parties? Seems that for many of us those things have fallen by the wayside; only memories now of our childhoods as we all build fences to border our yards. You know, Mr. Rogers- he was really on to something...
Or...take coloring, for instance. When is the last time that you picked up a crayon? Or wandered thru a park with no purpose other than to look at how many shades of green you could find? When was the last time that you looked at anything with eyes other than your own? Ah, that's the kicker, isn't it? Who has time for THAT? Most of us barely have time to live in our own crazy worlds none-the-less have time to spare for someone else's!!
Well, that's kind of what life had been getting like here in the Gregan household; a little spin crazy, shall we say? Work starting up at the college again, the Songbird is starting a new semester in school, the garage rebuild is going to be starting any day now, new quilt classes for JHP (YEAH!!!) and so on and so on... but we had two special things to keep on the calendar. Two weekends with new friends . One just passed and the other is coming up in September. Now I don't know what traveling involves in your household, but in ours? Ai, yi, yi.... puppy needs, dietary stuff, and don't forget my squishy pillow should sum it up. LOL And that isn't the craziest thing about this first visit! The crazy part is that the Hubs, the pup and I were making a 4 hr. drive to northern Wisconsin to spend the weekend with a "friend" of mine. Yep, a friend... well, a quilt customer, actually. We ended up passing a bunch of emails back and forth about the quilt that she was ordering and those evolved into emails about life and then we became Facebook friends and well, we HAVE talked ONCE on the phone... Yeah, her girlfriend said she was nuts too! LOL "What? ...and they're staying with you? Are you crazy?" Maybe a little....
THE FACEBOOK KITCHEN
I dunno... I've said it before - Facebook has become the "kitchen" for many of us... we grab a cuppa in the morning and fire up our laptops and all meet each other around the screen... or maybe our schedules are more middle of the night - the cool thing is that it doesn't matter. I can catch up with Carol and Sue no matter what the time even tho we are NEVER functioning at the same time for a long phone call. And, this time, it allowed for Diane and I to become friends from 200 miles apart. Can it REALLY be that simple?
It seems that we are still wanting to be part of a neighborhood... still wanting to be part of a group, still wanting that particular closeness only we are no longer needing it to be next door! Mr. Rogers must be spinning! I know that my Mom just shakes her head every time she visits and the topic comes up of my circle of girlfriends: Samantha in GA, Phoebe in WI, Diane in WI, Jan in CA, Ruth in WI, Jodi in CO, Rachael in MA, Angela in TX, MB in AZ, and there's even Carol in Slovakia! (Please don't be mad if I didn't list you! Just trying to pull a random sampling, sisters!) She doesn't understand how my close friends aren't well... close! The last time she was here I tried to explain that I DO have friends who are close geographically ... I then added that the world has changed and my neighborhood is just different from hers. Her response was "Only if you let it." WOW.
CAN IT REALLY BE THAT SIMPLE?
So... back to choices. I decided for myself that it IS that simple. I reconnected with a dear high school friend... after a week or two of "Do I really want to go back there?" I realized that there IS no going "Back there"... there is only going ahead and inviting someone to go with you. That is what she was doing and in accepting her most gracious invitation we have started the journey of a brand new friendship...one that I count myself most lucky and blessed to have. Carol - D'akujem. I can't wait for more letters! :-)
And there is taking a chance on a brand new face in a whole new neighborhood... that is Diane... and the seeds for this whole post! In a nutshell, Diane and her hubs are much like me and mine. She and I both struggle with health issues, hubs both work wayyyy too many hours and then bear the brunt of the house upkeep. We're all about the same age but this lovely woman and her husband have a delightful son, Jack, who is 7 and he is DOG CRAZY!!! He does not have any grandparents so I am his "adopted Ya-Ya", a status that I wear very proudly. So... off go the Hubs, the puppy and I for a weekender to northern WI. ...
We spent the entire weekend chatting on the family room couches while Jack rolled around, ran around, and generally played litter mate to our 3 month old puppy, Cullen. Glenn and Diane had never been around a Corgi so they were quite amused, to say the least. Jack made great progress with Cullen - he taught him to go up (and, more importantly) DOWN the stairs! We went to an area Farmer's Market and bought luscious fresh fruits and veggies ..which we promptly made into salads whose recipes we shared.
Then, best of all, we spent an entire evening coloring together. Yep, every last one of us. Coloring. Stained glass dragons, snowflakes and even Erte' women were beautifully colored in and held up for perusal and opinions in front of the table lamps during the course of the evening. Tessellated designs and knights in armor made appearances soon after as the puppy went from couch to easy chair making the snuggle rounds to each pair of arms. Easy laughter and soft conversation slowly became gentle hugs and wishes for nights of blessed sleep. Jack gave one last squeeze to Cullen and off we all went to snooze away the night. If it could only always be that easy...
Diane and I both know that we took a chance but we had the faith to do so. We took a chance on opening up to one another and it worked. I know things don't always go that way, but I am awfully glad they did this time around. My neighborhood got that much bigger and I am grateful. I got the chance to see the world for just a little while thru the eyes of a precious little 7 year old boy... and ai, yi, yi was that a trip! LOL Wouldn't have missed it for the world! I have another visit much like this one coming up in September... I am looking forward in faith that it will be just as much fun... and my neighborhood will grow again....because yes, it really is that simple.
I'll leave you with three things tonight... First - the wise words of Mr. Rogers....
I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
So let's make the most of this beautiful day, Since we're together, we might as well say, Would you be mine?
Could you be mine? Won't you be my neighbor?
Secondly.... a little laughter with Jack and Cullen ....
And lastly, I wish you all great neighbors and wonderful friends wherever they may be found. Pamela
Life is a highway, by golly, yes, it is! But it's also a sunny suburban avenue, a busy city boulevard and a scary,overgrown, one lane country road where branches screech and scrape against your car as you pass. The road of life is one we ALL have to travel but THIS redhead prefers the lure of the four-lane almost anytime! :-)
WHAT ROAD ARE YOU ON?
One of my favorite songs of all time is "Life is a highway", sung by Tom Cochrane. (I've included it at the end of the blog for you!) Anyhoo, I'm bringing it up for a couple of reasons; it seems like today is the day for all kinds of folks heading off in new directions! My granddaughter, Molly, is starting 1st grade today! My friend Samantha's three are off as well. Poor Samantha; no more "baby" at home and oh boy, the oldest is in JUNIOR HIGH! Talk about a Mom who is looking down a whole new road!
Another good friend of mine has spent the entire summer on pins and needles wondering if she was going to get the job transfer that she put in for in April. Sure, it means that her and her daughter would have to pick up and move back across the country to where they originally came from 4 yrs. ago AND leave her 20 yr. old son here... but hey, Life is a highway, right? But all summer it's been no news and no news and no news and then at the last possible minute... nope, sorry, don't need you. All of the planning- up in smoke. All of the excitement - popped like a balloon. And so it goes...
" Life is a road you travel on, when there's one day here and the next day gone. Sometimes you bend and sometimes you stand, Sometimes you turn your back to the wind."
I grew up a trucker's daughter. My Dad drove for a living. When I was little he drove Charter Bus; he was the driver for the Harlem Globetrotters for a while! I have postcards that he sent me when I was a child from all over the country. Then, when I was in 4th grade he became a truck driver, eventually buying two rigs and becoming an owner-operator. All thru Junior High and High School I was able to go along with him on weekends, and school vacations. We would play all kinds of pranks on each other and each year we would have a special weekend where we would leave early on a job to Murfreesborough, TN. and make a day stop at what was then the Grand Ole' Opry Amusement Park. He would do it with my Mom, then my sister and then me. Mile after mile would roll under us, IL, IN, KY, TN, and so on. My Dad would talk and talk, sharing stories of his life until I would fall asleep in my seat and he would make me crawl into the sleeper to peacefully dream away knowing that his strong hands were holding tightly onto that steering wheel until the next stop. To this day I can't resist truck stop food! LOL My Dad logged over 4 million safe miles before he retired. FOUR MILLION. Blows my mind.
"Through all these cities and all the towns, it's in my blood and it's all around. I love you now like I loved you then. This is the road and these are the hands..."
But what happens when you get knocked off of that safe, comfortable, familiar road? When the smooth highway you've been traveling down becomes that scary, dark, overgrown and unknown road? Or worse yet, when the road dang near disappears and you're up against a mountain on one side and a drop-off on the other? How do you keep on driving, moving forward, surviving the trip? I get asked that question all of the time. Some of you have been wondering how I went from Pastor to quilter, how I deal with my illness, and "What is UP with the Just Hatched thing, anyway?" Today just seemed like a good day to tackle those questions and "Life is a Highway" is a great way for me to answer!
IN THE PROVERBIAL NUTSHELL
Me, 1990's, living in Arizona, 2 kids, working as a full-time pastor of an inter-denominational church (whoo-whee what fun!) Life was great...then the little creeping ailments of my childhood and teen-aged years started YELLING instead of showing up as the occasional loud whisper and after several years of diagnostic hell I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease.
For those of you who are not familiar with this lovely condition, just think of it as rust on your digestive tract... yup, not fun. Now let's fast-forward to 10 yrs. later where I'm retired from full-time ministry, in a new relationship, in Illinois and with a few other auto-immune diseases to boot! Seems that if you have one the others like to join the party! Well, I will be honest and tell you that I was plenty upset with THE Man Upstairs for a very long while... and it was thru the company and prayers of the man who would become "The Hubs" and some steadfast friends that I found my way back to a good road again, but Lordy, let me tell you...the Survival Highway is a road hard traveled.
"There's no load, I can't hold, Road so rough this I know, I'll be there when the light comes in... tell 'em we're survivors."
Soooo, what now? Well, I have been sewing since I was five years old. I put myself through college
designing and sewing formal wear; there's lots of custom wedding dresses under these fingers! LOL Then my art background blended with the sewing and I started making church banners and the altar cloths which are known as paraments. Then I started helping a friend in her fabric/Quilt store... then I made a cancer quilt for a friend. Then two. Three. All of that was in the background until THAT ONE DAY! It was a VERY bad day, it was even STORMING outside it was so bad! (It really was, I swear!) I was with my bible study group, Bible Babechicks , and had been grousing about "poor me, now what?". Well, that night's study topic talked about folks who needed to start a whole new life. (FUNNY, LORD... HA, HA, HA!) It spoke about leaving old garbage behind and growing something new. (LA, LA, LA, I sang, with my fingers in my ears) because the Lord does NOT leave you stranded... (which I firmly believed but only for OTHERS, it seemed.). And the Scripture verse that it was built around was 2 Corinthians 5:17
This meant to me that if I was REALLY going to live my life in the faith that I professed I needed to dump that old attitude and look and see what God had ready for me to do! (OK... so now get ready to laugh) .... this little bible study group was taking place in a SEWING ROOM!!
I am a member of several Christian groups in the Chicago area so ministry is NEVER gone...and one of the things I share on a regular basis is what I like to call my "Holy Spirit 2 x 4 moments". That would be the times when I am being so dense that the Holy Spirit has to get my attention by symbolically whacking me upside the head! That sewing room moment? Yeah, a BIGGO 2x4 upside the head! LOL It was SO THERE... down to an illustration of a little chick coming out of it's shell! Get it? Babechick? Just Hatched Babechick? And so Just Hatched Productions was born in 2002.
What do we do at JHP? We have 3 main areas: Quilts, Embroidery and Church Textiles. Our three websites vary a bit in what they cover:
Just Hatched ProductionsOur original website is currently undergoing a "re-hatching" but it contains our Baby blankets, Quilts, Church Banners and other religious embroidery art designs, Photo galleries and Custom Quilt Build(T-shirt, Photo and Memory) information areas.
Just Hatched Productions on ARTFIRE - Our shop on ARTFIRE centers on our embroidered rag quilts, it also offers a wide selection of our embroidered center panels for quilters who want to add that special embroidered touch to their project! Artfire is a great place for us because we have a photo gallery of projects that we've done and sold through this storefront and also custom projects that you can see! It also offers a way for customers and artists to communicate if one would like a custom project made, allows for purchasing without having to "join" and here is where we can offer the largest variety of payment options! All good things! :-)
JustHatchedQuiltsIs our ETSY storefront. Please note that the name is a bit different and if you happen to go there on your own rather than thru a link on our sites that the name needs to be typed in without any spacing between the words. Etsy wierdness. :-) Etsy is a bit more of a crafter's site and so while it carries the same quilts that our Artfire site has, we are loading many more embroidery squares to choose from here. SO.... basically it's ETSY= Embroidery & Quilts and ARTFIRE = Quilts & Embroidery!!
Now, WHAT kind of quilts do we do? Our best known quilts are, of course, done in the country styling known as "Rag Quilting". Rag quilts have all the seams turned up towards the top and they gently fray like old blue jean hems throughout their lives as you wash them. In other words, they just get more and more cuddle-y! :-) What makes OUR quilts stand out from all of the others is the fact that OURS have embroidery AND are all reversible! When most folks think about quilts they picture a really cool top design with all of the little pieces but when you turn the quilt over - one big old piece of fabric! BORING! At Just Hatched we make the back into an entirely new quilt! It will either compliment the front design or be a duplicate - BUT it's done in flannel so the back is super soft and snuggle-y. Two quilts in one! However, we WILL make you a 'regular" quilt, if you insist! :-)
Our other specialties are "T-shirt" and "Memory" quilts where photos, embroidery and clothing items are incorporated into a quilt or wall-hanging. Again, we are a bit different from other quilting services that are out there; we like to embellish with custom embroidery designs and text, and we offer extensive photo services such as repair work on old photos, combining of multiple photos into one image and more. If you'd like to see an example of one of our photo/scrapbook quilts please visit our YouTube channel at JHPQuilts or click here to see And Then They Laughed - A Family Scrapbook Quilt
EMBROIDERY - JHP has over 18,000 designs at our disposal... so trust me, we have something to fill your needs! LOL If we don't have it - I can digitize it! I am also proud to say that we do portrait embroidery... yep, you have a photo of someone special? I can, in most cases, make it into an embroidery design. IN MOST CASES! However, the images at this point are only done in B/W or vintage sepia. JHP also offers custom logo design, etc. (Photo /sewn digitized embroidery )
BANNERS - Does your faith family need a new banner? At JHP we can make it! We can even help you design a banner system to hang it in your sanctuary or to store them!!! Is someone getting married? Baptized? Confirmed? Churches LOVE to receive new banners as gifts! Brides and new Moms love to have their very own banners to commemorate the occasion. We design banners of all sizes from 2 feet to 20! ...and yes, we can duplicate a wedding invitation! :-) Click here to see a selection of JHP's Just Hatched Productions Baptismal Banner Designs
BACK TO THAT HIGHWAY!
SO.... LIFE ... it is a heck of a highway! Some of you '"met" JHP at craft fairs over these
past few years and we have loved meeting each and every one of you! You may have noticed our absence this past year. We've been on that scary country road for awhile. Both of our Father's passed away from cancer, I was living part time in Arizona and part time here for 6 months while that was going on. Since then the Hubs has had THREE knee replacements and twice I've had nasty old rounds of pneumonia that wouldn't go away for 4 months. We also had to say good bye to BOTH of our dogs.... all things which resulted in our working from home for the past year. BUT it also resulted in a LOT of creativity coming to the forefront, the web-stores were expanded and OH MY, you should see the quilting studio! Just
Hatched continues to evolve; our banner area is back up and running
after a bit of a hiatus and we are gearing up for a FULL FALL and
HOLIDAY season of offerings on the websites! If you are interested in a
custom project please email me and let's put our heads together! I can
always be reached here or at [email protected]. The road twists and turns and we find ourselves back on that old FOUR LANE!!!
THAT'S MY STORY AND I'M STICKIN' TO IT!
I hope that explains this old Babechick's story a bit! I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful HUBS who supports me and my ...ahem...hobby that grew into a whole lot of ROAD!
I am so very blessed to have met so many great folks on this road trip that I am on. This blog, aptly named "Just Hatched, Just Thinking" is my way of sharing my stories; from the road, the studio, and from those great folks. Like the song says: "Life is a highway, I want to ride it all night long.If you're going my way, I want to drive it all night long!" So jump on in, the motor's running! and we've got good tunes! Who knows where we'll end up???? Pamela
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