The Quilt Show Puzzle: "Jingle Bells" by Kathy McNeil
Do a puzzle of Kathy McNeil's quilt, Jingle Bells.
Artist Statement by Kathy McNeil from Superior Threads:
Jingle Bells took about 800 hours to make. My goal was to have the snow look like a watercolor painting of snow. A huge percentage of this quilt would be white and I did not want it to clump together in one big white blob. A variety of white prints were used and I over-dyed many of them with my transparent paint crayons. The crayons are a high end art medium for use on canvas and they work wonderfully on fabric, too. Most of the shading was achieved using these crayons on commercially printed fabrics.
The sky is a hand painted piece, by me, to reflect the lavenders that I used in the snow. Texture was created on the horses with embroidered eye lashes. I used a machine to add thread embellishments in the tack for the horses bridles. The jingle bells are made with gold lame cut out over black. Each one is trapuntoed with extra batting for dimension. The viewer can find all kinds of sparkle in the snow created with hand sewn sequins, hot fix crystals and a commercial bridal fabric that had sequins attached to a mesh like overlay. Gold metallic thread was used to create the lettering across the bottom (not shown in this photo) and then real jingle bells were attached. These special touches really help my quilt come to life.
Jingle Bells won four international Viewer’s Choice awards and is one of my personal favorites, too. It is currently proudly on display at Superior Threads' headquarters in St. George, Utah.
Learn more about Kathy in Using Crayons on Fabric and Quilt Collage with Kathy McNeil | Precision Piecing with Ann Harwell.
Click Here to see the Full Quilt.
JingleBellsbyKathyMcNeil - 36 pieces non-rotating
JingleBellsbyKathyMcNeil - 100 pieces non-rotating
JingleBellsbyKathyMcNeil - 289 pieces non-rotating
JingleBellsbyKathyMcNeil - 36 pieces rotating
JingleBellsbyKathyMcNeil - 100 pieces rotating
JingleBellsbyKathyMcNeil - 289 pieces rotating
