My Brother's Garden - Mourning quilt, made in memory of my nature-loving brother David.

This hand embroidered quilt is a Meg Hawkey, Crabapple Hill Studio pattern, Snowmen A to Zzzz.  It was a delight to work on.  Scalloped borders seemed like the perfect idea for this quilt; I am glad I took the extra time to try it.  I will definitely use scalloped borders again.  

Our 4-year-old granddaughter took her first stitches on this quilt.  When she saw me working on the B for Bell block she asked if she could try.  I enthusiastically let her take a few stitches and she's been hooked ever since.  With scraps of fabric, a large needle and heavy thread she enjoys making blankets for her dolls.  My fondest memory of working on this quilt is when she was sitting in her rocking chair with needle and thread, looked up at me and exclaimed, "it's a beautiful day for threading!"  A future quilter in the making, I hope.    

Rainbow of a Celtic Cross - This was a wonderful quilt to make but the quilt came to life with Sherrie's wonderful quilting. Each color has a different style of feathers that are quilted with variegated thread to match the colorway. I found the pattern in Quilts with Style by Liz Schwortz & Stephen Seifert Nov/Dec 2006.

Grain Lines - Impression of grain lines in a tree and the myriad of things that happen in a tree we don't normally see. This quilt is stretched over canvas stretcher bars and is 3" deep.

CraneBow of Flight - Origami paper cranes flying in a rainbow. Each bird has three to four colors The quilt is hand quilted with more origami cranes in black on black background

Rainbows - Added piano key borders and matching bargello shams. Every seam on the quilt is quilted with tiny free-motion designs - leaves, stars, hearts, flowers, suns, stars, waves.

Rainbow Star - I wanted the challenge of a Judy Niemeyer pattern but preferred clear, crisp, bright rainbow colors to the ones used in most examples of this quilt. I love the outcome!

Heavenly Farmer - I made this for my cousin who is getting married this summer, as a memory quilt for his dad, who passed away in August 2013 after a battle with brain cancer. The squares inside the blocks on this quilt are made from fabric from his dad’s (my uncle’s) shirts. The sashing also includes some of the shirt fabric, but also supplemented with blue and green fabrics. My uncle was an Iowa farmer throughout his whole life, and if you know anything about Iowa roads and agriculture, most of the roads and fields are laid out in one mile square grids, subsectioned off from there. I wanted to design and make a quilt from his work shirts to look like Iowa farm fields if you were looking down from heaven.

My new quilt called "Childhood". I made it for my son. When he was a child, he went to village for fishing and catching beetles. I love appliques and embroidery. Three big blocks was made by hands with using these techniques.

This quilt is make from a package of Baby Einstein charm squares purchased several years ago.   I quilted it on my Bernina using a straight stitch alternating with a decorative stitch and King Tut variegated thread.  The border has ric rac, ribbon, prairie points, and yoyo's.  Fun to make!  The back is flannel with trucks, cars, and trains.

 

The Modern Quilts Unlimited magazine/Michael Miller fabrics "What's Old is New" block and quilt challenge was the inspiration. Each month we were challenged to take a specific traditional block and design an original, more modern 12” block.  11 of the 12 blocks were designed on EQ7 and all were foundation pieced.  For the final challenge, we were to design a modern quilt in the size constraints of 60”x 60” or less, utilizing all 12 blocks.   My goal was to apply some aspect of depth to the blocks and final layout using different shades of the base colors. There are 36 different Michael Miller Cotton Couture fabrics. Green acts as a neutral and, as in nature, goes with all colors. Despite the disparity of the block designs and the color variations, the layout and quilting unifies the blocks and they all work well together; thus, the name "Playing Well Together".  This quilt was the Michael Miller Fabrics Choice Award winner.  It also won First place in the Modern Category in the new exhibit “A Celebration of Color” that debuted at International Quilt Festival in Chicago April, 2017 and will be on tour for 2 years.

From a photo I took at a Polo match in our area.  I took so many pictures I decided to do a series.  This is one of three in the series.  Painted fabric to create the audience and then covered with tulle.  Used cotton fabric collage technique for the remainder of the quilt.