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Ann Harwell creates precision cut and pieced masterworks, inspired by nature and images from the Hubble telescope.

Star Members can learn more about Ann in Show 1802: Fearless Quilting and Fabulous Results.

Look below to see more information about each quilt.

1,2. Climate Change, 57w38h

            I had been thinking of doing this piece after looking at a series of tiny black and white photos that my Grandmother Ward had in one of her boxes that I inherited. When I magnified the photos I found that Family members were running in the church yard and one of the car doors had been left open! Not really knowing why, I started to imagine that a terrible storm was coming.

3,4. From Whence Heaven, 57w48h

            NGC3603 as imagined over Chestnut Cove overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway.

5,6. Heaven on Earth, 61w43h

            The Milky Way as imagined from Moore Cove Falls. We really did not have a fire in the cavern.

7,8. Yes, Money Does Grow on Trees, 56w44h

            While thinking about how much damage the sequester is doing taking away funds from the beleaguered national parks, I imagined the trees beginning to take over Linn Cove Viaduct, and fleeing homeless campers trying to find a place to live.

9,10. Church in the Wildwood, 65w71h

            This quilt is a childhood dream. It combines my feelings of worshipful awe in these forests, with resonant feelings in places of worship built by human hands. Inspired by Looking Glass Rock Trail from the Blue Ridge Parkway and Lake Junaluska Chapel.

11. Granddaddy and the Music Homeplace, 73w54h

            My Grandaddy, Robert E. Lee Ward, was a Methodist Minister in Western N.C. in the first half of the 20th Century. I knew him as the most patient person, observant of every detail. He was able to climb trees (even in his eighties!) and he would mow the lawn in his “old” morning suit.

12. Governor’s Mansion, 71w37h     

            Two enormous stately trees, an oak and a magnolia, drape themselves protectively in the front lawn of the Executive Residence of North Carolina (the proper title).

13. Cradle of Creation, 55w66h

            This young star cluster, NGC602 lies 200,000 light years distant in our neighboring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud.

14. Colliding Mice Galaxies, 62w38h

            These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as “The Mice” because they have such long tails, each spiral galaxy has likely already passed through the other.

15. Empyrean, 72w76h

            The highest reaches of heaven, believed by the ancients to be a realm of pure fire and by early Christians to be the abode of God and the angels. This continues the Looking for Heaven series with the Crab Nebula as envisioned in the upper reaches of Duke Chapel.

16. Light Echoes, 57w45h

            Artwork created for my son and daughter-in-law, on the occasion of their wedding.

17. Colliding Spiral Galaxies, 65w36h

            Billions of years from now, NGC 2207 and IC 2163 will slowly pull each other apart, creating tides of matter, sheets of shocked gas, lanes of dark dust, bursts of star formation, and streams of cast-away stars.

18. Eagle Nebula, 37w79h

            Appearing like a winged fairy-tale creature poised on a pedestal, this object is actually a billowing tower of cold gas and dust rising from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula.

19. Elephant’s Trunk Nebula, 50w52h

            The Elephant’s eye is an energetic young star which is eating away the dust of a dark cometary globule.

20. Butterfly Nebula, 60w59h

            Why does this nebula have such an unusual shape? The light year long structure is shaped like an butterfly but should be round.

21.Cliffs of the Comet, 37w52h

            The Comet is moving 83,885mph with a rotation period of 12.4 hours. Launched in March 2004, Rosetta caught it August 2014 and put the Philae lander on the surface.

22. Bubble Nebula, 51w53h 

            The Bubble Nebula is being pushed out by the stellar wind of massive star BD+602522. It’s actually the smallest of three bubbles and part of a much larger complex of shells and stars.

23. Overreaching for the Stars, 56w39h

            Spiral Galaxy as imagined through the bare branches of a winter tree.

24. Cora Louise Peony, 34w39h

            The name of this Peony is the same as the name of my little Great-Niece, so for irony’s sake I had to make a Peony, Cora Louise!

25. Moth Orchid, 33w34h

            These orchids are in my studio. The early morning light shining through the petals is startling.

26. Orchid with Volunteer Fern, 27w43h

            This quilt won “Best Needlework in Show” at the National Orchid Society Art Show that happens every year on Columbus day weekend at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

27. Paphiopedilum, 27w39h

            This quilt was displayed at Blue Spiral 1 Gallery’s “Back to the Garden” show in Asheville, NC Spring 2006.

28. Gloriosa Daisy, 22w30h

            The Gloriosa Daisy is probably better known as the Black-eyed Susan.

29. Cannas, 37w56h

            My Husband planted these cannas in our field and the leaves were extraordinary with the sun shining through all the varied stripes!! Then three different colors of blooms appeared!!

30. Peppermint Camellia, 34w24h

            Inspired after a walk in the graveyard at Dorothea Dix Hospital. The fate of this property is still being debated.