RGold

This quilt was inspired by photos I took while on a vacation driving from New Mexico to north of Durango, Colorado. We drove through stunning landscapes, and I wanted to capture some of them in a quilt. I used portions of photos from both states to create the design for this quilt. The top portion of the quilt is based on photos from northern New Mexico, the rocks on the left side and the cacti are from photos near Baker’s Bridge, Colorado, and the center front rocks are from photos near the Durango library. This was a new way of working for me. Previously I mostly used drawings or clipart to create my designs, but this time I used my own photos as “clipart” for the landscape, though I did use a drawing for the roadrunner, the state bird of New Mexico.

One of my first appliqué teachers was Suzanne Marshall, and she is incredibly good at finding textures in commercially printed fabrics that she can use to achieve the effects she desires. Following her example, all of the fabrics in my quilt are commercially printed cottons. All of the appliqué is needle-turned.

The pretty ribbon is for Best Use of Color in Wall Quilts at the 2018 Pacific International Quilt Festival.