This is pieced, appliqués, painted and thread painted. A gift for my sister. I grew up not knowing my sister and she found me 2 years ago. We live on opposite coasts of the US. The quilt represents the love that binds us now and the yearning to have been these 2 little girls growing up together. The quilt is filled with emotion and love for each other. 

I chose a simple nine patch for this quilt to show off the quilting.  I designed the quilting after taking Lisa Calle's class on iquilt.

This quilt is just for fun it is raw edged .The back ground is crazy pieced. Shiloh was  sleeping out on the deck.  I have a lot of gardens so with that comes all the critters.

Using hand-dyed cottons and 30 weight thread to create leaves and colorful quilting on backgrouns

Using my photo of a bird of paradise plant, I manipulated the image using the Photoshop 'twirl' function to make the plant look like it is taking off and the leaves and brush around it look like it is twirling into the vortex.  I used hand-dyed cotton, 30 weight and 12 weight thread. 

Piecing for background done by just cutting and sewing fabric strips together and then cutting them up and sewing again and again.  Idea was to capture look of a camera being focused on bird with background blurred - which is the way the source photo looked.  Birds body is pieced from dupioni silk and then painted with Caran D'Ache crayons.  The quilting uses 60 weight for the bird and background and 12 weight to denote the flying feathers off the silk stems. 

A late frost killed all the blossoms on our pear tree – except for one.   One lone pear survived the frost. Every day after work, my husband walked down to the garden to see that pear grow and ripen.  One day he announced, “I think that pear will be ready to pick tomorrow.”

The next day he walked out to the pear tree to pick the pear, but it was gone! ...  And there were deer tracks under the tree!   I said, "I expect you are mad at the deer for eating that pear you have been waiting for all summer."      He replied, "No, they have to eat too.”  

However, the next year he put up a fence!

I adapted McKenna Ryan's pattern "Beneath the Boughs" to illustrate our little story. 

Ringo is an English Springer Spaniel born with a cleft palate.  With 24 hour care, he not only survived, but thrived.  He is a beloved member of his family.  His owner gave me permission to design this quilt from her photograph.  The portrait Is appliquéd using fusible thread and satin stitching.

From a photo by Rita Haramy, used with permission.  It is 20 x 24, all thread painted.  The sky uses more than 660 yards of thread.  The piece took about two months to make.

My resolution last year was to learn to FMQ.  This was a practice piece.  I have some lovely ferns in my garden and particularly love them when the fronds are unfurling.  I used Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton and Hobbs Tuscany wool batting.

The tablecloth I used for this project was an eBay purchase.  It had a hole near the center and looked pretty sorry for itself.  It did have some pretty butterfly motifs on it, and as I was trying to teach myself to FMQ, so thought that if it was a disaster, it would not be the end of the world.  There was a lot of white space to fill, so I used some Cindy Needham quilting stencils and drew the flowers and vines freehand on the top.  I used some purchased lace butterflies to hide the hole in the middle of the quilt.  It was great fun to do.

This quilt was started by my cousin's mother in law but she passed away before she could finish.  My cousin gave it to me to complete.   She hand pieced it and I hand quilted it.    I've had it for several years as hexagon's are so difficult for me.  But it's done and I'll be giving it back to her in July!

Improv piecing, using Fibonacci numbers for spacing. Spider web quilting with Superior Silver Metallic Thread.

Original table runner using my own hand-dyeds. See companion quilt, Waiting for Spring. Technique for blocks demonstrated by Alex Anderson on The Quilt Show, Episode 910.

Used leftover blocks from Gelato table runner. Small blocks--technique demonstrated by Alex Anderson on The Quilt Show, Episode 910.

Redwork design from The Red Book, Diane Arthurs, one strand floss.

There are two matching thened blocks throughout, with one being on the back of the quilt with the label (Easter eggs).

English paper piecing, 1/2-inch hexagons using freezer paper and Crayola template. Papers and hexagons traced and cut out by hand. Started in 2009. Hand appliqued to border;  machine quilted around each flower and each center; faced edging instead of binding.