This was made for my French Exchange Student.  I included blocks that had meaning, such as Cat's Cradle because he loved our cat, Card Trick because he loved to play cards (but not lose!), Jacob's ladder because Jacob is my husband, Marion's Choice because that is my name, and, of course, the French Braids in a giant X.  Putting it all together was tricky and involved Y seams and incomplete seams.  There are two miracles in this quilt:  the blocks just fit magically together without any adjustment, and it lays flat!!!!

This was made for my Italian Exchange Student.  The colors are his favorites.  Some of the blocks have meaning:  Card Trick, because he liked to play cards and he could do card tricks, Jacob's Ladder because that is my husband's name, Marion's Choice because that is my name, Cat's Cradle because the cat loved being in his room.  I also found some blocks entitled Roman Stripe, Roman Cross, and Italian Tiles.  He is a typical Italian:  he was appalled not only that we put pineapple in pizza, but also hamburgers, chicken burgers, roast ham...so there was no choice but to put 4 large Pineapple blocks in the corners!

This is the forth in my series of confetti pieced seasonal quilts. I took a picture of my husband and our Bernese mountain dogs on the beach.  I changed the season and added our home. In the tree line I used dryer sheets to get the foggy look. Again there is bags and bags of confetti pieces . I quilted the whole thing with embroidery threads. can you find the rabbit and deer?

Designed using a panel of fabric designed by Alfred Shaheen. This was done as a challenge for the April 2016 Machine Quilter's Expo in Manchester, NH. The exhibit showcased many different panel designs all quilted and finished differently according to the designer's vision. I chose to applique velour pandas and green bamboo leaves onto the black & white bamboo panel. Background quilting mimics bamboo stalks & leaves. Though I used a preprinted panel, I designed the rest of the quilt.

This quilt is adapted from Tomoko Tohno’s “Orange Range” pattern, and draws on my beautiful (but out of print) collection of Paula Nadelstern “Opulence” prints. While Tohno’s blocks had pieced centers, I redrafted the pattern so I could feature the radiating medallions, as well as the different colorways, within the limits of my available stash.

This quilt has won Best of Show the "Celebration of Color" exhibit at the 2017 International Quilt Festival in Chicago and was displayed at the 2017 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Approaching an opportunity to retire (and the age for wearing purple and red!), I realized that life is really a series of decisions. Some have trivial consequences, while others are more significant, each an opportunity. Every "leaf" on the quilted tree represents a decision or opportunity.

I began this quilt in a workshop with Rosalie Dace at Art Quilt Tahoe.

This is my third attempt to make a quilt inspired by the gorgeous Spiral Galaxies pictured in NASA's website.  Rather than try to represent a specific spiral galaxy, I chose several of their non-copyrighted photographs of different spirals to pattern my spiral galaxy after.  This is a whole cloth quilt using Angelina Fibers representing the gas clouds, rusty brown free motion embroidery to show the rusty colored spiral of dust that accompanies these galaxies, and, of course, different sizes and colors of hot fix crystals for the stars that such star birthing galaxies produce.  The entire quilt is covered with black nylon veiling, which gives the Angelina Fibers stability by the time they are quilted.  The quilting is tightly spiraled and fairly organized in the center and as it spirals out, the spiral gets looser and less organized with bubbles and smaller spirals.  This is my third deep space quilt using Angelina Fibers.  I plan on continuing this series for another seven quilts at least.

This quilt is based on the wall on the edge of my garden in the Orkney Islands, which are off the north coast of Scotland in the British Isles which are, in turn, off the coast of Europe.  However, do any of us feel we are on the edge of something/somewhere or do we all live at the centre of our worlds?

My initial sketch was copied onto fabric and then painted with fabric paints before being quilted.  It was horrible to quilt as the paint was so thick.

This quilt began as a tribute to the Lone Star quilt that started my passion for making quilts. About 30 years ago, I walked into Eddies quilt shop in Edina, Minnesota with a piece of fabric I loved and a picture of this Lone Star quilt I wanted to make. I was as novice as one could get. The kind person at the shop, introduced me to the world of quilts by suggesting i might enjoy taking a sampler quilt class they had. This was before rotary cutters, paper piecing and the multitude of wonderful rulers that assist us in creating and designing the quilts of today. Needless to say, I signed up for the class and thus began my life long journey and passion for this world of quilts and quilters. 30 years later, I  still had never made a Lone Star quilt. The one that had sparked my passion for quilts! This quilt has the Lone Star that started my journey. 

This quilt was made using Tri-Rec tools and was very easy to piece.  The pattern is from "Best of Fons and Porter Star Quilts".  It is machine pieced and quilted.

This is a french braid quilt from the book French Braid Quilts by Jane Hardy Miller.   In December I had foot surgery and was very limited in my ability to have my foot down for about 4  months.  Since I had to keep my right foot up, I learned to to sew left footed.  I pulled fabrics from my stash for both the quilt top and back.  I counted my blessings that I had quilting (and a fabric stash) in my life to help me pass the time during my recovery...thus the title.

I took Ann Shaw's class on chickens last year.  It showed me a new way of doing paper piecing without sewing through the paper.  I love purple and orange together.  Love how the eye turned out as well.  

This quilt was made using the 24 hand dyed fat quarters I dyed in August.  This simple design showcases the colors.  This quilt has been accepted to the Quiltfest Oasis in Palm Springs in October.   

Once again I was asked to create a mini-quilt for the silent auction at IQA's International Quilt Festival in Houston.  Here is this year's creation.  Its name is Spot On! and, with the exception of the binding, all of the fabrics either have dots/spots on them or I quilted them on.  It was fun to make!