This quilt has a second name .."Another Fine Mess You Got Me Into Ricky Tims!"  :) ...because of the super-small mini piping that he showed how to make on a Quilt Show episode just as I was getting going on this quilt.  Nothing would do but that I added it around  the blocks in this quilt.  I ended up making 187 yards of 1/16th inch piping....yes, that number is correct, over one and a half football fields.  A fine mess... :) 

    I had always wanted to make a 'fussy cut'  pieced quilt,  such beautiful designs the fabrics make!  but I'm an appliquer at heart and a _terrible_ piecer. I do like to paper piece though and I figured out a way to use paper piecing for fussy cuts.  I converted regular pieced block patterns to paper-piecing because most patterns made for paper piecing, while beautiful, don't lend themselves to using fussy cut fabric.  As long as a block pattern has straight lines, even complicated ones, it can be turned into a paper pieced pattern. 

   I decided on 4 1/2 inch blocks because I like intricate quilts and the smaller the blocks, the more fabrics I can use!  I love 5 inch charm packs and I've found that I can do an awful lot with those little squares. The quilt has 313 four and a half inch blocks plus side triangles. Each block has the mini-piping on all edges, and I think it really adds a sparkle of color.  The piping is also along the borders and binding.    Besides the fussy cut pieced blocks I have also used Jinny Beyer's "Soft Edge Piecing" method  to add applique to some pieced blocks.   Each block is a different pattern, and each has some element of fussy cut fabric. 

    The name "Crown Jewels" came from the baffled look on the lady cutting up a stack of the really disparate and kinda odd looking fabrics I had amassed in one store....I tried to explain fussy cutting to her and that the quilt blocks wouldn't resemble the original fabrics at all ...and finally I said that the blocks would end up looking like little jewels.  From that I had to find a crown to use in the border and fill it with more jewels. :)  It looked kinda plain, so I quilted a gold sparkley starburst in the center of each jewel...then the gazillion diamonds on the inner border looked plain and I had to quilt starbursts on them too.  Did I mention that the quilt took 11 months to make? :) It is home machine pieced, machine appliqued,  and home machine  quilted.  95X95 inches. I thoroughly enjoyed making it and every day's sewing was different and interesting. A fun quilt! 

(My daughter-in-laws excellent photography has made the quilt set on a dark background.  I just wanted to say that if you look close it's a brown 3/8 inch binding, and not quilte so straight or wide as her photograph make it appear! )   

Memory quilt made with clothing of client's Grandma along with added cottons.

I made this quilt for my sister's 50th birthday incorporating her love of Tinkerbell and pansies.  Using Meg Hawley's Hallowen quilt pattern "Which Witch's boot" I replaced the boot with a wreath of cutout, appliqued flowers as well as machine embroidered flowers.  What brought tears to Nancy's eyes was the fact that I incorporated a pansy doily our late mother made years ago by quartering it and sewing the quarters in the corners of the wreath section. I added other machine embroidered motifs and for the first time used Westalee's quilt rulers to quilt the border. Had fun expanding my quilting horizons!

Inspired by Kathrine Jone's Best of Show 2017 QuiltCon quilt "Bling". I experimented with designing a quilt using the prisms of a round diamond on a much smaller scale quilt. This may become a series, since I learned what I would do differently if I did another one. A lesson in value and color....

This landscape quilt (43 3/4" x 28") is based on a photograph by Mike Taylor, Photographer in Maine.  This is a raw-edge applique landscape made with cotton fabrics including batiks. I painted the shadows with Shiva Artist's Painstiks. The lantern light is Angelina fibers and Textiva film. The batting is black Hobbs 80/20.  Quilted on my Viking Sapphire 835.  I enjoy making realistic art quilts, especially with lights and luminescence.  This quilt has been sold.

This pantry quilt is an original design based on my Candy Cupboard pattern.  It measures 32" w x 43" h.  The cupboard is pieced.  The food is appliqued, using 100% cotton fabrics and specialty fabrics for the jar lids and glass bowls.  Longarm quilted. The trapunto is done with Hobbs Polydown batting.  The overall batting is Hobbs 80/20.

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.

This wall quilt was derived from a block from my modern sampler, "Playing Well Together", which was designed for the Modern Quilts Unlimited "Old is New" Block and Quilt Challenge. Each month of the challenge we assigned a traditional block and we were to create an original more modern block.  The tradtional block for this challenge was Drunkard's Path.  In my version, enlarging drunkard's path subunits extend from the middle out in 4 blocks. I used dark purple alternating with shades of orange, green, magenta and teal as the subunits enlarge outward. While the purple unifies it also contrasts with the colors giving luminosity and depth as the colors seem to jump out at you, while at the same time recede into the distance.  Drunkard's Bullseye WOW! was juried into the new exhibit “A Celebration of Color” that debuted at International Quilt Festival in Chicago April, 2017. 

This is my interpretation of the stained glass window in the Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral in Houston.  I copied and enlarged and traced the pieces, using fusible. After it was all ironed down, I zig zagged the black lead lines. Quilting was done with monoply thread on the top following the lead lines and matching thread on the back.

This is a portrait of my son Jeremy and his wife Meredith, which hung at their wedding.  It is done in the Marilyn Belford way of making portraits, fusible and stitching.  It hung in the Mid-Atlantic quilt Fest in 2016.  They were married in 2015.

This is the forth in my series of confetti pieced art quilts This quilt hangs in my living room. I love to imagine walking

though the arbor on a nice summer day.

Small art quilt featuring asymmetric paper-pieced Dresden plates as aerial fireworks. This is my 2017 donation to the SAQA benefit auction. It is a follow-up to last years Dresden Daisies. For more details see https://susieturn.blogspot.com/2017/04/dresden-fireworks.html

This hand pieced, hand quilted quilt took me 9 months to make. Each block is made up of 17 pieces with 8 curved seams. The original design is by Chungsu Lee (2014) and is called "Father's Whistle."

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.    

While at lunch with friends, I inquired about my friend's parents. She passed around a photo of her parents on her phone which showed her parents out shopping. Her mom at ninety-four uses a cane while her dad at ninety-five prefers to hold on to his wife's pocketbook strap to steady himself. The photo was so endearing that I asked permission to make an art quilt based on it.

I was selected by Island Batik to be of their featured designers for the spring summer 2017. 

Enjoy

I was selected by Island Batik to be of their featured designers for the spring summer 2017. 

Enjoy

This was made for a friend in exchange for a beautiful Mah Jongg set that incorporated her love of color and textiles in its restoration.  The quilt is based on the "In Full Bloom" pattern by Sue Spargo.  It was challenging to convert a folk art pattern intended for hand stitching on wool into a contemporary style cotton quilt done completely by machine.  I think the final product retained the spirit of the original pattern and incorporated the style of my friend's work.  Making it was a wonderful tribute to friendships formed through the love of games and fabric arts.