Scuba Diving From My Armchair - Strips of gradiated batiks are pieced to simulate the depth of the water in the ocean. Then sea weed and fish are painted on the background. Next silk ribbon, beads, and machine embroidered fish are added for a textural embellishment thus looking like a scene a scuba diver would encounter.
Uncle Buddy in the Mountains - I love this combination of scrappy mountains and forest animals. I named this quilt for my brother, Bud Bowden who passed away last year - all too young. He loved the mountains and forest animals - this quilt reminds me of him and how I would love to have given it to him.
Cathedral Rock - This quilt was commissioned by the owner as a momento of her wedding which took place in the
Oak Creek Riverbed in Sedona, Arizona, with the magnificent structure of Cathedral Rock behind them.
Peaceful Sleep - This "baby" quilt was made using all "Faded Memories" by Moda fabrics. Its was based on
the Amish pattern "Sunshine and Shadow", or a variation of a "Trip around the World".
It is densely machine quilted with a free motion stippling.
Highland Cattle in the NZ Remarkable Mountains - My 4 photos of the landscape and animals in New Zealand's Remarkable Mountains (printed onto fabric) are incorporated into this quilt. I extended the size of the design by appliquéing the photos onto fabrics and pieced blocks that make the background and the border.
Cascading Colors - This was begun in a class with Jan Krueger based on a design by Mary Ellen Hopkins. I appliquéd the colored squares around the edge to simulate colors cascading off the design. Then the quilting flows in a random manner to add movement. Finally I curved the borders and couched on multi-colored yarn to complete the quilt.
Halloween Stars - Star blocks with center square of Photo Transfer pictures of my sons in their halloween costumes. Most costumes were made by me. There are additional pictures of my nieces, our exchange student, and my sister in laws dog (her other "daughter"). Some of the fabrics used in the quilt were the same fabrics used in making the costume.
Please note that the top edge in the picture is the wall quilt hanger
Just a Bunch of Nuts - Made for an auction at Shady Oak Christian School. The tree is the Shady Oak and the Acrons are the children's faces and of course Bill the Squirrel had to be in there too.
Captain's Delight - The background is sliced batiks fused and stitched in place with sliver threads. Then the Captain was drawn and pieced in fabric then raw edged in place. The nautical rope and knots bring the border into the nautical theme.
As For Me and My House - This was made from photos of their home using Pam Holland's repliqué method. I used paints and inks to shade the house and an actual photo of the family was appliquéd on the front steps.
It Was Suppose To Be A Skirt - Some time in the early 1970’s my husband saw a women wearing a skirt made entirely of neckties. The narrow end was at the waist and the wider kite shaped end was the hem. He thought that was very clever and cool. For the next 30 years when he was at a rummage sale he would buy neckties so I could make this skirt. He kept them in a brown paper bag which followed us around on our various moves and now and then would ask me when I was going to make that skirt. I didn't want a necktie skirt. So I told him I would make a quilt out of the neckties he had collected. I learned that neckties are made on a bias and they slide around when sewing them because of this they are Crazy Log Cabin blocks. Also, they looked terrible next to one another and needed nice solid blocks of color to set them. It has lots of errors, chopped off points, the logs don't match up and the necktie material puffs up, but it very cuddly and lives on our sofa.
The Mystery of the Fire Dragon - Made for the Illinois Quilters Inc annual challenge. The theme was Nancy Drew mysteries. It was fun to reread some old favorites in preparation.
Garden Path - Inspired by a small piece of fabric dyed by Ricky Tims which looked to me like there might be a garden path in it. The picture was designed around the background fabric.
Elixir of Life - My bee did a challenge based on a random page in a magazine. We were to interpret our page any way we liked, with a size limitation. My page was in a surf magazine, and was half of a Billabong ad. The ad was done in turquoise, orange, and pink, with the text "addicted to water".
.jpg "2019 Sponsor - BERNINA Q 24")
