It's just a large quilt that came about because I wanted to try my half-baked idea for constructing wide geese. It turned out my idea was fully baked but my apartment was too small to photograph the quilt. So then I got an idea...

Quilt Stats : 

20888 pieces 
693 hours of applique
41 hours of quilting by Manisha Iyer of Studio Baani (Pune)
288 shades of fabric

Why did I make this quilt? 
Ever since I started making portrait quilts, I had always dreamt of making something larger than life. This project is my attempt at making my dream a reality!

Why this picture?
My home town is Satara, the city which has a rich history. I spent my holidays hiking up the Ajinkyatara - one of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's forts with my cousins and friends. I grew up listening to stories of bravery and righteousness of this great warrior king. And my young mind was influenced by his many qualities.

A little bit about Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He is considered to be one of the greatest warriors of his time and even today, stories of his exploits are narrated as a part of the folklore.He had an inspiring and endearing personality which spontaneously commanded respect, loyalty and the highest sacrifices from his devoted soldiers and peasants. He was also the staunch promoter of secularism and roused the sleeping conscience of the nation. He was the ultimate man of the father of freedom movement in Maharashtra and source of inspiration to the Hindu throughout India.

Chatrapati Shivaji has influenced people for generations. There is just so much to learn from just reading his stories. Artists around me, before me and even today, have used their medium to express their respect and paid tribute to this inspirational hero. There are many films, books, paintings, songs even rangolis that have been created to pay homage to Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. I am using my medium - quilts- to do just that.
I chose this specific image because it is the most glorious moment in his life, where the dream that he saw since the age of 16 was finally realized. The coronation ceremony in itself was an iconic event that spoke of the grandeur and strength of the Maratha empire and Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj himself.

Making this quilt taught me a lot of things - patience, consistency, priorities, and skills. It also gave me a glimpse into people’s minds and what they thought about me. I believe after a 10 month effort, I have emerged on the other side as a better person!!!

Collaboratively designed, pieced and quilted using multiple themed and multiple sized Baker’s Dozen blocks (log cabin, Autumn leaves, and red & gold).  Made for one of the Thimble & Thread Quilt Guild’s 2019 charity East St. Louis Community Fund College Scholarship recipients.  Smaller blocks were enlarged by adding log cabin-like strips to create consistent 10” finished blocks.  Too large blocks were used as quilt cornerstones.  Inspirational words were cut from a Word Play fabric panel.

My Ruffled Roses quilt won a President’s award at my local guild’s quilt show this past weekend. I used Ricky’s Poly stuff to prepare all of the hand appliqué and some of the pieced blocks. 

Made from an Edyta Sitar pattern, a copy of an antique quilt currently located in the Grand Rapids, MI Museum.

the bright colors are my own hand dyes for a bright fun effect.

I purchased a charm pack of Kaffe Fassett fabrics and paired them with a variety of white tone on tone fabrics to make half square triangles.  I sewed them together in a balanced square design, and used some beautiful Kaffe Fasset feather fabric as an outer border.   I made a flanged binding using another Kaffe fabric.   It is a simple design that I think shows off the variety of beautiful prints that he has designed.  Ellen Abshier machine quilted it with dark blue thread.  

This is a Jewel Box quilt pattern using fabric from the Calypso fabric line for the half square triangles, and several batiks from my stash for the squares. It has a flanged binding.  It was named Diamond Lake after a lake in Oregon where my family and I camped and my daughter had her first canoe trip.  At the time there was a large gathering of square dancers and they put on an impressive and entertaining square dance in the parking area near the boat docks... thus the squares surrounding the diamonds.  These happen to be some of my favorite colors and I loved working on it and watching it evolve.  

This quilt is the result of a group challenge to take a purchased fabric panel and make it into a quilt.  I chose to enlarge one of the flower squares in the panel and surrounded the enlarged unit with the other flower panels.  Such fun!  Each of our six quilts were so different and totally unique.

Wool and flannel quilt with blocks from the 2018 Wooly Block Adventure 2018. 

This quilt was made as a tribute to Nancy Zieman.

I began this quilt in a "Double Visions" workshop with Louisa Smith. I decided to rely primarily on my extensive stash of Australian aboriginal fabrics for the pieced lower layer and brightly colored solids and near-solids for the overlayer of X and O shapes. Then the animals demanded to be added to the diagonal "road" so they could get headed outback!

Mrytle's Silverspot Butterfly - The Endangered Specis Series

I have started a series of art quilts highlighting the endangered species from my northern California county of Sonoma. I am enjoying learning about each of these animals and highlighting the plight of habitat loss in their potential extinction. I'm also enjoying the challenge of creating something informative and beautiful and engaging. Each art quilts uses all my hand printed, stamped and dyed fabric along with digitally painted images of the endangered animal featured. it is 36"x24" inches on linen and cotton

Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse - The Endangered Specis Series

I have started a series of art quilts highlighting the endangered species from my northern California county of Sonoma. I am enjoying learning about each of these animals and highlighting the plight of habitat loss in their potential extinction. I'm also enjoying the challenge of creating something informative and beautiful and engaging. Each art quilts uses all my hand printed, stamped and dyed fabric along with digitally painted images of the endangered animal featured. it is 36"x24" inches on linen and cotton

Completed piecing the 2018 BOM by Edyta Sitar.  It is not quilted yet as I am relying tomdecide on borders.  I am thinking of a 3 border quilt.  Small beige border, then a slightly larger pink and finally a larger dark green.   Suggestions?  

I plan on machine quilting with domestic machine. 

 Made for donation to Sacred Threads' Eye Contact Project

This is an original design using the QCR mini ruler.  Being snow bound for weeks causes creativity!

Made for the Re-Vision challenge of the Quilter's Guild of the British Isles to celebrate our 40th anniversay.  All quilts had to be based on the Bloomfield coverlet (see my photos) - not a piece I warmed to.  From show 2202 I had the idea to make kaleidoscopes from various parts of the coverlet's surface using ScopeWorks.  I printed selected ones using EQ printables.  Then I stacked them on a background before quilting the whole piece.  The edges I quilted in narrow straight lines - so boring I fell asleep whilst doing it - luckily I was quilting outwards at the time but my head hit the sewing machine with a thwack.