Patchwork Puzzle Balls - To discover if I really understood and enjoyed patchwork, I bought Jinny Beyer's book Patchwork Puzzle Balls as well as the set of templates. By hand I made two sets of all the patterns in the book. Combining fabrics, shapes, and hand sewing was great fun and relaxing. As a reward, I splurged/invested in the future by buying a sewing machine. As they say, the rest is history. Lots more fun and lots and lots to learn! These make great baby gifts.

Hatcher's Tree - My 5 year old grandson decorated his room with his drawing of the tree and used it as a card. When his family put up their tree, he swiftly drew and colored a gold star for the top. As a memento of the Christmas of 2010, I took his drawing and signature to make an appliqued tree from the material he picked out for a pillow. The front is a duplication of his drawing with the gold star added. On the back it an applique version of his signature as well as the year.

Christmas - Robin Culbertson of Asheville Cotton Company taught this class, my first wall hanging. It was tons of fun with her firm yet laid back approach. I had no idea how hard the excercise really was and had very good results. Machine quilting spooks me totally. This is my first machine quilted piece so I used the very friendly Foolproof Machine Quilting by Mary Mashuta to encourage me . Again, what fun. For sure I can stitch in the ditch or straight stitch. The book encouraged my use of those skills.

Seeing Red

Golden Irish Chain - my husband loves yellow so I decided to use lovely fairy frost yellows and found a terrific yellow and black batik to complement it. It turned out realy well.

My Kismet Copy - Done in reds, blacks and grays. Paper-pieced. Free-motion quilted with my Bernina.

Linda's Quilt - I made this quilt as a housewarming gift for my good friend. My husband had just remodeled her new townhouse. I used Alex Anderson's Always and Forever fabric line in black/white/red. I am very proud of this quilt. I sent a picture of it to Quiltmaker Magazine and was chosen to be one of 6 ladies featured in the September 2011 Back to School Event.

MAKING FACES - I am the proud owner of 5 rescue dogs. I love them dearly. This quilt is a tribute to my happy family. The dogs in this quilt are different than the ones I own but the sentiment is there.

Anita and Buddy - I visited my sister and took a photo of her and her dog Buddy. This was Buddy's first dip in the pool. I used the photo to make a quilt. It came out so cute...a birthday gift for my sister and a memory of our visit together.

Pinwheel Play - This quilt was made for the children's ward at the hospital our guild sews for. Made from 5" blocks.

Cowboy Tango - Susan Mayer gave a class for our quilt guild. What is interesting about this pattern is you sew the blocks together ....then make 2 cuts, turn the fabric around and sew together. Very interesting and scray.

The Color Purple The Next Generation - Quilt made using embroidery software

Butterflies for Erika - Erika loves butterflies, so for her birthday I gave her a quilt full.

Lights Along the Shore - I made this quilt for my step-son and his wife, but will enter it in our local guild quilt show before giving it to them. This quilt took me 179 hours to make from start to finish. I have a lot of detailed quilting on it. I stitched the bricks in the lighthouses to make them more realistic. Quilting it was fun!

Happy Graduation - Sian wanted a quilt in hot pink, lime green, lemon yellow, orange and a touch of burgundy. Those are the colors I used in prints and batiks.

Eric's quilt - Eric is an outdoorsman and when I saw this fabric, I knew he'd love it. It was a birthday present.

Flowering Vines - I shopped for all these fabrics while on vacation in the Pacific NW with my sister. We both made the quilt with very few differences. It will go to my daughter as soon as the dog stops jumping up on her bed. It won four awards at my guilds 2010 quilt show. First, "Quilt I'd most like to take home, Second,Viewer's Choice and two third places for Best Color and Best 2 Person Quilt.

Sid's quilt - This was a quilt from a quilt class. It had her favorite colors in it, so it became her quilt.