Knoll Lake, AZ - This is from a photo I took while hiking around Knoll LAke , Arizona with my husband. It was a long hike, but the beauty of the lake was well worth the effort. This is a special memory of a great afternoon spent together.
My Own Shop Hop Quilt - I bought a new red fabric each time I visited a quilt shop over 3 years. The biege is the same throughout. The block has 165 pieces and takes about 2.5 hours to complete. When I started, I didn't know how many blocks I'd make. I pieced a block each time I was on a retreat. I quilted it myself on my home machine using Signature variable thread.
Wildflower Homestead - Found this pattern in a really old copy of Quilter's Newsletter. Worked on it off and on for a couple years and finally finished it last year. It's queen size. The flowers are all dimensional and I felt like I was making a work of art for each one.
Charlotte's Wilbur - I drew the free hand pig on canvas fabric. Next I collage pieced batiks all over it, hand gluing them down. I laid black tulle atop and randomly quilted it. The prairie points were fabric required for a challenge at the COF HGTV Quilting and Needlework Retreat held in Charlotte, N.C. last week.
Magnolia - This is a paper pieced design by Eileen Sullivan from her flower series, with my original modification to the borders. The piece was made as a gift to honor the Lester & Sue Smith Breast Center, which uses the magnolia flower as a logo. This was quite challenging but also great fun. Good for taking your time and savoring the process. No chain piecing here! Getting the right gradation of colors and using near solids was key. Early on, I had included a dark green tone on tone print that did not look right after I got several sections built. To fix it, I had to carefully take out the pieces and "set in" a different fabric in the holes. After finishing the whole thing I was not happy with the borders and binding. Not enough contrast between the inner and outer borders and the binding. Couching down black Perl cotton along the edges added just a bit of extra definition and seemed to fix the problem.
Star Flowers - This was a series published in American Quilter Magazine, Fall 2007 to March 2008. I used my flower photos printed on fabric for the centers of the blocks and borders.
Challenge Quilt - A challenge by Thamesider Quilters to make a medalion quilt - add a border size that was chosen by the group, a type of pattern and a special requirement for each round.
Finally! - I created this quilt as a gift for my dear cousin Maureen, who I haven't seen face-to-face for over 20 years. And 20 years is about how long I've been promising it to her. I asked her the colors she would like used and I decided on the pattern and quilting design. It is completely hand pieced and hand quilted within the star and points. The quilting outside the stars are machine quilted.
Stacked Pots - Adapted pattern from photo taken by Eileen and started in a class taught by her at her shop.
Pieces appliqued & quilted at same time, rough edge on black background.
Five Bar Blues - This quilt is based on one of my favorite traditional designs, the Amish 'Bars' design, and was a gift for myself. It is trapunto'd, layered with wool batting, and quilted with many different colors and different weights of silk thread, on my home sewing machine.
Shakespeare in the Park - My daughter is an avid reader, as soon as she heard the name of this quilt she wanted it. I started collecting blues, it took about three months to get enough, three weeks to piece it and 1 week for my friend to quilt it!
It "looks" very hard but this is an easy quilt to piece using only two blocks.
Jackie's Cats - Made for my Granddaughter Jacquelyn Miller to celebrate her graduation from Greybull High School. She loves cats so the pattern was perfect. She helped us on the farm every summer since she was 12 and knows how to drive John Deere tractors, thus the pink JD fabric -- plays piano and flute and always has her iPod turned on -- thus the music note fabric.
Blowing in the wind - Using black homespun/broadcloth as a background, I sprayed over a large leaf with a 50% bleach/water solution. The design is machine quilted with Ricky Tims' Razzle Dazzle gold, bobbin thread.
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