If vanGogh Were a Quilter: Starry Night over Siste - I made this quilt to enter in the 2010 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show theme contest (Stars over Sisters). I was inspired by van Gogh's painting Starry Night. I included the Three Sisters mountains above a stylized town of Sisters, Oregon and the surrounding agricultural area. The larger building represents Stitchini' Post, a local quilt shop. The tall trees represent Ponderosa Pines, and I made the smaller, 3-D trees with thread painting. To create the swoosh in the sky I used 4 colors of Sulky Holoshimmer threads (hand sewn) and 6 colors of weaving thread (bobbin work) I bought in Guatemala. Some of the mountain details are thread painted.
Bird on a Branch - This is my version of the Bird on a Branch pattern by Linda Jenkins found on the TQS Project page. Totally out of my comfort zone, the pieced background and appliques proved to be a wonderful way to use up scraps. It turned out better that I expected....It is wonderful!
Once, Twice, 3X....Ballgame - Six inch square with 1 1/2 strip on all 4 sides. I alternated the blocks.
Donated to Vonore Youth Sports Team for fundraiser.
Pineapple Teal - Pattern was purchased by a friend as a gift and she taught me how to do the paper pieceing on one block. I finished the other 19 blocks on my own.
Spread Your Wings - I called my challenge piece "Spread Your Wings". The mother swan is looking over her eggs waiting for them hatch as the flying geese on the side suggest they will one day soar. I printed the photo on silk fabric. I made the nest with loose bits of fabric covered in tulle with a fiber attached to the top of that. The grasses are loose pieces of fabric along with thread painting and fibers for a 3-D effect. I used silk for the feathers and several different colors of silk and cotton hand painted fabric appliqued on top of the silk for the goose to give it more dimension. I embellished everything further with thread painting.
Munsinger Garden Fantasy - This was the finished result of entering the Minnesota Quilters 2009 Quilt Challenge. This is the first time I ever did a challenge! The theme was St Cloud, Minn. I just tried whatever I felt would work. Used a photo for inspiration and soon the quilt became very 3-D along with use of vintage beads and lots of machine free form quilting!
Annamarie and Mitch's Wedding Quilt - This was made for my youngest daughter's wedding. She liked the broken star pattern and I suggested the addition of the applique. We selected most of the the batiks/colors together. There is some accent hand embroidery. It is entirely hand quilted.
Pottermania - I am completely obsessed with Harry Potter. I've placed the blocks in a sort of chronological order, and to me they tell a story. They represent various things throughout the books. They are paper pieced and 5" in size. Some of the pieces are very very small! Most of these blocks were designed by Jennifer Ofenstein and are available for free at sewhooked.org. I'm posting this as a top, because I honestly don't know if I will ever be able to quilt it :-)
In Guad we Trust - 38” X 47” commercial and hand dye cottons, silks, lamé, metallic thread
Machine pieced, machine appliqué, thread painting, machine quilting
.jpg "2019 Sponsor - BERNINA Q 24")
