Here's "Abi Girl" - Finished just in time for Christmas! A commission, of sorts (an animal portrait of one's choice I submitted as a silent auction fundraiser item for the Victoria Humane Society). Fused applique, thread-painted and quilted. Photo 1 of portrait art quilt, Photo 2 of photograph of Abi submitted by Heather N.

Making a Christmas quilted item is something I have enjoyed doing for many years.  I started the tradition back in 1998.  As soon as one Christmas was over I start looking for the next Christmas quilt project.  One day back in March of 2013, my Mom and I were shopping together at a quilt shop and I spotted this pattern called "Christmas Windows".  I was instantly drawn to the beautiful designs of the applique flowers.  We both agreed this would make a beautiful Christmas quilt.  Oh, the memories of the fun day we had at the quilt shop.   I started this quilt back in 2013, but never finished it until this year.  As we all know things get in the way and we have to put aside our projects for a while.   Well, this year was the year to finish this quilt.  It is my special 2015 Christmas quilt.  It is a tribute to the fond memories of my Mom, who passed away suddenly from a heart attach in February of this year.  She loved to garden and loved roses.  I have given it the name "Roses For You".   It made its debut at the Iowa State Fair this year.  It received a 3rd place ribbon in the Wall Quilt - Mixed Technique category.   What I did not realize was that the editor of the AQS Quilt Arts Engagement Calendar was attending the fair and saw this quilt.  Shortly after the fair was over with, I received a letter in the mail.  They wanted to have this quilt in the AQS 2018 Engagement Calendar.  Tears streamed down my face when I read the letter.  My Mom would have been so very happy.  It is truly one of the hardest quilts I have had to finish.  

This quilt is a Laundry Basket Quilts pattern in Edyta Sitar's Scrappy Fireworks Quilts book.  It was inspired by both Edyta Sitar and Bonnie K Hunter.  I love their beautiful and inspirational use of scraps.  True to her word, as Bonnie K Hunter would say, "if the fabric is still ugly when you cut it, you just haven't cut it small enough!"  Each finished block measures 4-1/2" square.  With 1/2" finished strips in the blocks, one can imagine how many ugly (and pretty) scraps I was able to use.  This was such a fun quilt to work on!  I've named it "A Dickens of a Quilt," not because of the small piecing but because I was listening to Dickens' Great Expectations audiobook while working on it.  

This is a scrap quilt, using Dale Fleming's technique for making circles.

I used the "Crazy quilt" technique for the large circles at the top ( a mix of all the colors) and some of the small circles (to blend the complementary colors). I added a gradient of solid colors to compliment the design, and "Give the eye a place to rest".

I hand quilted a wave pattern and spiraling ribbons on the solid circles, quilting "In the ditch on the Crazy Quilt circles.

I binded it with a wavy and scalloped edge, my first, after watching Alex Anderson demonstrate how it is done.

I finished it, by hand sewing small multicolored seed beads on the gray fabric with the quilted wave pattern. Lyric Montgomery Kinard's " Bead It Like You Mean It", gave me the inspiration and techniques for adding the beads.

To top it off, I used Ricky Tims' method of adding a hanging sleeve, which allows extra fabric to accommodate the distortion on the front from the hanging dowel. The quilt hangs flat and straight, without distorting the scalloped edges.

An application, of just a few of the many things I have seen and learned being a member of TQS.

The quilt's "bubbles and waves" make me think of rising bubbles in a champagne glass. Happy New Year!

I made this quilt to honor my sister Janet who died unexpectedly in 1979 at age 25 yrs. She painted this for me in 1975.

It recently was in the Circle of Friends quilt challenge. It won for Out of the Box. :)

My grandson named it before I knew what I was doing.

A medalion quilt. It has a large multicolored running horse quilt center with silhouettes of horses surrounding it. It has an inner border surrounding the center medallion and a Prairie Point edge using the same color arrangement.

Inspired by a beautiful quilt "Comets" by Jan Beckert in a 2007 Quilters Newsletter edition. The quilt block is "Judy in Arabia". The block offers many possibilities, depending on color choice. 

I chose to emphasize the circular pattern of the interlocking blocks in a small wall quilt.

A LeMoyne star quilt. The multicolored stars are originally beautiful black and white fabric that I "fussy" cut, then colored with fabric markers. The solid colored stars calm the quilt down and allow the multicolored stars to stand out.

This quilt was made to celebrate my husband & I's 20th years of marriage and 20 years of Christmas' together.  The label reads "Celebrating 20years of our love being our greatest gift to each other"

A wholecloth I designed for my friend for her baby girl.  The back is a ribbed cuddle fabric, the front is a light green fairy frost.  It was quilted using a variety of pink and purple Superior Brytes threads.

A modified version of Ricky's Lady of Shalott quilt.  I chose to do solid, elaborately quilted and glitter-painted pieces instead of the log cabinish pieced center.  The quilting designs were also my own. 

Baby tiger walking along the marsh--tail a wagging. The sky is woven, the ground mosaic pieced, the tiger painted with lots of thread painting.

8 X 8; silks; paintsticks; domestic machine

Burlap & Silks; machine quilted; fused.

Starfire is a pattern on my web site www.compositions-in-cloth.com. I've found a new way to draw paper-piecing patterns. I'd really like to get some feedback on the pattern so I'm offering this one as a free-bee. Please have a peek and tell me what you think. Go to-  http://compositions-in-cloth.com/?page_id=79
 

Raw edged applique inspired by a photo taken at the Naples Zoo.

I began this quilt in a Jan Krentz Summer Salsa workshop in 2006 and finished it in 2015.   the pattern is involved but not that difficult.  Lesson learned - it's hard to pick up where you left off!  

I designed my own paper pieced setting squares and am very happy with the result.  I liked it so much I asked a wonderful long arm quilter in our guild, Merry Jo Rembold to quilt it and the quilting is gorgeous - makes he quilt!

My mother showed me how to construct this block at a quilt camp.  All it took was a few fat quarters and some border fabric and a quilt was made.