Also now dubbed the teaching quilt, this monster (101" x 111") quilt top was picked up at a yard sale in PA, pieced by an unknown person (someone Amish I was told) and then given to me to use for practice quilting. 
I'm going to say right off the bat this was a fabulous learning tool. The gift that kept on giving.......issues, but that is the beauty of it. I learned to quilt cupping in the fans, inaccurate piecing, and dealt with poor pressing during construction, but that is where the learning curve was beneficial! It cost me my time (valuable) and the price of the backing, batting, thread, and improved my quilt-vision. The colors were definitely old fashioned and dated, not to my taste. The piecer probably used leftover dress fabrics. I decided to spice it up with floral appliqué and lace because it lacked life and needed contrast. The appliqué and lace perked it up and I put it on my long arm to give it depth with wool batting. 

January 19, 2015 update: 
I began the process of quilting to give it dimension. That being said, it gave me excitement as I worked on it more. I drew a cable and feathers pantograph for the 11 ½ " border. I used a rope tool from Quilter's Rule for the inside blue border. 

January 31, 2015 update: 
After a week of jury duty I came home at night to find myself wanting to stand up and do no more sitting!!! So, got on my feet and I quilted! I used Quilter's Dream 100% washable wool batting, and So Fine 50 weight polyester matching thread (#417) on the top with Bottom Line ecru thread in the bobbin. I finally finished the quilting January 30 and trimmed it up ready to be bound. I previously thought I was going to use bias strips from the backing but then decided it would distract away from the border details. I was going to try to find a close match for the pink background to use for binding and ended up using purchased pink quilt binding. 

February 25, 2015 
Binding was completed! It was another first for me in that scalloped binding. Every step in this quilt was a new one for me. 

March 1, 2015 
The quilt finished out at 98 x 108 inches. I could call this "Transformation" and leave it at that, but I wanted to use fan somehow in the name. Those fans seem to just dance around on the quilt. I think Fandango, a Spanish dance, fits. "Fandango Transformation" is now its name!

Sept/Oct 2015

The quilt was chosen to be featured in Machine Quilting Unlimited magazine's Noteworthy section on page 71 of the Sept/Oct 2015 issue.

April 13, 2017

 I received notification this quilt was selected for the Houston International Quilt Festival's special exhibit, "In the American Tradition - Appliqué 2017: International Quilts".   Fandango Transformation has now also traveled with the exhibit to the Chicago International Quilt Festival, April 12-14, 2018. 

Dogs have long been human companions, bred to create canines much different than the wolf ancestors of thousands of years ago.  And yet, we get glimpses now and again of their wild heritage.  The trappings of domestication fade as they chase a rabbit or shred a stuffed toy and, just for a moment, we can hear their ancestor's haunting call before the pets we know and love are themselves again.
This portrait is of Monique, my youngest standard poodle.  She had little human contact the first few months of her life and it took her a long time to enjoy and seek human affection and contact.

I was interested in seeing Barbara Shapel on your show this week.
I used to live in the Middle East and went to a workshop of hers in Abu Dhabi in about 2009/10. She was as passionate about threads and the correct needles then as she is now.  
This was one of her early patterns and my first attempt at freezer paper applique.  She was an inspiring teacher.  I would love her to know I finished it and quilted it myself and embellished it with beads found in an Abu Dhabi souk !!
 

I designed this quilt for a modern quilt challenge to show that "modern" quilts could also be appliquéd, but it wasn't completed in time. Once I did finish it, I entered it in a couple of local shows, but it didn't place. Still, I love it, and a friend of my like it so much that she currently has it hanging in her entryway—it's on loan, I keep telling her 

A wall quilt made from stash fabrics with an asian flare. I wanted to incorporate some New York Beauty blocks and add interest with slivers of fabric flanges to accentuate curves. It was fun as I played with blocks and fabrics. It was quilted on my Nolting 24 Pro with gold thread. I am pleased at how it ended up. The black piping at the binding edge was a needed frame.

The center of this quilt is a hand embroidered thread painting of a wolf. It took 200 hours to make the center panel, then I painted the background and made trapunto leaves. The borders have 76 oak leaves sewn on them. I love the colors in this quilt and they go well with the room in which it hangs, my guest bathroom.

Made the quilt for my daughter and her soon-to-be-born baby girl. The design is by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts. It is found in her children book of same title: Rainbow Nest. It is a combination of irish chain and raw edge applique. Instead, of the raw edge applique, I used needle-turned applique for the center medallion and freezer paper on top of the fabric while hand-sewing to hold and follow the shape of the elements. The background is white dots on white cotton fabric, and all the color fabric is batiks from the Rainbow line by Edyta Sitar. It took me twelve days, from start to finish, to complete this quilt, and a whole evening for cutting the fabric. The shape cut ruler was used for cutting the hundreds of little squares accurately and in very little time as it was possible to cut several layers of fabric at the same time. I also used chain sewing for the irish chain squares as demonstrated by Ricky Tims in one of his video on this site.

Twilight Star was begun in a Judy Mathieson workshop at Asilomar.  Loved the workshop and love the quilt.  It was long arm quilted by Merry Jo Rembold.

Original design based on the Storm at Sea block, using different colourings to create the overall pattern.

This is a quilted portrait of Tinkerbelle, a french bulldog that frequents a local dog park. The portrait itself is made of 85 pieces of 9 different commercial quilting cottons. Each piece is stitched down in colour matched thread.

Thus wallhanging was made after viewing the Binding Tool Star video from the Missouri Star Quilt Co.  I called it Star Crossed Lovers because Valentine's Day is just 2 days away.  My 7 year old grandson, Jacob, chose the setting.  The wallhanging was quilted on my Elna Quilters Dream.

Got to actually see my quilt this weekend at The Pioneer Museum in Dade City Florida this weekend! 2/7/15

I designed this modern double wedding ring quilt with 24" rings.  I orignially thought it wouldn't take as long to make but I was mistaken!  The melons of this quilt are paper piece. 

The quilting is a combination of digitized quilting with the computer on my longarm and free motion quilting.  All the centers were done with the computer and the rest was done free hand.  

I designed the quilt using AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator.  The digitized quilt design was done in AutoCAD and Art and Stitch.

This is one in a series of Double wedding ring quilts I have designed. 
 

I made a "Wedding Quilt" for our youngest son and his bride.  It was a single Irish Chain variation containing over 450 Civil War Reproduction fabrics from Jelly Rolls and Charm Packs were used to make the 5" unfinished squares.  I decided to make a Wedding Day gift for the parents of the Bride with some of the left-over fabric.  I quilted it myself using wool batting, my automated quilter and free motion quilting as well.

This is a free motion sampler in which the design is hand drawn in graphite pencil onto a piece of muslin and stitched.  I finished it off with a hand crocheted border in which I applied faux flower petals and beads.

This quilt celebrates the colors of the Southwest and the shapes and designs of Native American pottery and textiles.
Shades of ochre, copper and russet define canyon walls, plateaus, and minerals. Shadows of charcoal gray emphasize the depths of the canyons and give distinction to native flora which is seen in relief against the brilliance of the setting sun. Turquoise skies and ecru clouds reflect in streams and lakes and find substance in the gems which hide in the earth. It was shown at the "Shades of the Southwest" exhibit at the 2015 AQS Show in Albuquerque, NM.

After making an appliqued flower quilt for my granddaughter, I had to have one for myself.  I used wildflower patterns from several different sources and also three bird patterns.  The chains were all cut from one multicolor fabric.

Wall quilt made to celebrate my granddaughter's graduation from Law School.  It's foundation pieced from a pattern I found in the EQ6 block library,  with hand applique in the center.  It is stretched on artist canvas frame.