Ranch life as a young girl brought "great respect" for the work in the saddle as I
rode alongside the seasoned ones. Long days, tough rides, cattle drives through
difficult terrain but fresh air, sunrises and sunsets made for a wonderful way of
life. My quilt is a tribute to the cowboy.
I have watched my husband, Harold, and this Case Track Loader work long hours and heavy loads
through the years. The have seasoned well as they represent some of the back bone of our country
in their projects. I am proud to introduce you to the character this machine acquired over time.
Made to prove to a friend that I knew HOW to applique. Gifted to granddaughter for 2012 Christmas.
Made for the McCall’s 2015 “Be Creative! Quilt Challenge”. This quilt was selected as a finalist in the contest. It is currently traveling around the country and appearing at the Quilt and Sewing Expo shows. The contest was sponsored by McCall’s Quilting and sister magazines Quilters Newsletter and Quiltmaker.
An E7 design that looked good. Disappointingly, the optical illusion does not show up, except in the photo. The overall design can't be appreciated except from a distance. It is still growing on me.
Made in Chris Timmins Take Six class in 2012. The first of my tops quilted on my new Sweet16 this year, in time for our guild quilt show. The name "Nimbin" reflects the rainbow colors, and refers to the "hippy" community of Nimbin in Queensland.
Sedona Star block of the Month. I changed it a little and did not put in the outside embroidery. Won first place at Ozarks Piecmaker Quilt Guild show Sept 8-10, 2016.
Once again I was asked to create a mini-quilt for the silent auction at IQA's International Quilt Festival in Houston. Here is this year's creation. Its name is Spot On! and, with the exception of the binding, all of the fabrics either have dots/spots on them or I quilted them on. It was fun to make!
This quilt was made using the 24 hand dyed fat quarters I dyed in August. This simple design showcases the colors. This quilt has been accepted to the Quiltfest Oasis in Palm Springs in October.
I took Ann Shaw's class on chickens last year. It showed me a new way of doing paper piecing without sewing through the paper. I love purple and orange together. Love how the eye turned out as well.
This is a french braid quilt from the book French Braid Quilts by Jane Hardy Miller. In December I had foot surgery and was very limited in my ability to have my foot down for about 4 months. Since I had to keep my right foot up, I learned to to sew left footed. I pulled fabrics from my stash for both the quilt top and back. I counted my blessings that I had quilting (and a fabric stash) in my life to help me pass the time during my recovery...thus the title.
This quilt was made using Tri-Rec tools and was very easy to piece. The pattern is from "Best of Fons and Porter Star Quilts". It is machine pieced and quilted.
This quilt began as a tribute to the Lone Star quilt that started my passion for making quilts. About 30 years ago, I walked into Eddies quilt shop in Edina, Minnesota with a piece of fabric I loved and a picture of this Lone Star quilt I wanted to make. I was as novice as one could get. The kind person at the shop, introduced me to the world of quilts by suggesting i might enjoy taking a sampler quilt class they had. This was before rotary cutters, paper piecing and the multitude of wonderful rulers that assist us in creating and designing the quilts of today. Needless to say, I signed up for the class and thus began my life long journey and passion for this world of quilts and quilters. 30 years later, I still had never made a Lone Star quilt. The one that had sparked my passion for quilts! This quilt has the Lone Star that started my journey.
This quilt is based on the wall on the edge of my garden in the Orkney Islands, which are off the north coast of Scotland in the British Isles which are, in turn, off the coast of Europe. However, do any of us feel we are on the edge of something/somewhere or do we all live at the centre of our worlds?
My initial sketch was copied onto fabric and then painted with fabric paints before being quilted. It was horrible to quilt as the paint was so thick.
This is my third attempt to make a quilt inspired by the gorgeous Spiral Galaxies pictured in NASA's website. Rather than try to represent a specific spiral galaxy, I chose several of their non-copyrighted photographs of different spirals to pattern my spiral galaxy after. This is a whole cloth quilt using Angelina Fibers representing the gas clouds, rusty brown free motion embroidery to show the rusty colored spiral of dust that accompanies these galaxies, and, of course, different sizes and colors of hot fix crystals for the stars that such star birthing galaxies produce. The entire quilt is covered with black nylon veiling, which gives the Angelina Fibers stability by the time they are quilted. The quilting is tightly spiraled and fairly organized in the center and as it spirals out, the spiral gets looser and less organized with bubbles and smaller spirals. This is my third deep space quilt using Angelina Fibers. I plan on continuing this series for another seven quilts at least.
Approaching an opportunity to retire (and the age for wearing purple and red!), I realized that life is really a series of decisions. Some have trivial consequences, while others are more significant, each an opportunity. Every "leaf" on the quilted tree represents a decision or opportunity.
I began this quilt in a workshop with Rosalie Dace at Art Quilt Tahoe.
This quilt is adapted from Tomoko Tohno’s “Orange Range” pattern, and draws on my beautiful (but out of print) collection of Paula Nadelstern “Opulence” prints. While Tohno’s blocks had pieced centers, I redrafted the pattern so I could feature the radiating medallions, as well as the different colorways, within the limits of my available stash.
This quilt has won Best of Show the "Celebration of Color" exhibit at the 2017 International Quilt Festival in Chicago and was displayed at the 2017 Houston International Quilt Festival.
This is my quilt group, Bayou Pierre Quilters, 2017 raffle quilt with proceeds going to St. Jude's. This was the 2011 BOM from the Quilt Show. We have been working on the quilt for about 2 1/2 years. It is machined pieced, and is being handquilted. Almost finished. Ours is aproximately 94" square, in springtime vibrant colors. It is being quilted by women from ages of now 50-93. If anyone is interested in tickets our email address is: bpquilters@gmail.com. They are 5.00 each. The raffle will be in 04/2017.
Sophie, breaking through the canvas. Photo of Sophie by owner, Melanie Smith (used with permission). Photo transfer,thread painting, fabric paints, quilted by machine. Applied to wrapped canvas.
Designed using a panel of fabric designed by Alfred Shaheen. This was done as a challenge for the April 2016 Machine Quilter's Expo in Manchester, NH. The exhibit showcased many different panel designs all quilted and finished differently according to the designer's vision. I chose to applique velour pandas and green bamboo leaves onto the black & white bamboo panel. Background quilting mimics bamboo stalks & leaves. Though I used a preprinted panel, I designed the rest of the quilt.