Transitions of the Spirits - We lost Peggy Meier from Pancreatic Cancer and she was loved by so many people for her roles in the society, for she was a great influence in her area of Tennessee and in the Democratic Party, worked in Recording for the Blind and many other community agencies to help others. I made this quilt to release the spirit to another level. I let go of her spirit with this quilt and felt a sense of freedom after making it.

This is my version of Violet Craft's "Elephant Abstraction" .  I had lots of fun piecing and quilting this one. Metallic thread helps give Stella some "jewelry" on her trunk and ears.

She's now hanging in our family room. 

My version of the 2017 BOM Halo Medallion by Sue Garman. I followed her color recipe but changed out the red for turquoise. Entered it in three quilt shows this year and won three ribbons!!

A fun celebration of colorful circles.

The central medallion is mandala-like with three rows of circles, increasing in size, and changing value as they go around the circle.

The outside border has smaller circles weaving around larger circles and changing color gradually as they weave around the outside.

I gifted this to my daughter for the completion of her Master's Degree.  I never made her Undergraduate Degree quilt, and every time she saw this she said how much she liked it... so it became hers!  I took this in a class about a year and a half ago, completed a couple months ago.

This quilt is my interpretation of a hymn written by David Dahlgren called "The Winds of God"

The background was painted freely while listening to the hymn.  I challenged myself to use only the dark grey thread to make the design. I completed the quilting with 24K gold thread to indicate the winds.  Dahlgren's hymn speaks of " illusion - time " and he has a passion for watches and I've also quilted the chorus into the tree trunk.    

With dogs, their eyes are truly the windows to their souls.

After my Mom passed in 1998, I found several beautiful crocheted items she had been working on.  Among them were five 10 x 10 inch crocheted squares.  For years I tried to figure out how to use these in a way to honor her memory.  I was not a quilter at that time, but I did do a lot of sewing.  So in late 2018 I decided I could use them on a quilt.  It took me about six months to design the quilt after I figured out I could make them form a star by placing them together in a certain way.  This quilt took me another year to make after I got the design.  I made it with polyester crepe back satin (white) and polyester dupioni (2 blues).  I added machine embroidery in the borders, and the center star is also machine embroidered.  I painted the flowers and birds around the white part after I quilted them.  Then I finished it off with a row of pearls along the binding, hot fix pearls throughout the quilt, and sewed on five pearls in the centers of the crocheted squares that came from one of her broken necklaces. Her name was Zephana Compton Bivens and she was a master craftsman in woodworking, handwork, and sewing.

Red work using fabric paints.  Used Alex's pattern.

Inspired by Caswell Carpet in the National Museum of Art in New York.  Pattern by Corliss Searcey. 

Thanks to Alex's videos and her updated FPP book, along with her straight-line quilting tutorials, I was emboldened to join in a swap with a group of quilters. This is my finished quilt, sent to my recipient Lynda in Florida. The back has a hand applique VW Bus (one of Lynda's favorite things) from a Tula pink pattern. All of the prints are Tula Pink and the background and binding are Moda Grunge. Thanks to Alex for prepping me and giving me the confidence to participate in this fun quarantine swap! 

I finally finished quilting the block of the month 2019 quilt . I had the top down in December but was trying to get used to my Bernina Q 20. I think I did OK with the quilting.

Block pattern - Carolina Mountains.  Bias tape Celtic love knot embellishment added.  Cotton frabric, Warm & Natural batting.

I used lots of different Freda Kahlo commercial fabrics, then I cut them up and made a collage using different parts of these fabrics