Earth Tones | Louise Naples Quiltmaker

Nested Hexes

1 06 2014

This quilt was born in a set of fantastic and dramatically contrasting fabrics in black, grey and cream. It took a while to decide what to do with them. Cutting strips in varying lengths, adding them to fussy-cut floral centers – log cabin style, created wonderful nested hexagons. Joined by triangles, and set in rows the pattern required me to cut off half of all the top and bottom hexes, which I didn’t like. So, instead, I made neutral half-hexes of various cream fabrics to close the gap. The border is made up of four parts, cream, black, cream, and a multi. Very dramatic!

These are my opening inspiration – seriously contrasting colors

Fabrics cut into strips and bits, and fussy-cut flowers

One hexagon

More hexes

Hexagons joined by triangles

Finished quilt with four borders

Detail of neutral half hex

And all the borders

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Categories : AVAILABLE FOR SALE, Earth Tones, Geometrics, Pastels, QUILTING PROCESSES, Twin, Wall Hanging

Landscapes

1 06 2014

Landscapes belong not only the realm of painters. Textiles are a wonderful medium for natural scenes. I have experimented with numerous fabrics, cutting and snipping to create three dimensional shrubs, couching yarns to delineate different textures, and moods. Creating “matted” frames or borders makes them wall-ready.

A Lake Scene, with different textures in the cloth and the quilting

Detail of appliquéd tree

Layering of rocks

The texture of the quilting matches its element

Lighthouse scene, moody sky

A variety of textured fabrics create a dynamic shore terrain

Textured quilting, and snipped greens for shrubs
add dimension

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Categories : AVAILABLE FOR SALE, Curves, Earth Tones, Wall Hanging

Crazy Quilt

31 05 2014

This crazy quilt evolved over many years, as I kept adding embroidery, beading, buttons, and bows, braid, lace, and charms. The panels were done as individual twelve-inch blocks, and it was hard to finally stop, deciding when “enough” was “enough”. That’s the thing about crazy quilts! I decided to join the blocks with dark green grosgrain ribbon, and back it with black velvet. It is now a wall hanging.

A long labor of love.

Detail

Patches of silk, brocade, velvet, toile, and cotton

Anything goes!

Blocks laid together before joining with grosgrain

Lots and lots of beads

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Categories : Brights, Earth Tones, Geometrics, Uncategorized, Wall Hanging

Just Playing

25 05 2013

In a class at The City Quilter, given by Linda Hahn, we explored making numerous paper-pieced blocks that can be mixed and matched in a variety of ways to make dynamic quilts. The class was titled New York Beauty Diversified. Back at home, I made four of each kind of block in harmonious colors; don’t know what I will do with them yet, but I have been playing on my design wall to check out the possibilities of just sets of four.

The Design Wall

Square in a Square blocks

Beauty in a Square 2

Beauty in a square blocks

Swirl blocks

Star Burst

Flower blocks

Flower block 2

NY Beauty The Sun

Quarter suns turned outward

Half suns

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Categories : Curves, Earth Tones, Geometrics

Fallen Leaves

27 02 2013

This mini quilt, constructed from twenty-five different fabrics, plus the borders, was the result of a class at City Quilter, called ‘Little Bits”. The design is by Cindi Edgerton, and reminds me of walking in the woods in the deep Fall, with all the magnificent colors on the ground. The project was “paper pieced”, with very careful attention to the placement of the colors and bits. The little piles of each color were placed in a precise order because each one “borrowed” some bits from adjacent piles. It was a very interesting project, and resulted in a delightful table topper for Autumn. I found in my stash the perfect border, of Autumn Leaves.

Portrait

Carefully placed sets of pieces

Color list and placement chart help keep things in order.

Tessellating Leaves

Corner detail

Closeup of leaves

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Categories : Earth Tones, Geometrics, Table Topper, Wall Hanging

New York Beauty

15 06 2012

: 1 NY Beauty portrait

: 2 NY Beauty process 1

: 3 NY Beauty process 2

: 4 NY Beauty process 3

: 5 NY Beauty point detail

: 6 NY Beauty on the design wall

: 7 NY Beauty close-up

: 8 NY Beauty border-backing

At an all-day Linda Hahn workshop at City Quilter in NYC, I enjoyed my inaugural experience in Paper Piecing. I always wanted to learn how to make those really sharp points as used in NY Beauty, but was intimidated by the technique. Linda’s class took the mystery away, and I felt emboldened. The fabrics all came out of my stash, and I was thrilled that I had a batik in the colors and pattern to really frame and enhance the central theme. There are many ways one could lay out the individual blocks, and after much “playing” I decided on this one.

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Categories : Curves, Earth Tones, Wall Hanging

Courthouse Steps

17 11 2010

This is another double sided, “quilt-as-you-go” project. I found a lovely small-scale floral print to use for one side, and selected a variety of green and cream prints for my steps. The final result is a strong pattern on the front side, and a very soft, easy-on-the-eyes back side. The reversible binding technique I learned from Judy Doenias at City Quilter. It makes a neat knife edge finish.

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Categories : AVAILABLE FOR SALE, Earth Tones, Geometrics, Lap Blanket, Pastels, Table Topper, Wall Hanging

Painted Squares

27 05 2010

Half of the squares in this quilt are pieced “crazy quilt” style with bits and pieces from my scrap basket. They were too “busy” when put together, so I alternated blocks with a dark wine-colored print. That was a bit flat, so I decided to paint the red square with metallic paints using rubbing plaques and oil paint sticks. That was a lot of fun.

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Categories : AVAILABLE FOR SALE, Basic Squares, Earth Tones, Lap Blanket, Primary Colors, Wall Hanging

Bar Code

27 05 2010

This quilt was a study in free motion quilting patterns which are different for each color in the quilt. I utilized a variety a soft colors in bars that reminded me of bar codes. Placing the batik strips randomly, and then making rows resulted in a pleasant, easy-on-the-eyes piece for a table top or a wall hanging.

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Categories : Earth Tones, Rectangles, Strips, Table Topper, Wall Hanging

Baby Braids

27 05 2010

This baby version of French Braid was made from a one and a half inch wide roll (called a honey bun) of coordinated strips. The colors offered a wide choice of creams and every color of apple in the orchard. It was fun to create a mini version, and this quilt was selected to be part of a quilt exhibition of quilts from The City Quilter at the Williams Club in NYC in the Fall of 2009.