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.

A long labor of love.

Detail

Detail

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

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

Anything goes!

Anything goes!

Blocks laid together before joining with grosgrain

Blocks laid together before joining with grosgrain

Lots and lots of beads

Lots and lots of beads





Outer Space

31 05 2014

This bright quilt was made for my grandson Estifanos, who at a very young age, was fascinated with the moon.  I found a panel of fifteen different space images, cut it up into individual pictures.  I selected vivid primary colored prints of suns and stars for the frames, and sashing, and finished with  an over all yellow backing of suns.  It is out of this world, and he loves it.

 

Details of some panels

Details of some panels

IMG_1572

Phases of  the moon

Phases of the moon

Saturn and corner detail

Saturn and corner detail

Reverse, images of the smiling sun.

Reverse, images of the smiling sun.

The Shuttle

The Shuttle

 

 





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

The Design Wall

 

IMG_0954

Square in a Square blocks

Square in a Square blocks

Beauty in a Square 2

Beauty in a Square 2

Beauty in a square blocks

Beauty in a square blocks

Swirl blocks

Swirl blocks

Star Burst

Star Burst

Flower blocks

Flower blocks

Flower block 2

Flower block 2

NY Beauty  The Sun

NY Beauty The Sun

Quarter suns turned outward

Quarter suns turned outward

Half suns

Half suns

 





Boy Blue – Take II

25 05 2013

This quilt was made from additional fabric leftovers from a prior quilt.  I recut the wedges into narrower slices, and put them together on cloth foundations, sew and flip style.  Playing on my design wall, I decided upon alternated directions for the blocks, then just framing the quilt top in red, white and blue.  It has a bright, patriotic look.

 

I mitered the corners of the three borders.

I mitered the corners of the three borders.

Portrait

Portrait

Closeup of blocks on design wall.

Closeup of blocks on design wall.

 





Amish With A Twist

25 05 2013

This dramatic king-sized quilt  in Amish colors was designed by Nancy Rink.  It was a kit in many segments, twelve different classic blocks, using black as the backdrop.  The borders contain stylized appliqué  flowers.  The bright pieced inner border and sashing blocks brighten it up.  I sent it to Melanie Vaughn at The City Quilter in NYC  for long-arm quilting.  It was too big for me to manage on my domestic sewing machine.  It was a most enjoyable project.

Corner detail

Corner detail

 

The blocks

The blocks

 

Close-up of connecting lines

Close-up of connecting lines

 

Detail of the variegated colored thread Quilting

Detail of the variegated colored thread Quilting

 

Crumpled Quilt!

Crumpled Quilt!

 

Reverse side: B & W butterflies all over

Reverse side: B & W butterflies all over

 

Another corner view

Another corner view

 





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

Portrait

 

Carefully placed sets of pieces

Carefully placed sets of pieces

 

Color list and placement chart help keep things in order.

Color list and placement chart help keep things in order.

Tessellating LeavesTessellating Leaves

Corner detail

Corner detail

Closeup of leaves

Closeup of leaves

 





Baby Boy Blue II

26 02 2013

This quilt was made for a grand nephew, Conor.  I wanted to use a large number of light to medium blue fabrics, and break it up with splashes of red, and really dark blue.  Running the wedge shaped patches in sequence created an even flow of color and balance.  Sashing the rows with a white print with red and blue stars, and framing it in dark blue tied it all together.  I quilted each patch with curved lines, which created a flowing motif across the quilt.

 

1 Portrait

1 Portrait

Reverse side

Reverse side

3 Quilting detail3 Quilting detail

2 Closeup 2 Closeup

 





Matched Pair for a Matched Pair

26 02 2013

When my niece Meaghan gave birth to a set of identical twin girls, I came up with this color scheme, lively and bright.   I used a pattern by Liz Porter, of Fons & Porter.  The fabrics were a matched set of precut squares, transformed into “snowballs” by the addition of flipped yellow triangles in all four corners of each precut patch.  The quilts are bordered in a dark pink floral,  and backed with an allover pastel pink floral.  Each “snowball” was quilted with a five petal flower.  To enable Meaghan to tell the quilts apart, I just arranged the blocks in a different order.

3 Reverse side

 Reverse side

 

On the design Wall

On the design Wall

 

Shifting the patches for the second quilt.

Shifting the patches for the second quilt.

Bright Colors for Babies4 Bright Colors for Babies

1 Portrait photo

Portrait photo

1 "Snowball" closeup

 “Snowball” closeup

 





Simple Symmetry

15 06 2012

At Paula Nadelstern’s all day workshop at City Quilter in NYC, I ventured into the world of art quilting.  Using a bilaterally symmetrical fabric as the basis, (Paternista designed by Paula); fussy cutting identical squares; then cutting and rearranging them, enjoying the magic and surprise at the results, made this a fascinating class.  The complex designs that resulted were far removed from the original “mother” fabric – kaleidoscopic ideas that resolve into tiles.

Portrait of completed quilt.  All tile-style rows are cut from the same mother cloth

Portrait of completed quilt. All tile-style rows are cut from the same mother cloth

detail of one color band

detail of one color band

Another color band detail

Another color band detail

Pink band detail

Pink band detail

IMG_0049

Cut from the same cloth but oh how different

Cut from the same cloth but oh how different

And yet another

And yet another

Corner detail  inner border cut from original mother fabric

Corner detail inner border cut from original mother fabric





New York Beauty

15 06 2012

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.