Into the Light

The dragonfly block in this quilt is an original design drafted while aboard our boat “Dragonfly”.  The original quilt layout represents a flight of dragonflies flowing from dark to light, deliberately getting more airy as the dragonflies reach the top and breaking the borders. 36 small dragonflies are quilted into the design.

The quilt is 93" x 112"

The quilt will be shown at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo  in September of this year.

Detail of quilt.

Australian Fabric Jacket

I took a class from Mary Sue Fenner in June of this year.  using her creative style we created jackets from our fabric stash.  I used a flight of Australian Fabrics that I had purchased along with one African fabric purchase about 12 years ago while on a trip to Antigua.  The jacket also features a zippered front and pockets.  I am waiting for cool weather to be able to wear it.

Detail of jacket sleeve and pocket.

Fresh Berries

I have been working on this piece, over time, as a result of collecting pictures of blueberries and working in my sketchbook.  There is a previous piece, smaller, about 16 X 16 which was done as a study for this larger piece.   Fresh Berries was done in response to a challenge by the Evergreen Quilt Guild for the 2012 show.  The recycling theme required that the piece by 30 X 36 and use a scrap of recycled fabric provided by the guild.  My scrap piece was used to create veins in the leaves.

Detail of fresh berries.

Dragonfly Vest

Front view

I started this project in a Rachel Clark class in 2007.  I worked on it, put it in the closet and worked on it again and again.  Finally, I finished it prior to our trip to Argentina in February.  My goal is to finish all (most) of my UFOs.  Recently it won a first place at the Evergreen Quilt Guild show.  It may pay to finish!

Rear view

Garden Gone Awry

Women Who Run With Scissors combined with the Green Bay Ikebana Flower Arranging group and the Green Bay Embroiderer's Guild for a weekend show at the Green Bay Botanical Gardenson March 2 and 3.  "Garden Gone Awry" was completed for the 2012 WWRWS challenge for the  show.  The requirements were: the size had to be 16" X 16"; the theme was botanical in nature (pun intended); and we had to use one or all of three grays selected by the challenge committee.  12 people with 12 very different viewpoints! This fun show exhibit was also exhibited at the Evergreen Quilt Guild Show.

All 12 of the show pieces

Junque Queen

Junque Queen was created as a result of a found object art challenge (which became know as the FART challenge!)  from Conversations in Cloth, an art quilt group from the Fox Cities area.  The challenge was to walk a mile on our city streets.  Anything that you found during the walk was fair game to incorporate into a quilt or hanging.  The other two rules were: You could use muslin and one 'focus' fabric.

Detail from lower right corner.

I rust dyed some muslin (from the junk I found of course!) and found a lovely batik to coordinate with it.  My queen includes a rusty nail (magic wand), parts of a soda can (smile, flower parts and crown), a chex mix chip bag (right side out for body, inside out for stars), several coffee stirrers (flower stem and hands), pipe insulation (hair) and some snaps (earrings picked right out of the gutter.  They were covered with horrible pink fabric and rusting though.  everything else is cut from the batik fabric.  I also incorporated phrases and sayings that had to do with found object art.  See detail.

As a matter of interest, Conversations in Cloth is now on-line as Creative Gatherings.  Please check out the site and feel free to join the discussions.  

Life's Necessities

Coffee & Chocolate, Fabric and Friends.......

That's the title of a piece I completed in November for the Evergreen Quilt Camp Challenge.  The wallhanging/table runner uses paper pieced coffee cups that I designed at least 10 years ago for an anniversary challenge for another guild that I belonged to in another city, along with a box of chocolates based on some of my favorites.  The chocolates lie in a bed of gold lame and use various scraps of fabric and trim along with new and old buttons.  I was also able to use my alphabet decorative stitch function for the machine quilting, programming in Coffee & Chocolate, Fabric & Friends.  All in all it was a fun piece to make.

Finished Piece  12" X 20 1/2 "

Chocolate box detail in the production stage

Detail of Paper pieced cup and stitching