Italy Remembered

Going through my "Study Quilts" I found some of my old favorites. These were small (8 1/2"x 11") studies that I used to experiment with new techniques. In this one, I was working with some new metallic painted fabrics that I thought caught the light and shadows on the hills in the Tuscany area.
Study quilts are a great way to try out a composition idea, a new material, or a new stitching technique.

Oh! Coffee

Quilting Arts Magazine recently sponsored a challenge about your morning beverage of choice and how it makes you feel. I NEED my Coffee in the morning so this is the mini-quilt that I created. It perfectly reflects my belief that I could dance across the sunrise if I get my 2 cups of coffee in the morning. It is 8"x11" and hand beaded. I used applique with gold threads.

Sea Bright

In an effort to get the new year off to a more creative start, I entered a local show at the Gualala Dolphin Gallery with several other art quilters. The theme was the Mendocino/Sonoma county coastal beauty.
The quilt is bordered in raw silk and embellished with gold threads and tiny gold beads. It is approximately 24" by 24". This quilt captures for me the bright clear days of fall and the magic of the sand, wind and waves.

Trailer Travels

I am not sure where 2011 went. Suddenly its 2012. I know 4 months of last year went away across the country to Canada and and back. We visited 22 states and the Canadian Provence's of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island and New Brunswick. We visited National Parks, beautiful cities, great museums, family and friends. It was a long trip filled with many memories and beautiful images. I took along my little Jenome sewing machine but did not get much quilting done. Hiking and sight seeing left me pretty tired by the end of each day.

But I do have many beautiful photographs of the places we visited. I hope to translate these into some great art quilts. "Trailer Travels" is the comfort quilt I made for my husband to remember this once in a lifetime trip. He wanted a big enough quilt to snuggle up in at night in his favorite easy chair in the trailer. It had to be long enough to cover his toes he said.

Finished in time for the Gualala Arts & Pacific Piecemakers Quilt Guild Challenge show in April 2011. A testament to procrastination and the learning curve...I am so surprised when I look back at how this quilt started out as an idea and changed so in it's final form.

Three quilts designed separately and meant to have space between them to allow your eye to fill in the spaces...My last major piece before we left on our cross country adventure from May to August.

Landscape Re-Born

This landscape started in 2009 and languished on my design board for over a year...somehow it just would not come together for me. Thanks to a group of dedicated quilt artists support and encouragement...I started on it again with the dead line of the PPQG April 2011 show as my kick in the pants dead line...
I changed the original design and sky...When my husband inquired about what was that " giant green Caterpillar" and all those logs in the middle, I knew that the design and contrast was not clear....
Taking the photo in black and white and gray tones helped me see where I needed more contrast...happily I am quilting the last panel today...Hooray

Day's End

This piece was the result of an exercise done with my art group. We were looking at the design element LINE. We each had 3o minutes to create a small composition using the element that we were to experiment with. Using bits and pieces from our small workshop shoe box collection, I found these pieces of sunset calling to me. I liked my little 8" by 10" exercise so much that I took it home and quilted it. I then mounted it on a piece of pre-quilted upholstery fabric.