Christmas Reindeer Run Quilt 2013

Started as a mystery quilt that unfolded after completing 12 different sets of blocks the fun started when you got to create your own design with all the blocks. This had great appeal to me, if not to all of the participants who wanted a set of instructions to complete the quilt.

Beads in Quilting

 I took a class from Thom Atkins, a quilter, who embellishes his quilts heavily. This is my little "sampler" from that class. On it, I tried out all the new techniques he taught. The beads come in all shapes and sizes and there are an endless numbers of stitches you can use to create different textures. He has a book called,

 Beading Artistry for Quilts. 

Mermaid Magic

Accepted to the Santa Clara, Ca. Pacific International Quilt Festival show. 

This quilt was inspired by a Moda fabric. The flowers reminded me of the underwater sea flowers I have seen.

The fabric came in several color ways. I used the orange flowers for the mermaids hair also. There are so many creative designs in commercial fabric, they always inspire me.  It is 42"x 36" in size, hand beaded with pearls and Swarovski Crystals and machine quilted. 

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.