Gallery of current quilts
Here are images of the quilts I've been working on over the past few years that I still have in my collection. Most of these are tops that have yet to be quilted and may end up for sale in the future. These are not currently for sale, but if you see something you like, you may email me about building a custom quilt for you.
Americana Log Cabin Quilt (2004)
This was the first quilt I ever made. There are alot of tiny 1 1/2" squares combined with various length strips to create the unique diamond pattern. I used alot of red, blue, and neutral shades in the fabrics. Most are very small prints and give the quilt a "scrappy" feel. As this was my first attempt at quilting, I did in-the-ditch quilting to hide the stitches in the seam lines.
Lonestar Quilt (2005)
This is another quilt I made using the Fairy Frost line of fabrics. The blue print pattern is from the Luminosity line. This is only a queen sized quilt top, as I have yet to set my frame back up to that size. I'm still not sure what kind of designs I'm going to put in the large white areas around the star. Right now it's staying folded up with all my other "geez when can I get these tops done" quilt pile.
Garden Maze Quilt (2006)
I just loved the colors of that wild floral print, warm peach and pink colored tulips. The interlocking maze was made of a light and dark marbled green fabric. This was the first time I tried using a paper piecing techinque and I'm pleased with how precise all the rings and squares came out. This is just the quilt top. I did the piecing while I was waiting for my house to sell and my large quilt frame was in storage. I hope to actually quilt this top some time in the next year. The cat in the upper corner is named Turtle and believes she owns everything in the house.
Kitty Cottage Watercolor Quilt (2006)
This is another quilt top I have yet to quilt. The background is composed of nearly 1000 2" squares that are a mixture of light, medium and dark floral prints. The effect this creates is a lovely watercolor look. The "garden gate" was created by appliquing black bias on top. The butterflys and flowers trailing up the left side and top of the gate are appliqued with a shimmery metalic thread. Inside the gate is a pretty little cottage scene, again appliqued with metallic thread. The border is a dark marbled green. I wanted a solid color to tie together all the chaos from the watercolor effect. I haven't quilted the top yet but I will likely do alot of outline stitching around the applique and some design motifs in the gridwork. The watercolor and applique fabrics were purchased as a kit from Whims.
Stained Glass Applique Quilt (2007)
I did this quilt top around the time I was working on the kitty cottage quilt, but I didn't get around to actually quilting it till 2008. It gave me alot more practice using black bias tape. I was going to use the stained glass panels as pillows, but after I got my embroidery machine I had all those swatches left over from practicing. I pieced them together to make the center sashes and joined the panels together into a wall quilt. I also added a dark blue and a dark purple border to the top and it really tied together all the colors. The fabric is from the Fairy Frost collection and has a shimmery metalic overlay of gossamer fairy wings. Since finding that collection I've been trying to use it in all my quilts, the camera does not do it justice. The fabric I found for the back is just as lovely as the top. It's a blue/lavender print with metalic gold outlines, depicting beautiful fairy mothers caring for little fairy babies nestled in flower petals. I wish I had more of that fabric! I have yet to do the binding and once that is completed this quilt may be listed for sale.
Wholecloth Trapunto Quilt (2008)
This was my first attempt at a wholecloth quilt using the trapunto "stuffing" technique. You take a piece of cloth the size you want the quilt to be, draw a design on it, quilt it once with batting. Take the quilt off the frame and cut away batting in the "empty spaces". Then you put it back on the frame with more batting and the back of the quilt and very carefully stitch over the design a second time. So the quilted areas effectively have 2 layers of batting and really jump out of the quilt. I did small stippling in the background to make it as flat as possible and force the trapunto to stand out even more. I really enjoyed doing this style of quilt and can't wait to try another, maybe a design with old english letters or something with more curly que motifs. I did this practice piece off a yard of muslin I had laying around my quilting room. Perhaps the next one will be on a very shimmery satin fabric, I bet that would be lovely with trapunto. Once I get around to finishing the binding, this quilt will be for sale.
Pink Hearts Shadow Trapunto Quilt (2008)
I'm very proud of this quilt. This technique is called shadow trapunto. The parts that appear white are where extra batting was applied to the quilt top. The parts that appear pink are where the batting was cut away. Then the top was laid on top a sheet of neon red acrylic felt. The white quilt top appears pink where the batting was cut away. Then another layer of batting and a sheet of white fabric was applied for the backing. The whole thing was quilted very carefully so the extra batting stayed inside thier particular design areas and no "clouding" was seen. The areas with the extra batting just pop right off the quilt. This looks particularly lovely in the feathers and the roses. I used micro stippling inside each of the five hearts, a background grid around the center heart, and regular stippling around the feathers. This quilt actually took me many months to quilt because I had a heart operation in late 2008 and the medications I was on kept me extremely tired. This was the largest trapunto I've attempted so far and I can't wait to try a bed size wholecloth with some of these designs.
