I wish I was there...

With the cold and snow here in Ohio, somewhere that has palm trees growing sounds really nice! "Tropical Sunset" (above) is made with hand-painted fabric the shadow of two palm trees machine appliqued on top. It is 17" wide and 13" tall.

"Watercolor Sunset" is made with 1.5" squares and instead of using the shapes or colors to make the design, the design is made by the arrangement of darks and lights. (Here's a blog post on how to design a watercolor quilt). It is 17" wide and 13" tall.

Both of these quilts are on display as part of an exhibit of art quilts by the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network at the Clark State University Library. The challenge in putting up this show was because the quilts hang on the ends of the bookshelves, we could only submit quilts less than 20" wide.

The show runs through March 20 and is located on the Clark State University campus, 570 E. Leffel Lane in Springfield, Ohio (follow the signs to the library). The library is open Mon.-Thurs. 8 am-9 pm, Fri. 8 am-5 pm, and Sat. 10 am-3 pm.

My husband I went to see the show over the weekend. We're also thinking of buying a buck stove to put in our large, inefficient fireplace. When checking on-line for buck stove stores in Springfield, I found one near the campus so decided to make it a combined trip. Even more interesting is that this shop is also a quilt shop (more than one way to keep warm!) so even more reason to go. The name of the shop? Creative Fires.

Quilted Postcard for a Chocolate challenge

This is the 4x6 quilted postcard that I made for the January Challenge for the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network. The challenge word was "Chocolate" and I has some silver fabric that was just the thing to use as the candy's wrapper.

Of course, I had to do a lot of "research" for this project. It was tough but I managed it.

Golden Frost Art Quilt and Table Runner

"Golden Frost on the Window," 30" x 30"

I made this quilt in November of 2007. It features fabrics with tan, brown, and black and they also have gold printed on them. The larger lighter colored squares and the black sashing are pieced, the smaller squares are turned edge applique and quilted 1/4" around them.

I love the gold on these fabrics. Shortly after I made this ny mother had the inside of her house repainted (it was yellow when I lived there, then it was a country blue and pink but now it's a combination of stylish beige tints). She saw this quilt and mentioned how she though it would match her new wall colors and sure enough, it really did.

For Christmas last year she requested a smallish table runner that matched this quilt.

I didn't have all of the same fabrics (some of the light pieces in the middle were purchased as Fat Eighths from a store that was going out of business) but I had enough of the inner and outer borders, and she's happy with both of them.

More about Golden Frost on the Window.

Swindler and Sons Florist Fabric Mosaic

This is the fabric mosaic that I made for a friend to give to her grandmother for Christmas. below is the photo I worked from, which is the family business. The photo was taken in December, but I decided to have a Spring/Summer version so instead of wreaths, I put in some hanging pots bursting with flowers.

The sign is hand-written since the letters would have been too small to try to make with fabric scraps, and the fabric that I used for the windows was hand-painted.

Table Runners with Mini Quilt Squares

I made this set of 5 table runners for a group of 5 women who are friends of the family. I wanted to use mostly neutral colors (light browns) as it is sometimes hard to predict which rooms people will use table runners in and what colors would be best for those rooms, but I also wanted to include a pop of color so the table runners wouldn't be just beige.

I wanted to explore the idea of traditional quilt patterns versus contemporary uses. Around this time I was looking through my February 2010 "American Patchwork & Quilting" magazine and found "Tiny Dishes" by Virginia Cole of Galloping Pony Studio. Virginia, who likes to make miniature quilts, had a pattern which had small, colored, traditional mini quilt squares arranged in a contemporary layout. My sizes worked out a little different that the ones in the magazine, and I decided to use a different square in each runner and to have the quilting lines (on the right side) be the same quilt pattern as the mini square.

I really liked how the striped binding sets it all off. If I have a solid colored binding I will sometimes sew it on with the sewing machine but since the stripes aren't a solid color, I sewed the binding on by hand.

I wanted all 5 table runners to be similar but not exact copies so I used 2 different striped fabric for the bindings and 5 different light browns for the background (3 on each). And with the exception of one of the striped binding fabrics, I was able to use fabric that was already in my stash.

Christmas Handkerchief Table Runners

December just flew by in a blur. I was fortunate to be busy with some custom orders including these 5 table runners using vintage Christmas handkerchiefs that belonged to my customer's family members. She had 13 of them and she also provided the other Christmas fabric and decided which handkerchiefs she wanted grouped together. She also wanted the quilting to be subtle so I used white thread.

All handkerchiefs and borders were stitched-in-the-ditch with some seasonal quilting where there was room for it. All of the handkerchiefs were stabilized by using fusible webbing to adhere them to a white cotton fabric.

This one is called "Santa's Sleigh" and is the largest at 18" x 45". It has 3 printed handkerchiefs that were almost all the same size and each one had a decorative scalopped edge which I left showing and carefully quilted just inside the borders.
The details of Santa's reindeer, the holly berry border and the houses was just exquisite and I used these elements to quilt around.

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This table runner, "Poinsettias" also featured three handkerchiefs although these were embroidered. The middle and left have poinsettias and the right shows a candle with holly leaves. The inner border of green offsets the white handkerchiefs and the white borders which has gold swirls printed on it.

Again really hard to see but there is a white poinsettia quilted in the middle of each of the handkerchiefs.

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The "Holly" table runner has holly in the borders and the sashing. Since the fabric is linear on it, I mitered the corners to keep the lines going around the quilt.

The handkerchiefs on this quilt are embroidered and more detailed than the poinsettias above.

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In "Golden Swirls" the handkerchief on the left had some gold metallic threads around the outside. There is a thin inner border and sashing that has gold swirl printed on it (also used in the "Poinsettias" table runner). The border fabric has holly berries and some more gold in it.

The holly berry fabric was also used for the backing of this quilt and when I quilted it I had the back part facing up and used the gold swirls to define where the quilting lines would go.

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This table runner is called "Candy Canes" because of the candy canes embroidered on the left and right handkerchiefs and also because of the candy cane print fabric in the borders (and also on the back).

The handkerchiefs with the candy canes embroidered on them weren't as large as the one in the middle with the printed Santas so they have a white sashing to make them the same size. And it's a little hard to see with the white on white quilting but there's a large holly berry quilted on the candy cane handkerchiefs.