St. Bridget's Cross

This is in anticipation of February 1st which is St. Bridget's feast day.
I made this quilt using a block designed to look like St. Bridget's cross, for a young couple who were being married at the Vatican.
I used fabric on the back which looks like illuminated manuscripts...one legend of St. Bridget says she founded two monasteries where illumination of biblical texts was done.

January 2000

This is a little different!
Doing a scrapbook in fabric. The first block in a millenium quilt made to remember the year 2000.

This one shows several commemorative fabrics and one representing the fireworks we saw in our town square (which is on a mountain top)...the clock for time passing...champagne and a full moon!

Quilts for Twin Girls !

These are two crib quilts for the newest babies in the family.

The bunnies are hand-appliqued and machine quilted. The "Jewel Box" quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted.
Both are with clear pastels reproduced from 1930's fabrics.

Nana's Garden Quilt

This is the "Nana's Garden" quilt which I gave to my mother. It is queen-size and has a border of periwinkle blue rose print...only later did I remember that my mom does not really like "blue" roses!

A great photo of my grandaughter, Lilia and our cat Shadow....
of course the bed has a quilt!
This one is "Sandcastles"...I'll try to find a better photo of the quilt to add to the post!

Monet Lily wallhanging

Again, a colorwash where the small squares of color are chosen to blend into the adjacent squares...loosing many of the pieced lines.

This one has a hand-appliqued lily in the center and a print of Monet inspired waterlily pond fabric for the borders.

Ladybird lap quilt

Based on a quilt designed by Barb Adams and Alma Allen, this is an appliqued folk-art quilt. It is hand-appliqued and hand quilted. The bird represents the feminine spirit.It is owned by Rebecca Harrison, a local author. (She says wrapping up in this on a cool morning helps get her creative energies flowing!)

Monet Colorwash Quilt

This is our king-size floral colorwash quilt.

This is a machine-pieced and machine quilted quilt...the first photo shows it hanging in a quilt show.
It is made from 6" squares of many floral fabrics...with hidden images like wicker chairs, brown garden bunnies, small teapots...arranged from darkest floral prints to pale washy cloud blue sky print at the top. The border features a waterlilies fabric very similar to work by Monet.
This is the quilt we use in our bedroom.

Scot's Plaid

This is one quilt (twin-sized) which I didn't sew myself.

My employee, Ann, machine-pieced it after I chose the fabrics. (Thank-you, Ann!)

It was given to nephew, Chris.

Walk in the Woods

This earthy, scrappy quilt works up the wildest fabrics you can find.

This is the 2nd of these quilts which I made. It belongs to my brother-in-law , Peter.

(One Thanksgiving, my grown children and my grandaughter were guests of the New England relatives...I sent along a quilt for each relative!)

Scrappy bullseye quilt

This is a scrappy quilt made by sewing conentric circles of fabric onto a background block raw edges up...the cutting the block into 4 equal sections, trading sections with friends if you like, and sewing them back together, to make "whacky" circles.

This quilt belongs to my husbands niece, Kendall.

Chinese Coins Floral

Another vertical scrappy, strippy quilt.

I loved the beige and coral floral print...just split it and added panels of irregular stacked "coins" (paper foundation string-pieced on old phone book pages)

Can't remember if this was sold or given away....!!!!

Flying Geese Again

This is another scrappy Flying Geese throw....made in 1998....similar colors to the one from 1982, but fabrics with border designs are much easier to find...especially when one owns a quilt shop!

Given as a gift to my husband's Aunt Hanni.

Red "Snowflakes"

This is a small quilt I use every Christmas!

I worked on it for 10 years, hand-piecing a block each autumn...and finally hand-quilting it in 2002.

The pattern is a feathered star and each one has 90 triangles around it..... I think they look like snowflakes even if they have too many points!

These are two quilts with similar color palettes. The one above is the most recent, made in 1999-2000. I call it "Turn of the Century Quilters".
It has a photo transfer on muslin in the center of a young girl using a tredle sewing machine ...about 1900....then the large muslin area is signed by my quilting friends and customers from the year 2000. The border is made up of a sampler of 9 inch blocks. This quilt is dusty aqua, browns and beiges.
The Flying Geese quilt is one I made in 1981-1982. It is machine pieced and hand-quilted. I was so excited to find a border print fabric to cut into strips for the long printed lattice pieces. It is afghan-sized and great for taking naps!

Birds in the Air

This is a scrappy machine pieced full sized quilt which I made for my sister. I used lots of bold colors and narrow black sashing.

It has been machine quilted.

Contrary Wife

This machine-pieced patchwork block has the charming name of "Contrary Wife".
I kind of like that...all blocks have many names of course, but I think being contrary is somtimes necessary and shows "spunk".
She is not a doormat!
This is hand-quilted, by me. It is queen-sized.The subtly striped lattice and large red and beige check cornerstones add an extra bit of pizazz!

Christmas Log Cabin Quilt

This is a "straight furrows" variation of the log cabin quilt block. It features a large center of old gold fabric and "logs" of red and green on the dark side of the block. The light is scrappy whites and off-whites.

This twin-sized quilt was machine quilted and is sold.

Wall Sampler

This is a basic sampler quilt which was a class sample from the days when we taught beginners to do every thing by hand...hand pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted.

I treasured this for many years...though I never used it on my walls!

3 Small Quilts

these pastel quilts illustrate how I love to work with florals....sometimes making them almost "mush" together to loose their distinct edges in a mass of soft color.
The crib quilt to the left here has a bunny tea party theme...the others are just simple scrappy florals.

All of these have been completed and gone to good homes!

Two Wall Quilts

Two small quilts...just for the record.

The log cabin featured a Hoffman collaged sewing fabric in pale green with black, pink and lavender.
"I brake for Quilt Shops", etc....

The Panda was developed from a pieced teddy bear block and is framed by bamb00 frabic and prints of African animals...especially zebras.

Aqua Strippy Floral Throw

A Kaffe Fassett fabric with large cabbage roses on dusty aqua is the thrilling featured fabric in this large throw (nap) quilt.

It was purchased by a woman who fell in love with it and just knew it was what her husband needed for Christmas!

(photographed as a quilt top on the shady deck outside)

Pretty Prairie

This quilt with large (14X18") applique blocks has a wonderful folkart feel. The patterns were designed by Terri Thompson whose grandmother raised 11 children on the Kansas prairie.

I love how the simple images reflect the beauty in ordinary things.

My dear friend Sally (from the North Dakota prairie) now owns this double bed sized quilt.

Pinetree Wallhanging

This small wallhanging was a Christmas gift for friends, Paul and Barbara...

Birds and Blossoms

These small wall hangings (under 30" square) were done as part of a challenge for our quilt guild's show.

We had to use certain fabrics and were free to add a few more of our choice.
The first quilt is mine (now owned by Marica Thaxton who loves having songbirds come to her garden). I added a print with red background with features small birds and twiggy branches, a lavender "fluffy" blossom print, and a pale batik background. I appliqued the bird and three-dimensional blossoms....and in the border corners I have used three dimensional, folded "flying geese" that "point" and pull the eye around the outside. There are also several "button blossoms"
in the piece.

The lower one shows how the main challenge fabric appeared....leaves of chard by Kaffe Fassett...done in red-orange and orchid on a brown background. (So , can you tell I love fabrics?) This wallhanging was done by my friend Paula Mariedaughter.

Golden Harvest Stars

I love how something simple, a square with two corners changed to gold, can be so stunning when repeated....

Given as a gift to my brother Chris and his wife Melody.

Strippy Pear Quilt

This is a quilt featuring one dynamic fabric with 4" pears....so why cut the fabric too small?
A twin size quilt-top in vertical rows with pieced points adding drama. SOLD

Elegant Wedding Quilt

This is a machine-pieced and machine- quilted
queen sized quilt. It was a gift for the wedding of our nephew, John and his bride, Krista.

They were married on a romantic beach in New Zealand....so the outer border print on this has little "grains of sand" and the quilting is "champagne bubbles". 

A hand-pieced, hand quilted fan quilt!

This was pieced in the car while I was waiting for Laura and Andrew to get out of school each afternoon....it was her gift when she graduated from 8th grade.

Here it is hanging in a quilt show.

Large twin size. 

Whimsical garden

Another look at that cute garden quilt! 

Shop 2

This is my sister-in-law, Melody with her daughter, Harmony.

Behind Harmony is a quilt of challenge blocks using a bright wild fabric. These were cut and set together "whacky" for even more visual fun!

Melody is in front of a one-patch quilt featuring apricot and red...one of my favorite combinations. Some of the fabric had the old hymn, "What a Friend we have in Jesus" printed on it....this reminded me of going to my grandmother's small church when I was very young. My sister, Elaine now has this quilt.

Between them is a small wall quilt called a watercolor or colorwash quilt. It was made in 1992 before I opened the shop in 1993....we taught that class avery year or so as people loved playing with the colors! 

The Shop

This is a photo of me and 2 quilts in the shop..

One is a scrappy crib quilt which I made and sold.



The quilt in the background was done with fusible applique blocks with scrappy pieced lattice and is a light-hearted garden themed quilt. It has also gone to a new owner. 

Postcards from The Past

This is a quilt which was made as a shop model but has very personal family history. Each of the 12 applique blocks is hand appliqued and represents a month of the year. The pattern was designed by Robyn Pandolph.
I added embellishments and wrote the birthdays of members of our family on it. I gave this one to my mother for Christmas in 2003. 

Lilia follows in my footsteps....

Lilia spent a month with me in May
of 2004.

She was almost 5 years old.


This is the dolly quilt with tea cups which we made together....
She went with me to the quilt shop almost every day....
In these photos, she is learning to do the buttonhole or blanket stitch....around the tea cup shape!