The Blue Horse

The Blue Horse, 18" x 22"

My sister's yard was home to many strange and interesting items - mostly acquired at garage sales.  I'm not sure where the blue horse came from but it has been a favorite of mine for a long time.  My sister has Alzheimer's and came to a point where she had to move to assisted living and is now in a nursing home.  Her house was sold and everything had to be moved and the blue horse moved to my back yard.  It pleases my heart every day when I look out of the breakfast room window to see the blue horse stationed against the fence in all kinds of weather.  I took pictures of him this past winter in the snow and recently took a picture of him surrounded by lush greenery and flowers.

I decided he needed to be featured in an art quilt and found another piece of my favorite Ellen Anne Eddy fabric to serve as a background.  The irises were inspired by some beautiful Southern Blue Flags that live next to some yellow primroses in our front bed.  The primroses were not planted by us but just appeared this spring.  My husband cares diligently for birds stopping by and I think they planted the primroses for us. 

As always, my favorite part of making an art quilt is doing the free-motion quilting.  I got a little carried away and quilted way more than I had planned to - but it pleases me and that's what it is all about.

Dandelions and Hollyhocks

After a long, unproductive winter, I finally have made something new.  This piece is called "Dandelions and Hollyhocks".  It is 22" x 36".  I had such a good time making it from beginning to end.  I especially enjoyed the quilting - there are actually some feathers surrounded by stippling - not something I usually do.  For once I tried to actually think about the quilting enhancing the quilt rather than just going into a Zen state and seeing how it worked out.  Okay, I did do quite a bit of that too.  It was also fun to return to my bright colors and there is even a bug appliqued on.

This is another of Ellen Anne Eddy's light source fabrics.  I auditioned several backgrounds and this piece brought the picture to life.