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.

Lodgepole Pines

Lodgepole Pines is my most recent work.  It is 14" x 21 1/2".  It was inspired by another piece of Ellen Anne Eddy's fabric.  It looked like I imagine a Canadian winter scene.  In person, the piece has a more smoky blue-green cast which gives it more life than this picture.  I'm definitely on a roll with featuring pine trees in my work.  There is a hypnotic relaxation I find in doing the free-motion work.

Sentinel

 

 

Sentinel (18" x 22") is my most recent work.  I received my much-awaited box of hand-dyed fabric from Ellen Anne Eddy last week and this fabric immediately jumped out at me.  It makes for a beautiful night background.  Her fabrics often have the feeling of a light source which contributes a lot to my enjoyment of the finished piece.  This work is available at Waverly House Gallery in Springfield, Missouri.

Little Bright Eyes

This small quilt (16" x 20") jumped into my mind a few weeks ago.  The front is completely free-motion stitched.  The little saw-whet owl is thread painted and all the pine needles are thread sketching.  The moon is composed of angelina fibers.

After searching for a good background, I came upon my last piece of fabric that I bought from Ellen Anne Eddy six years ago.  And it was perfect.  Then I looked back through my gallery of quilts and realized my favorite work had been done with her fabrics as background.  So I am now watching daily for a new box containing many yards of her fabric.  I feel like a kid waiting for her first bicycle!

I'm on my way to Waverly House Gallery to take this latest work.  I may have to make another for myself because I'm very fond of it.

Sun Tiger

This piece is my entry into a juried show coming up soon.  I thread-painted the black areas on the butterfly on top of white fabric.  That is not one of the best decisions I've ever made.  Of course, the white showed through.  So, in addition to thread, I painted the black with black fabric paint.  The pale yellow areas are also fabric paint.  The piece is about 20" square.

The Richest Chord

I belong to an art quilt group that has been making 12" x 12" challenge quilts for the past year. Our most recent challenge was to base a quilt on the theme of music. I had a number of thoughts but decided to try to depict my favorite chord in fabric. As you can see, my piece grew substantially beyond 12 x 12! It is 18" by 45" before adding the border/frame. So I hung it in my living room and kept it for us.

My favorite piece of music is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.  I've been playing it on the piano for fifty-five years!  There is a chord in the last movement that is so full and rich that I've been known to play it over and over when no one else is around.

So there is the chord or chord series that has given me chills for all these years.  Now to get my piano tuned and start playing more than once or twice a year.

Return to Eden

Return to Eden - 30" square

This piece was juried into the "Journeys" show at Waverly House Gallery.  I was delighted to learn that it was judged "Best of Show".  The show continues through the end of November.

The quilt was a joy to make since the fabrics told me what they wanted to be and where they wanted to be and I simply listened.  I usually buy very little fabric but went wild this fall buying lots of different fabrics and not just the batiks that usually want to come home with me.  The new fabric really helped give me a burst of creativity.  

Wallflowers

Wallflowers II  - 31" x 40"

This quilt was a joy to make.  I started by making several flowers with no idea what I was going to do with them.  Then it seemed they needed a stone wall to lean against.  I sewed everything down, including the leaves and flower that project into the sky.  After seeing some great pieced skies at a quilt guild meeting, I came home and did some major unsewing and changed the sky.  It was a great improvement.

This piece will be exhibited at Waverly House Gallery during the annual "Meet the Artists" weekend September 9th and 10th.  If you are around Springfield, come see it and me.

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

COON - 9" x 12"

FANTASY FLOWER - 9" x 12"

I made these two small quilts for the AAQI monthly auction.  If you are not familiar with AAQI, please visit the website at http://www.alzquilts.org.  The organization has raised a substantial amount of money for research on Alzheimer's disease primarily through the sale of small quilts.  The founder, Ami Simms, saw first-hand the devastating effects of this disease with her mother.  Although her mother has passed on, Ami has remained faithful to this cause.

My sister has this disease and I have watched it destroy her day by day.  I hope you will take a moment to look at the little quilts and consider making a bid or participating by making one of the auction quilts yourself.

Thanks for looking!