Peacock tails

Dream tonight of peacock tails, diamond fields and spouter whales.  Ills are many, blessings few, but dreams tonight will shelter you.

Herman Melville

The quilt is about 54″x54″.  The background is stonehenge ombre.  The peacock tails are a beautiful digital print.  The peacocks are highlighted on the quilt with metallic thread to make them pop.  The piece is hand appliqued and hand quilted.

 

 

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Sea Turtles

The Turtle’s teachings are so beautiful. So very special. It teaches us that everything you are, everything you need and everything you bring to the world is inside you, not external, and you carry it with you, and are not limited to a place, space or time.      Eileen Anglin

This piece is 54″ x54″.  It is hand appliqued with embroidered outlines to highlight the design.  It is hand quilted.

Close up of highlighting on waves.

Closeup of highlighting on turtles.  Fabric is commercially available batiks.  Completed early 2019.

A View of Infinity

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.”
― William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

This piece started with a beautiful hand dyed fabric made by a friend of mine.  At first glimpse, you might think that it’s a midnight blue – then the diversity of colors and shades becomes gradually apparent.  As with so many pieces that I come by,  I just can’t bring myself to cut them up into little pieces, but need to find a way to be able to see and enjoy the entirety of the piece.

The applique overlaying the hand dyed piece is once again, a variation on the Celtic Waldalgesheim pattern dated between 500-350 BC.  It is reversed appliqued.  As the design came to life, as I was working on it, it also reminded me of the ancient Welsh story of Arianrhod – Goddess of the Silver Wheel.  It was said that Arionrhod was able to shape shift into a large owl, and through the great eyes, was able to see into the darkness of human subconsciousness and the soul.  This owl is winking suspiciously!

The piece is 28 x 42 inches.  It is hand appliqued and hand quilted.

The last two photos are to get a closer look at the depth in the underneath fabric.

We are the World

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
— Maya Angelou

I’m a little late for the celebration of Martin Luther King day, but I’ve been concerned about our moving away from from diversity and inclusiveness for a long time.  This newest quilt celebrates for me the diversity and inclusiveness that we all need to recognize and work toward.

The background fabric is a large map of the world.  The overlaid design (a celtic Waldalgeheim pattern circa 500o-350 BC variation) is reversed appliqued onto the map.  the four immediated edges to the quilt are small seminole pieced designs, blending world and American ideas.

 

The quilt is 55 X 63 inches.  It is machine pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted.

My hope is to see the peoples of the world supporting and loving each other, instead of dividing into us vs. them!

Spring to summer

We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives. Gary Zukav
Spring has arrived.  Hints of summer are evident in the heat the last few days.  The garden is being planted.  The weeds are coming up!  The colors are changing!  The latest quilt reminds me of the greens of spring and the turquoises of the melting streams.

The central panel is a hand dyed fabric in the shibori style.  The central appliqué design is from a  Celtic circular bronze shield boss dredged from the river Thames near Wardsworth, London, England and estimated to be from approximately 300-200 BC.

The quilt is approximately 54 x70 “.  It is hand appliqued and hand quilted.  Completed 2017.

The Children of Lir

Many years ago in ancient Ireland lived a King and ruler of sea called Lir. He had a beautiful wife, called Eva, who gave him four children – eldest son Aodh, a daughter called Fionnula and twin boys, Fiachra and Conn. When children were young, their mother Eva died. Lir and children were very sad, and King wanted a new mother for his young sons and daughter, so he married Eva’s sister Aoife who, it was said, possessed magical powers.

Aoife loved children and Lir at first, but soon she became very jealous of time that King spent with Aodh, Fionnula, Fiachra and Conn. She wanted to have all of his attention for herself. One day, she took children to swim in a lake while sun was hot in sky. When they got there and children took to water, Aoife used her powers to cast a spell over children, which would turn them all into beautiful swans.  http://irelandofthewelcomes.com/the-children-of-lir/

This quilt represent the story of the “Children of Lir”.  The fabric in the center of the quilt is hand dyed.  The orange and yellow fabric in the border represents the burning jealousy of the step mother.

The knotwork represent the children that were turned into swans.

The illusion of the step mother is painted on the fabric with Paint Stik.

The quilt is machine and hand quilted and is approximately 56in x56 in.

 

Infinity and Beyond

Imagination makes us aware of limitless possibilities. How many of us haven’t pondered the concept of infinity or imagined the possibility of time travel? In one of her poems, Emily Bronte likens imagination to a constant companion, but I prefer to think of it as a built-in entertainment system. Alexandra Adornetto

Circles are such a universal symbol of timelessness, eternity, cycles of life, completion, unity, regeneration and on and on.  The Celts used spiral and circles in so many of their decorations and I am intrigued by the never ending variety of them.

I found the background fabric for the spirals on a sale table in a shop in Virginia.  I couldn’t bear to cut it up, so decided to put the spirals on the top of each so the wonderful marbling on the fabric could still show.  The quilt is then outlined with random length blocks to show off the designs.  Aiden Meehan has done a series of books that are extremely helpful in drafting celtic designs and he also does a wonderful job of historical and developmental aspects of the designs.

Here are close ups of two of the spirals.

The quilts is 50×64 inches.  Designs are hand appliqued and the quilt is hand quilted in black thread.  Here’s a peek at the back.

 

 

 

Dreaming of Spring Again

The sky is gray, the atmosphere is very gloomy and it is so cold outside.  But I got some great news today.  My quilt that has been on loan to the “500 Traditional Quilts” tour is going to make it’s final appearance in the International Quilt Festival in Chicago from April 4 through April 7, 2016.  It was really exciting to get this news.

More Celtic Dreams

Am fear nach cuir a shnaidhm, caillidh e chiad ghrèim.
The man who puts not a knot on his thread loses the first stitch.

I love the intricacies of celtic design.  Aidan Meehan has published a series of books on Celtic design that are an excellent help when it comes to drafting the designs.  He is also very informative about the origins of the designs.  In this quilt I used a lot of his drafting techniques and design elements.

Knot work is, of course a large part of celtic designs.  Zoomorphic design is also a key element.

The design in the four corners of the quilt is after a Commaccio Flagon Mount, Italy, about 325 BC.  In the outline, you can see the mask, with the drop shaped eyes and bulbous nose.   In the corners are dragon shapes and in the triangles, griffin shapes.

This is a close of of the knot work.

This is a closeup of the central spiral.

The quilt is approximately 58×58 inches.  It is hand appliqued, and hand quilted.  It is finished with a corded edging.

Finished 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter has come!

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

 

This morning I woke up to this scene in my backyard!

My quilt guild has an annual quilt challenge and show in December.  This year the challenge was to take a picture from nature and use the colors in the picture to create a quilt.  It didn’t have to be a copy of the picture by just the colors from the picture.  I had taken a picture last winter of a leaf desperately hanging on to a branch after the first snow.

The quilt is approximately 40 inches by 26 inches.  It is hand appliqued and hand quilted.  The picture frame border is  finished with a piping edge and the center design is outlined with double piping.