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.

 

 

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!

Tears for Jean

“Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay

I lost my only sister several years ago.  The hole is your heart just doesn’t go away.  She went through several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation over 5 years.  Some of those times I went to sit with her during those treatments.  Being a quilter, I had to have something for my fingers to do during those periods of time.  I cut out a lot of blocks and sat and did hand piecing waiting for that drip to be complete.  Over the years of her treatment, that is the only time I worked on them.  Since she has passed away, the project has been buried deep in the quilting room.  I’ve brought it out a few time and just couldn’t bring myself to finish what I had started.  Last month, I finally pulled it out and put it together.

I couldn’t bring myself to put any more of the blocks together.  Then it struck me that making the pieces fall away from the central design was the process that I watched with my sister.  I watched the pieces of her fall away gradually during the years of her treatment. To me this piece represents the process that I watched play out in front of me.

It is hand pieced and hand quilted.  42″x approximately 5?”

“If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?”
― Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper

Dreaming of Quilts

“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.”
― Vincent Van Gogh

I love this quote!  I just have to replace painting with quilting!

The design on the central portion of this quilt is a variant on a military helmet found in Italy and dated to approximately 325 BC.  The side designs were just a take off of the central design.  I found the teal fabric on a trip one summer in Grand Island Nebraska.  It has been looking at me for awhile.  I couldn’t bear to cut it up into little pieces so decided to used it in bigger swatches.

The quilt is 48by58inches.  It is hand appliqued and hand quilted.  It was completed in 2016.

Ma soeur française

“Great wine requires a mad man to grow the vine, a wise man to watch over it, a lucid poet to make it, and a lover to drink it.” – Salvador Dali

When I was in high school (many moons ago!) our family hosted a French student for the school year.  I didn’t know much about the world beyond Iowa at that time and this was an incredible opportunity for my family to widen our horizons.  Jocy had lived many places in France, but her heart always remained in the regions of Beaujolais where her family had deep roots.  As we became young women, and our families grew, and we were both deeply involved in family and careers, we lost touch.  Many attempts were made to reconnect, without much success, until I opened up Facebook about a year and a half ago and had a “friend request” from my long lost friend.  What an incredible surprise!  Correspondence ensued and I just returned from spending 10 days in France with Jocy experiencing the part of France that she loves most.  Fall is an absolutely beautiful time to visit Lyon and the Beaujolais wine region of France.  Of course,  I’m a quilter and I spent days and days pondering what I could take to France that wouldn’t take up all of my luggage.  I found a wonderful fabric print of a world map and overlaid the map with a traditional celtic design.  Along the edges, I added four designs in seminole strip piecing to represent America.  The piece is hand appliqued and hand quilted. It measure approximately 28 x 46 inches.

These show the seminole pieced border in more detail.

One of the most beautiful places that we visited was the medieval village of Pérouges.  Pérouges is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. It is a medieval walled town that is perched on a small hill that overlooks the plain of the Ain River.  The town was was inhabited by craftsmen; mainly farmers and linen weavers. It was probably founded by a Gallic colony.  In 1167, the Seigneur d’Anthon famously shut the commune’s walls against the troops of the Archbishop of Lyon, and as early as 1236 the inhabitants earned communal freedom. In 1601 the town officially became French. Until the end of the 18th century, the textile industry in Pérouges boomed. (wikipedia)

The visit to France and the renewal of an old friendship was beautiful!

Star light, Star bright

First star I see tonight, Wish I may, Wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight.

This all started because I wanted to applique on a Mariner’s Compass.  Then it just grew and grew.  I think that I tried 5 different fabrics to mount the compass on before I found one that really works.  The fabrics came from some of my travels (Fabric Shack in  Virginia Beach, VA,  Cosmic Cow in Lincoln, NE) and pieces from my stash.  It is hand appliqued and hand quilted.

The size is 60 x 60.  It has a piping binding.