Quilts from 2017 onwards

 

2021   ENGLAND

            A table topper using the Kaleidoscope method - this took ages to make and was particularly                     difficult.  I had said "never again" when I last did one of these, and obviously forgot!

            More placemats

            Speke Hall, Liverpool.  I haven't actually visited this wonderful old house yet, but I was inspired to make a tapestry of it to partner with the one below of Bramhall Hall, Stockport, built around the same time - (14\15th century).    I took out a whole section of its width - a window and its surround - in order to make "better" proportions. It still didn't fit into any wooden frame that I could find so I finished up giving it a fabric border, like a quilt picture.  I made the Bramhall Hall tapestry when we first got to the U.S. in 1982.  We had lived about a mile from it in Bramhall - such a long time ago.

              Lavender Fields  14" x 13"   

           This was copied from a birthday card sent by my daughter because she thought it would inspire me to make something of it.  It did.  

Quilts from 2010 - 2016

Scenes from Brighton & East Sussex,   England     40" x 44"

An embroidery project worked on over many years, taking as long to photograph, design and draw the panels as it took to stitch them.  Getting them all to fit together was also a challenge.  The embroidery is like traditional red-work (using back-stitch) but done in a green embroidery floss.

Completed December 2016

 

3D Flowers - Hydrangeas and Clematis   18" x 18"

Another project to create a three dimensional effect.

 

 

 

Garden Quilt   65" x 60"

My quilt has hand appliqued flowers (mostly from my own drawings), with machine quilting.  This simple sentence conveys nothing of the hours, weeks, months, years it has taken me to actually create it.  It started as a hand sewing project, and as each set of flowers materialized I knew I had to do something with them.

Easier if I had planned the layout/sizes etc. before starting, but that would have been too simple. The machine quilting was an ordeal all on its own - I don't understand how "real" quilters do this!  Anyway I am proud of the result!        Completed 2014    

Fuchsias     9" x 11"  

I have been wanting to make some 3D flowers, and I was inspired again this summer in England by gardens full of huge bushes of them.  I painted the background first in a pale wash. Then painted leaves and flowers, using aquarelle crayons and fabric paint, and then added machine appliqued flowers and leaves, and finally attached the 3D fuchsias.  The white flowers (seed beads) at the base was inspired by the endless fuchsia hedgerows we saw in Ireland several years ago, where the fluffy white blossoms made such a beautiful contrast with the wild fuchsia and their dark leaves.    2015

 

 

 

 

Kaleidoscope 30" diameter 

I used the techniques created by Ricky Tims from an online tutorial.  Complicated, but interesting the way it all came together in the end. Probably got a bit too "busy" but you don't know that until its all put together!  2015

 

 

 French Village Street   12" x 16"   This is from a photo I took, and many more similar, during a driving tour through Provence in 2006.  

 

Little Mix  15" x 13"   Another project for/with Natalie. Her favorite singing group (when we started two years ago - 2012).   She lost interest and I finished it all. I think she cut out the stars! 2014

Sewing Box (and bowl for scrap threads)    8" diameter x 3" high. 

Covered foam-core board and quilted outer fabric, hand-stitched together. Crocheted border on lid.   Bowl uses Timtex.  Not exactly a quilt, but...... I loved making them, and they are very useful when hand-sewing.





Calero Reservoir  21" x 16". 

Inspired by a Paintsite with SCVWS in March 2013 - in one version I painted I had grouped the trees in clumps and the result reminded me of a fabric patchwork. 2013

 

And here's the painting

 

 

 

Two sets of table mats   2012

 

 

 

Sussex Windmills  24" x  24" I always wanted to try out this quilting pattern without the patience to make a bed-size quilt, so I combined it with another idea inspired by Delft pottery of windmills in blue and white. These are windmills in Sussex that we have been visiting over the last couple of summers, most restored and open to the public and one is a private house.  In order: West Blatchington, Patcham, Rottingdean, High Salvington, and "Jill" at Clayton.  2012




Dyed and Folded   27" x 30"   A project to use the fabrics created at a session on shaving cream dying a few years ago, together with some samples of  folding & tucking from Jennie Rayment's  book,              "Creative Tucks & Textures".    2012

Jessie Jay  14" x 12"   Another summer project with Natalie, her idea, my design, she coloured and cut, and with her nimble fingers peeled off all the fusible backing papers,  and I sewed. 
 Summer 2012

  
 


Light as Air  36" x  14" With instruction at a session with Wedgewood Quilters, I then had fun 'discharging' at home.  Shapes were made out of freezer paper and ironed to a black background. Then we sprayed the fabric with a bleach/water mix  - the discharging, removing the shapes and rinsing as soon as the desired effect was reached. The same shapes were then used to cut the appliques which were offset slightly to give a shadow effect.  I used images that float naturally.  2011

Tiger.  55" x 40"  I told Natalie that most grandmas make their granddaughters a quilt. So, what do you want on yours?  A snake!  I don't do snakes. Well, a tiger then. OK, I said.   Here it is, with two other tigers (below) as wall hangings.  The first tiger I colored in Aquarelle crayons using acrylic medium and the result felt a bit like plastic.  The second one I added raw edge applique leaves, which my quilting colleagues said would not wash well.  The first one went to Hannah for her room, and the second one is in Natalie's room at her mum's. The big quilt had painted leaves and I used seta color for the tigers. 2010   





65" x  65"  Another scrap quilt  2011

Table Topper. 28"  From a pattern in a library book.  I love the weaving effect and it gave me the opportunity to try the kaleidoscope principle (never again). Its a very clever pattern - a triangle block turned different ways.  2011

Adventures of Zelda - Link   22" x 19" Made to Natalie's specifications and my design. She helped tracing and cut out all the fused fabric pieces.  She also colored the castle and insisted on the ray of light from the top window - it must all mean something.  Summer 2011.

December  24" x 18"  This was a project with Wedgewood Quilters - depict your birth month in an 18" x 24" panel.  The name of the month had to appear also, so I placed a calendar on the mantle shelf.  I wanted a cosy room and a window view.  I hadn't intended to make a Christmasy scene, but the space needed filling, and the cat was to add a bit of life, and to get a sense of warmth within and cold outside. Typical of December, if you don't live in California.   The tree, the curtains and the chair are slightly three dimensional.  Summer 2011

  

OTHER QUILTS

Wedgewood Quilters Interprets Water. 45" x 75"  Group Challenge.  We each had to produce one 15" square block, quilted and bound, depicting water, which was assembled into a wall hanging.    It was made in time for the 2011 SCVQA Quilt Show.   I actually made two panels, and as an extra one was needed to complete the project, mine is the wave effect block at the top.   I also made the last one in the second row - four ways of showing falling water; a fountain, watering can with flowers, a grotto, and rain on an umbrella.



Valley of Heart's Delight.   53" x 68"  This is the Opportunity Quilt for 2010/2011 for the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association.  Every other year, the Guild produces a quilt as a fund raiser, and sells raffle tickets for it at quilt shows in the area.  Wedgewood Quilters led the effort for this one.  It is redwork; hand embroidered, machine assembled, hand-quilted.  Our group came up with the idea and the overall design, and I did all the drawings and assisted with the layout.  I also embroidered three of the panels, but many members of the main Guild also were involved, including taking on the majority of the hand quilting. The raffle was held at PIQF in October after about eighteen months "on the road", and was actually won by one of the members of Wedgewood, which was a wonderful coincidence!



Quilts from 2008 - 2009




Geraniums in the Window  24" x 25"This geranium window box and the ornate window were at a cafe in the Stubai Valley in Austria. We found the cafe at the end of a long, steep climb up the side of the valley - a most welcome break. The flowers are three dimensional, cut from batiks and attached by hand just at their centers.

Doors at Filoli.  24" x 30" I photographed all the doors and gates I could find at Filoli in Woodside, CA, and came up with these four. Lots of different techniques used, including painting the flower pots, and cutting some flowers from pre-printed fabric - the three dimensional gate was the biggest challenge.



A Christmas stocking for Natalie. I cut this down in Photoshop and used the image for a Christmas card (electronic version only) in 2008.



Camelias. 20" x 20" Inspired by the camilias at Filoli and the many photos I took there, but in the end mostly taken from pictures I found on the internet, with a lot of liberties taken. This is not a botanical guide!

Hydrangeas. 26" x 26" This is a "convergence" quilt, copied from some I saw at the quilt shows, with some hints and "how-to's" given by the lady who specializes in them. Pre-printed fabric.



Wood Block.  25" x 25"  I like the effect of grading fabrics from light to dark, and got the inspiration for the center from someone at my quilt group. I added the snail trail blocks because it needed something else and I have always wanted to try them; the border was added to match the center.


Journal Quilts

In 2008 we ran a monthly "challenge" at Wedgewood Quilters (my small quilt group) We picked a theme each month and had to produce journal quilts - 8" x 11". These five were my best efforts:




Theme: use a photograph in a quilt.  12" x 10"  This is Torr House in Carmel, built by poet Robertson Jeffers in the early 1900's from rocks he hauled up from the beach himself. I loved this cosy room with the view, but had to do it from memory, as no photos were allowed inside the house. The sea view was a photo I took more or less in front of the house, printed on fabric and machine quilted. The picture on the wall is of the tower that he built next to house. We visited just before Christmas, hence the poinsetta.

 



Theme: critters. 9" x 11"  A break from my realistic pictures. Wish I could do more like this. I used cheese cloth soaked in onion skins to color it, and bleach to "discharge" the twigs on the black panel. Some hand-spun wool too.

Theme:  using a photo  9" x 11" with the hibiscus printed on foundation paper, plus ribbon and beads.



Theme: vegetables. 8" x 11"  From a photo in a cookbook - where else?

 

Theme:  leaves.  8" x 11" I collected some leaves, painted them and stamped them on fabric that was pre-colored with tea. The border is three dimensional - leaves cut from painted fabric



Roundabout.  10" x 10"  The small blocks were pieced by hand, the rest by machine.

 

Fans and Doilies.   28" x 42" This was originally going to contain the yellow fans too, but at the last minute I decided to make it only the cooler colors. Not sure why now, I think it would have been better with more of a multi-color look. Too late now..... 

 

The yellows - 14" x 14"  rejected from the main quilt, and all out on their own.

Bowl and plate.  (7" diameter plate) The fabric is fused to Temtex (both sides) and the shapes are stitched together with a wide machined satin stitch. The picture on the plate was copied from a Delft plate.



Irises  8" x 6" Painted on muslin with Dynaflow paint, and machine quilted





Historic Houses in Santa Clara County.  22"  x 18" Prusch Farm House, San Jose; Rengstorff House, Mountain View; Harris Lass House, San Jose; Ainsley House, Campbell.  These were drawn in pen on a close weave muslin, a wash of sepia paint was added, and then flowers were embroidered for the gardens in front of each house. 18" x 24"

 





Sampler 60" x 60" I started out with a few experimental 12" blocks in 2004 - one of my first projects. They were one day going to be part of a quilt to hang on the very tall wall in the family room at our Saratoga house. Over the following years I tried various different technques in the same color theme - the celtic blocks, an Hawaiian applique, paper pieced houses, and a bird, a Drunkard's Path block, Snail Trails, and various stars and other blocks.  We were getting ready to sell the house in Saratoga when I decided it was time to put them together.  None of the blocks matched in size, so there was a lot of filling pieces, strips, etc., and getting it all to fit and hang straight was a nightmare. It eventually worked, but it never went on the wall at Bellwood Drive.





Lone Palm  10" x 10" I used hand spun wool (from a friend whose brother kept sheep on a farm in England - years ago) for the breaking waves. This was to be decoration for a bag, but somehow it never got there.







OTHER QUILTS




Garden Project with Wedgewood Quilters. 33" x 40"  We each made 11 blocks, 8" square on a garden theme, using green.   On the "due date" 11 brown paper bags were assembled and each bag received a block from each person.  The bags were then randomly distributed.  We then took them home and made our own quilts with 11 different blocks.  My own block is second one down on the right.