Quilting Projects

I decided to try my hand at quilting, but I have never particularly liked the patchwork-type quilts, so I thought I'd try a watercolor quilt.  I wanted it to be like an impressionist painting and I had some really nice fabric that was perfect.  I wanted some water in the background and flowers in the foreground.  I cut my pieces in 2 inch squares and set them diagonally, using a felt-covered board for my design wall.  Once the pieces were sewn together and the border applied, I hand-quilted the picture and machine quilted the border.  The finished quilt is about 23" by 35" and it took me about a month to complete.  It hangs on the wall in my front hall.

Next, I wanted to try a landscape quilt.  I found a Miniature Landscapes class by Susan Brittingham online at Quilt University and learned so much!  A miniature landscape is usually 8" x 10" and is framed rather than bordered.  Here is a selection of some of the miniature landscapes I've made so far.

Summer's End. 
I love the fabrics in this one! 
It hangs in my front hall.

Purple Mountain Majesties.
  I made two of these.
  One was given to Jake's
other grandmother,
Trudy Lindemier, and the second was donated to Camarillo Hospice for a fundraiser.

When the Leaves Begin to Fall.
  I kept this one, but made a similar one for donation to Camarillo Hospice for a fundraiser.

This won 2nd place in one of the quilting divisions of the 2008 County Fair!

Moonlit Lake. 
I gave the original to Trudy and made a similar one for donation to Camarillo Hospice for a fundraiser.

Left and below you can see detail of moon and the tree trunks that shows the use of sparkle tulle and iridescent thread.

Then I signed up for a Fabric Portraits class by Marilyn Belford online at Quilt University.  In this class you begin with a photo and then, using Photoshop or another similar program, you "posterize" it.  This delineates where the color values change.  From that, you prepare a pattern and begin choosing fabric.  The fabric is cut and applied using small pieces of fusing, then stitched using zig-zag and free-motion stitching. 

I began with a picture of my grandson, Jake, and got it to the point of free-motion stitching.  I did some hand-stitching for his eyes and eyebrows and I tried a little free-motion stitching for the hair that hangs over his forehead but quickly realized that I needed something easier for my first attempt, so I switched to a picture of my dog, Slinky.

Here is the original picture of Jake

Here is the posterized version, so that you can see the color gradations.

Here is the pattern that I prepared from the posterized picture.

Here is the beginning of placing the fabric pieces.

Here is the picture with fabric choices and some zig-zag and hand-stitching done.

Here is the finished product, quilted and framed.  Notice that I changed the background fabric from green to cream.  The original fabric got stained, but I like the new fabric better anyway!

This won 1st place in one of the quilting divisions of the 2008 County Fair!

Here is the original picture of Slinky.

Here is the fabric before any stitching.  The colors in Slinky's picture were clear enough that I didn't have to posterize it.

Here is the finished and framed picture.  This won 1st place in one of the quilting divisions of the 2008 County Fair!

Here is detail of the finished picture.

I liked Marilyn Belford's Fabric Portraits class so much that I decided to take another class from her, also through Quilt University.   Art for Quilters was a very good class, and I learned a lot about art -- including the fact that I'm absolutely no good at abstract art!  Here is the quilt that I made for the final lesson.  This is a study in perspective.

Here is the finished quilt, The Future Beckons.  It is approximately 16" x 20".

Here is detail of the finished quilt.

We went to Maui in the early summer of 2008 and I saw beautiful art by B. Allen at a street fair in Lahaina.  I bought one of the prints and used it as inspiration for this quilted picture

This little quilt (8 x 10) won 2nd place in the Art/Mixed Media division at the 2008 County Fair!  (I had enough gold paint on it to qualify for the Art category.)

My husband's mother, Wakae Nuibe, passed away in August, 2008.  In her honor, I made this quilt for her family in Hawaii.

Here is the original picture.

Here is the picture posterized.

Here is the pattern.

I completed this piece in Feb. 2009.  Here is the finished and framed 8 x 10 quilt.  This quilt is now "at home" on Oahu.

In the spring of 2009, I took Linda Schmidt's Waves and Waterfalls class through Quilt University.  I was not able to keep up with all the work in that class, but I did finish the first major assignment.

This is not really a quilt as there is no batting and the only stitching is in the heart of the wave.  It is 8 x 10 and mostly fabric paint, cellophane, tulle, and angelina fiber; and I also painted the mat.  It won 1st place in Art, Mixed Media at the 2009 County Fair.

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