Virtual Quilt Show

What do you do when your Real World Quilt Show continues to be cancelled? Here is a selection of our quilts for you to enjoy.

Please select a name to jump to that maker's quilts.

  • Scarlet Artruc
  • Joanne Artz
  • Heidi August
  • Boston Modern Quilt Guild
  • Andrea Cannon
  • Emily Carney
  • Liz Cronenwett
  • Alexis Deise
  • Patrice Denault
  • do.Good Stitches Hope Circle
  • Angie Fitzreiter
  • Elena Gonzalez Ros
  • Emily Hofmann
  • Joyce Husseini
  • Diane Kelley
  • Amy Kidd
  • Karen Leavitt
  • Rebecca Loren
  • Sheryl Marshall
  • Susan McKinney
  • Ninth Street Women Bee
  • Wendy Oeser-Rhein
  • Jean Osborn
  • Jean Penta
  • Nancy Ries
  • Simply Solids Bee
  • Jen Sorenson
  • Emily Williams
  • Louisa Williams
  • Terri Williams
  • Scarlet Artruc

    Paisley Pup, 21" x 36", Pattern: "Emerson" by Laura Heine www.fiberworks-heine.com

    This wall hanging was started at a collage quilting class I took at Portsmouth Fabrics in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It is a pattern by Laura Heine called "Emerson". The technique was from Laura's pattern using Pattern Ease and fusible webbing. The fabrics I chose are scraps from my stash. The background is a text pattern with a garden theme. I quilted it densely with an invisible thread.

    The Grove, 46" x 32", Pattern by Carolyn Friedlander

    I was inspired to make this wall hanging after seeing some of my quilting friends complete theirs. This quilt is individual paper pieced trees that are sewn together. It is all batik fabrics. I chose to quilt it in close lines outside the trees so that each tree would pop.

    You Must be Croaking, 55" x 64", Pattern by Karen Brow javahousequilts.com

    This quilt was a challenge for me as it combines piecing and applique techniques. The small frog bodies are pieced and the eyes are appliqued on. The large frog is appliqued using a fused raw-edge technique. I quilted it using a mid-arm machine with a paper template.

    return to top

    Joanne Artz (@sewpls)

    Spider Web 2019, 36" x 36"

    I normally work with bright fabrics, but wanted to try something different. I had seen this in a Pilgrim and Roy book. Normally quilts in their collection are beyond my skill set, but when I saw this one, I thought...I think I could make one like that. In making it, I developed an affinity for the background color...Kona - Fog. It might be my signature color. I enjoyed every aspect of making it and plan to make a bigger one someday!



    Spot It, 59" x 82", Pattern: Liz Porter’s Friendship Rings

    This quilt is a variation on Liz Porter’s Friendship Rings Quilt. I saw this quilt on a TV episode of Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting. I named it Spot It because I stitched things in the triangles...kites, sailboats, I ❤️ Dad, etc.

    return to top

    Heidi August (@monthlady)

    Pineapple of My Life, 70" x 70", Longarm Quilting by Pat Burnham

    This was my first attempt at making pineapple squares and I got carried away. A quilt should be personal so that is why I fussy cut almost every piece of this quilt. If you look carefully you will see themes in most of the squares and pieces. The quilt tells you many things I like: favorite foods, places I have lived, hippos, sports and Halloween.

     

    Playoff Siddi, 19" x 17"

    I took a class with Sujata Shah and not only did she inspire me but many friends who saw the quilt. The stitching was all done by hand. This is one project I could not stop doing until it was finished. I sewed while watching the Boston Celtics play in the "bubble". I was disappointed they lost but happy with my quilting results.

    return to top

    Boston Modern Quilt Guild (@bostonmqg)

    Orange You Glad We Made This Quilt? and Shattered are group quilts created through distanced and virtual togetherness. The design process began with a group brainstorming in a park. Participants then made curvy starter-blocks using materials provided by the guild, followed by a virtual workshop where the starter-blocks were altered by random prompts. The improvised blocks were brought together at a backyard design session where two quilt designs emerged. Although the two quilts were made from improvisational blocks that were essentially the same, the resulting quilts were very different. The process was truly collaborative and fun.

    Orange You Glad We Made This Quilt?, 64” x 85”, Long Arm Quilting by Rebecca Loren

    Shattered, 65” x 84”, Long Arm Quilting by Patrice Denault

    Sprockets, 59” x 70”, Long Arm Quilting by Rebecca Loren

    The focus of this quilt is the Circle of Friends blocks, many of which were made by members of the Boston Modern Quilt Guild during our virtual retreat held last March at the beginning of lockdown. Normally arranged in full circles, this composition includes connector blocks which break up and reconnect the circle of friends in a meandering composition without start or end. while apart, we are still together in our circle of friends and will come together again. 

    return to top

    Andrea Cannon (@andinstitch)

    Jawbreaker, 64" x 80", Pattern by Then Came June, Long arm quilting by Three Birds and Stitches

    Jawbreaker was created as a tribute to my uncle who passed away from cancer. I encorporated shirts worn by him into the quilt and hand lettered a quote from his memorial service on the label. I was inspired to take a finished photo of the quilt on a hiking trail as this was my uncles favorite pass time.

    return to top

    Emily Carney (@eacarneyy)

    Keeping the Post Office in Business, 24" x 24", Pattern: Envelops by Carolyn Friedlander

    Many of my family members like to write letters and we joke that we are "keeping the post office in business." This quilt hangs in my bedroom to remind me of the beautiful correspondence with family and friends near and far.

          

    Anna Maria, 48" x 32", Pattern: Everglade by Carolyn Friedlander

    This quilt explores playing with patterns and color. The symmetrical designs are cut from fabric folded into quarters (like you would make a paper snowflake) and I learned the needle-turn applique technique.

           

    return to top

    Liz Cronenwett (@hexapusrex)

    Fractured Starlight, 15” x 15"

    Fractured Starlight is an improvisational quilt, made for a mini-quilt challenge where the topic (stars) and color palette were set. I used scraps of mostly cotton fabrics left from making other quilts, choosing greys based on the size of the space left to fill and whether the arrangement was pleasing to the eye.

    return to top

    Alexis Deise (@alexisdeise)

    American Album Quilt, 60” x 70”

    In an average month, fifty American women are shot to death by their current or former intimate partners, and many more are injured. In many cases, children are also killed. The majority of mass shootings--defined as four or more people fatally shot, not including the perpetrator--are domestic violence. This quilt, a stripped-down version of a classic American "Baltimore Album" format rendered in hand-applique, commemorates six domestic-violence mass shootings as well as six other domestic-violence murders with multiple victims in a single family. The reverse of the quilt features panels of reclaimed bedsheets each hand embroidered with the date and location of a domestic shooting. These incidents rarely garner national media attention, and when they do, they quickly and quietly fade out of the public consciousness.

    Irish Chain Variation 1 (Tangled), 52” x 52”

    This quilt is part of a series exploring how a traditional layout, the "Irish chain" composition, can be altered and manipulated to achieve different effects. In this version, the blocks that make up the chain have been liberated from their expected rigid grid composition and reconfigured randomly, like a chain that has been dropped or tangled.

    Comfort Quilt for a Lockdown Drill, 60” x 72”

    This quilt was begun just after 17 children and teachers were shot to death in their school in Parkland, FL. Since then, there has been a shooting resulting in injury or death in a US school, on average, every 12 days. Survivors suffer PTSD while others are traumatized by lockdown drills. This quilt asks us to consider who has become the "well-regulated militia" as our children are placed on the front lines of our national obsession with guns. Traditional quilting techniques such as hand applique and yarn ties are employed to emphasize the connection between the very American art form of quilting and the very American problem of guns.

    Carpenter Square Variation, 82” x 62”

    This quilt is part of an ongoing series in which I strip down a traditional quilt block and configuration to its essentials, rendering it in simple black and white, then experiment with alternative configurations of the blocks to achieve a modern effect. Pop and Op-Art were the inspiration for this variation on the classic "Carpenter Square."

    return to top

    Patrice Denault (@quiltingwithpatrice)

    Thank You Jane, 74" x 74"

    Jane Stickle finished her quilt in 1863. People are still enchanted and challenged by her unique quilt blocks. Even with all of my modern gadgets and fancy machines I still had a lot to learn from Jane. Could not have managed to get through all of the blocks without help from the Dear Jane Group lead by Pat Kowalczyk at Quilters Common, which met for 4 years starting in 2013.

    Shelter in Place, 33" x 33"

    I put this little quilt together last year when everyone was sheltering in place due to the pandemic. One of the houses looks quite similar to ours. Another is very similar to a block designed by Ruth McKim in the 1930s called Honeymoon Cottage.

    Stormy, 48" x 39"

    During the pandemic I found myself trying a virtual workshop. I took Mid Century Modern with Carole Lyles Shaw. This is improv to the max. You start out with a big pieced circle and then you just keep slicing, relocating and adding. I posted my progress online and Carole commented that I should keep slicing! At some point I was satisfied with my slicing and this is the stormy result.

    return to top

    do.Good Stitches Hope Circle (#dogoodstitcheshopecircle)

    Hope, 72" x 72", Long Arm Quilting by Patrice Denault

    Some of the members of the guild are working with a group of ladies in the do.Good Stitches Hope circle of quilters. We are an online community working through Instagram and Flickr to design and share quilt blocks for comfort quilts. Patrice designed this quilt, collected the blocks and put it together. It is always amazing how the quilts come together with just a little bit of prompting for fabric selection. The rainbow of colors gives us all hope for less cloudy days ahead.

    Circle of Friends, 70” x 70”, Long Arm Quilting by Susan McKinney

    The Circle of Friends block with its brightly colored rays was designed for the do.Good Stitches Hope circle, a group of eleven women scattered all over North America. The circle makes and donates quilts to a variety of organizations, bringing warmth and comfort to the recipients

    return to top

    Angie Fitzreiter (@fourloonsquilting)

    iHeart QALs, 87" x 94", Tula Pink's Butterfly Quilt Pattern

    I was inspired to create this from my bundle of favorite fabrics, and a post about a Quilt-a-Long/Stitch-a-Long with blogger, Gnome Angel. Despite some hesitation, in the summer of 2017, I joined #TulaPinkButterflySAL. I'd say that my second SAL was a success - I used fabric choices in new ways, followed the pattern, and it was fun joining the online community.

    return to top

    Elena Gonzalez Ros

    Dot, Dot, Dot, 24” x 24“

    Dot, dot, dot… is a wink to an improvisational style, where you don’t know what is going to come next. I started with a traditional grid to hold 9 circles, but broke away from it by creating circles that followed no specific pattern and providing just small hints of sashing here and there. The use of bold strips of colors combined to form the sashing is innovative and unconventional. The circles are machine pieced and then hand appliqued to the background fabric. The three dots at the bottom tell us that everything is possible in modern quilting...

    Spanish Gone Missing, 40” x 27"

    Spanish Gone Missing was my reaction to the White House Administration taking down the Spanish version of their website shortly after the January 2017 inauguration. This action ignores and neglects millions of Spanish speakers who live in the US and reveals Trump’s lack of commitment to diversity. Attacks on the Spanish language show that discrimination can take many forms and assume that there is just “one” type of American. This social justice quilt shows my desktop with the “404 missing page” and my true prediction that we would have to wait 4 more years to have it back.

    Triangles Two Ways, 45” x 37”

    Triangles Two Ways is an experimental quilt that was made using leftover fabrics. The diamond shape is intentionally slightly off-centered and the negative space is used to experiment with two types of quilting. The quilting to the left of the diamond is hand sewn, with thick embroidery thread (representing traditional methods) whereas the right hand side is machine quilted and sewn in random directions (modern). However, splashes of color make their way to both sides blending the two aesthetics together.

    return to top

    Emily Hofmann (@villohof)

    Tangrams: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, 38” x 38"

    From a young age I have loved math and puzzles. I remember playing with tangram puzzles as a child and really wanted to recreate this in a quilt. The animals are pieced using the 7 tangram polygon pieces. There was a bit of debate on the title for this quilt ("One Cat, Three Birds" and "And Then There Was One" were frontrunners) but in the end I settled on Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

    Stripe Out, 25” x 33"

    Sometimes there are wacky ideas. As an avid dyer I thought it would be interesting to dye batting and find a way to be able to see the inside of a quilt. I dyed several pieces of batting, cut them into triangles, and pieced them back together. For the top of the quilt I added strips of thin white lawn to be able to see the colored batting inside then did strips of the same colors in the fabric as well as the quilting.

    What's Inside Matters, 15” x 15"

    This quilt was made for the Curated Quilts "Well Said" mini quilt challenge. I wanted this to be read as both what is inside of a quilt matters (batting for warmth and the love of the quilter) but also what is inside of us is what really matters, not the outside. The seams containing the words were sewn on the bias and then intentionally stretched to create holes for the inside fabric.

    return to top

    Joyce Husseini (@gisjoyce)

    Panot de Flor, 24” x 54"

    Panot de Flor is a quilted interpretation of the famed sidewalk tiles from the L’Eixample neighborhood in Barcelona. It is long and narrow to suggest the shape of a sidewalk. The linen fabrics were purchased at a fabric shop on Passeig de Gracia in Barcelona.

    Vintage Mary, 60” x 60”, Longarm Quilting by Kathy Graves

    Vintage Mary uses a large block pattern with subdued tones to highlight the vintage feed sack fabrics that were gifted to me after the passing of my cousin Mary O’Brien. Mary was an antique collector and a sewist and was drawn to items that represented our heritage. We grew up in the shadows of a flour mill in rural Minnesota.

    return to top

    Diane Kelley

    Red Birches, 35” x 48"

    I am not fond of working with white fabric and this design seemed to be the solution of working with a minimum amount of white fabric and enhancing it with the red. I added the appliqued tree and cardinals at the end to reflect the garden outside my window.

    return to top

    Amy Kidd (@amylizquilts)

    Fractured Rainbow, 67” x 67”

    This quilt is an uneven log cabin quilt. Using the striped Kaffe Fassett fabric for the wider logs creates additional patterns in a rainbow of colors. Most of the assembly was done at the 2017 Boston MQG retreat in Maine, where I received feedback, encouragement, and a little help from other guild members. The completed quilt top hung in front of a sunny widow where the light and colors inspired the name "Fractured Rainbow".

    Rainbow Tempest, 83” x 83"

    This storm at sea quilt is the second in a series of designing traditional quilt patterns using rainbow striped fabric. The tiny colorful stripes add a new dimension to the traditional designs.

    Prismatic, 26" x 23"

    This mini quilt was created for a Boston MQG scrap quilt challenge. Everything used to make it was leftover from another project in the works, including many different colorways of striped fabric. The improv piecing and quilting lines are intended to increase the sense of movement.

    return to top

    Karen Leavitt (@kkleaveit)

    Textures and Sparkles, 38" x 41"

    I received a fat quarter bundle of the sparkly linen fabric and already had white and gold fabric that complemented it nicely. That was boring so I added bright silk for my pop of color. The block itself is called Fences, which comes from the Black & White Quilts by Design book, but the layout is mine. I noticed that some of the linen had gold threads and others, silver. That concerned me until I remembered a famous line from the TV show, What Not To Wear, “it’s ok to mix your metals.” If it was ok for Stacy and Clinton, it was ok for me. Because it took 7-8 minutes to quilt each of the many, many white pieces. I almost changed the name to “What Was I Thinking.

    Hoarding Isn't Always Bad, 45” x 58”

    I always wanted to make a black and white quilt so I started collecting (i.e., hoarding) fabric. I looked for interesting prints with a modern flair, prints what would cause people to stop and talk about the martini glasses, musical symbols, scissors, etc. The block is an improv log cabin, dark in the center, whites all around. The back is a single block. I quilted it from the back using different decorative stitches in each piece. I learned this technique from a New England Quilt Museum Brown Bag event.

    Broken Glass in the Grass, 32” x 48"

    Early in the pandemic, suffering from cabin fever, I took Carol Lyles Shaw's online Mid-Century Modern class. It was simple and fun. Stack four squares, cut a curve, mix up the pieces, and sew them back together. Then I sliced, diced, flipped, and shuffled the pieces to come up with a quilt. I had this one on my design wall off and on for much of the year until I figured out what was wrong with it. I kept thinking that it was too narrow and I needed to make more blocks. Finally I realized that, instead, it was too long. I chopped off a good-sized piece, put it on the back and was finally happy and able to finish it.

    return to top

    Rebecca Loren (@rebeccalorenquilts)

    Light and Shadow, 61” x 61”, Longarm Quilting by Linda Wolyniec

    The formation of this star block was inspired by a similar star I spotted on the QuiltIndex web database, in a late-1800s quilt by an unidentified quilter. I designed the color plan beforehand and pieced improvisationally to achieve the wash effect. Color value was intentionally graded in both the star and field blocks, to create a flicker effect similar to shadows thrown at dusk.

    Peaks, 64” x 58”, Longarm Quilting by Linda Wolyniec

    This quilt was inspired by pop art and optical illusion art that I found online while conducting research for a different quilt. I was most inspired by the linear work of Hungarian artist Biro Borbala (Bori Biro). I originally planned this quilt to be pieced solely in black and white, but the design's peak shapes evoked mountains, so I added color to enhance the depth of the linear intersections in the “valleys”.

    Nine Patch Variation, 81” x 89”, Longarm Quilting by Linda Wolyniec

    My intent for this quilt was to use graded color as a tool to evoke age and wear, by washing it over the recognizable form of a traditional nine-patch quilt. The nine-patch blocks become less discernible as the color becomes more faded. The quilt’s color plan was designed first, with nine patch blocks improvisationally pieced to the plan.

    return to top

    Sheryl Marshall (@sherylrmarshall)

    A Blue Chip Off the Old Block, 64” x 72”, Longarm Quilting by Amy Kidd

    I was inspired by this exquisite batik from Alison Glass. One doesn’t usually see these colors in batiks. I didn’t want to cut it up and was contemplating a “whole cloth” quilt with lots of negative space. I saw a color block pattern on line and it was the perfect match for this fabric. The title is a pun on my former career as a stockbroker.

    return to top

    Susan McKinney (@snippyscissors)

    Dark Geometry, 36” x 36”

    This spare composition is inspired by the work of Sol Lewitt, a mid- 20th century minimalist artist who celebrated geometric shapes in much of his work. The composition is worked in reverse applique with low contrast, dark colors. The placement of the circle in the center allows the quilting to echo that shape with 57 concentric circles.

    Cityscape, 74” x 74"

    This quilt grew in a very organic way from an experiment. A single fabric square was slashed into strips and sewn back together with inserts, then slashed in the opposite direction and finished with inserts – no rulers. The result was a spontaneous grid of windows. After many more were made, they puzzled together into a crazy cityscape of windowed buildings, each one holding its own secrets.

    Hesperia Summoned, 76" x 76"

    Hesperia, goddess of the sunset, inhabits this quilt in the glowing reds and golds of the last moments of daylight, just as darkness overcomes the earth and sky. The blocks are constructed of shot cotton stripes of many colors, meticulously cut and sewn to create a goddess's eye effect. This is reinforced in the quilting pattern.

    return to top

    Ninth Street Women Bee

    Tante Louise, 43” x 64”, Long Arm Quilting Linda Wolyniec

    The design and construction steps for this quilt were a collaboration between MQG members Amy Kidd, Susan McKinney, Alexis Deise, and Rebecca Loren, with quilting by member Linda Wolyniec. We called our collaboration the "Ninth Street Women Bee", named for Mary Gabriel's book, which detailed the work of the great women artists of the modern era. This quilt was inspired by the work of Louise Nevelson (1899-1998), known for her monochromatic sculptures incorporating found and discarded objects. Bee members made blocks using discarded scraps and leftover blocks, and the final assemblage was quilted to emphasize its sculptural quality.

    return to top

    Wendy Oeser-Rhein (@wendyoeser)

    Fibonacci Finally (Finished, Not Perfect), 40" x 40"

    For a long time, I've had the idea of making a "mathy" quilt using the Fibonacci sequence of numbers as dimensions for the quilt blocks (1,1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc.). I started with two blocks, 1" square, added a 2" square, then a 3" square and so on, adding new blocks log-cabin style. I used Kaffe Fassett stripes to enhance the linear geometric feel of the design, adding shot cottons for borders. It is channel quilted 3/8 Inch apart using a variegated thread. Machine pieced and quilted.

        

    Squiggles, 33" x 20"

    I pieced this quilt using an improv curved piecing technique learned from a Marge Tucker Workshop called Eeels and Eddies. Improv hand quilting and hand binding techniques were inspired by Heidi Parkes' webinars and Quilt Con classes. Instead of marking the quilt for quilting, I followed the squiggly flow of the piecing using pearl cotton number 12 in variegated greens to enhance the flowy feel of the design. Machine pieced, hand quilted.

        

    Rise Up, 24" x 24"

    I made this quilt for my QuiltCon mini swap partner, honoring her preferences for Tula Pink solids, curves, dense quilting, and striped borders. I pieced each of the three shapes from the Tula solids using three drunkard's path blocks and one solid white. I quilted with dense echo quilting following the shapes (maybe birds, maybe flowers). The binding was pieced from 2.5 inch scraps of the solids to create a stripe. Machine pieced and quilted.

    return to top

    Jean Osborn

    Loopy, 60" x 70", Quilting by Susan McKinney

    Cutting 2" squares makes me loopy! This quilt will be donated to the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Connecticut.

    Animal Jungle, 68" x 68", Quilting by Patrice Denault

    I participated in a Block-of-the-Month at Quilters Common in Wakefield, MA. I chose to make some of the blocks with fanciful animals and then added the big corners to keep the direction on-point.

    return to top

    Jean Penta (@musselshellcove)

    Waterfall, 45" x 60"

    Waterfall began as an improvisational pieced study using remnants of another project. As with most quilting it was an exercise in patience where it looks like it's not working until it finally comes together.

     

    Circles and Stars, 80" x 80"

    This quilt was made as a wedding shower gift for my daughter and son-in-law. One of my favorite quilt blocks to work with is the ever versatile Drunkard's Path. The half rectangle square sashing makes a secondary star pattern. The shower was fun, but the wedding was rescheduled. It was written in the stars.

        

    return to top

    Nancy Ries (@sewnancypants)

    Starfall Baby Quilt, 36" x 48", Starfall Quilt Pattern by Fresh Lemon Quilts

    A friend asked me to make a baby quilt for a new niece on the way. A commission! I saw a version of this quilt from the designer with tans/creams and thought it would go well with fabrics from my stash, many of which have been used in baby gifts for my friend's own children.

    Meadow Quilt, 60" x 70", Pattern by Lizzy House, Quilting by Mary Gregory of See Mary Quilt

    In September 2015 I was lucky enough to take Lizzy House's Meadow Quilt Class at Gather Here in Cambridge. It was such a wonderful experience as she worked with us to choose fabrics and learn the techniques needed to make this quilt. If you look closely you will find several Lizzy House fabrics within.

    return to top

    Simply Solids Bee

    Confetti, 51” x 51", Long Arm Quilting by Jen Sorenson

    Created through the Simply Solids Bee on Flickr, Jen Sorenson sent around the blue, green and pink fabrics to her bee mates and asked them to make some improv blocks. After receiving the blocks back, Jen sat on them for a while before realizing she could cut up the blocks to fit the design she had in mind. Once the top was assembled, Jen machine quilted it on her longarm. 

    return to top

    Jen Sorenson (@aquiltingjewel)

    Every Which Way, 50” x 50"

    The first quilt in my Flying Geese Series, this quilt was made for the Michael Miller Challenge at QuiltCon 2016. I made the paper pieced geese with the challenge fabric and coordinating Michael Miller Cotton Couture fabric prior to deciding on a layout. Once pieced, I densely matchstick quilted this on my longarm.

    Filled with Love, 72” x 72"

    This quilt took two years to complete. I designed the paper pieced block and originally posted it as part of the Boston Modern Quilt Guild Block of the Month. I designed this quilt using the block as a way to play with color and value. It was machine quilted on my longarm and required numerous thread changes to ensure the color was front and center and the thread didn’t contrast with the fabric.

    Deco Dots, 42” x 42"

    I designed this quilt after being inspired by a blue and white tile. When the Michael Miller Fabric Challenge for QuiltCon 2019 was launched, I redid the design in the fabric colors and made this quilt.

    return to top

    Emily Williams (@etheldora_sews)

    Chaotic Good, 29” x 29"

    This quilt was born of the chaos of the past year. For me, it was a time to reach inward and let go of old patterns. So I dove into my massive scrap pile and began making improvisational crumb blocks. The process was cathartic. But the chaotic look was unsatisfying. My solution was to reign in the chaos by cutting the improv sections into square blocks and giving them a grid to settle into. The primarily solid blocks gave my eye an occasional resting place. I finished the quilt with straight line quilting in light gray to blend across the blocks, except the solid blocks which received perpendicular stitching in their own color. Sometimes, a little controlled chaos is good.

    A Higher Floor, 19” x 19"

    Inspired by Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy.” A Higher Floor explores the relationship between his desire to move towards light and salvation while being pulled by the forces of the devil. The circles (elevator buttons) were flat appliquéd onto the base fabric and the dense domestic machine stitching gave them a delightful trapunto-like textural pop.

    Zebras in the Mist, 22” x 28"

    Zebras was great fun because it was a collaboration and challenge. A graphic printmaker friend was working on a series that I thought shouted out to be interpreted into quilts. Her original art was free-feeling and curved so I challenged myself to take it to a very rectangular place. An additional challenge was to piece the entire quilt as opposed to the appliqué rut I had been in. And as a final challenge, I used the fabrics required for a MQG QuiltCon challenge. Great fun, great learning.

    return to top

    Louisa Williams (@louisawillquilt)

    Semaphore, 36" x 36"

    I love it when old traditions inspire new experiments. This wonky log cabin pattern retains the original’s central square — but only as a start for irregularly shaped, adjacent-hue strips that enhance the block’s basic color. The circle-in-a-circle quilting pattern is intended to make this quilt feel light and airy, a little like the flags once used to signal ships at sea. The quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted with wool batting and mostly made from lovely, luxurious Cherrywood hand-dyed cotton.

    Prayer Flags, 38" x 38"

    Log cabin was one the first patterns I ever tried. I appreciated the tidiness of its straight strips, that warm little red square center surrounded by even lines of sharply contrasting colors. About 20 years later, constrained by COVID and encouraged by wonderful quilter friends and teachers, I feel free to experiment. I love the looseness of this wonky log cabin pattern, with blocks that celebrate gentle colors, machine pieced and machine quilted and mostly made from lovely, luxurious Cherrywood hand-dyed cotton.

    The Red Star, 61" x 74", Longarm Quilting by Emily M. Paulhamus

    I’m intrigued by empty spaces: silence after a long speech, a field next to a big block of houses, a blank piece of paper. This star, defined by the empty area left by half-square triangles, is a bit of an experiment. It’s my first red project and one of my few efforts using prints. The quilt is machine pieced and long-arm quilted, with cotton fabric from Moda’s Chafarcani line, a FreeSpirit solid, and wool batting. I think the designs of the long-arm quilter really lift it up.

    return to top

    Terri Williams (@atticquilter51)

    Radiant Teal, 55" x 63", Pattern by Daniela Stout - Cozy Quilt Designs

    When I saw this quilt in Daniela Stout’s shop in CA, I fell in love with the geometry of the design. Simple but striking and I bought the pattern on the spot. I had all of the fabrics in my stash except the center navy squares. The different shades of teal and gray still speak to me and if you saw my stash it’s fairly obvious! This is still one of my favorite quilts!

    Windows, 38" x 51"

    I started with a concept of what I wanted and based the colors off the background fabric. I love fabric with words/numbers. Quilting is an Anita Shackleford design. It didn’t compete with the fabric, but gave it movement.

    Kennebunk HST’s, 28" x 29"

    At a Boston Modern Quilt Guild Retreat a few years ago, Rebecca taught us a new way to make HST’s and I feel that more than a few of us embraced the process. I still like this process for the surprises it creates. The quilting is random straight lines which is in keeping with the HST process.

    return to top

    6 comments: