Traditional made in honor of my women ancestors. 1998. Hand pieced, hand quilted.  Silk ribbon embroidery and beads.

I designed the quilt and used parts of 2 patterns: foxes & hedgehogs from Elizabeth Hartman’s “Fancy Forest”; and a bear from Rachel Rossi’s “Timber!” The rest of the images I either found on the internet or from my imagination. This quilt was made for my great nephew who is turning three in October. His parents were decorating his bedroom with a theme of “baby animals” so I used a combination of applique (animals in the center panel), piecing (foxes and hedgehogs) and paper piecing (acorns) to create this one-of-a-kind quilt for him. I also used free motion to quilt the majority of the quilt and “ruler work” to quilt the acorn top.

Up until I saw some of the applique blocks for this quilt in a shop in Utah I didn’t use highly dramatic colors in a quilt. I saw the blocks and thought, “I should challenge myself to make a quilt with a red background; I haven’t done THAT before and so I should give it a go”. I signed up for the block of the month, but soon got bored with the muted color choices I was receiving. So, I branched out on my own and picked colors from my own stash, all the while maintaining that bold,red background. After at least 10 years (really, has it been that long?!), I finally got the quilt top together and have quilted the fabulous flower garden. As always, I’m not happy with designs, so I have to add my own take. I created four original blocks and adapted one more from another Piece O’ Cake pattern. I also modified the top and bottom borders to be composed of leaves instead of smaller flowers. And, after to listening to one of Jeananne’s bed turning talks, I decided to keep the border connected, rather than disjointed. If I remember correctly, a disjointed border on an applique wedding quilt symbolized the marriage may not last long; a continuous one meant a long life together. Although I made this quilt for my own challenge – and not for a wedding – I still wanted to incorporate that connected element. The quilt is as wonderful from the front as it is the back as I used a plain backing so the quilting would show through wonderfully. I’m quite proud of this quilt; it’s been a long journey, but the destination has proven amazing.

The Caswell Quilt is a reproduction of a carpet made in 1832 – 1835.  The carpet was made by Zeruah H. Guernesey Caswell and made with wool from her father’s sheep.  It now resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

I was drawn to this quilt for it’s simplistic design. I knew it would look wonderful hanging in our open stairwell of our new home.

I have always loved seeing Bald Eagles. They are a stately animal.  I had to made this when I saw the pattern. I took me over a year to complete this quilt.