Quilts to Celebrate Autumn!

Autumn is one of the best seasons to enjoy the glorious colors of our changing environment. Mother Nature brings out her prettiest deep greens, sunny golds, and vivid oranges and reds before beginning her winter repose. We've assembled a collection of quilts to celebrate the beauty of autumn leaves as portrayed in the textile arts.

Note: For quilt patterns, fabric, and vintage jewelry, visit us on E-Bay - We're Top Rated Sellers ! And for continuous listings of free quilt patterns, please check us out on Twitter.

Ananda at Last by Cheryl Olson (Utah)

Ananda is a Sanskrit word meaning "bliss." This evocative quilt was made with machine and fused applique, hand dyeing, monoprinting and screen printing.  Hand-dyed silk and cotton fabrics were used. The design draws you right into the tableau, showing two people side by side, walking in the trees. The intense colors, hand dyed fabrics, surface design and quilting help create the dimensional scene.

Fabric artist Cheryl Olson says, "I wish to create each quilt with the hope that I can magnify my love to others and my appreciation and devotion to God." The principles of design and color theory play a major role in each of her quilts.For more of her beautiful works, see her website at Cheryl Olson's Art Quilts.

Autumn Harvest by Alexandra Tsubota (California)

Alexandra Tsubota started Autumn Harvest in a Gloria Loughman class which focused on the tile background. After completing the background fairly quickly, the project sat for over a year as Alexandra contemplated the design.  She says, "In the end, my love of pumpkins won out and it made its way off the UFO pile and onto the wall." 

The tile background reminds us of a trellis; we love the colorful pumpkins, squash, and flowers hanging among the vines. The quilting enhances the shape of the pumpkins and leaves.

Autumn Evening by Barbara Oliver Hartman (Texas)

Autumn Evening was awarded First Place in the Art - Naturescape category at the 2017 Houston International Quilt Festival. It was made from snippets of fabrics left over from previous projects. The fabrics were sorted by color, then cut with a rotary cutter and scissors into very small pieces.  The pieces were then sewn to a background using a free motion zigzag stitch.  No netting or fusing was used !

Barbara says, "Working this way is very satisfying, and by using materials that easily end up in a landfill, makes the point that anything can be useful in some way."  The first piece she made this way was in 1992 and was in the 1993 Quilt National exhibit.  For more information see Barbara Oliver Hartman's website.

Patchwork Pumpkin by Barbara Raisanen (Arizona)

Barbara Raisanen made this Patchwork Pumpkin in response to a Cactus Patchers challenge (a chapter within the Arizona Quilters Guild).  The challenge was described as follows: Choose a paint chip for which you like the NAME and COLOR; use that color for the dominant color of the project; and make a project that represents that name and color.  The lovely batiks (in pumpkin color, of course) add interesting textures to the pumpkin.

Birds' Choir by Bella Kaplan (Kfar-Giladi, Israel)

This outstanding art quilt was created with machine applique and quilting; it was painted, hand-dyed, and screen printed.  The textures, colors, birds and lettering perfectly capture the autumn landscape. The predominant orange and yellow hues are complemented by splashes of sky blue. Bella Kaplan says,  "This quilt tells the story of where I live (Kfar-Giladi, Israel). I represented its agricultural area, fields, flowers, orchard trees, and many types of birds.  I enjoyed re-creating all the colors."

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2018 Road to California show (Autumn Harvest), the 2018 Quilt Arizona show (Patchwork Pumpkin), and the 2017 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Highlights of the 2017 Houston International Quilt Festival - part 5

The Houston International Quilt Festival is an awe-inspiring event, with more than 1,600 quilts on display, and over 60,000 visitors!! We're sharing some final highlights of this fantastic show, before we turn our attention to Christmas!

Note: We've listed quilt patterns and vintage fine jewelry at very low prices at Quilt Inspiration's E-Bay store !

I Choose Joy by Cheryl Olson (Utah)

"I Choose Joy" was inspired by the natural beauty of birch trees. It was featured in a special exhibit, Nine Voices from One, curated by Jane Dunnewold. The exhibit features works by graduates of The Art Cloth Mastery Program, showing some of the finest works created by surface design artists today. Beginning with a hand-dyed silk backdrop, other hand-dyed cut pieces were fused onto the surface, then machine quilted. 

We liked Cheryl Olson's explanation of her quilt title,  "I Choose Joy", so much that we turned it into an image:

APPreciation: Ineka by Helen Godden (Australia)

Helen Godden says, “My muse is my daughter, Ineka. This quilt is based on a holiday photo from the dry Lake Hart. The glare from the dry desert salt pan requires sunglasses, even for a photo.” Helen altered the image with the Dreamscope phone app, then painted it with acrylic paint on cotton fabric.

Diamond Effervescence by Beth Nufer (Oregon) and Clem Buzick

Machine piecing and hand applique was used to create this brilliant original design. Beth Nufer says, “My inspiration was the silk fabric. The background fabric is a gradated cotton sateen. I wanted to incorporate the two fabrics together.” Clem Buzick's award-winning quilting can be seen in every element of the quilt.

Wild, Wild Plum by Carolyn Skei (Texas)

Carolyn Skei created Wild, Wild Plum with apps on her iPad.  It was inspired by a Hosui pear photogarph by Susanne Kaspar from The Great Book of Pears. Carolyn says, "My iPad experimentations yielded the outline and coloration for this quilt; fabrics and threads from my stash took it to the next level."

Carolyn used machine applique; fusing; hand and machine embellishment; hand and machine embroidery; and fabric collage techniques with commercial and hand-dyed cottons.

Balancing Act, 56 x 40", by Bodil Gardner (Denmark)

The woman in this whimsical quilt balances precariously on a seesaw, with the world on one end of the seesaw and a baby carriage on the other; a book and teacup are perched on her head. Bodil says, "In 1985 I made a quilt called Woman’s Life, a Balancing Act. So many wishes to fulfill, so many dreams to pursue, so little time of your own, little has changed since then. This 2015 quilt is on the same theme."  These lines are stitched onto the borders:

I would give you all the stars in the sky 

I would catch the drops from threatening clouds 

I would plant thornless roses by your way 

But would life be worth living then my child? 

Elements #12: Blue River by Michele Hardy (Colorado)

Elements #12: Blue River was shown in the special SAQA: Textile Posters exhibit. It depicts the colorful annual cycle of snowfall in the mountains, spring melt, runoff that replenishes the rivers, and water that gives life, summarized in the words Snow - River - Life. The fabrics were hand dyed, screen printed, fused, machine appliqued, and stitched.

Kazenobon by Masako Sakagami (Japan)

Masako Sakagami says, "I live in Yatsuo-machi, Toyama prefecture. Here I depicted the folk dance of the [traditional] Kaze no Bon festival."   The festival occurs at night, therefore Masako set the whirling dancers against a black background.  She used kimono fabrics along with machine piecing, machine applique, machine embroidery, painting, and free-motion quilting to create this masterpiece.

Gold and silver metallic threads stand out beautifully against the black background.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2017 Houston International Quilt Festival.