Double Digits

 

The hand quilting on this miniature quilt is amazing.

I drew the feather design that was hand quilted.

It also uses a variety of black fabrics to add texture and interest.

Another Completed Time Lapse Quilt

There are many reasons why some quilts take years to finish.
I am guessing I started this 30-40 years ago.
I think I was dreading sewing all the binding by hand on the back of the quilt.

You are probably seeing this quilt larger than life size.  It is exactly the same size as the World's Smallest quilt I made which was documented in Quilter's Newsletter magazine.
The strips you see in the patchwork are 1/42nd of an inch wide.
It is a serious quilt and I have been offered big bucks for these which I won't part with.
It is 1 1/4" x 1 1/2 inch.

My Favorite Rubik’s Cubes

I enjoy creating fun things from my quilts.
The first two are miniatures and the last one is a wall quilt.

So What Is Happening In My Studio

I am working hard (OK, not real hard) finishing many pieces that have been in progress.
Some might be as much as 30 years old.
I have some that are even older…some of those that I am not super excited to finish are 40 years old which is when I became a serious quilter.

These are all miniatures. I developed a technique for making miniatures. I taught it throughout the US. The strips are 1/4 inch wide.

This quilt started with fabric I painted and you can see it in the 9 patches. The sashing came from one fabric dyer and the border fabric from another. It just needs the binding to finish it.

The top quilt in the picture just needs binding. The other needs quilting and is on my list to have hand quilted.
It will be a great feeling to have these pieces finished.

Miniature Log Cabin Quilt

One of the quilt guilds I belonged to has an auction of quilts at their annual show.
This was a fantastic way to aquire some wonderful quilts and donate to the guild for expenses.


This is one of the quilts I purchased. It was created by Barbara Wessel.

The strips that create the log cabin blocks are 1/4" wide and the completed quilt is 21" square.

Technically it is not a "miniature" quilt as a miniature quilt is 1:12 scale. If this were enlarged by 12 it would be 242 inches!

It is made up of miniature blocks that create a wall quilt. She does precision work with her electric needle. She even did the quilting with her electric needle and it is perfectly placed on the blocks - not an easy way to get perfect placement.

It is reminiscent of an antique quilt.

I am so happy to be the owner of this wonderful piece.

Miniature Log Cabin Quilt - WIP

This was started many, many years ago.
I've finished everything but the binding.

I think the reason I haven't finished it is because I am concerned about matching the color changes on the binding to the same clor changes on the border.

I really should get it done and add another quilt to my finished list.

The strips I used on the log cabin blocks finish 1/4 inch.
The finished quilt will be 11 x 13 inches.

After I took the picture I removed the basting stitches. There was no reason to leave them in there as the quilting was finished.

Happy Valentines Day to all of you - Rerun

The quilts I am sharing with you are quilts I made quite some time ago. We have come a long way in the 35 years since this great quilting revival began with the Bicentennial. The quilting industry has listened to quilters and provided us with things today we never could have dreamed of when this phenomenon began.

Hearts are a popular subject for quilts. Appliqued hearts teach how to applique curves, inner corners and outer corners. The title of this quilt is Liberty Hearts since it uses Liberty of London fabrics for many of the hearts and the border.
I had just learned to use freezer paper on the back of applique as well as appliqueing with the blind hem stitch on the machine when I made this. I demonstrated the technique at one of our Illinois Quilters meetings at a demonstration night. It was quite revolutionary at that time.

This close up shows my machine quilting using a simple stipple pattern. It was one of my first machine quilting projects. The use of Gutcheon Patchworks black polished cotton was different from the usual light plain backgrounds most people were using for an applique background at the time.

Oregon Hearts was done on a trip to Oregon and is hand appliqued and hand quilted.
The fabrics in this quilt are a good example of the quilting fabrics we had available to us in the early 1980's. We were thrilled to have these fabrics as before this it was hard to find cotton fabrics suitable for making quilts. By today's standards these are quite primitive and old fashioned.
I photographed it with a dime so you can get an idea of the relative size of the quilt.

Milwaukee Hearts is also hand appliqued and hand quilted. The hearts are only about one inch in size. It too uses fabrics typical of the early 1980's. When I look at the heart fabrics I see fabrics by Ely & Walker, Gutcheon Patchworks, Granny's Trunk by VIP, Concord Fabrics, Liberty of London and Peter Pan. Maybe someone else can find some other fabrics they recognize in this quilt. It is called Milwaukee Hearts as I worked on this in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin airport. I was so engrossed in what I was doing I totally missed my son arriving on the plane and had to look around to find him! Again the dime gives you an idea of the size.

I'm a Sunset kind of girl!

Today was a beautiful clear crisp day with a high of 50 degrees.
It made for an absolutely beautiful sunset. I have a beautiful view of the sunset from my lanai.

When I create my art I don't think of anything specifically, but if you look at the following quilts I think it is obvious that the sunset is a strong influence in my work.









These quilts are various sizes and are parts of different series. I could add many other quilts I have made which also are sunset quilts.

I am trying to analyze if there is any correlation between the fact that I am NOT a morning person and the fact that I LOVE the sunset.

For my favorite time of day I have to use my favorite puzzle cut. Enjoy.

Miniature Log Cabins

I realize I have shown this before but since I am showing Log Cabins and different colorations and shadings it seems appropriate to show it again.
Each block has 4 different colored sides and they are all the same color as the side adjacent to them in the neighboring block. I had to really think as I made these blocks.

This Log Cabin miniature quilt uses 1/4 inch wide logs.
The colors are shaded very carefully and I had to make each block in a specific coloration so it would continue the color and shading I desired.
You can see some of the basting threads are still in the piece even though the hand quilting is done. I haven't bound it yet and I think that is because I am dreading matching the binding seams perfectly to the border on the quilt.

I hope you enjoy one of my very favorite miniature quilts as tonight's puzzle.

More miniatures - a variation of the technique

For this quilt I strip pieced a complete square, rather than just one half the square. I played with the squares until I came up with the design I was pleased with.
This is called Pretty Bird as the colors were similar to a photo I saw of a colorful bird.
I used six 1/4 inch inner borders in colors used in the pieced section.
It may not be obvious but the final border on this quilt is a very dark navy, rather than the black I have used on previous work.


This quilt also uses the strip pieced squares. It was important I have 4 identical squares for each section. To enhance this design I added several strip pieced borders, black triangles, a red border and the final black border.

If you click on either of these quilts you should be able to see the hand quilting in the enlarged photos.

I haven't used the stars puzzle cut for a while so I am using it tonight.

This is another miniature done with the same triangle piecing you saw yesterday. There are so many ways you can arrange these blocks. I have chosen a palette for each quilt that makes them unified, but yet has a lot of variation. If you look closely you will see there are darks, kmediums, lights, clean colors and muted colors.

This pinwheel quilt is also done with the same blocks. The colors have changed but the block is still the same size and design.

When I was showing someone a group of my miniatures someone asked why I used black on most of them. One reason is I was using Amish quilts for inspiration.
Another reason is black will unify most any group of colors.

If you look closely you may also see I have used more than one black on this quilt. That is also something I learned from observing Amish quilts. It makes them more interesting, although I would guess the Amish may have done it because they were using fabrics they had.

Both of these quilts are hand quilted. If you enlarge them by clicking on them you should be able to see the quilting. I always try to quilt with a design that will enhance my work.

I've used the crazy cut for this puzzle. Hope you enjoy it.

Rubic's Cube Quilts

I love to use these images as a Rubic's Cubes. This is one of my miniature quilts: Southwest Splendor

I love the visual texture you see when I made this Rubic's Cube block from my miniature Amish Bars Quilt. I wish I could reproduce it into an actual Rubic's Cube 3D puzzle. No, that's probably not a good idea as I probably could never solve it.

Evolution, a wall size quilt also makes an attractive Rubic's Cube. Rubic's Cube gives these quilts another life.

Tonight's puzzle is Evolution.

More Miniatures

Sparkle Plenty is a log cabin quilt made with 1/4 inch finished strips. The center square of each block is copper lame. The inner border is also copper lame and is less than 1/8" wide. It was a challenge making sure the same fabric was used on the correct side of adjoining blocks. This quilt has won a lot of awards.
It is 9 1/2 x 11 inches.




This miniature Amish Bars quilt is 7 1/2 inches square. It has a black background which the majority of my miniature quilts do. Many Amish quilts use black as a background color. If you have a group of colors and you need something that will look good with all of them you can hardly go wrong if you choose black.

Tonight you can go to my museum and do a Sparkle Plenty puzzle with people in the museum viewing it.

Miniature quilts

Southwest Splendor is a miniature quilt made using 1/4 inch strips of fabric. This gives you an idea of the size of the quilt. I added a touch of copper lame as an accent. Both of these quilts are done with a cream background. Almost all my other miniature quilts use a black background.


Progressions 1 is also done with 1/4 inch strips. Each braid has a different color progression. When I hand quilted this I did not want any drawn lines to show. Before I stitched a line I would take my needle and "trace" a line with the point of the needle.

I haven't done any miniature quilts for quite some time. I have several that need finishing.

Tonight's puzzle is Progressions 1.

Even more Amish quilts

This is the first miniature quilt I made. It is also the start of my own method for making miniature quilts. After I developed this method I taught classes all over the country. I know some of you have taken this class. The squares in this quilt are 1/4 inch. When I made this I didn't realize that I should shorten the stitch length when stitching on the paper so I probably spent more time removing the paper than I did making the actual quilt. It is hand quilted by me.

Here I am showing my various miniature quilts to a group of students in a workshop on the road. The Amish shadows quilt you see is the one I taught when I did a one day workshop. The fabric strips in this are 1/4 inch. This was one of the most popular workshops I taught. I presented a lecture "Magnificent Miniature Quilts" to go along with the workshop.



This Trip Around The World Quilt is made entirely from silk in various textures. I feel this is one of my most successful Amish quilts as the colors really glow. It is a perfect quilt to hang in a dimly lit area. It is 35 inches square.

The Amish Double Irish Chain is tonight's puzzle.

Quilts for Coraline

These quilts would have been perfect for the movie. I created them in 1985 and they were documented in Quilters Newsletter in 1986. In this photo you may be seeing them life size or larger depending on your computer screen.


The above article is clickable to see a larger version that you can actually read.

It's hard to believe I made these 24 years ago. Where does the time go?
In the smallest quilt the strips are 1/42nd of an inch wide. The quilts have a very thin layer of batting, are hand quilted and have the narrowest binding possible. They are real traditional quilts made in a block format, rather than a single block or an embroidered quilt.

Have you seen the movie? There are trailers and short videos on the web to entice you to want to see it.
The official website is: http://www.coraline.com/

Have you seen the tiny exquisite hand knit sweaters Althea Crom made for the movie?http://www.bugknits.com/

If you have seen the movie I'd love to hear where you would have used thee quilts.

Beach Run and Stitch and Share

No matter what the weather during the week during the seminar on Friday at 4:30 the rain would stop, the sun would shine and hundreds of seminar participants were on the beach for a one mile run. All those who completed the race would be rewarded with T shirts with the Jinny Beyer Seminar logo in the "Color of the Year".

I participated every year. I have a collection of pristine T shirts that fill a whole drawer. You see, it was the thrill of the chase to get a T shirt each year, but I never wear T shirts!

One year I cut the bottom off mine, added that to the sleeves and attached fabric to the bottom to make a morning dress. I threw this on every morning when I got up while I stayed on the island to work on my quilts the following week.

After we received our T shirts we would change to our regular clothes, have a lovely dinner at the hotel and then gather our supplies to attend "Stitch and Share". This is a very relaxed function. Some sit and stitch and others wander around seeing what everyone else is working on or has brought to share.


In this photo I am admiring Carolyn's work. She attended more seminars than just about anyone. Her work is absoutely fantastic - both the workmanship and the way she uses color.


I am sharing my Japanese quilt with Diane in this photo. Each year Diane made it a point to take a photo with me in it and have it waiting for me the following year.


I developed a method of making miniature quilts with 1/4 inch or narrower strips using graph paper as a base. Here I am sharing them with Kathryn who also made precious and precise miniature quilts.

Stitch and Share was always one of my favorite parts of the seminar as it was very laid back and gave you a chance to see the work of the other participants up close in a way you could really appreciate it. You even got to touch it!