Five Forever

Five Forever is the quilt I designed for the Quilters Express To Japan Hawks and Heroes Quilt Challenge.  It uses a specific group of fabrics designed by Susan Faeder. 
It won 1st Place and was exhibited at the prestigious Yokohama Quilt Festival. 
It was a challenging quilt to create. 
It is a piece of art that stands the test of time and is at home in any décor.
It is 54 inches wide and 67 inches long. It is available for purchase for $3900.

My Best Of The Best

As I am quickly approaching 600,000 views on my blog I think this is a perfect time to share some of the most popular and best posts I’ve done on this blog.
Here is a link to my Sunrise Set quilt tutorial.

http://quiltspluscolor.blogspot.com/2011/04/sunrise-sunset-quilt-tutorial.html
It continues to get a lot of views each and every day.

In Living Color is one of the first pieces I shared on my blog. It has been shared around the world and always gets amazing comments and shares.
It is featured as one of the quilts on this page.
http://quiltspluscolor.blogspot.com/2015/02/some-of-my-prize-winning-quilts.html

Stay tuned and I will be showing other popular and best posts.

Is This My Olympic Quilt?

I started this quilt this week using some of the fabrics I won. I won first place in the Quilt Japan quilt contest several years ago.

I received several packages of gorgeous fabrics, either from Japan or with a Japanese influence.

They have been a challenge to me as to how to use them.

Right now I would say this just looks like a busy strange grouping, but it is just the beginning.

To me an Olympic quilt is one that challenges me and this one definitely does.

I will work on it off and on this week while I have other things I need to do.

This is the quilt I won the contest with. The criteria was to use  fabrics designed by Susan Faeder.

This was also a very challenging piece to create. I was very pleased with the final creation.

The quilt hung in the Yokohama Quilt Festival.

Scan of Calendar from Anderson Art Center 10th Anniversary

Last night after Shelley and I went out for dinner she spent some time in my studio.
When she left I gave her a copy of this calendar and also some magazines my quilts and I had been featured in.

She sent me this scan of the calendar and it is much better than what I have done with it so I wanted to share it with y'all.

I also thought this would make a good puzzle.

Bordering On A New Millennium - Part 4

After completing the yellow ring I needed to redraft the pattern pieces for the magenta ring.
It uses 16 segments - 8 identical and 8 mirror images. I was pleased with the way it looks and with how well the seams are hidden.
The gold motif in the center of the quilt was done with only 8 identical pieces. These were sewn together and hand appliqued on top of the previous round.
The only time I do hand stitching is when I find something I can not do as well by machine. There are only 4 places I have done hand stitching on this quilt.

It was now time to join the circular Mariners Compass and the lace border that I used as my starting point. It was an easy gentle curve seam to sew.

I spent some time thinking how I was going to attach this to the background fabric.
Tomorrow I will share the solution.

One of my favorite puzzle cuts for one of my favorite puzzles

Bordering On A New Millennium - Part 2

The next decision was what fabric to use for the secondary points: NE, SE, SW and NW.
I chose another section from that same yard of fabric I used for the first points. They also have a seam down the middle and are a quieter print than the fabric used in the first 4 points.



I needed 8 identical points for the next round.
I chose the fabric that would eventually become the border for these 8 points. It had a fine gold line on one edge of the border print so I carefully used that at the edge of each point.



Thinking I had made all the points I made the sections with the purple print and the magenta leaf motif.
When I put this up on the wall something was wrong. It took me a while to figure out what I had done.
Stay tuned for the next installment of the quilt soap opera!

Bordering On A New Millennium - 10 years later

I don't think any quilt I have made gets as much attention as Bordering On A New Millennium.

You have seen it many times as I use it as a background for visitors photos. People stand in front of it and look at it and ask a lot of questions about how long it took, how I did it and say nice things! Many have no familiarity with quilts, but are still drawn to it.


It's hard to get a a shot of the entire quilt without moving the furniture so please excuse the objects in the way.

I'd like to share a little about how I created it with you.



I started with a Jinny Beyer border print that had a lacey effect. I had 35 repeats of the motif so I designed the quilt to use 32 of the motifs. That determined the size of the Mariners Compass.



If you look closely at this photo you can see the seams where I joined the motifs. If you can't see the seams that means I really did a good job. You can click on the photo to enlarge it and see the seams more clearly. You may even be able to double click to make it larger yet.

After sewing all the "lace" motif's together I measured the diameter and circumference of the circle and began to draft the Mariners Compass. I only had to draft 1/4 or 1/8 of it.



I chose the fabrics for the north, south, east and west points first. It was cut from a border print I only had 1 yard of. If you look closely you may be able to see how I created each point with a seam down the middle.

To be continued-

Unforgettable, that's what you are

These are some of the quilts I have featured on my blog that many viewers have told me are unforgettable.


In Living Color is one of those quilts I have made that many find unforgettable.



Meet Me At The Fair has an unforgettable story.



Eight Pointed Star for One Arm Quilter is one of those quilts people don't forget.



Bordering On A New Millennium has a place of honor in my house. People have spent a lot of time standing in front of it and don't forget it.



Wow is another quilt no one forgets after they have seen it.



Anyone who visits my blog can not forget Journey.


Are these the quilts that I have featured that you remember?
If there are others that are imprinted in your memory I'd love for you to leave a comment and let me know which one or ones they are.

Five Forever

I won first place in the "Quilters Express to Japan" competition with this quilt. The prize was a trip to Japan and to the Yokohama Quilt Festival. Unfortunately the winner of the Grand Prize got the trip. I received some lovely fabric packets for a full year. The fabrics are beautifully presented and I absolutely love what I received. I do hope some day to join Susan Faeder on one of her trips to Japan. I can't think of a better way to see the country.

In this photo I am showing the quilt at show and tell. Notice how I am dressed to match the quilt. If you look at people when they show a quilt at show and tell often what they are wearing matches the quilt. I purposely try NOT to do this, but I certainly did here.

Although I didn't get to go the the Yokohama Quilt Festival, my quilt did. It was quite an honor to have my quilt shown in Japan.

This competition required us to use a particular group of fabrics - gorgeous fabrics. Susan Faeder also wrote a little Japanese fable and I based by quilt on this and continued the story. If you look at the 5 warriors that make up the star you will see each one repeated as a mirror image across from himself. I did this by using the same fabric in another coloration and used the wrong side of the fabric to allow them to remain together forever in another time and space.

It was a challenge to create this quilt, but it was a very pleasurable journey.

Tonight's post is a stretched out version of my Cosmic Garden quilt.
I dye painted the fabric for this quilt in Houston at Quilt Festival many years ago. It took me quite some time to come up with an idea of how to use it. I often say "fabric has to age" and that was certainly true here. I am pleased with the finished quilt.