Robin Koehler Day On Today's Blog Post

Robin brought along her quilt to show me on Tuesday. She designed this as a series called Robin's Wreaths that was in 5 issues of the AQS magazine. It is so totally original and not like anything I have ever seen before.

I also am including this close up so you can see it more clearly. It is absolutely beautiful and her workmanship is amazing.  Her instructions that were included with it are some of the best I've ever seen. 

Here is a link to here blog: 

https://www.nestlingsbyrobin.com/index.html

She has some wonderful new workshops and lectures available for guilds, symposiums and conferences.
I got to see some of her samples in person and they are amazing. You can't really appreciate them from the photos. 

Take my word for it her name is something you'll be seeing a lot of.

Have You Seen This Quilt?

I just found this photo in my file from a year ago today.
I LOVE this quilt…..not my normal style.
It was designed by Marion Vernon and Carleen Buck as a block of the month for our quilt guild.
I appliqued and pieced it.It was hand quilted by Robin Koehler who really brought it to life with her hand quilting talents.
It hangs on the wall in our breakfast room.

My Favorite Quilt Blocks

I said I’d show close ups of some of the blocks when I shared the entire quilt. These are some of my favorite blocks. You also can see the quilting detail so much better on them.

I enjoyed doing a little embroidery on this block. Appliqueing the birds was a challenge as they were so tiny.

This beehive block also allowed me to do some hand embroidery.  There was just enough embroidery on this quilt to make it enjoyable.

This block had a lot of tiny applique pieces. By the time I got to this one my applique skills were back on track.
These are only 4 of the nine blocks in the quilt. They are also the most complex.
You can click on each block to see them enlarged. This will also allow you to see the quilting stitches better.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!

COUNTRY APPLIQUE WALL QUILT

This is a very special hand appliqued and hand quilted quilt of mine that was just completed. This quilt is very different than any of the other 400 some quilts I have created.
It was designed as a block of the month quilt by Marion Vernon and Carlene Buck in 1986 for a quilt guild I belonged to..Even though applique was not my strong suit I found it very attractive and figured I could work on the applique blocks as I sat at our meetings. Of course over time they got more complex and were finished at home. I do have to say I did a fantastic job on all of the applique.
It took many more years for it to be assembled and then waited to be finished.
At one time all my quilts were hand quilted by me. Over time I started machine quilting.
The quilts that deserved hand quilting were put on the back burner.
Although hand quilting is not something I do anymore I was thrilled to find a hand quilter whose work was excellent and she has just finished quilting this one for me.
Not only did Robin Koehler quilt it she also bound it. I am thrilled with the quality of the work she did on this special quilt which now hangs in my breakfast room.
I have several others she will be quilting for me. I intend to keep her very busy.
On a future blog post I will share close ups of some of the blocks.

I’m Sending You Special Valentines!

This vintage Valentine is from my collection of postcards. It was sent to my father in law by his older cousins when he was a child. It is my favorite valentine postcard.

I made this miniature heart quilt close to 30 years ago. It is called Milwaukee Hearts!  I worked on it as I waited for my son to arrive at the MKE airport. I was so intent on my stitching I totally missed him as he walked by!
I did needle turn applique and it is hand quilted. It is smaller than a sheet of copy paper. My way of working has changed since I started quilting so many years ago.

The Villages Quilt Show

There were so many wonderful quilts at the show. I am going share just a few with you.

Applique was the technique used to create this intricate Alphabet quilt.

This appliqued bird quilt was a 1st place winner.

There are always a lot of beautiful appliqued quilts in this show.

This very traditional log cabin quilt was shaded beautifully and the workmanship was outstanding.

Another lovely appliqued quilt in vibrant colors.

There were many other equally lovely quilts. I had a very short time to view the show. I tried to take photos of some of my favorites. I  thought there would be fewer people at the show in the afternoon but it was well attended which means often it was hard to get a photo without people in the photo. I have to say when people realized I was trying to take a picture they were very polite and moved out of the way.

This show is held every two years so come back in 2017 for more pictures.

Reverse Applique–Channeling Mary Evans

This is a small reverse applique I did years ago. I made it in a class with Charlotte Patera at Quilt Festival in Houston.

Charlotte watched me sew and remarked on the fine quality of my hand sewing.

I had to laugh as I was not known for my handwork – in fact I only did things by hand if there was no other way to accomplish the task.

This is the back of the piece. You can see my tiny stitches.

This is a Baltimore Album quilt that is possibly a Mary Evans quilt.

Earlier in the day I had visited a show of Baltimore Album quilts at the museum with two friends. We played “Let’s Pretend” and picked the block we though we had probably done in a previous life. Since I was the teacher I picked the fantastic large center block which I guessed had possibly been done by Mary Evans. Mary was credited with being the force behind the wonderful Baltimore Album quilts. This is not the exact quilt we were discussing.

When I was working on this small bird piece I guess Mary’s spirit entered my body and I did the quality work she would have done!

From time to time I have done some other fine quality applique, but it is not what I am known for!

Of course I had to use the bird cut for today's puzzle!

Quilts Radiating From The Center

What is the reason behind this post?
I'm not sure whether it was Judi Yakab's Mandalas she snow dyed that made me thing radiating?
Or could it be that I think some of my most exciting quilts radiate from a center point?

I do find this interesting as I consider myself an asymmetrical designer and yet these are some of my favorite most successful quilts in my opinion.



It is amazing I ever finished piecing this quilt. I can't tell you how many times I lost/misplaced pieces of it and there was no more of the fabric available.
Yes, I am studying this quilt to decide how I would like to quilt it to enhance the design. That may take a while!



This could have been the entire quilt if I had not found all the pieces. It includes a lot of hand applique so it travelled with me to many different places.


It was my attempt to create this quilt in hand dyed fabric.



This is one of my most successful quilts and is a prize winning quilt. Everyone who sees it, quilter or not, stops, looks, studies it and comments.


Here is another work in progress. I am also waiting for it to tell me how to finish it!

Peacock Fan Quilt

Although I constructed this quilt some time ago, it is on my design wall now so I can study it and decide how I am going to quilt it.

I have been leaning towards simple quilting lately, but I know this one will need a lot more detail and variety in the quilting design.



This is another version of the same quilt.
The fans are not in the same position on each quilt.
I chose an arrangement that is balanced by the colors and designs of the blocks.

I taught this as a sampler fan class. I designed and drafted all the patterns.
This one was quilted by hand. I will NOT be doing that with the new one!
The quilts even include some hand applique.

That's What Friends Are For

The other girlfriends heard how much fun their friends were having at Granny's quilting bee and asked if they could come.
Quilters are very social and welcome everyone.
Looks like the June bride must have come straight from her wedding. I guess the honeymoon will have to wait.
Kay the quilter is ready to quilt and brought her basket of supplies as well a quilt in the hoop ready to be quilted.

While they were busy at the quilting bee I spent some time photographing some more of my works in progress.



I don't do hand applique and I don't do block of the month quilts unless they are ones I designed.
This quilt is an exception to both of these statements.
Marion Vernon and Carlene Buck found these applique patterns on old 19th century quilts. Marion redesigned and simplified them.

I thoroughly enjoyed making each and every block and also assembling the quilt.
It will be hand quilted and finished with a binding to match the outer border.



I was able to effectively use the design on the fabric for the basket texture.



This is another one of my favorite blocks. Since this was done in a folk art style imperfections in applique are just part of the charm..

Enjoy this puzzle I created for you.

Closing Ceremony Quilts from Olympics Past

This is another piece I worked on during a previous winter Olympics. It is still a work in progress as I have not decided how I want to quilt it. It is made entirely with hand dyed fabrics.
I started with the same center I used on "In Living Color".
It is very well travelled. When I do a lot of hand work on a quilt it goes on a lot of trips with me before I finish the hand work. The center star portion, the petal shapes, and the light/dark aqua diamonds are all hand applique.


This quilt is a charm quilt. A charm quilt uses a different fabric for each patch and each patch is the same shape which forms a tessellation. I used 484 different fabrics. I may not have finished it during the Olympics but I did work on it during the Olympics.



I designed these two quilts on my design wall and then carefully packaged them up and took them to Hilton Head where I pieced them. Any time I did this I took a Polaroid photo of them so if I got something mixed up I'd have a photo to refer to.
These quilts are examples of advancing and receding color and design.
Warm colors advance and cool colors recede.
That is true in the first quilt.

In the second quilt I carefully placed my colors to make just the opposite thing happen. I enjoy playing with color and design theories and making things happen that disprove the theories.

I just had to use this puzzle cut as I love this quilt and I love the cut!