Gallery - QuiltCon 2016

This piece was designed by drawing directly on large pieces of fabric followed by experimentation on my design wall. Only three solid colors are used to create this quilt. Additional shades are created by layering two separate quilt tops. The bottom layer is a simple dark triangle that can be seen thru the lighter colored fabrics of the top layer.

"I created this quilt while designing blocks for each of the twelve astrological constellations. This quilt uses two of the constellations, Cancer and Taurus, my husband's and my astrological signs. The stars that make up the constellations are 1/2"" squares, just tiny specks on the vast dark background. I used a variety of yellow solids for the stars to give a twinkling effect. The background is a mix of fabrics--quilting cotton, double gauze, linen--all in the same off-black color, but with different texture and sheen to give a subtle depth to the negative space."

This quilt is a collaboration of the members of Emerge Circle of Do. Good Stitches. Using the blocks of the MQG's March 2015 quilt of the month, Use Your Illusion, and a "color antiquity" palette (hence the clever name!) Allison then took the blocks and transformed them into this finished quilt. The movement of the lines was accentuated with giant quilted overlapping spirals. This quilt will be donated to Youth Emergency Services in Omaha, NE after it's stint at Quiltcon.

I wanted to design a quilt that played with concentric circles and negative space. The entire quilt is traditionally pieced, no applique was involved. The stripes were paper-pieced on giant templates so that they would line up correctly.

"The linear nature of a ¼"" seam allowance and the natural translucence of fabric are two elements of quiltmaking that I love and are typically lost in the final quilt. For this quilt I layered two separate pieced tops to form the design. The sub-top is pieced using gradient metallic blue and white fabrics while the top is pieced from thin muslin. The title¸ Glyph #1, pays homage to the creative names given to quilt blocks - the ""skeleton-like"" pattern of seams, created by the otherwise traditional quilt block, feels like the remains of an ancient language."

This quilt uses log cabin techniques around a center triangle instead of a square. I used the EZ triangle template to create the center square and to even out the corners of each level of the pyramid. The color and width of each strip was chosen at random.

Freestyle improvised mashup of template-free layered curves and ruler-free strip piecing. Featured in The Improv Handbook For Modern Quilters.

I've always admired the saturated colors of Amish quilts because of the graphics and boldness, especially bar and chevron quilts. With my favorite solids I pieced a controlled improvisation of the style. The quilting is my variation of a digitized quilting design called Modern Serpentine by Anita Shackelford. This was displayed as part of a Modern Amish exhibit that our local MQG had displayed at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, juried by Joe Cunningham.

The Michael Miller challenge fabrics reminded me of the glitz from Art Deco designs. Keeping that in mind I wanted the overall look to be on pointe. The squares were a bit too static which is why I opted to slash organic sub sections on the diagonal for each block. They were filled with contrasting solids that make me think of trees wrapped in fairy lights during the winter months, thus the surrounding white corner triangles.

I've always been drawn to designs that make secondary circle patterns. Forever was inspired by a ceiling in Biltmore House and such classic quilt patterns as Double Wedding Ring and Orange Peel. Rather than repeat the block over the entire quilt, I chose to give the quilt a worn feeling, like an old carving or engraving where time and use have dulled the pattern, but it can still be seen. The soft color scheme and use of the block design in the quilting reinforce the idea.