My Literary Quilts: Portraits of the Poets

In 2016 I woke and a quilt flashed into my head. I went to the local quilt shop, bought fabric, and by day's end had the quilt designed and started. I finished it the next day.

My William Shakespeare portrait quilt started me on a new quilt series. 

I sketched the image on a large sheet of paper and cut it out for templates for the head, hair, and body. 

The portrait was made with snipped fabrics fused to a black background. I then cut the portrait out, leaving some of the black which I folded over and hemmed. Then I placed the portrait on the background. I printed Sonnet 116  on fabric to include. The flowers in the foreground were also lined are folded for a three-D effect.

It was so much fun that I next made an Edgar Allen Poe portrait quilt. I made the image the same way, hand snipping prefused fabrics to build the face. I made a pieced background and added a 'silken purple curtain' of gently folded fabric. I attached the portrait onto the background, adding Poe's poem Annabel Lee and a real feather in the inkwell.

For T. S. Eliot I searched for cat fabrics. I printed his portrait to the size I wanted and traced it onto my fabric. I used permanent marker pens to create the portrait. I found an image of a cat and then reversed. And printed out The Names of Cats on fabric.

I typed the names of the cats in the poem and printed it on fabric which is used in the pieced background.

I have been reading quite a few books on the Brontes and a few years back read all their novels and poetry. 

I used the image of the sisters painted by their brother Branwell as my model for the Bronte Sisters quilt. 

This time I directly fused the fabrics onto the Jane Sassaman fabric background, then fussy cut flowers from Sassaman and Kaffee Fassett fabrics. I wanted to show the women's romantic and wild sides.

I have been working on an Emily Dickinson quilt but need more fabrics and I haven't found what I want. Since the pandemic I have only shopped online.

My idea was to show the many images we have of the poet: the recluse in white, the lover of flowers and gardens, her darker side that wrote about death and pain, and the romantic lover and writer of Valentine poems.

My techniques include fusible applique and permanent marker and colored pencil. I have a lace overlay to represent a curtain at her window.

This has been a fun series to make. 

2017 CAMEO Quilt Show: Quilted Treasures

The local quilt guild, CAMEO,  held its biannual show the first weekend of June. With under 60 members, the guild was able to put on a wonderful show that showcased these talented ladies and offered a wonderful vendors mall.

several Joe Cunningham workshop quilts

Two traveling shows from The Great Lakes Quilt Museum out of Michigan State University were included. The Michigan Quilt Block Project includes 30 oversized traditional quilt blocks.

Michigan Quilt Block Project, Detroit News pattern

Michigan Quilt Block Project, crazy quilt

Coloring With the Masters from the Aussome Study Group, consisting of five Michigan quilters, created quilts inspired by artists including Peter Max, Louis Tiffany, and Dr. Seuss.

Coloring with the Masters, Peter Max

Coloring with the Masters, Tiffany

Here are some of my favorite quilts in the show.

The Megiddo Quilt by Linda Ibbs is an original design, quilted by Arlene Redman. It is a copy of a mosaic floor in one of the earliest Christian churches in Israel, dating to 230 A.D.

The floor was inscribed, "Offered...to God Jesus Chris as a Memorial. Gaianus, also called Porphrius, Centurion, our brother has made the payment at his own expense. Brutius has carried out the work."

Rosemary Spatafora designed Adventure is Out There for an 'UP' themed wedding. She created the paper pieced house pattern. It is quilted by Barbara Lusk.

Black White & Bright by Pat Balduf of Sharon Tucker-Grass Root Quilt Studio is so much fun! Pat did the piecing and machine quilting.

The Chicken and the Eggs applique is an original design by Theresa Nielson. 

A Rock and Roll Storm by Jean Schlegelmann is a two fabric bargello quilt, quilted by Barbara Lusk. I love the luminosity!

Lucy Lesperance created Lucy in the Sack with Sapphires, quilted by Barbara Lusk. It won Best in Show!

Linda Watkins used a Quilter Girl Designs pattern which she calls Rick's 'Stache. Quilted by Barbara Lusk.

 Sybil Derderian's Unraveled is machine pieced and quilted.

Janene Sharp is involved in dog rescue. Her Doggie in the Window quilts was designed by Leanne Anderson and quilted by Barb Lusk.

Tabacco Road was a postage stamp exchange. Machine pieced by Cindy May and quited by Barbara Lusk.

Rosemary Spatafora's Modern Sunrise is inspired by the work of Jacquie Gering. Machine quilted by Barbara Lusk.

Rosemary also made the Vista Maria Quilt, an original design. Quilted by Barbara Lusk.

Linda Pearce's First Snow is a pattern from Tina Curran in the Quilter's Newsletter. It is paper pieced, embellished, and quilted by Barbara Lusk. It won Best Wall Hanging.

Lennox by Laurie Johnson modified a pattern by Jen Kingwell. Quilted by Maggie Smith.

Bee-utiful Embroidery was a MODA Bakeshop pattern which I also worked on last year. This quilt by Kathy Debien was quilted by Quality Quilting.

 The Splendid Sampler  from Pat Sloan was completed by Terri Thompson

Stars for Jim by Dorothy Strefling is a design by Cheryl Malkowski and was quilted by Maggie Smith. It won second place in Bed Quilts.

With 176 quilts in the show, and the additional special exhibits, I can't share them all. 

Last of all, the Suzie Parron Barn Quilt workshop quilts were also part of the show

Quilts Inspired by the National Parks

I was so excited about the concept of Inspired by the National Parks. The quilt on the cover was a big selling point for someone who loves landscape quilts.

To celebrate the anniversary of our 59 National Parks, Donna Marcinkowski DeSoto brought together quilters to create 177 original art quilts depicting the landscape, flora, and fauna of each park. Accompanying articles by park rangers and park personnel brings to life the people who preserve and protect our cherished shared lands.

Throughout the book the author quotes John Muir, the "Father of the National Parks." Known as the founder of the Sierra Club, Muir was a true devotee of nature as a source of spiritual revitalization. Through his writings, he educated America about our natural wonders and called for their preservation.

DeSoto gave the quilt artists a choice of park and category and size restrictions of 20 x 44 or 44 x 20 for landscape quilts and 20 x 20 for the flora and fauna quilts. The artists could not use commercial patterns, so each quilt is an original design by that artist. An artist statement accompanies each photographed quilt.

The quilts are wonderfully varied. With amazing use of fabric and construction there are realistic quilts, interpretive visions, humorous depictions, flowers and animals in natural settings or portrayed apart.

The parks are identified by location, date of establishment, a brief description of high points, and a link to the National Park Service website for the park.

Including statements from park rangers was brilliant. We learn first hand about the park, what the people who work there love most about the park, and the park's attractions for tourists. The joy and love of work shines through the statements.

This is a beautiful book whose appeal reaches beyond quilters, a celebration of our precious natural heritage. 

Resources are offered at the end of the book, including links to the Junior Ranger Program, volunteer programs, Artist-in-Residence Program and donating to the NPS.

DeSoto's previous book was Inspired by the Beatles: An Art Quilt Challenge published by Schiffer Publications.

All illustrating photographs are from Schiffer Publication.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Inspired by the National Parks: Their Landscapes and Wildlife in Fabric Perspectives

by Donna Marcinkowski DeSoto

Schiffer Publications

$34.99 hardcover

ISBN: 9780764351198

Two More Little Quilts

I made two more small quilts for the quilt guild silent auction. I have been finishing odd blocks and incomplete projects.

CAMEO quilt guild's show will be held June 5 and 6, 2015 at The Madison Place Conference Center in Madison Heights, MI. This is my first year with the guild.

This applique block didn't make it into my Jacobean Rhapsody quilt. I took a class with Gabrielle Swan with the Capital City Quilters and the block I started that day turned into a whole quilt! I have 'lost' my better photograph of the finished quilt, which is hand appliqued and hand quilted.

Next is a quilt I designed a few years ago with an Easter Bunny giving a fox a basket of eggs. It's about getting along.

I think I am done with the silent auction quilts. Instead I am gathering fabrics for a pattern by Bunny Hill Designs I have long admired and purchased on sale a few weeks ago her Pumpkin Pie Quilt.
I haven't gotten it out of my head since I first saw it.

Trunk Show: Quilts Old and Older

Clearing out and organizing has become part of daily life since retirement and moving to a smaller house. I am still finding places to store my quilts. I find that I don't have decent photographs of all my quilts, including many which I no longer have. Here are some photos I have come across of quilts made in the last century!

A challenge by the Capital City Quilt Guild in Lansing was to make a quilt based on a book title. I chose Remembrance of Things Past by Proust. The center has these appliqued pansies, enhanced with colored pencil. 

In the border I used prints evocative of personal memories, and added embellishments from my past--like this patch from the Kenmore, NY Day Camp at Herbert Hoover Junior High in the early 1960s.

This pattern was from a 1990s magazine, I think Traditional Quilting, but instead of signatures I penned my favorite book and song quotations.

I had only been quilting a few years when a Hillsdale, MI neighbor asked me to maker her a quilt in colors she could not find. She liked this Georgia Bonesteel pattern. It was one of the largest quilts I have made, and also one of the more difficult. It is hand quilted.

Another early quilt is this Cactus Basket. I shocked some folk when I used the large scale floral print. I had seen such things done in antique quilts pictured in magazines and books. But it was not done much in the 1990s. On the wall is my Mary Pickfort collage.

I made this for my office when working as a church secretary, inspired by the stained glass windows in the hallway outside the office door. I guess it still hangs in there. I made matching window valances.

Life in the parsonage can be brutal. Conflicts within the church often overflows to the pastor and parsonage family. This quilt top shows a family in the center surrounded by those who have isolated them, and broken crosses to represent a broken church community no longer heeding God's will. It was good therapy but I never finished this quilt.

I had few skills and a small fabric stash and no money when I came up with the idea to use a traditional block design for Easter Sunrise.

The quilt looked horrid close up but on Easter Sunday it worked out pretty nice.

I had super confidence when young and never balked at trying anything. So to pay for my fabric habit I signed on to teach at a Jackson, MI quilt shop. This was a class sample for my first class.

I had few skills and had not even TAKEN a class, but learned from quilting around the frame with a quilt group at church and from books and magazines. 

Don't ever be afraid to JUST DO IT. Perfection is the result of practice, so make all the mistakes you can and learn. Plus, no one ever said perfection was a requisite for a beautiful and loved quilt. What are collectors seeking today? Improvised, folk, imperfect, polyester, quilts--the very ones that not long ago were relegated for picnic blanket and pet use.