Whatever Quilt was inspired by one of my favorite pieces of advice: You can do whatever you want to do. It's easy to get caught up in self-doubt and that makes it hard to make decisions. I didn't follow any specific guidelines while designing this, and instead focused on creating a quilt I wanted to make solely for the purpose of making and to challenge myself with a variety of different techniques.
Techniques:
Paper Piecing, Applique, Machine Quilting, Hand Quilting, Facing Finish Binding
Exhibited:
QuiltCon 2017, Savannah
Best of QuiltCon Traveling Exhibit, 2017
Awards:
QuiltCon 2017, Savannah - First Place, Small Quilts Category
This quilt was created for my husband Jesse who was born and raised in/near Boulder, Colorado. Welcome to Colorful Colorado is inspired by the geography and beauty of the state of Colorado and the Rocky Mountains. This quilt can be viewed two ways. Vertically, it’s as if you are standing in the prairie with the sun setting behind the mountains. Horizontally, it represents the geographic segments of Colorado: with the Mesas on the West, the Rocky Mountains in the middle, and the Plains on the East. The quilt top is made entirely of fat eighth Oakshott Cotton.
Exhibited:
American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show 2014, Des Moines
QuiltCon 2015, Austin
Modern Quilts: Designs of the New Century
Awards:
American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show 2014, Des Moines - Honorable Mention, Modern Quilts Category
Published:
Modern Quilts: Designs of the New Century
Modern Quilts Postcards
American Quilter’s Society, Quilt Week advertisement
Welcome to Colorful Colorado quilt pattern
The RISE quilt uses a block called VIA, which is a twist on a half square triangle. The blocks are pieced together in a fun and unique way - with a colorful and geometric result!
Published:
I made this quilt using a variety of different materials - quilting cotton, flannel, woven cotton, satin and linen - and all the textures make it so lovely to touch!
Published:
Five Magic Mumms - a baby quilt inspired by Seven Magic Mountains (an art installation near Las Vegas).
I created this for my friend Lindsay’s third child (and the fifth member of the Mumm family, thus the five towers in the quilt). Me and Lindsay had a magical girls trip to Las Vegas where we visited Seven Magic Mountains which was quite inspiring to see in person. The art installation was created by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone and is made of large, painted boulders - some of the stacks are 30 feet high!
I used paper piecing to make the colorful towers, though while sewing them I realized doing templates probably would have worked best. I used matching thread color and different angled lines for the quilting in each shape. I used a mix of different materials: blue velvet, silver metallic fabric and quilting cotton (I try to use a variety of textures in baby quilts when I can). The label on the back was fussy cut Heather Ross fabric (an idea I got from some of my fellow Boulder Modern Quilt Guild members). And a first for me was matched binding (on the left edge). I really wanted the color to run off the edge, but didn’t have the time to do a facing finish binding (which involves hand sewing the binding on). It took a little bit of time to measure out the dimensions for each color, but I love the the end result (and it looks cool on the back too)!
An improv pieced quilt for my son’s kindergarten teacher during the Covid pandemic. Pieced with messages/illustrations by each of the five kids in our neighborhood pod class, a school photo from the beginning of the year, ice dyed fabric the kids made at the beginning of the school year, a heart pattern created by combining all the hearts the kids drew, embroidered and quilted hearts, and a mixture of solids in rectangles and stripes to bring it all together. The kid’s messages, school photo and heart pattern were all printed using Spoonflower .
Weston’s in-person teacher was so amazing. She cared for each kid and worked so hard with each kids individual needs - teachers are amazing! We are so grateful for her, especially during such a crazy time. This quilt was created to acknowledge her hard work and to recognize how special she made this year.
When I saw a photo my friend posted of her family's barn they were preparing to sell, I knew it needed to be made into a quilt for her son.
The back of the quilt represents the Iowa hills. I used straight line quilting so that the stitching would coordinate with the front and back.
One of my favorite features is the barn loft door that can open and close. I love a quilt with an interactive feature, and this worked perfectly with the design.
This quilt has a special place in my heart, because though I didn't grow up on a farm, I come from a long line of farmers, and many in my family still farm today. To me, the barn is a symbol of the Iowa landscape and its hard-working people.
Mountain Baby is a smaller and simpler version of my Welcome to Colorful Colorado quilt. The colors and quilting are inspired by the song "America the Beautiful": spacious skies, amber waves of grain and purple mountain majesties. The quilting in the mountains is inspired by the plants and animals of the Rocky Mountains: Black Bear, Coyote, Hummingbird, Chipmunk, Elk, Columbine flowers, Aspen and Pine trees, and my personal favorites - the Big Horn Sheep and Marmots!
40” x 50”
Techniques: Machine Piecing, Free-Motion Quilting
Exhibited: QuiltCon 2017, Savannah
Published: Mountain Baby quilt pattern
The Pueblo Mesa quilt was made by taking a section of the mesas from Welcome to Colorful Colorado, and duplicating and reflecting them. The pattern that emerged reminds me of artifacts created by the Pueblo people and found at the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.
Techniques: Machine Piecing, Machine Quilting
Published: Pueblo Mesa quilt pattern
Fractal Kaleidoscope was created by joining six small Fractal Radiance quilts together. Three of the sections are in the original formation, and three are reflected to create a kaleidoscope effect when joined together. New patterns were revealed during this process, making a new interpretation of the original pattern.
Techniques: Machine Piecing, Machine Quilting (white quilting is double thread thickness), Facing Finish Binding
Exhibited: QuiltCon 2015, Austin
This is a baby quilt that I made for my daughter June. I incorporated several different materials (satin, flannel and quilting cotton on the front, Michael Miller Organic Sherpa on the back, and pom poms!) so that there would be lots of textures for her to interact with.
Reclaimed Blues was made for my brother-in-law, using all recycled fabrics. The quilt top is made form 7 pairs of jeans, and the quilt backing was flannel passed down from my husband's grandma. The "batting" was a fleece blanket that we were no longer using, and I purchased binding fabric material from a fabric recycles store.
The quilting lines were created be extending the pieced angle lines throughout the quilt. The jeans provide a lot of texture and color variety, and the angle of the pieces give it a bit more visual interest.
This pattern originally started as a pillow I made for a friend who likes bold colors and patterns. I liked the way it turned out so much that I decided to enlarge it as a small quilt for myself. It uses large scale triangles, creating a simple but dynamic design.
In 2013, the design was chosen as Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild’s first fundraiser pattern for the guild. The pattern comes in two quilt sizes, and a pillow size.
Techniques:
Machine Piecing, Machine Quilting, Facing Finish Binding
Published:
Fractal Radiance KCMQG quilt pattern
Lucky Spool’s Essential Guide to Modern Quilt Making
This quilt was created for a friend’s baby girl and inspired by their love of modern design and bright colors. The free-motion quilting created a lot of texture on a simple, but fun quilt.
Technique: Machine Piecing, Free Motion Quilting
Curvilinear was created for an optical illusions quilt book. I started by researching the most basic optical illusions. I was drawn towards repeating/reflecting patterns and played around with high contrasting colors with pops of color. The quilt is made of varying triangles, but appears to have curves. Depending on where your eyes focus, different designs and depths come into the foreground.
The 40" square block can make a small quilt, or putting four together can make a large quilt with a variety of layout options.
40" x 40" & 80”x80”
Techniques: Machine piecing, Machine Quilting
Published: Modern Optical Illusions, Kansas City Star Quilts
Recently, I have become interested in wearable quilts, and the different ways that can be interpreted. This is a quilted capelet (colors and design inspired by Oh Happy Day’s Art Deco Fan Garland DIY). A bit vintage inspired, and a little bit whimsical with lots of color!
Techniques: Paper Piecing, Machine Quilting, Satin Edge Binding and Facing Finish
