Creative Block Quilts

Inspired by the angular lines of the Maryland flag, the design of which is based on the Calvert family's 17th century heraldic crest, I created this small wall hanging/crib quilt. The quilt uses solid fabrics in shades of yellow and white with black and red accents, and is finished with straight-line quilting. The finished piece will be donated to a local child through Baltimore Early Headstart.

As part of the  Quilted Prayer Rugs  initiative, I designed and made this small piece, using traditional shapes from Colonial American quilts and Islamic tile to create a prayer rug that's infused with elements of two cultures. It's finished with interlocking diamond-shaped quilting and backed with a linen blend material. The finished piece has been donated to my neighbor's mosque, where it is displayed as a wall hanging.

I designed this quilt with a low-contrast background and geometric flowers as a gift for my mother, a master gardener. The shape of the flowers is reminiscent of the birds of paradise that grow in my mom's garden.

Finished! I plan to submit this quilt to the QDAD Special Exhibition at QuiltCon 2017. It will be my first QuiltCon submission, and also first time I've made a quilt expressly to submit to a show. Exciting! I joined the Quilt Design A Day (QDAD) group on Facebook several months ago, and it has been a great boost to my creativity. I don't actually make a design every day, and I don't always use their "sparks." Sometimes the thing that inspires me is a beautiful rug, or an arrangement of patio tiles, or a stained glass window. But finding the time to sit down and design three or four times a week has really helped to strengthen my "creative muscle." So when the group's excellent moderators, Anne Sullivan of Play Crafts and Michelle Wilkie of Factotum of Arts announced the QDAD Special Exhibition challenge, I couldn't resist joining!! QDAD Group members were challenged to design and create a quilt, using a photo as a "spark." Afte...

Two small pieces today, made as special gifts for two amazing women in my life. I started with this angular block design: For the first gift, I wanted to use the colors of Autumn leaves.  For the second, I wanted to use black as a focal point. The black was a little more difficult to figure out. At first I tried translating the design straight over, as I'd done with the browns, but dark to dark and light to light just didn't work right with a black background. Finally I realized that the colors needed to be reversed . Changing the white background to a black background meant that the new "dark" was now the lightest color, the yellow. Once I'd figured that out, the design fell into place. I made the blocks about 18 inches square, with borders all around so that the block design would "float" in the center, and be more visible on a throw pillow. These were made to fit 20x20 inch IKEA inserts -- although next time I would make the...