"Heart Bubbles"

"Heart Bubbles" 10x16"

I found this piece of marbled silk in Cosette's booth at Houston International Quilt Festival last year. I thought it would be fun to quilt for a donation mini quilt.

I added some beads.

I enjoyed working with the silk.

"Buddy"

Buddy, 12x12" 

My neighbor commissioned me to make a quilt of her dad's cat Buddy. 

She had this great photo for me to use.

I printed Buddy's face on cotton sateen with my friend Linda's big inkjet printer. I fused the fabric onto freezer paper and we fed it into the printer from the back. After several wadded up attempts, we put scotch tape on the leading edge to get it to feed correctly.

I cut out the face and fused it to a fabric background. The machine quilting caused the edges to wave, so he is fused to two layers of canvas to keep him flat.

beaded silk

While tidying up my studio, I found some pieces of silk I had dyed in a class with Ginny Eckley a long time ago. I was looking for some handwork and noticed several flower-shaped tied spots on this one.

"Buzz off!," Said the Flower to the Bee. 13x12"

Deborah Boschert discovered that if you embroidery with felt as your middle layer instead of batting that you don't have as much bearding. 

The embroidery on her "Framing Flourish" quilt is what got me started looking for something to embellish.

I thought it needed a bee.

I liked the random edges of felt poking out from under the silk so I finished the edges with a blanket stitch. I think it's kind of unexpected to have the humble acrylic felt beneath the luxurious silk.