PATCHWORK THEN AND NOW

After my last post, I began reflecting upon my start in quilt making which began with traditional patchwork.  I still like the look and believe it or not, continue to decorate mainly with traditional quilts.

I'll admit the patchwork quilts I make now are MUCH simpler and faster because I'm anxious to get back to creating art quilts.  For you non-believers....yes I really did make traditional quilts.

 This photo of my living room appeared in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine's "At Home With Quilts - Oct. 1995 - issue #276.  The Thousand Pyramid quilt is a charm quilt....no single fabric patch was repeated.  It's hand quilted.

 Here's a view of our great room at our river home in Brodhead, WI.  Note the "Little Red Schoolhouse" hanging on the right.  To this day, I continue to use antique ladders to display quilts.

Our current home in North Carolina has a 24' high ceiling in the great room and that requires a HUGE quilt to cover the large wall area along the stairway. This quilt features authentic batik fabrics my MIL collected on her many trips to Indonesia. It was made in 2010, specifically to hang here (allowing my other two very large quilts to rest between hangings).

Back when I started quilting in the mid 1980's I would never have dreamed it would lead to a 25+ year career traveling the quilting highway, nor would I have envisioned the type of quilts I'm creating now.  The skills I mastered back then to achieve accurately pieced quilts, meticulously hand quilted were the foundation for my journey.  I'm still enjoying that journey!