It took quite a while for me to get these personal quilts done, but perseverance pays off.  I love my bedroom now.  Here is a photo of the quilt made from our wedding Huppah and the signature quilt of wedding guests on the wall.  The quilt has my favorite design, The Seed of Life.  I went very simple with my quilt, it does not have any bias tape on it.  I usually make the seed look stained glass with black bias tape and then I have been known to lay down miles of colored bias tapes in Celtic knot work around the borders.  (Visit my website gallery to view several versions of this great design, www.mountainjoyquilts.com). 
I had a very busy weekend with the 1st Annual Gilpin County Artist Open Studio Tour.  I had over 30 people come visit my studio which is really good considering how far from the beaten track I live.  Everyone was just delightful.  They loved my work, my long arm, and my funky mountain home.  It was a great experience for me and I loved meeting all the new people. 
Looks like rain today or possibly our first snow?  I must get to work now, I have a queen size quilt to do today.  I hope everyone has a fabulous week!  Keep on creating!

Quilting Companions

 I wanted to show you the quilt I did last week with Sid's help, but it is a Christmas present for a client's adult daughter.  I don't think she'd see it here, but I would hate to ruin a surprise for anyone.  I'll post photos after the holidays of this really cool t-shirt quilt.  I have Sid working for me again this weekend.  We have begun another silk tie memory quilt.  This one is going to be in a windmill pattern.  For some reason, I like doing traditional patterns with these beautiful silks. Sid and I have created many wonderful quilts together both traditional and non-traditional styles.  The quilt pictured here really captures both of our talents. 

            We are very proud of this quilt named "Kundalini".  It was made several years ago as a commissioned piece by someone who liked our seed of life quilts.  This client used the word Kundalini when describing what they wanted.  I did a touch of research and discovered that fire and snakes were associated with Kundalini energy.  The client thought it was wonderful and so we created the quilt you see here.
All of the fabrics were dyed by Sid and I did everything else.  I am fond of saying that my quilts are a series of mistakes.  I learn incredible things when I allow myself to make mistakes.
The lesson this quilt taught me was about bias tape.  I had made my own and used bias tape for years.  Then we got this brilliant idea to dye the snake fabric on the bias and cut it 2 1/2" wide.  This looked great! What I learned is that bias tape over a certain width will not lay flat in curves!  After an hour of freaking out,  I decided to methodically pleat the inner curves and sew them down.  This solved the main problem and gave the snakes such LIFE!  It really looks like the snakes are moving and writhing around in the knot work.  You can view other quilts we've made using the Seed of Life pattern at our website, www.mountainjoyquilts.com.
Well, it's truffle time.  I must dip and package many of these chocolaty delights to send to all my loved ones.  Sometimes, I think it's a cop-out to send truffles every year.  I know they are looked forward too though with great anticipation and I might even get in trouble if I don't send them.
We all need a yearly overdose of chocolate, don't we?  Happy quilting and creating!

Snake Seed of Life

This quilt was inspired by the word "Kundalini". My client used that one powerful word and this quilt was created. The Seed has black bias tape sewn down to give more of a stained glass look. The fire fabrics my husband dyed were great. Each of my quilts are a learning experience. It was after this quilt we decided to do mitered corners with this type of border in order to look really good. Also, I learned bias tape wider than 1 1/2" will not lay smooth. The snake fabric was dyed and then I prepared 2" wide bias strips. While fabric gluing in place, I discovered it would not lie flat on the inner side of the curves. My solution was to incorporate several small pleats on the inner part. This added fabulous texture and made the snakes look more realistic. I learn so much from my mistakes! The quilt was so bright, we made it reversible. The backing had a blue Seed of Life with only a touch of red/orange to tie into the front.

More Seed of Life Quilts

This is perhaps the most elegant quilt I've made to date. It was a commissioned piece a few years ago, one of several actually. The person this quilt was going to liked purple, Louisiana, and the fleur-de-lis. Given that information, this is the quilt I created. The fabrics were all dyed by my husband at my command. The Seed of Life is a prominent center piece surrounded by yards of purple knot work and dark purple Louisiana Iris. The outer knot work border was designed to look like fleur-de-lis wrought iron fence tops to further induce the feel of Louisiana. At the moment, I forget just how many yards of Celtic knot work I sewed onto this quilt (my husband thinks it was miles). Truly, I was proud of this one for coming out more beautiful than I had imagined.

Seed of Life Quilts

The Seed of Life is an ancient and universal design. It employs sacred geometry and is said to represent all life here on this beautiful planet of ours. It was introduced to me by my first quilt client as the Flower of Life. For that quilt, I used only the center (The SEED) and did it in Mardi Gras colors. It was applique piecework and surrounded by Celtic knotwork. I have created many versions of this design. Most have the Seed in the center and Celtic knotwork around the borders. This one is the most recent version and up for sale on my Etsy site(hence the digital photo). I will be sharing the other versions also. I just need to scan them and fiddle with the sizes. The quilts are quite different from each other because of the colors and techniques employed during their construction. I learned something new with each version. I also learned how to make my husband tie-dye the design so I wouldn't have to applique it any more. That really speeds up the process.