Quilts, Quilts, Quilts - Part 2

 In my last post, I wrote about a terrific exhibit I saw last week, showcasing the work of two quilt artist friends. I shared the work of Susan Walsh, and now I'd like to do the same with the quilts of Barbara Malek. When she's not doing professional long arm machine quilting on other people's quilts, Barbara creates beautiful work of her own.

On the basket quilt below, the flowers are intricately quilted as part of the design.

And this award-winning cone flower quilt is one of my favorites!

This quilt has pockets to hold part of Barbara's collection of vintage hankies, which can be swapped with others from time to time, and shows off some of her mother of pearl button collection.

This Christmas quilt has beautiful hand embroidery...

as well as some personal humor! (Barbara's husband and cats!)

And finally, Barbara has begun a series of vintage dresses, with hand embroidery and rich embellishment. They are really stunning 'in person'.

There are more quilts, but I've chosen my favorites. Hope you've enjoyed seeing them!

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts - Part 1

I went to a wonderful quilt exhibit this week, showcasing the work of two quilt artists whom I know personally. It was held in a beautiful room used as the sanctuary of a local church, and I couldn't help but think how wonderful it would be to attend a service, surrounded by these handmade beauties.

The first artist is Susan Walsh, a former quilt shop owner, whose work is infused with color and warmth. A group of ladies (including me) meet at her house every week to stitch and chat, and I'm constantly amazed by the quality of her hand appliqué and stitching.

Here are just some of her quilts.

Some hand appliquéd details from this quilt -

This is just a portion of a larger quilt -

Detail from this quilt -

In my next post I'll share photos of quilts by the other artist, Barbara Malek.

I'm sure you'll agree that these are spectacular!

Snow Day

Hello everyone,
I've been away from my blog for a while, but just had to come back to show some pictures of our "snow day" yesterday.
This storm was not originally predicted to be that bad, but it came down continuously all day, coating every tree branch with beautiful white icing. These photos show how enchanting everything looked!

To top it all off, late in the afternoon, the sun came out and the highest branches turned a beautiful yellow, as the ice crystals reflected the sunlight. It was stunning!

And the sun show was followed by a lovely, soft sunset. A poet would have loved writing about this!

I just wanted to share these photos. I've been working on several projects and I'll post pictures and write about them soon.

Wishing everyone a belated "Happy February"!