Quilts from Elegance in Stitches

Springtime Duet

 I've been saving this batch of quilts for a special blog and today is the DAY. These quilts are part of a special exhibition called Elegance in Stitches by Joanie Zeier Poole. If it comes to your part of the world be sure to see it! 

What I thought I'd do is show you the labels so you can read all about them, and then show you detail photos of some of the quilting and, well, stitches.  Here you go! 

(This is referring to the quilt pictured above)

And here are some closeup shots - 

Isn't this pretty!?

 Here is the next one. 

Lovely. Elegant. C'est très Français!

And here is a closeup of the intricate quilting and broderie perse applique.  (Be sure to click on the image to see all the detail up close!) 

Look - no feathers! Lol, I've mentioned before that I see way too many feathers on everything these days... here is some beautiful machine quilting without them. 

 Beautifully done!

Look at the blue on yellow stitching. And the yellow on blue. This seemingly ordinary quilt medallion becomes extraordinary because of the stitching. I love it! 

So pretty! 

Well I  feel like saying the old adage "From the sublime to the ridiculous".  From Joanie's master quilts to the small simple landscape I'm working on.
Sigh.

This week finds me working on another class project. This one for my strip pieced landscape class.

OH! I forgot to mention that I put my book on sale. It is only $15 now because the publisher gave me a good deal on them and I thought I'd pass it along to you. If you haven't bought it yet, now is a good time to do so. It comes with life size patterns of all the trees and branches, as well as lots of project ideas. (If you already have it and like it, can you post a review of it online? Thanks!)

 One of the reasons I love working with strips is because you can bring in so much color.  I have several yards of this iris fabric and thought I could make a small landscape and use maybe 3-5 flowers in it. This means I can make quite a few kits and it would work well for a class project. 

Plus, I suppose once the irises are gone, I can substitute a wide variety of natural flowers.  Here they are.

Anyway, this was my thinking; I'd like to pull out some of the colors in the flower blossoms and blend those colors into the sky. I'll also be appliqueing the leaves and stems of the flowers and will have to use green prints for those. This means that I shouldn't use a lot of green in the foreground. 

In progress from the ground up...

Done with my design

I have plopped a couple of flowers against the sky as I was designing and I know this will work - I just didn't take any photos as I did it.  The landscape looks bare now doesn't it?! By next week though the quilt top will be done.

Working with strips is so much fun! 

Well, I hope you enjoyed the quilt show. That's all for me this week. Next week I'll show you the finished thing but then I might start baking Christmas cookies and such. No time for quilting when fudge and sugar cookies are on the agenda!

I hope you all have a great week.