Design Concept

In the neighborhood near my home in Paducah KY there are Bradford Pear trees which produce autumn leaves in an amazing variety of different colors and patterns. For several years I picked up especially beautiful specimens and scanned or photographed them. This quilt was inspired by one of my scans.

I began the design by printing a large copy of the leaf and tracing it on plain paper. Second, I simplified the lines of the tracing. Third, I added back some of the elements of the leaf I liked the best and refined the lines. The line drawing was printed onto clear acetate and projected onto freezer paper in reverse, to enlarge the design to 31". Even though the finished quilt is be 30" x 30" I made the quilt top an inch larger, because the quilting always causes the dimensions to shrink a bit.

I traced my design in Corel Draw, turning it into separate shapes, and did a color sketch to use as a guide for choosing fabrics. All of the fabrics in this quilt are from my Gradations and Splash collections, which I designed for Benartex (available in our Internet Store). When I pieced the quilt, the picture of the actual leaf was also on the wall next to the big drawing and I used that as a color guide in addition to my sketch. All of the curved seams in this quilt were joined using "Applipiecing", a technique I developed in 1989 to make curved seams fast, easy, and accurate. Instructions for applipiecing can be found in our Internet Store.

The quilting is done with many different colors of polyester top-stitching thread in shades that are similar to the colors of the fabric. The patterns of the quilting reflect the textured surfaces that can be found on leaves when they are magnified.

Piecing the quilt top.

This quilt is part of a solo exhibition called "30 Quilts for 30 Years", which premiered at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, November 2013, and is subsequently traveling to additional venues (see travel schedule).

Exhibitions:

Publications and Media:

• Fiber Art Now, Fall 2013, Volume3, Issue 1, p. 13
• Houston PBS interview, November 2013, YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HabPGcjQcwI
• Boston.com: December 09, 2013 at 08:40 AM, http://finance.boston.com/boston/news/read/25843747/&
• Catalog of Show Quilts: 2014, American Quilters Society, p. 66
• Machine Quilting Unlimited: May/June 2014, p. 12
• American Quilters Society 2015 Wall Calendar, Cover