What’s New!

I’ve been a busy girl; finishing up some UFOs and working on new classes, samples and patterns. Among other things, I’m working on a new ‘cat’ series. All you Garden Patch Cat fans need not panic – there are still quite a few more fruity and veggie cats to come (Hint: the next one will be ‘Purrsnip’), but it was time to start thinking of what will come next.

About ten years ago, I designed a block of the month program quilt for Story Quilts named ‘Temple Guardians’, a series of elegant stylized Siamese cat blocks. The program did very well but from day one, I kept getting requests from quilters who were not interested in making the whole quilt but would I “please offer the blocks individually”. At that time, Story Quilts did not wish to do that as they felt it would undermine the shops choosing to run it as a Block of the Month. Now, finally, after activity on the full sized Block of the Month quilt has tapered off, Story Quilts has finally given me the go-ahead to rework the patterns into individual wall hangings.

I am excited! This comes at a time when I was already becoming interested in the whole ‘Modern Quilt’ movement but I have no desire to jump into making a bed-sized modern quilt. This simplified design concept creates an excellent backdrop for these very Art Deco style cats. It is my plan to produce individual patterns from all the original Temple Guardian cats, each in a setting with that ‘modern’ twist and each bearing a name that exemplifies a trait that makes a cat – a CAT.

This first in the series is ‘Dignity’ (what is a cat if not dignified) and it measures about 21″ x 35″ depending on quilting. The more intricate quilting you add, the more shrinkage you get in the finished quilt. Of the two samples pictured below, the cover sample belongs to Story Quilts and the second sample with the black and turquoise border blocks is mine. YES, I will be offering Posh Cats as a class for those who want help in assembling the quilt. The cats being simple and streamlined are a great subject for those wanting to learn hand applique – most of the pieces are fairly large and have very few tricky areas like points and valleys. The cats can also be fused of course, for those to whom hand applique is the ‘A’ word; or HA (more appropriately). I, for one, love to laugh – HA, HA, HA.

in my new cat series - Posh Cats. Each will be named after a ' catly' personality trait, this one is 'Dignity'. This is the pattern cover sample.[/caption]
Dignity pattern cover photo
Dignity pattern cover photo
#1 in my new cat series - Posh Cats. Each will be named after a ' catly' personality trait, this one is 'Dignity'. This is a second sample with a black and turquoise border and more intricate background quilting.

On another topic, one more ‘new’ addition to the website is a list of the lectures I offer for guild or event programs. You will find it under the ‘classes’ tab in a link directly after another link with class descriptions of all the classes I offer. Many of the lectures are old favorites like The Principles of Landscape Quilt Design, Color Theory and The Art & Craft of Quilting, but there are some new additions including a brand new trunk show and talk about ethnic influences in my work that I call ‘Global Dances’. The talk and trunk show include my ‘ethnic themed’ work such as Molas, Sashiko, my Animal Totem series and other quilts with ethnic motifs or symbolism.


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