Visiting Past Works

This is the first "art quilt" that I ever created. It is titled "My Symphony" and was completed in 2008. I call this my first art quilt because it was my first original design and contains a lot of symbolism for me. I used commercial cottons and machine quilted it.

It was completed for my guild's show, "A Symphony of Quilts" challenge. I had never entered a challenge before, and had never appliqued. Applique to me was a very bad, bad word. A friend sad "do raw edge, you can do that, it's easy." So I tried and this was the result.

Raw edge applique was not as difficult as I had thought. Since that time I have studied more about the "right" way to do it. I have learned more about fusibles, the importance of tight weave fabrics and good scissors. Today, most of quilts use raw edge applique and I am liking the results. New methods can be scary, but by trying new things, new ideas emerge and new quilts are created that I might never have attempted.

This is a quilt that I have not looked at in a long time. I was reminded of it when a Quilt Show member commented on it recently. It was great looking at it in a new light with more experience behind me.