Karen's quilts

 This one waited a long time for its story.

The original sketch dates back to 2018, but it sat quietly for years until the Cherrywood Storytime Challenge finally gave it a reason to become a quilt. The design changed along the way—as they usually do—but the crooked tree remained the heart of the piece and the beginning of an imaginary little world I could easily see becoming a children’s story someday.

Cherrywood Challenge Finalist — Storytime

This one is all about texture, movement, and a whole lot of quilting. Layers of satin and microsuede sweep across the surface in undulating bands, with appliqué and embroidery adding even more dimension.

Each section became its own little playground for hand-guided quilting, filled with changing textures, feathers, curves, pebbles, and freeform designs. Two layers of wool batting push all of that quilting forward, giving the piece its deeply sculpted, almost dimensional surface.

And yes—the title is absolutely intentional. 

This quilt began with my own ice-dyed mandalas. A friend commented that they looked like nebulas, which sent me searching through images of space. Then I found Andromeda.

The purples, browns, movement, and glowing shapes felt remarkably connected to the fabrics I had already created, and the rest of the quilt grew from there.

 The center of this quilt began as a deconstructed kaleidoscope, but I wanted the design to keep moving beyond that center.

I added my own appliqué and border designs and worked with a nine-step gradation of hand-dyed fabric against the background. Even the backing was custom hand-dyed for the piece.

A friend challenged me to make a modern quilt.

Apparently I took that seriously.

Glacier 1 became my first modern piece and the beginning of an entire series exploring glaciers through shape, line, fabric, and quilting. It was created with improvisational piecing using Cherrywood hand-dyed fabrics.

Sometimes the fabric tells you what it wants to become.

This hand-dyed Armani silk immediately reminded me of the God’s Eye yarn projects I made at camp, so I designed a wholecloth around the existing dye lines rather than fighting them.

The quilting follows and enhances those lines, while couched metallic Candlelight thread adds another layer of emphasis and shine.

Created for the Cherrywood Lion King Challenge.

Small format. Big personality.

Cherrywood Challenge Finalist — The Lion King

My piece for the Cherrywood Wicked Challenge—and of course, there was really only one direction I could go.

Meet Elphie.

Cherrywood Challenge Finalist — Wicked

The center began with a Mexican Pinwheel from Marsha McCloskey's Feathered Star Quilt Blocks I — Really Hard Blocks That Take a Long Time to Make. That title should probably have been my warning.

From there, the quilt grew into my own design with additional piecing, machine appliqué, and hand appliqué—including the center Lemoyne star—and plenty of challenges along the way.

This quilt is about finding hope when everything around you feels dark.

The hand holds fear, sorrow, and pain, yet it is still reaching toward HOPE—the thing with feathers. As it reaches, more feathers emerge through the quilting, stitched in softer, lighter color like small glimmers breaking through the darkness.

Even the sky is heavy and unsettled, but it moves.

And somewhere within all of that movement, there is still singing.

A true collaboration between friends.

Eyvonne Smith and I began with a modified and enlarged version of Jacqueline de Jonge's Elements of Nature pattern, then continued adding our own ideas and elements.

Additional stars and flying geese appear within the quilting itself, extending the movement beyond the piecing and making the quilting part of the composition rather than simply the finishing step.

Inspired by a photograph by Adam Hart-Davis, Drops explores the surface and reflection of water through fabric.

The quilt is made entirely from satin, with Shiva Paintstiks used to create the dimensional water-droplet appliqués.

Original photograph used with permission.

This design lived in my head for a long time before it became a quilt.

I first sketched the idea in early 2009, began translating it into fabric in 2010, and finally completed the construction and original quilting design late in 2011.

Invisible machine appliqué, batik, cotton, sateen, metallic thread, and approximately 2,000 crystals all found their way into the finished piece.

Apparently once I committed, I really committed.

Designed for the 2011 MCQG Star Challenge, which required both stars and at least one lamé fabric.

So I embraced the shine.

The original design combines sateen, silk, and lamé fabrics to create a piece built around light, reflection, and, of course, stars.

 Oliver was nearly a year in the making—and one of those quilts where the process became as important as the finish.

The owl, tree branches, and background were painted and shaded with Shiva Paintstiks, then assembled with invisible appliqué. Building the image slowly through color, shading, fabric, and quilting made this one a wonderful journey from beginning to end.

My first original wholecloth.

Long before I knew where all of this experimenting would eventually take me, I was already fascinated by what could be created with quilting alone.

Iron Acanthus uses color trapunto with black wool to give the stitched design depth, dimension, and drama.