95” × 95”

Pieced by: Carol Rising
Quilted by:  Bobbi Lucero, Edge Water Quilting
Pattern: Dinner Plate Dahlia, designed by Bradley and Judy Niemeyer, Judy Niemeyer Quilting, 2018
Techniques: Foundation paper piecing, chain piecing, curved paper piecing, curved strip piecing, machine embroidery, machine applique, fussy cutting, fabric selection and placement using Quiltster, the proprietary quilt design software from Quiltworx, machine piecing and longarm quilting.

I started this quilt early in 2019. Fabric selection and purchase took months.  I took Barbara Gary’s Technique of the Month class for this pattern – the six months of the class weren’t nearly long enough. In the middle of it all, Dana and I got married, and on our honeymoon I broke my right wrist. It was the perfect opportunity for Dana to learn how to cut and trim the blocks – ha!  Even so, I was often overwhelmed by the magnitude of the project. I had to put it in ‘time out’ from time to time for sanity’s sake.

My unique touch to this pattern is the fussy-cut bees. I found the fabric for the bees on a weekend retreat at Threadbear in Las Vegas, NM. I got carried away with the idea of substituting the bees for appliqued circles on many of the fans inside the outer three borders.

I also learned a lot about Judy Niemeyer’s methods for paper piecing — it wasn’t quite a ‘gateway’ class, but now I’m inspired to become one of Judy Niemeyer’s certified instructors.”

When I started this quilt, it was taught as a ‘Technique of the Month.’  My fabric choices were very different from those generally used at that time.  Our teacher, Barbara Gary, was a bit skeptical about my choice of Orientals instead of the usual batiks

Originally, I chose a very busy print, now used on the back, for the inner border.  I put it on a design wall without the outer border in 2018, and again in 2019.  I kept hating it, regretting all my work

I finally decided I needed to look at it critically.  I discovered that the problem was that extremely busy inner border.  Happily I had enough light blue fabric to make the new inner border.  What a difference!”

74" × 88"

Pieced by: Members of the Quilt Works staff
Quilted by: Danyella Nava
Pattern: Traditional
Technique: Machine pieced and quilted

In grateful appreciation for 14 years as bookkeeper for the Quilt Works, former and present members of the Quilt Works staff pieced blocks for Joni’s Retirement Quilt, Rememberance En Rouge.  Blocks were pieced by Becky Welch, Carol Rising, Cindy Kurey, Dana Brabson, Danyella Nava, Debbie Williams, Eve Hanssen-Wood, Faye Manganelli, Grace Sanders, Judy Botsford, Kathi Dineen, Kathy Congable, Laura Echeverria, Lisa Pries-Linn, Michele Lommasson, Phyllis Henry, Shirley Sickenger, and Toni Getz.

The label on the back, shown at the right, features the shop’s Sun Bonnet Sue logo, and was created by Kathy Congable.

67" × 74"

Pieced by: Kathi Dineen
Quilted by: Lynne Horpedahl, Late Night Quilts
Pattern: Aunt Millie’s Garden, Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins, Piece O’ Cake Designs, 2007
Technique: Hand applique; machine piecing and quilting

This is a repeat showing for Millie this year.  In 2015, Shirley Brabson told me I “had to finish it and put it in the Employees’ Show.”  I did – but she never saw it finished!!

So this is an encore for Millie.  Shirley’s guidance and love for Hand Appliqué is what has carried me this far.  I love, love, love this quilt!!

91″ × 96″

Pieced and Quilted by: Becky Welch
Pattern: Original
Technique: Circle patches cut using Latifah Saafir’s 12” clamshell template; machine pieced, long-arm machine quilted

“I had never inset a complete circle before, and Saafir’s template has instructions on how to do this.  It was so easy and fun that I kept making big circles.

“I deliberately skewed the values of some circles so they disappeared when viewed from a distance. 

“There are many special – to me – fabrics in this quilt.”

58” × 82”

Pieced by: Judy Botsford
Quilted by: Danyella Nava
Pattern: Pat Fryer, Villa Rosa Designs, 2014
Technique: Machine pieced and longarm quilted

I love the colors in the quilt I made.  The pattern was easy to make, and I think it shows off the prints well.

Danyella did a great job of quilting it.

Yes, I sewed the binding on by hand.

97” × 108”

Pieced and Quilted by: Becky Welch
Pattern: Variation on Glam Clam by Latifah Saafir
Technique: Clamshell patches cut using Latifah Saafir’s 12” clamshell template; machine pieced, longarm machine quilted

I made this quilt with the intention of drastically reducing my “pickle green” fabric stash.  I did reduce it.

The Clammy 12” template has a vertical center line which led to the split clamshells.

61” × 75”

Pieced and Quilted by: Bobbi Lucero
Pattern: I saw a quilt somewhere, perhaps 10 years ago, with the blocks that I used in my quilt; I added sashing and borders.
Technique: Machine piecing with a Bernina 440, and custom digital quilting with a Handi-Quilter longarm.

In this quilt, Kokopelli is playing his flute, sharing his beautiful music, and telling stories.   Some say that Kokopelli is also a prankster, a fertility god, and a healer.  But in my quilt, he is too busy spreading messages of love and beautiful music, and making us laugh with his stories.  The world needs more laughter, positively and most importantly love.  Each time I sew, I do so with love and with silent prayers.  I hope this quit radiates that love and healing vibrations to the world.

90” × 91”

Pieced and Quilted by: Danyella Nava
Pattern: Sparrows, Pen and Paper Patterns
Technique: Machine piecing, and longarm quilting.

When I saw this pattern, I knew I had to have it!  The birds remind me of my nature – loving mom, and the color palette lends to a relaxing chic quilt!  I wonder if my cats will snuggle the birds, or if they will attack them!

87” × 87”

Pieced and Quilted by: Dana Brabson
Quilted by: Bobbi Lucero, Edge Water Quilting
Bound by: Laura Echeverria
Pattern: Original
Technique: Machine pieced and longarm quilted

The first seam in the Santa Ana Winds – SAW – block is a quarter circle, starting in the lower left corner of the square background fabric and ending in the upper right corner.  The second seam is a half circle, also starting in the lower left corner and ending in the lower right corner.  The half moon can be located on each of the 4 sides of the block.  Moreover, the design can be flipped over so that the wind will cause the block to rotate clockwise instead of counterclockwise.  With eight different configurations for each SAW block, the number of secondary designs that can be created in a quilt is enormous.  (Each secondary design has two or more SAW blocks.)  How many different secondary designs can you find in this quilt?  Some of them even have a bit of an oriental feel.

Now look at the negative spaces available in this quit.  And look at the quilting that Bobbi added to fill these spaces.  It takes my breath away.

30” × 30”

Pieced and Quilted by: Bev Firth
Pattern: Rapid Fire LeMoyne Star, Deb Tucker, Studio 180 Designs
Technique: Machine pieced, and longarm quilted

I am not a fan of inset seams (although I can do them successfully.  Deb Tucker of Studio 180 Designs has created a template that uses oversized pieces that are sewn together in strips cut, sewn, and trimmed down, thus avoiding “Y” seams.

This was the first quilt that I quilted on my brand new (at the time) stand-up long arm.  The stars range from 12” to 5”.  (Thank you, Dana, for binding it for me.)

53” × 61”

Pieced by: Lisa Pries-Linn
Quilted by: Mary Ann Luedtke
Pattern: Fat ¼  Mystery, M’Liss Rae Hawley, Fat Quarter Quilts, Martingale & Company, 1999.
Technique: Machine pieced and domestic machine quilted

My mom passed away a few years ago.  She was in many ways my biggest fan.  When I started quilting, she would ask me why I was cutting up perfectly good fabric.  When I described this quilt to her over the phone, she insisted that she wanted it for her own, sight unseen.  She snuggled with it for many years before it came back to me.  Now I’ll cherish it as one of ma’s quilts.

60” × 75”

Pieced by: Phyllis Henry
Quilted by: Danyella Nava
Pattern: Libby’s Log Cabin, Fon’s & Porters’ Love of Quilting, January/February, 2015, pp 18-2
Technique: Machine pieced and longarm quilted

I hadn’t been quilting long (in 2015) when I pieced Libby’s Log Cabin, and the stars were a real challenge for me.  It is seven years later and I really like the fabrics.  So I asked Danyella to quilt it, and I have finished it for this show.

64” × 80”

Pieced by: Pam Wigal
Quilted by: Tisha Cavanaugh
Pattern: Thru Grandmother's Window, Piece O' Cake Designs 
Technique: Hand Applique, machine piecing, and custom long arm quilting

Purchased this pattern in the early 2000's (I think) and started this quilt when Kathi D. offered a class in January 2009. The fabric in the hand applique work all came from my stash. Truly, a scrap quilt. I finally finished the applique I think around 2017 or 2018. These last 2 months, finally finished the setting. It took a village to get this quilt over the finish line. Thanks to Kathi D's Hand Application class for figuring out the setting for the THIRD time. Thanks to Dana for cutting all my setting strips — a particular chore due to the directional fabric. Finally a huge Thank You to Tisha for being brave enough to take on a custom quilting job with just 3 weeks before the show.

18” × 41”

Pieced by: Lisa Pries-Linn
Quilted by: Tisha Cavenaugh
Pattern: Original
Technique: Improvisationally machine pieced; longarm quilted

This started with a word prompt -- “paths” -- in a Free Range Quilters class.  I had been making the thin line inserts as practice pieces and I fell in love with my tiny blocks!  So Pathways was born! 

My friend, Tisha, did a fantastic job of quilting; she knows I love the pebbles!

45” × 62”

Pieced by: Laura Echeverria
Quilted by: Kathy Congable
Pattern: Bee Charming, Villa Rosa Designs, modified to fit the pattern motifs
Technique: Machine piecing and longarm quilting

Sometimes making a quilt is a labor of love. Sometimes making a quilt is an obsession. Sometimes making a quilt is an attempt to impose order on a crazy world. And sometimes, well, sometimes “girls just wanna have fun!”  When Kathi handed me the Snarky Cats fabrics to put out on the shop floor, I knew I had to make something with those hilarious kitties. Bee Charming is a simple 4-patch design that really lets a fun novelty fabric be the star of the show. Once the Employee Show is over, this quilt will go on the back of the couch in our living room so our three cats (Libi, Mia and Midge) can enjoy sleeping on their quilt.

57” × 57”

Pieced by: Laura Echeverria
Quilted by: Danyella Nava
Pattern: Original, using the Goose in the Pond block in The Quilter’s Album of Blocks and Borders, by Jinny Beyer
Technique: Machine piecing and longarm quilting

I see the Employees’ Quilt Show as a challenge and make it a goal to come up with something special for the show. This year I wanted my quilt to be a tribute to my friend, Becky Shoden, who taught me to use a rotary cutter and helped me make my first quilting project. We designed quilts together, shopped together and sewed together for years. Becky got me my first job in a quilt shop and then complained for years that I always had to work on her day off!

Becky gave me my favorite big book of blocks: The Quilter’s Album of Blocks and Borders by Jinny Beyer. As we browsed the book on my birthday, Becky happily showed me her favorite block – Goose in the Pond (page 97 of my edition). I drove my co-workers and Dana crazy designing this quilt. Dana used Electric Quilt to capture my first ideas and we created a quilt I really liked – it looked nothing like this one!  When the dramatic gray Kaffe flowers appeared on the shelf at The Quilt Works, I was fascinated and maybe a bit appalled – I really didn’t want my tribute to Becky to be gray – but those flowers would not let go of me. I threw out the original design, dug out my trusty graph paper (how many quilts did Becky and I draft on graph paper? 100 at least), and came up with this quilt

On Becky’s Pond. In honor of Becky, the quilt has the dramatic Kaffe flowers, which people either love or hate; it has Goose in the Pond blocks; it has some “pond” blocks  with no geese; it has geese in the border – maybe they’re heading to one of those ponds with no geese;  it has Becky’s favorite color – green; it has yellow, which I can never see without hearing Becky say, “yellow is a happy color;” and it has blue quilting thread in honor of Becky’s husband, Larry, who held his family together throughout Becky’s illness the way quilting holds a quilt together.  For you, Becky.

49” × 74”

Pieced and Quilted by: Debbie Williams
Pattern: Original, inspired by Stripe Quilts Made Modern, Lauren S. Palmer, Stash Books, 2016
Technique: Machine piecing; longarm pantograph quilting

I won Stripe Quilt Made Modern at a quilting party in the fall of 2021.  This quilt began as an investigation working with regular stripe fabric.  I played with the available stripes in the fabric line, which dictated 8¼” square blocks.  I used the available stripe fabric and needed more interest for completing the quilt.

The floral fabrics softened the stripes and the combination of the solids with the metallic stars helped balance the overall effect.

The gold quilting thread helped to give a nod to the metallic fabric and bring the design together.

98” × 100”

Pieced by: Bev Firth
Quilted by: Bev Firth
Pattern: Journeys, a Studio 180 Block of the Month
Technique: Machine piecing and longarm quilting

Along with each month’s block, there was a chapter of a novella by Marie Bosworth. The story is about a teenaged Bostonian girl named Penelope Jean (PJ) from a wealthy Boston family. Her older brother is in the navy stationed at Pearl Harbor in 1941. The first chapter ends with the attack on Pearl Harbor when her brother is killed. As the story goes on, PJ and her brother’s fiancé go to Oregon to help build Liberty ships. She meets a local boy, and their story goes on from there.

I didn’t realize at the beginning how this story would become so personal to me. Like PJ’s boyfriend, my dad served in WWII and was stationed at LaMoore Army Airfield as an airplane mechanic. Over Christmas in 1944, he went back home to New York on leave. At a New Year’s Eve party he met a young woman and they began letter writing. And like so many other couples from the war, fell in love and just like PJ and Joe, got married in June of 1945.

FESTIVE FOREST TABLE RUNNER

14” ´ 53”
Pieced and Quilted by: Caitlin Robinson
Pattern: Patterns for the Quilt Works class, “Introduction to Machine Piecing”
Technique: Beginning machine piecing techniques: Using templates, scant ¼” seam allowance, piecing curves, inset seams, half-square triangles, stitch in the ditch quilting

I had not quilted in 15 years at the time of my retirement last June.  I was working on the Gypsy Wife quilt and was not happy with my quilting.  I had forgotten as much as I had ever learned!  I took Dana’s class so that I could receive critical feedback on my piecing skills and receive master-level instruction.  I highly recommend this for anyone wanting to improve their piecing skills.

LILIANNA’S LULLABY

30” ´ 47”
Pieced and Quilted by: Kaitlin Mitchell
Pattern: Original
Technique: Machine piecing and domestic machine quilting

A good friend of mine recently had her second child, and I wanted to make her a baby quilt.  This was my first time working with a panel, and that presented its own unique challenges that I was able to learn from.  I experimented with doing different quilting patterns before deciding on simply outlining  the shapes that were on the panel.  I wasn’t able to do as much sewing as I would have liked this past year due to the workload I had for school, so it was nice to get back into quilting and try something I had never done before.

CONFETTI SWIRLS

82” x 90”
Pieced and Quilted by:  Debbie Williams
Pattern:  Original, modified from Quilter’s Confetti, Moda All-Stars Mix It Up!, designed by Kristyne Czepuryk,Martingale, 2019.
Technique:  “Cake Mix” foundation paper piecing

The idea for this quilt began as a possible 2020 “Demo” for the shop that never occurred.

I began with two Layer Cakes of Jen Kingwell fabrics, and then I added the Paper White Grunge.  Each 8” block is composed of four 3” × 3” Half-Square Triangle blocks and 28 1” × 1” Half Square Triangle blocks.  My quilt has 90 blocks, so that totals 2,880 Triangle Square blocks!  I can’t imagine cutting and sewing that many Half Square Triangle blocks with any accuracy without using this type of foundation paper piecing.

The bright colors on the quilt make me smile, but even more so since the triangle blocks are completed.