It seems I haven't posted photos of this quilt, one of my favorites, made about a year ago. It's about 40" square, and I've it hung in a place where I see it every day. This is about the 7th quilt I've made from the "
Four-Patch Stacked Posie" pattern, which is basically a method of cutting up one central fabric so that each block is made from four identical segments of the fabric. Most people do this quilt from floral fabrics, and I've done some like that, but I also like what happens with a geometric or other kinds of abstract prints. Here's a close-up, so that you can see how the block is constructed. I am very happy with the quilting I did on this piece--in-the-ditch quilting around and through the center lines of each block, and then loose, overlapping squares in the white sashing. The black border was left unquilted, to emphasize its role as a frame. I think the narrow striped binding also works well; it was cut from an unevenly-striped fabric. (As always, click on the photo for a larger view.)
Here's the fabric, before it was cut up:
Added July 21--This was actually the second 4-patch quilt I made with the red/white/black fabric. Here's another, which I also like, but not as much as the one with white sashing. Some of the individual blocks are especially nice; my favorites are the bottom right corner and the left hand column, two center blocks.
And here are some other 4-patch quilts I've made. I think the multi-color sashing is a big plus in this one, which went to my sister.
I made this one for my friend Kay. There's a photo of the fabric before cutting at the end of
this post.
The next one won a prize in the local quilt show a few years ago. I was surprised, because it's a pretty straightforward rendering of a simple pattern. I think the judge had seen so many of these in floral prints, that she rewarded the use of a different type of fabric. And I do think the black and white sashing was a good choice. I originally tried out various bright colors, but the predominantly white fabric works well with the multi-color blocks.
Here's a photo of the original fabric (on the right) and some of the blocks:
Here's one from a more traditional fabric. I like this color combination very much--it introduced me to the pleasure of magenta. This quilt is on our bed.
The next one was made as a high school graduation present for a good friend. The sashing is some of my hand-dyed fabric.
And here's the first one I made, as a wedding present for another young friend. This one was done without the narrow frame around each block, as I was aiming for a more overall look to the pattern.
Time to catch up, now that teaching and the art class I was taking are both finished for the year. The collage of cut up images of stones that I did for the art class (last post) led to the fabric collage above, made from cutting up "stonescapes" I did a while ago, appliquéing hand-painted fabric onto linen. (You can see one such piece at the top of this post.) The collage is about 8" x 10." I think this is possibly a good direction to go in, accomplishing more abstraction for stone imagery. I'd like to try more pieces like this, possibly piecing them together into something much larger. But I can't go further on this until I paint some more fabric, one of the things on my list for the summer. I also realize that instead of being limited to the one or two appropriate colors of linen that I can readily find commercially, I can dye the linen myself. So that's on the list too, as well as dyeing cotton yardage in a number of colors to have available for a couple of other projects. But first I'm finishing up a simple patchwork quilt that I started as a side treat while grading papers last month, and I'm basting up a small quilt for a hand-quilting project, as I don't have anything right now for those moments when I just want to sit and hand-quilt. 
All made from this fabric:
