La Passacaglia Quilt Variation

I made this quilt based on the La Passacaglia pattern in Willyne Hammerstein's book--Millefiori Quilts. It measures 64 inches wide by 77 inches long. Where I differ from her pattern is that I did not cut the outer rosettes to make straight edges. Instead, I appliqued them onto a border fabric. The rosettes were pieced by the English paper piecing method and hand-quilted with an embroidery chain stitch. I titled this quilt, "A Lot of Too Much."

Garden quilts inspired by a class taught by Jean Wells Keenan

I started the quilt titled "Purple Alliums" in a 2016 Empty Spools Seminars class (www.emptyspoolsseminars.com) with Jean Wells Keenan where she taught us how to make an abstract design from a photograph. My photo was of purple allium flowers. I made the second quilt titled "Summer Solstice" after I returned home from the workshop. The design was based on my childhood memories of my mother's summer zinnia gardens. Both quilts  measure about 24 inches wide by 26 inches high and are constructed from quilt cottons and designer fabrics. The allium flowers are embroidered with a blanket stitch of red embroidery floss. They are currently on display and for sale at the Bowery Art Gallery & Studio in Apalachicola, FL (www.boweryartgallery.com).

Purple Alliums

Summer Solstice

Crochet lizard on art quilt wall hanging

Title:  Tropical Vacation

    Materials: Cotton fabrics, yarn, beads, thread

    Size: 21 H x 18.5 W

    Year: 2016

This is a quilted wall hanging with a crocheted, beaded lizard attached. The green and orange area of the quilt consists of fabric strips wrapped around cotton clothesline that was then stitched together.

Big City Rats Art Quilt

This art quilt titled "Big City Rats" made its public debut at The President's Summer Art Series hosted by Brenau University Galleries (2015). My inspiration for this piece was the 2007 infamous rats-in-the Taco Bell video shot in New York City. Here, fancy rat breeds tower over a glittering urban landscape while their humbler cousins take refuge on its rooftops and in its streets.

Title:  Big City Rats

Artist:  Jane B. Broaddus

Medium:  Fiber (cotton fabrics, tulle, trim, embroidery thread, machine thread, seed beads, sequins) 

Date:  2015

H x W:  42.5 x 29.5 inches

 

Tree frog made from buttons and beads

My friend Gloria and I were scheduled to take a class in embellishments from Frances Holliday Alford (www.franceshollidayalford.com/) last September at The City Quilter in Manhattan, but the teacher cancelled because she wasn't feeling well. After reading her article, "Outrageous Embellishments" in the Dec/Jan 2008 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine, I just had to try out her techniques on my own. So, I stitched the outline of a tree frog on a quilt sandwich, free-motion quilted the background, and then embellished the frog a la Alford. It was too much fun! The frog is about 9.5 inches high and 7 inches wide.

Goundhog Eating Kudzu Art Quilt

This wall hanging was made as a challenge quilt for the Heart in Hand Quilt Guild of Dawsonville, GA. For the challenge, each member selected a brown bag that contained about a half yard of fabric. Mine was a brown batik that I cut into strips and reassembled as the groundhog in this piece.

I titled the wall hanging, "Groundhog + Kudzu: A Love Story." I was inspired by all the groundhogs I see by the side of the road wherever kudzu grows.

 Kudzu, the notorious invasive vine from Asia, has choked thousands of acres of forests in the southeastern USA. One beneficiary of the vine, however, has been the groundhog who derives room and board from it.

In turn, the groundhog donates its dung as fertilizer. The vine can easily regenerate any leaves eaten by the groundhog

Dimensions: 28 inches height x 22 inches width

                Materials: Cotton and silk fabrics, thread, broken jewelry, buttons, paper, tulle.

Techniques: Hand applique, machine thread sketching, hand embellishment, yo-yo construction.

Cat Face--A portrait in purple fabric of my long-hair cat.

I take a lot of pictures of my female cat PT, and I particularly liked this one.

I decided to make an art quilt titled "Cat Face" based on this picture. I thought it would be fun to make her fur purple and to enhance the green of her eyes. The finished piece measures 45 inches high by 46 inches wide. 

Materials and techniques: cotton and pearl organza, tulle, rickrack, thread; hand appliqué, machine quilted.

"Cat Face" was juried into the 2013 East Cobb Quilt Guild Show in Marietta, Georgia and won third place viewer's choice at the Heart in Hand Quilt Guild Show in Dawsonville, Georgia.

Another Panic Attack--A Wall Hanging

This wall hanging is titled, "Another Panic Attack," which I made to enter in a Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) show called, "I'm Not Crazy."

My artist's statement:

Someone close to me suffers from panic disorder. Based on my observations, I depicted an attack where blackout closes in on a chaotic emotional state.

Description of the piece:

Size: height x width, in inches 34 x 29.5

Year Completed: 2012

Materials and techniques: Cotton batiks, seed beads, sequins, yarn, 3D paint; appliqué, reverse appliqué, hand embroidery, machine quilting

 

Here was the show prospectus:

 Theme: Mental illness carries with it a stigma; many of us have experience with disorders, temporary or permanent, curable or not, that in the past and in some cultures even today would be labeled as crazy. That stigma can make it difficult to admit its effect on our loved ones or ourselves. Disorders as common as anxiety or depression, or less common, like schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder, can have a devastating effect on families and friends, and on ourselves. Negativity towards those who have these disorders often causes many people to keep the diagnosis hidden from friends and family.

· What does “crazy” look like?

· What does it feel like?

· How does the world look through the eyes of someone experiencing a panic attack or depression or other mental disorder?

· How does loving or caring for someone with a mental disorder look and feel?

We’re looking for work that covers these experiences: from the eyes of the caregiver, the friend, the family member, and, of course, those who have experienced any of these disorders themselves. Your work can reflect the disorder or the chaos it holds on our lives, it can be humorous, it can be sad, it can be crazy or incredibly calm.

Juror: Sue Reno

Sue Reno is an award-winning fiber artist who lives and works in Lancaster County, PA. Her work focuses on the natural world and historic architectural themes. She exhibits widely in art, fine craft, and quilt venues, and her work has been selected for the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program. She has been a SAQA Professional Artist Member since 2009. Sue has served as a juror for Sacred Threads in 2009 and 2011, and for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in 2011.

A catalog of the show, available on Amazon, was published with my piece on the cover.

The show traveled to the following venues:

 August 16-19, 2012 Exhibit opening: World Quilt Show--New England X

Radisson Center of New Hampshire, Manchester, NH

September 13-16, 2012 Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza XIX

Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, Philadelphia Area, PA

October 11-14, 2012 Pacific International Quilt Festival XXI

Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA

November 8-10, 2012 World Quilt Show – Florida IV

Palm Beach County Convention Center, West Palm Beach, FL

February 21-24, 2013 Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival XXIV

Hampton Roads Convention Center, Hampton, VA

February 28-March 3, 2013 The Quilt Fest of New Jersey IX

Garden State Exhibit Center, Somerset, NJ

May 2-5, 2013 Denver National Quilt Festival VIII

Denver Merchandise Mart, Denver, CO

Art Quilt--Last Days Here

This art quilt titled, Last Days Here, measures 34 inches high x 36 inches wide. I created it specifically to enter it into Metaphors on Aging sponsored by Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA). I was thrilled when this piece was juried into their traveling show.

Last Days Here was inspired by a quote from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I asked my 60-year-old-plus friends to describe the best and worst aspects of aging. The images on this quilt were derived from their answers.


Materials and techniques: Cotton, silk, upholstery fabrics, tulle, paper, acrylic paint, beads, sequins, thread, scrapbook letters;  photo transfer to fabric, machine and hand appliquéd, machine quilted, hand embellishment, painted, trapunto.

The show catalog is available for sale on the SAQA website (www.saqa.com).

Read on for more information about the traveling show.


Juror: Pamela Allen, Managing Curator: Mary McBride
Aging affects everyone in many different ways. Through the use of a wide variety of visual metaphors, these 35 works show the impact of aging on our lives: three generations sharing a cup of tea, a decaying leaf, an empty chair. These poignant images draw you in and challenge assumptions about aging.

Show Schedule:

Premiere Location: Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, England, August 8 - 11, 2013
International Quilt Convention, Emperors Palace, Johannesburg, South Africa, September 6-8, 2013
International Quilt Festival - Chicago, Illinois, June 20 - 22, 2014
International Quilt Festival - Portland, Oregon, August 13 - 16, 2014
Fons & Porter Love of Quilting Expo, Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, Georgia, September 11-13, 2014
Original Sewing & Quilt Expo, Fredericksburg, Virginia, October 2-4, 2014
Original Sewing & Quilt Expo, Overland Park, KS, October 9-11, 2014
Original Sewing & Quilt Expo, Fort Worth, TX, October 16-18, 2014
Original Sewing & Quilt Expo, Tinley Park, IL, November 20-22, 2014

 

"Stone Lions"--Art Quilt Wall Hanging

"Stone Lions" measures  36.5 inches high by 31.5 inches wide and was completed in 2012.  Photographs of iconic lion statues in Europe and the U. S. served as the inspiration for this quilt. Can you identify Georgia's Confederate lion? 

This piece was displayed the month of November, 2013 at the Bowen Center for the Arts as part of the Heart in Hand Quilt Guild show.

Materials: Hand-dyed and commercial cottons, paper, cotton embroidery thread, beads, acrylic paint.

Techniques: Hand applique, hand embellishment, machine quilting.

Not Thinking--an art quilt that depicts The Buddha in a leafy setting

I bought a 4-inch statue of the Buddha in a little shop in Manhattan.  I photographed it in many settings until I found a leafy one that inspired an interpretation into fabric.  For me, the color green and the Buddha have similar associations--nature, peace, tranquility, and balance. 

The finished piece measures 34 inches wide x 38 inches high. Materials: hand-dyed and commercial cotton fabrics, tulle, embroidery thread, and glass beads. Techniques: hand applique, hand beaded & embroidered, machine quilted. The title is "Not Thinking."

This piece was exhibited at the 2012 (November)Heart in Hand quilt guild show at the Bowen Art Center in Dawsonville, Georgia. 

 

Black & White Cookie Fabric Mandala

I am embarking on a new series of art quilts--mandalas of common objects elevated to divine status. The subject of my first mandala is New York City's black & white cookie. This high-calorie treat is one of my favorites, and eating one makes me immensely happy. What an ideal object for contemplation!

This mandala measures 24 inches in diameter. It is made of batting-stuffed coils of fabric attached to each other with zigzag stitches. The cookies, yin yang designs, and the Buddhas are paper covered with tulle netting and appliqued. Beaded crochet and sequins lend the final touches.

Three weird green dolls

Update: I sold all three dolls at Empire.







I just finished these three weird green dolls to sell at the boutique for the Empire quilters guild show in Manhattan this March (3/21-22/2009). The main construction consists of fabric scraps wrapped around sections of drinking straws. I also knitted tubes, using a wheel loom, to fit over some of their limbs. Lengths range between 9 and 12 inches. Why green dolls? I was working on a quilt challenge with the following rule: Make a 3-D study in green where the focal point must rise at least one inch off the surface of the quilt. I thought some small green dolls would work. But, after making these three, I decided to let them hang on their own. I'll figure out something else for the challenge later.

One-Foot-Square Art Quilts

Last year (2008) I entered a quilt in the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) online auction of one-foot-square quilts. It was titled "Forbidden Love" and it featured my fabric bead snakes. I'm happy to say that it sold, so I was encouraged to submit another one for this year. I call it "Itsy Bitsy." This one was the result of a challenge with several quilting friends: Make a 12-inch quilt where the viewer can guess the name of a nursery rhyme. Well, not too many people could guess what my quilt depicted, that is if I didn't tell them the title!