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.

The Cat--A Portrait in Fabric Strips

Last year, I took a class from Esterita Austin at Empty Spools Seminars near Pacific Grove, CA. Students were supposed to bring to class a picture of a person to use as a template for a wall hanging. Instead, I brought a photograph I took of my female cat, "PT." It was a lot of work to cut all those fabric strips for her fur and to sew each one to a background, but I love the results. This piece, which measures about 35 x 22 inches has won two ribbons at quilt shows in Georgia.