Quilt Gallery
Featured at the 2022 Houston International Quilt Festival.
My Joyful Journey
Welcome to the Quilt Gallery Online. Here, we bring you some of the many great quilts we’ve exhibited at shows. We hope you’ll join us to see our special exhibits in person, but if you can’t, be sure to visit the Gallery periodically to enjoy a sampling!
For information on how to enter your quilt in any of the featured exhibits, please visit the Enter Your Quilt tab on the main menu to the left.
Sponsored by Quilters Select, RNK Distributing
A look back (and ahead) at the life and work of quiltmaker Barbara Black. She began in 1985 with simple baby quilts from pre-cut fabric, and today creates challenging quilts filled with small pieces and complex design. This journey shows her progression from new quiltmaker to quilt artist.
A-Round With My Friends
by Barbara Black
67” x 67”
Techniques: Hand appliquéd and quilted; machine pieced
Design Source: Appliqué borders imspired by Nancy Pearson design
Begun as a round robin with two friends, I made the Feathered Star center. When I got it back I knew it deserved to be bigger so I created the elaborate appliqué border--an adaptation of a Nancy Pearson border design. I worked on this quilt for 7 years and was very pleased to have it receive Best of Show at its first quilt show.
A-Symmetrical Six-Pence
by Barbara Black with Lisa Marshall
92” x 106”
Techniques: Machine pieced and quilted
Design Source: Original design
Still in my “artsy period”, I spent a lot of time rearranging all the blocks on the design wall to create a sense of changing direction over the top. One of my most favorite pieces, it is used daily on our bed.
Antique Rose Star
by Barbara Black
73” x 73”
Techniques: Hand pieced and quilted; machine pieced
Design Source: Material Obsession 2 by Kathy Doughty
A friend showed this block on Instagram, pieced from 72 kite shapes in each block. I was instantly smitten and started the quilt immediately. When it was finished I learned there was a much simpler way of connecting the blocks than I used. I saw Kathy Doughty’s book with the pattern after mine was completely done. This is a favorite workshop I have taught all over the country and I still want to make another of these.
Back In Time
by Barbara Black
70” x 70”
Techniques: Machine pieced; hand quilted
Design Source: Pattern Living in the Past by Alice Berg (appeared in American Patchwork and Quilting magazine).
This pattern captivated me. I used the block for a secret swap with a guild member using a complex border. I realized it was the simplicity of this setting I loved, so I made this one. The handquilting was a joy to do though you hardly see it in the large plain blocks.
Baker's Dozen Does It
by Barbara Black with Terry Owens
86” x 88”
Techniques: Machine pieced and quilted
Design Source: Original design
Blocks were swapped with 12 other quilters, using colors each person had requested. I played with this design for a long time before I settled on the narrow black sashing to set off the bright colors. The pieced border added a lot of time but gave it some personality.
Charm Quilt
by Barbara Black
96” x 104”
Techniques: Hand pieced and quilted; machine pieced
Design Source: Original design
This began as a Friendship swap with my first guild in Virginia, triangle blocks were sent to me after I moved to Alabama. The top was finished March 1991, and hand quilted by December 1992. It was in the frame in front of a window for so long the border is badly faded. Subtitled: Quilt Shop Nightmare--I want a quarter yard of everything, please.
Christmas Around the Country
by Barbara Black
51” x 73”
Techniques: Machine pieced; hand quilted
Design Source: Original design
I won ten Fan blocks at a guild swap raffle. Making three more blocks allowed me to use the Garden Maze setting. I designed the hand quilting motifs, cutting stencils from cardboard and freezer paper. Completed in nine months, start to finish. It was featured on the cover of Christmas Year Round magazine, Jan-Feb 1991 issue.
Devil’s Claw
by Barbara Black with Lucille Ford
76” x 88”
Techniques: Machine pieced; hand quilted
Design Source: Original design
A replica of an antique quilt I bought in Virginia. I call this planned scrappy. There is one constant fabric in each block and a specific order in how fabrics are placed in the block. The more fabrics in a quilt, the better I like it.
Five Easy Pieces
by Barbara Black with Lucille Ford
86” x 93”
Techniques: Machine pieced; hand quilted
Design Source: Traditional Wild Goose Chase pattern
A much simpler version of the Wild Goose Chase pattern, without the set-in four patches at sashing intersections. Students much prefer to piece this one to the original antique top I bought at a yard sale in 1988.
If It's Purple...
by Barbara Black with Lucille Ford
94” x 94”
Techniques: Hand appliquéd and quilted; machine pieced
Design Source: Original design
Block patterns were from my guild as Block-of-the-Month patterns. This began my love of Feathered Star Medallion quilts and appliqué blocks with pieced blocks. From the beginning it was intended as a wedding quilt for the first of my sons to marry. In 2015 it was presented to Andrew Wilkins and his bride Lauren Santoro.
Lone Star Garden
by Barbara Black with Lucille Ford
90” x 90”
Techniques: Hand appliquéd and quilted; machine pieced
Design Source: Original design
It took more than 12 yards of the border stripe to cut eight large diamonds exactly the same size and to soft-edge piece the outer borders. The hand appliqué took many hours but I enjoyed selecting a wide variety of fabrics for the flowers and leaves. The center deserved more of a border than just adding fabric so I hand-appliquéd the border, by soft-edge piecing, onto the pink fabric, then joined it to the center.
My Lifetime Quilt
by Barbara Black
100” x 100”
Techniques: Machine pieced and quilted
Design Source: Original design
Pieced as a leader/ender project over three years, it contains 12,800 triangles, 1 ¼ ” each. It contains reproduction fabrics from my collection of almost 35 years a historian’s dream. Since I expected it to take the rest of my life to make, I called it My Lifetime Quilt. I am currently working on my second lifetime quilt.
Old Stars, New Day
by Barbara Black with Rebecca McCarthy
94” x 94”
Techniques: Machine pieced and quilted
Design Source: The 2009 Block-of-the-Month pattern for The Quilt Show, designed by Sue Garman
This is a variation of Sue Garman’s Washington Medallion quilt. In this one, the pieces are smaller. I love the Feathered Star center medallion, which has become a trademark of a lot of my quilts. I used some of my favorite fabrics in this piece.
Persistence
by Barbara Black
70” x 70”
Techniques: Hand appliquéd, dyed, pieced and quilted; machine pieced
Design Source: Original design
Begun in 1990, I hand pieced the Mariner’s Compass, using fabric I hand-marbled. This is another center medallion quilt, of which I have made many. Finally finished in 2003, hence the name.
Pieces of the Past — Circa 1875
by Barbara Black
82” x 82”
Techniques: Machine pieced; hand quilted
Design Source: Traditional Four Patch
The most complicated piecing I have done to date, the four patches are set-in at the sashing intersections, with lots of partial seams. It is a replica of an antique top I bought at a yard sale a week after moving to Alabama from Virginia. This is one of my most favorite quilts.
Purple Plus!
by Barbara Black with Lin Hayden
83” x 107”
Techniques: Machine pieced and quilted
Design Source: Original design
Each block uses eight fabrics to create both a light and dark block, shaded from dark to light or light to dark. I have made several of these. It is a very popular workshop I enjoy teaching. Every quilt is different depending on fabric selections.
Ruffled Roses
by Barbara Black with Lois Kendley
88” x 88”
Techniques: Machine appliquéd, pieced and quilted
Design Source: Original design
This is one of my most favorite quilts. Began January 2011, finished August 2019. After my friend, the designer Sue Garman, passed away January 8, 2017, I was determined to finish this quilt in her memory. I love everything about it, especially working on it when she and I were at a private retreat together in 2015. To me, this quilt truly represents how far I have come on my joyful journey.
Sizzle—Hot!
by Barbara Black from the collection of Marcia Barker
72” x 72”
Techniques: Machine appliquéd, pieced and quilted, foundation paper pieced
Design Source: Original design
This piece represents how far I have come with piecing, fabric selection and machine quilting. I put my best efforts into this quilt. Teaching the paper piecing process and the machine appliqué techniques to the The Quilt Show audience as well as on my blog helped me master them myself. It was presented to a friend and co-worker upon her retirement.
Stars in a Time Warp
by Barbara Black with Michelle Armstrong
90” x 90”
Techniques: Machine pieced and quilted
Design Source: Barbara Brackman’s blog
Blocks were made over 2015 as Barbara Brackman presented a weekly history of fabric styles and colors. Each week I made two blocks. I centered the blocks around the reproduction panel of a John Hewson design- a colonial Philadelphia fabric printer. As that is my hometown, it seemed a good way to connect my present to the past.
Waste Not, Want Not
by Barbara Black with Lucille Ford
66” x 86”
Techniques: Machine pieced, hand quilted
Design Source: Original design
My first Log Cabin, made as a teaching sample from all my scraps. I found someone to hand quilt for me so I could put my time into piecing tops and teaching quilting classes.
