Forest Quilties: Marianne Baugher, Maryland

Marianne Baugher from Laytonsville, MD sent in 2 sets of "green" forest quilties.

Below is what Marianne e-mailed to me:

Thanks so much for hosting this swap. It has been a long time since I joined an online swap. I let life get in the way of my need to play. My quilties were made using all leftovers from other projects and some wise ol'charms that I have had for years and could never figure out what to do with them. I live in the woods so this project was perfect for me. I layered my materials to represent the layers on the woodland floor. I hope everyone likes them. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of love and happiness.
Marianne Baugher

Thank you, Marianne! I think your quilties are a wonderful addition to our swap. My husband saw me unpack them and was saying how much he liked them!

Note: There are a few more swaps to come in which hopefully I will receive by tomorrow. Two are coming from overseas and left over a week ago, so I may need to allow 1 more day for the mail. I will keep you updated here, thanks.

Forest Quilties: Carol Cooper, Texas

From Carol Cooper in Plano, TX We have 4 beautiful landscaped quilties.
I love the dimension Carol achieved with her trees -bravo!
The colors are lovely, thanks very much for participating, Carol.

Forest Quilties: Anne Hartman, Iowa

We have a set of 4 wonderful quilties from Anne Hartman in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Thank you, Anne!

I especially like the colors in the background and all the leafy vines. This is Anne's 2nd creative swap and I hope to see her back for more. You can read more about her art on her blog: http://annehartman.typepad.com/. She posts her swap pieces and the jewelry she creates there!

Forest Quilties: Lorraine Webber, Rhode Island

This is Lorraine's 1st creative swap . . . please click on any scan for more detail of her beautiful quilties. Earlier this year, Lorraine and her friend (and fellow creative swap participant) Sharon Walworth, took a 5 week on-line/email workshop with me: A mini Art Quilt Book! Lorraine enjoyed the class, and I think Sharon encouraged her to try her hand at a swap once she took the class.

Lorraine enclosed a note with her quilties:

"Hi Lenna,
Here's my first attempt at a swap. Hope they're all right and meet the requirements. (Yes!!) I enjoyed the challenge to my limited creative juices. Thanks for hosting, Lorraine W."

Well, I think I would disagree with you about limited creative juices, Lorraine. Your forest quilties are just great! Thanks for participating.

: ) lenna

Forest Quilties: Linda Garcia, New Mexico

From Linda Garcia, a set of beautiful New Mexico forest quilties . . . Linda writes on the back of each one,
"Remembering the Forest, Santa Fe".
I am so very thankful she made an extra one for me! I love the stamp she used on the back of her quilties: Like water, feel peaceful, Like wood, keep growing, Like fire, be alive, Like earth, experience balance, Like metal, stay strong.








Linda emailed me when she sent her quilties . . .

"Remembering Santa Fe Forest when I took photos of the Aspens a couple of years ago…when the Aspens drop their leaves it looks like a golden carpet, thus the gold tinted tulle. Just to sit and listen to their rustling leaves reminds me of enjoying tossing leaves and jumping into the piles, which I could still enjoy if I didn’t think about all those possible critters now. Ah youth—so innocent. I enjoy it all, seasons talking. The reverse has muslin with torn tissue (paper) on top, a new technique that is so simple. (and beautiful!) I’ve inserted a picture for a preview, taken outdoors. You may choose the one you wish to keep. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving mi amiga
Linda"

This post celebrates Linda Garcia's 12th - yes, 12th creative swap since I started this blog in April, 2007! You should feel so very proud Linda, and a lot more creative because of it!!! : )

Click on Linda's name at the bottom of this post to see ALL the creative swaps she has participated in!

Forest Quilties: Kiki Finlayson, Oregon

This is Kiki's 4th creative swap and she writes from Oregon saying that she appreciates the support I've given the community of women who participate in my swaps, adding how much she thinks it helps in the creative process. Wow! How kind of you to say - thank you, Kiki.

You will need to click on these scans to see some of the details of Kiki's fabric art.

Via email, Kiki told me about how she created her quilties, "I used fairly traditional appliqué, quilting and beading techniques. The one unusual material I used was some dark brown unryu paper, a traditional Japanese paper which is very easy to sew through but still fairly tough. I used a polyester fleece batting (I used only materials already in my stash, a sort of attempt to be green) which I will not use again as I do not like the feel of working with it. It is too thick and stiff. I much prefer the cotton batting I normally use. The picture in my head when I started was lying down in the forest and looking up as I have often done through the trees at the sky. I also tried to be sort of geometric, hence the squares, but that didn't last long, as you can see by the freehand quilting and beading! I had fun making them and look forward to more swaps in the future.
Thanks again for sponsoring these swaps!
Kiki Finlayson"

Forest Quilties: Joellyn Quinn, Wisconsin

This is Joellyn's 4th quiltie swap through creative swaps! She sent in 5 quilties (an extra for me, thank you) on 2 different themes. Joellyn often does a lot of free-motion quilting, which I love. If you click on her name at the bottom of this post, you can see all the quilties she has created for my swaps -very impressive!

Forest Quilties: Vicki Page, Wisconsin

Gosh, these forest quilties from Vicki Page in Wisconsin are amazing! When she sent them, Vicki emailed me saying --

Hi Lenna,

I sent my quilties yesterday there is an extra one for you. I hope you like them I'm playing much more these days in wool and I love the stuff.
Vicki Page

Wow! I really have never seen anything like these Vicki, and they are GREAT! I love the texture that you have achieved. I am so happy you could create an extra one for me -Thanks so much.

Forest Quilties: Sharon Walworth, Rhode Island

I love batik fabrics so I am really taken by Sharon's forest quilties. Sharon is from Rhode Island, and she had an interesting (and successful) approach to creating her quilties. Here is Sharon's email to me:

For this swap, I set myself a goal of working "green" (not just the quiltie color) and I succeeded in making them without purchasing anything! The background on the front came from a quilted vest which wasn't very successful, and the backing is the vest lining. I used scraps of batting, scraps of batiks for the leaves, and threads from my too large collection. I borrowed the design concept from one of my leafy journal quilts of a few years ago, and the leaf shape is from an old thimbleberries pattern(it was originally an 8" leaf, but I have used it in sizes from the original down to 1 wee inch.) Looking forward to your next quilties swap!

Thank you, Sharon. Here are close-ups of the front and back of these marvelous quilties - click on them for even more detail.

Forest Quilties: Vickie Jones, South Dakota

Vickie Jones, from South Dakota, sent in two sets of really interesting and textural Forest Quilties. She used photographs of trees printed onto fabric and large colorful sequins to represent the leaves of the forest trees. Vickie wrote me an email describing her process, when she sent her quilties to me:

I struggled a little, because I was looking for the perfect background and was not finding what I wanted. The fabric I chose ended up being more bold, but think it ended up working fine...I wanted to get the effect of the sunlight shining through the trees. I used some heavy yarn to represent the "aspen" trees, stitched that on the background, added yarn wrapped pipe cleaners for the the bigger trees. I stitched colored capis disks to represent the aspen colored leaves and added a few regular leaves in the mix. The printed saying set the tone. Enjoy, and thank you so much for hosting these challenging swaps!

You are most welcome, Vickie! Thanks so much for an extra shades of the forest quiltie just for me. Here are a few close-ups of Vickie's fabric art:

I love the jewel tones in her quilties. Click on any scan or photo for details.

Forest Quilties: Sharon Schutt, Indiana

Sharon Schutt from Indiana, has sent in a set of leafy and colorful forest quilties for our swap - see the photos here and also on her blog: Five Shadows.


I love her colour choices, and most especially the leafy tags she attached to each quiltie. Very creative! Thanks so much for the extra quiltie for me, Sharon!

: ) 500 Post Give-away *Winners*

I took a very scientific approach to choosing 10 winners for my 500th post to this blog celebration give-away . . .

I made a list of those who commented to my original post . . . cut the list of names into little strips . . . put all of them into one of my winter hats, and drew out 10 names for 10 prizes!!

I have 3 winners for a FREE swap registration:

Nina Owens, Cindy McMath and Cat Dodt Ellis!!

The winner of the book Creating Romantic Purses is: Frieda Oxenham!!

The Collage Pack was won by: Carolyn Outz Hay!!

The Santa Stamp was won by: Lisa Mallette ; )

The Frame Stamp was won by Rena Matus!

The Octagon collaged Box created by me was won by: Kate North!

The Expression magazine with my autographed article was won by: Gunnel Svensson : )))

And . . . the Fabric Collage created by me, especially for this give-away was won by . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Barbara Roberts - wow! CONGRATULATIONS to ALL!

~ Thanks to everyone who left a comment to let me know why you enjoy visiting this blog. Your kind words were appreciated very much . . . If I do not have your mailing address already through the swaps I will contact you over the weekend - or feel free to contact me first -happy day!