Whimsically Bohemian
Quilts incorporating this unique piecing technique are usually created using only one fabric, but this one contains two. Each has complementing colors. One features a white background and the other has a blue background.
Hexagons containing 6 identical triangle pieces of both fabrics were artfully laid out and surrounded by a beautiful border.
Measuring 66” wide by 64” high, this quilt makes for a generous lap quilt, but also looks stunning on a wall. It features a sleeve for ease of hanging.
This quilt’s name says it all… Whimsically Bohemian.
Koi Uncorked
Koi means love in Japanese? How about that!
I also learned that in Japan, koi symbolizes many good qualities. Known to swim against the current and overcome great obstacles, koi symbolize strength, courage, patience, and success through perseverance. As koi can grow very large and live a long life, they have become a symbol of prosperity and good luck. Their slow, graceful movements also symbolize peace and tranquility.
That is what I’ve always found when beside a koi pond… peace and tranquility.
Can you see all the koi swimming in this quilt’s central block? If you look carefully, you can see bits and pieces of them throughout the hexagon blocks.
What makes this quilt so interesting is that each hexagon contains 6 identical triangle pieces of fabric, all cut from just one fabric. Those were artistically laid out and surrounded by borders of blue and gold. A dragonfly flies above this koi pond and two koi playfully jump from the surrounding waters into the central pond.
After piecing, this quilt top was thread painted and free-motion quilted.
Measuring 60” wide and 53” high, it makes for a generous lap quilt or stunning wall hanging. A sleeve is featured on the back for ease of hanging.
Koi at Play in Escher’s Pond
40.5″ x 50.5″
Kaleidoscoped, designed, pieced, appliqued, and custom free-motion quilted by Sue Hickman Berryville, VA 4/2021
I’d long been on the look out for just the right koi in water print fabric to kaleidoscope, when in 2018 I found not one, but two that would do. There was only a little bit of the fabric that was predominantly teal, so I started on this one first.
Like my other kaleidoscope quilts, the hexagon blocks in this quilt contain 6 identical triangle pieces, all cut from just one fabric. As I played with the arrangement of the koi hexagons, I added in Escher like cube features to create a happy place for these koi to swim and play.
Once the center was together (3-2019), I hit a roadblock, so to speak. I knew the overall design I wished to achieve, but wasn’t pleased with the fabric options I auditioned for the borders.
I set this aside and made the other, predominately blue, quilt (4/2019). I called that quilt Koi Uncorked. You can read about it above.
Then, for over two years, these koi in teal stared at me from my design wall until finally its time had come.
I dove into my stash and to my delight discovered fabrics that beautifully complemented the center hexagon blocks. [Sometimes good things come to those who wait.]
In keeping with my original design, borders were added in a unique fashion to create the image of a raised concrete rectangular pond.
Finally, custom free-motion and ruler-work quilting completed the quilt and added depth to the design.
As I stand back and look at my two koi pond quilts there are similarities, even though they are each unique and distinct. Both have koi swimming into or out of the ponds, which are also home to dragonflies.
Scrappy Kaffe
A sampling of bright, bold cheerful fabrics by international designer Kaffe Fassett are highlighted in this twin-sized quilt (77.5” high by 69” wide). Alternatively, a sleeve on the back allows it to be hung as a featured work of art.
Interspersed between the scrappy Irish Chain are pieced scrappy blocks with “snowballed” corners. Though traditional in its piecing, the big florals give it a fresh, contemporary look.
Baltimore Baskets and Evening Stars
Traditional, beautiful, colorful, exquisitely custom free-motion quilted are words that all describe this keepsake of a quilt.
Almost square, it measures 78” by 79”.
It looks stunning hanging on a wall and its colors warm the room, but is also cozy and warm to cuddle under.
Venus – The Evening Star
During the 2020 pandemic, while some took to eating ‘comfort foods, I took comfort in working with the warm, rich tones of these traditional, reproduction fabrics and pieced them into this traditional Evening Star pattern.
If you look up in the western sky at night, the brilliant white planet you see is Venus. Also known as the Evening Star, it is the third brightest natural object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon.
Between the star blocks are squares of a focus fabric, from which all the other colors in the quilt are drawn.
Intricate free-motion quilting in the blocks (placed on point), corners and side triangles is complemented with a playful ribbon running through the sashing.
Measuring 71” square, this quilt makes for a generous lap quilt to cuddle under. Alternatively, a sleeve on the back makes it possible to hang it on the wall as a focus piece of art.
Drunk on Color
The Drunkard’s Path curved quilt block is quite traditional, but it sure looks contemporary when pieced using bright, bold, beautiful colored fabrics and surrounded with this stunning border.
This curved block, joining a concave and a convex piece of fabric, is really quite challenging. I’d put off giving it a try for over four decades, but once I gave it a try, I fell in love. This is the second quilt I made with this curved piecing in one year.
Custom, free-motion quilting accentuates the beauty within each block and completes the overall design.
Measuring 65” square, this quilt makes for a generously sized lap quilt, but with its sleeve, it can also hang as a work of art on the wall.
Through the Looking Glass
Of course, the name for this quilt comes from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland novels. In them, Alice crosses over into a bizarre universe when she enters the flipped world on the other side of a mirror. Within the looking glass, everything is backwards. The phrase also implies unpredictability and strange happenings.
On the front, this quilt uses a convergence piecing technique to cut then re-sew four sets of four pieces of fabric, merging them back together again in a pleasing way. Then, the two pairs of two are arranged opposite each other making for a stunning composition of color.
What isn’t immediately clear is the beautiful large flower petals creatively, uniquely, free-motion quilted over this arrangement. That quilting design comes from the large flower on the back of the quilt.
While each side of this quilt can stand alone, the front beautifully reflects the quilting on the reverse/back side.
Measuring 51” by 50”, it would be a wonderful quilt to cuddle under, but it is perhaps best appreciated when hung on a wall. A sleeve on the back allows the front to be visible when hung.
Say Cheese, Cheddar Please!
These deliciously rich cheddar and blue fabrics make for a cozy, warm generously-sized lap quilt (61″ x 50″).
My custom free-motion quilting beautifully complements these traditional 9-patch and plain blocks set on point.
Sew Many Sues
What little girl wouldn’t love these precious hand embroidered Sues?
The oldest “Sunbonnet Sue”, typically shown in profile, wearing a large bonnet and an over-sized pinafore dress and is also known as Dutch Doll and Bonnie Bonnet, existed in the 1800’s but gained popularity in the early 1900’s.
Some Sues are too “cutesy” for my taste and others have depicted Sue working, playing, and sometimes getting into trouble, but these beautifully color coordinated scrappy Sues are just sweet.
Measuring 53” wide by 68” high, this makes for a very generously sized lap quilt.
Artful quilting in the corners of the blocks creates a secondary design between blocks, across the sashing and throughout the border.
Glassy Sea
This beachcomber loves the sea and is always looking out for sea glass. It’s rare and beautiful, and always an unexpected find. I thought the same about the blocks, border, and beautiful fabrics that went into this 49″ square quilt.
Robbing Peter Paying Paul Scrappy Blues
This traditional pattern came to prominence in the late half of the 19th century, but I understand its origins can be traced back to Ancient Egypt. Apparently archaeologists have discovered this familiar design on Roman artifacts. It is known by a number of names. Some say it originated in England where it was called Wanderer in the Wilderness, Rob Peter to Pay Paul, or Mill Wheel. The Amish call it Solomon’s Puzzle. Others called it the Drunkard’s Path, making it the most popular quilt pattern used to further the cause of the Temperance movement in the early 20th century. Whatever its name, it is a classic!
This 49″ square lap quilt is made challenging by the joining together of concave and convex curves. The complexity of this layout is especially suited to two colors. The scrappy fabrics used and creative free-motion quilting throughout add dimension to the overall design. It would be especially stunning draped over white wicker.
Autumn’s Song
47.5″ x 46.5″ Sq.
Designed, pieced, thread painted, and free motion quilted by Sue Hickman Berryville, VA 5/2021
Not following any ‘rules’, this quilt is truly an original. In it, two autumnal fabrics uniquely converge to showcase a sweet song bird. A gradient mitered border completes the design.
Star Bright
Have you ever said the poem, “Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight…”?
This quilt, measuring 67” square, consists of an intricately pieced assortment of batiks and Kona white fabric.
Let this large lap or wall quilt help make your dreams come true.
Long May We Wave
For those with a patriotic spirit, these stars and stripes wave confidently across this lap quilt (60″ wide x 66″ high).
Shuffling Hexagons
This nearly square lap quilt (53” wide by 55” high) showcases rectangles and pentagons that resulted from the shuffling of hexagons during the piecing process.
Quilted circles and ovals soften the angularity of the modern piecing.
This quilt earned the Viewer’s Choice 2nd Place award in the Modern Quilt Category in the 2015 Northern Shenandoah Valley Quilt Show in Berryville, VA.
Additionally, it was one of the quilts showcased in my Solo-Artist “Art in the Halls” show at The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, VA from October 18th, 2016 through January 22nd, 2017.
Retail Therapy
I’m not really a “shopper”.
I’m not one to enjoy browsing at the “mall”… but when feeling overwhelmed with numerous life challenges over which I had no control I couldn’t resist a spur of the moment stop in one of my favorite local quilt shops where I found these cheerful, fun fabrics perfect for a pattern I’d been meaning to make for years.
Ta da… and, yes, completing the process did make me feel much better.
This beautiful star within a labyrinth of squares measures 56.5” square and makes the perfect lap quilt or large wall hanging. A sleeve is featured on the back for ease of hanging.
Threads That Bind
Spools. A traditional quilting block that represents those threads that hold our quilts together.
Bindings create the finished edges of a quilt that hold it all together.
These scrappy, colorful “variegated” threads [which here give new life to the “extra” tail of bindings that held previous quilts together] also remind me that love is the thread of life that bind us together.
Artfully arranged ‘floating’ on a gradient background fabric which varies in intensity, color, and design from salvage edge to salvage edge, and measuring 51” wide by 71” high, it makes for a generously sized lap quilt.
Returning Home
Those who are country at heart know it, and they know that wistful, patriotic, romantic, nostalgic feeling you get after you’ve been away and you are returning to a country home.
To me, this quilt represents the comforts of home (centrally featured and surrounded by tall trees). Old Glory flies proudly in these “country crossroads”. Winter, spring, summer, and autumn stars anchor the corners and there is a “simple star” and a “welcome block”. There are “furrows blocks” and of course, I had to include a Momma hen and baby chicks, “chicken foot”, “egg basket”, and “feed & seed” blocks, and chickens and Roos are “out to pasture” by a “haystack”. There are “farm fresh flowers”, a “sunny sunflower” (standing tall on “crop” blocks). “Apron strings” represents kitchen creations… “fresh pears”, “pie cherries”, a “scrappy strawberry”, “corn & tomatoes”, “peas & carrots”, “baking day” and “canning season”, and, of course, the “kettle’s on”. The “cool threads” block represents my studio, along with “Grandma’s quilt block” and a basic “pinwheel block”. A colorful “scrappy maple leaf” and “patchwork pumpkin” complete my favorite season. And last, but not least, a “woolly sheep” represents one of my favorite collections.
Don’t you agree, there’s no place like home?
Meticulously pieced and custom quilted, this makes for a generously sized lap quilt to cuddle under (65” wide by 77” high), but it also features a sleeve for hanging.
Four-Inch Five-Squared
(43″ Square)
Four inch blocks, traditionally pieced and quilted by Sue Hickman Berryville, VA 3/2018
Border Beauty
Rich in jewel tones, fluid in movement throughout the design, one might wonder how this quilt center hexagon blocks came from just one fabric.
Interestingly, this quilt was made using what was left from the border fabric in the Baltimore Baskets and Evening Stars quilt. But it wasn’t an afterthought. I began envisioning the endless possibilities that could result from kaleidoscoping this fabric when I first bought it.
Each of the 33 complete hexagon blocks have 6 identical triangles of exactly the same piece of fabric. Many additional partial hexagon blocks and two borders fill out the quilt’s design and it is finished with custom free-motion quilting accentuating each block’s unique character.
Measuring 36” wide by 42” high, it would be a wonderful lap quilt, if one can resist hanging it on the wall for all to see.
It does feature a sleeve for ease of hanging.
Fascinating Facets
This lap quilt (43″ wide x 61″ tall) was made in soothing cool tone cotton fabrics with environmentally friendly natural bamboo, silk, cotton, and tencel fiber batting that makes it warm in the winter yet cool enough for summer. Whimsical free-motion quilting completes its design.
Enjoying Wildflowers Along the Way
The blues and greens in this generously sized lap quilt (53” wide and 66” tall) evoke a sense of calm and peace one often finds when walking in nature “enjoying wildflowers along the way”.
This one of a kind quilt features a sleeve, allowing it to also be hung as a featured work of art on a wall.
The wildflowers in this unique batik fabric were fussy-cut and arranged between two simple ‘rails’ of two coordinating teal and green fabrics with green squares and outer border.
Once pieced, it was quilted from edge to edge with a botanical theme meant to subtly enhance the nature theme.
This quilt is both beautiful to look at and offers cozy warmth and comfort to whoever cuddles
beneath it.
Step into my Garden
These fabrics and my chosen layout reminded me of this poem. (Author Unknown)
Step into my garden
Step in and you’ll see
A measure of peace
And tranquility.
It’s the scent of the blossoms
The buzz of the bees
The sweet song of birds
As they sing in the trees.
The sweet scent of roses
Their petals so new
As they glisten and sparkle
With the fresh morning dew.
Run your toes through the grass
Beneath a canopy of trees
Hear the rustle of leaves
As they blow in the breeze.
Let the beauty of springtime
Fill your soul with great peace
Take it with you and share it
With each one you meet.
Measuring 48” wide by 57” high, this makes for a generously sized lap quilt.
Pops of Paradise
(51.25″ wide x 56.5″ long)
A kaleidoscope quilt, pieced and layout designed by Sue Hickman and finished with long-arm quilting. 11/2011
This beautifully kaleidoscoped lap or large wall quilt reminds me of our trips to Hawaii and its lovely, fragrant plumeria flowers.
Birds of a Purple Feather Flock Together… Tweet, Tweet, Tweet
This unique, one of a kind, quilt measures 42” wide by 49” tall. It features a sleeve for hanging, but would also serve beautifully as a lap quilt.
This conversation starter of a quilt began with 6” squares of purple fabric exchanged among quilters from across the country as part of a “friendship quilt chain letter”. While not usually inclined to participate in “chain letters”, I did accept this one to encourage the new quilter who sent me my first squares.
In this simple “Bird Block” paper-pieced pattern, the purple squares became the bird’s feathers. I drew from my fabric stash to complete the birds.
After trying a number of fabrics for use in the backgrounds, I settled on these blue and white ones that allow the purples to pop. The borders beautifully complement the blocks and frame the overall design.
Hand guided free-motion quilting accentuates the beauty of these blocks, and meticulous micro-stippling in the border showcases the blue flowers surrounding this sweet flock.
Cubemagnetism
While traditionally pieced, this fun black and white quilt definitely evokes a more modern feel.
When making it, I imagined cubes (as opposed to a black hole) that were magnetically drawing in these uniquely kaleidoscoped stars from the background’s dark starry night sky. One such star is racing to join the others.
Each pieced cube reflects light shining on them from above.
Each hexagon star is uniquely free-motion quilted to highlight its design, while circles in all shapes and sizes fill out the night’s sky.
Measuring 43.5” wide by 45” high, it could be used as a lap quilt, but also features a sleeve for hanging.
