 Dr Dee Fabry
Dancing in the Kelp Forest
Dancing in the Kelp Forest was inspired by a trip to the Monterey Aquarium. The sea nettles jellies with their translucent oranges waltzed with grace and mesmerized the humans watching. Working with Vikki at Asilomar inspired the use of poly sheer and other textural elements. Her curved technique and wholecloth facing made the vision possible.
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 Rosemary Fisher
Mom's House on Pleasant St |
 Deb Sorem
Too Little Transparency
The series is a result of many learning experiences and a fiber arts challenge. The subject of the challenge was “Communications”. My goal was to represent facets of miscommunication. I was influenced by the 2012 tumultuous political campaign.
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 Deb Sorem
The Signal and The Noise
This design is a visual representation of the many waves of miscommunication or noise that interfere with an accurate signal being heard as described in Nate Silverman’s book of the same title.
I used hand-dyed gradation and printed fabrics and continued to use the curved piecing technique I learned through reading Vikki Pignatelli’s book.
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 Shari (& Richard) Thompson
Tucson, AZ
Nature's Garden
Travelling the National Parks have given us inspiration to put some of our memories to quilt! Nature's Gardens portrays 4 specific places within Rocky Mountain National Park: upper left block is Rock Cut & the Toll Memorial, upper right is Lilly Lake; lower right is Lawn Lake Alluvial Fan; and lower left is Deer Mountain. Each block has your technique which is my favorite. The combination of your technique with the photo collage gives an effect of a diorama. Thank you for being a quilt teacher and an inspiration; I will always consider you as my most important mentor.
Note from Vikki: The rocks and background foundation blocks in this 60" x 60" are made with my curves technique. This quilt also includes a large variety of other artistic techniques from other teachers. Shari has done an amazing job of combining them in this beautiful quilt! |
 Ann Tumolo
Spring Waiting Under the Snow
In the winter of 2011 there were two snow storms back to back dropping 22" of snow in the Chester County area. While it took weeks to melt, I wondered about the joys of spring beneath the snow. In this fabric art I used the technique of curved piecing taught by Vikki Pignatelli, applique, and handpainted fabric. 72" x 18" |
 Christine Earl, Ontario Canada
Icy Waters
Icy Water was started during Vikki Pignatelli's Improvisation workshop in Arva Ontario in 2012. After finishing the sample I decided it needed more action and added a female cardinal gliding over the frozen water. These birds are a favourite in my garden in all seasons. |
 Christine Earl, Ontario Canada
Spring Dancers
I created the Spring Dancers pattern for a reverse applique stained glass quilt and then adapted it to use Vikki's topstitch piecing method. Making the design twice with two different techniques was a great comparison. The topstitch technique provided a lot more scope for improvisation, free motion quilting and embellishment. It was a good way to cement the technique for me, including some lessons learned for future projects! |
Ann Tumolo
A Wall of Water
Using the curved piecing technique I tried to capture the movement of water. As I pieced the motion and flow of the water I thought of the children of Israel passing through the parted sea. God's Word says..... , "there wall of water on either side of them." 40" x 22"
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 Sarah Carpenter
Going Home
I created Going Home for a friend who passed away after enduring a long ordeal. Finally his soul was free to soar. It was no longer bound by an ailing body. Going Home is 14" X 18". |
Barbara Hollinger Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia)
Native Americans have long used Pacific Yew for its healing powers. The Pacific Yew (T. brevifolia), yields the complex compound found in Taxol. Used in treating breast and ovarian cancer, this chemical is found in the bark, leaves and heartwood of this slow growing trees but it requires nearly 63 pounds of bark to treat one patient. Rigorous research has not only isolated the compound, but also developed a way to synthesize the chemical saving both trees and patients alike.
This quilt is a part of an installation of cancer themed quilts at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. To learn more visit: Healing Quilts in Medicine. |
 Wendy Dines
Botanical Gardens, Barbados
My two adult daughters came away for a week's vacation with my husband & myself in May 2012. One day, we visited the Botanical Gardens which is a vision of what one might think of as 'paradise' with all the flowering plants & vines in profusion. This lotus was a first for me - having read about them and seen them in photographs, I was much taken by the fact that I was seeing a real one. We took photographs of many plants and flowers but the lotus was the one that stuck in my mind and heart. |
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Heart
Shana English From Maui, Hawaii |
 Blue Wave Bag
Sue Larson
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 Mardi Gras Bag
Sue Larson |
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 Fig
Lesley Wickham
We live in a part of the Australian East Coast surrounded by magnificent
rainforests full of giant trees, vines and epiphytes. The strangler fig is
an iconic tree in our forests. Birds eat the fruit and deposit the seeds on
branches of other trees, where they germinate and sends roots down the tree
to the ground. Gradually over many years, the fig overwhelms the tree with a
lattice of roots which eventually fills in and the tree inside dies. It can
take over 100 years. Meanwhile, the tree is a haven for all sort of
creatures, animals, birds, plants and insects, who live between its canopy
and the rich forest floor.
I have tried to depict this in my quilt, with trepunto work in the fig roots
and creatures to provide a 3D effect. The birds and animals were printed
from photographs onto cotton on a computer printer and appliqued on.
All the other fabrics used were my own hand-dyed cottons and silks. Some
details, such as the vines, were hand-embroidered on after the quilt was
completed. |
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Last Leaf
Diana Stinebrickner
This piece was the product of my first class with Vikki Pignatelli which was held at the Jabez Quilt Seminar 2012. I really enjoyed what was a new technique for me; I can see so many possibilities. This class was exactly what I needed to jump start my creativity. Vikki is an incredibly good teacher: informative, helpful and encouraging. |
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 Cabbage Rose Jacket
Bob Gutcher
Inspired by your recent workshop, I used the Cabbage Rose design together with techniques that you were teaching to adorn a spring jacket for my wife. For each of the eight construction pieces, the designed top fabric is sandwiched and echo quilted before being cut to size. The seams and the edge are hand bound. |
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 Follow that Star
Mary Harmon
After completing Vikki's large star, I thought it needed a small companion. Vikki suggested two, so I redrew the smaller star and the real adventure began. Placing the 2 small stars was the easiest part. The borders were the real challenge, and a great
learning experience. |
 Manta Ray
Ellen Owen
I made this as a sample in Vikki Pignatelli's class in September
2011 using several of her piecing methods---pleats, prairie points, silk, lame, etc. I combined them into this fish. The eyes are
stacked buttons; the tail is felted sheer; and the quilting was a leaf pattern that I thought looked like seaweed. |
 Seismograph Pool
Shari Thompson in Tucson, AZ.
Nestled in West Thumb Geyser Basin, the Seismograph Pool bubbles away at a temperature of164°F. Thermophiles, extreme heat loving organisms, live in this pool. Thethermophilic communities are made up of bacteria and archaea which can take a variety offorms from brightly colored mats to streamers in the runoff water. Using techniques taught by Vikki Pignatelli, I have interpreted this evidence of life in a Seismograph Pool. The quilt is 47 inches wide and 37 inches wide featuring authentic bison hair (purchased) needle-felted into parts of the quilt. Angelina fibers, foils, and TextureMagic were utilized to interpret the hot spring with its microbial mats. Small blackbuttons symbolize the tiny ephydrid flies that live there year round. |
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 Lily Pond
Marnie Houston
This quilt was made at Vikki's 2 day workshop in Winnipeg - June
2011.
After seeing Vikki's beautiful quilts the 1st day of the workshop I was inspired to use my imagination and creativeness to create my own design. The design came from seeing a friends beautiful photo of a water lily.
I used the picture and Vikki's fabulous techniques as an inspiration to create my design.
The outer green border of the quilt is a reverse whole cloth facing.
Thanks to Vikki and everything I learned during the 2 day Crazy about Curves workshop; I already have visions of a new quilt dancing in my head. |
 Mushroom
Karen Harvey
In Interior Alaska where I live, these beautiful and poisonous Amanita mushrooms pop up at the edge of wooded areas adding their bright orange-red color to a waning summer landscape. Though I appreciate large vistas and
landscapes, I often find myself examining the individual tiny wild flower, a small colorful caterpillar or the way a piece of bark curls. I created this
little wall hanging from a picture I took of a large fist-sized beauty in my
yard. I used a bit of extra batting in the top part of the mushroom to help
give it its roundness, This is my first original using Vikki's technique but
it definitely will not be my last.
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Robbie Pettapiece
This wall hanging was begun in a 2-day workshop taught by Vikki Pignatelli in Leamington ON Canada in July 2010. In those two days, Vikki taught us a new way of sewing curves and by exposing us to her improvisational techniques, she also encouraged us to loosen up and step out of our "quilting boxes". What a gift. Thank you so much, Vikki.
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 Reawakened Passion
Miki Miller
Hearts are a symbol I have always felt connected to. They express joy, sadness, longing, whimsy, and of course, love. I have gone through a tough few years in my personal life brought on by my daughters battle with drug addiction. The loss and pain threatened to shut down my creativity and caused me to withdraw into myself. Attending Vikki's workshops with a dear friend was a big step to regaining my creative fire. Reawakening my passion.
The trapunto heart represents the fullness of emotions that I have "stuffed" inside. The icy blue color is a metaphor for hibernation. It is set on a dark background that represents isolation. I worked the flames in pieced and appliquéd fabric, thread, and fabric glitter because my creativity is being reawakened through all the forms of quilting that I enjoy. Since my business is quilting for others, making expressive art quilts is something I am doing to feed my own creative soul and free the emotions that have been trapped inside too long. I don't have to worry if it is good or bad, I just create.
I enjoyed using Vikki's curved piecing techniques to draft and piece my original design. I used the faced backing technique because I wanted a finished shape that shows the flow of emotion that I feel with this piece. I love that my quilt doesn't have to be a "square peg". Thank you, Vikki, for helping me reawaken my passion! |
 Ode to a Lost Maple
Peggy Stockwell
Behind our house is a very large, dead sugar maple. It was alive when we bought the house and it framed our house in a view from the road in a magnificent scarlet every fall. A couple of years ago a winter storm split the trunk and killed the tree. This past fall another storm broke off the top half. All I have left of that tree is my picture. It was what was in the back of my mind when I began cutting material to create my tree and I never realized it until I got home and looked out my back window. I call it 'Ode to a Lost Maple.' |
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 My Favourite Cracker
Juliet Nowlan
I made this quilt this summer for a local Guild
Challenge. We were each given a box top and had to make a quilted item
based on the top - we just had a few basic rules. Anyway my box top was
from a box of Christie 'Toppables Crackers'. I have both Vikki's books which I
love to look at and have always meant to make a quilt using the curved
piecing techniques. So I took this opportunity to challenge myself do so
and just wanted to say how very easy it was to follow the instructions.
They are set out so clearly and I was delighted with the results....
mine actually won Favourite Quilt. Thank you very much for teaching me
this wonderful technique through your books.
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 Jette Madsen |
 Artist Takes Flight
Cécile Lafleur
At a course with Vikki Pignatelli in February, I took a leap forward to the next level - following my intuition. The inspiration for this piece was a photograph of a piece of rotten tree trunk. It was a rather thin trunk with weathered silver wood and a lot of interesting shapes. The exercise was to create depth with light and dark fabric. Vikki has no rules when she teaches and loves to see students create outside of their comfort zone. I didn’t quite know how to start this quilt. When I finally got a few pieces cut and placed on the green background, I took off. I forgot to look at the photograph and let my intuition lead me. For me, this is the spice of life: to forget convention and rules in quilting - to follow one’s intuition in creating.
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 Tree - Full of Life
Marika Arro-Kütt
In April 2010 I participated in Vikki´s patchwork workshop in Denmark, Vigersted.
The design of my picture I created myself during the process of learning how to use the ´crazy curves´ technique. The wallhanging was created by using different fabrics, trying to play not only with the colors but also with the textures. Batik fabrics and different prints for the tree and ground were used. In order to create the variation in the different tones of blue for the sky surrounding the tree I hand dyed the fabric myself. In order to create variation in the texture of the wallhanging, I used free motion stitching.
For guidance and inspiration I would like to thank Vikki.
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 A Gift From Pele
Shari Thompson
24"W x 28"H
Erupting beneath the ocean, magma is creating what will become Loihi, the next Hawaiian Island. Contacting cold water, the lava forms basalt blobs, which then split open, spilling out their fiery interior. This is pillow lava, a gift from Pele, Goddess of Volcanoes. Employing Vikki Pignatelliís techniques, my original creation uses raw edges to emphasize the erupting pillow lava. Narrow edged binding/facing depicts the Pacific Ring of Fire. Black beads are stitched along parts of the raw edge, depicting volcanic glass. |
 It's All About Curves
Shari Thompson
16.25"W x 17.5"H
It's All About Curves is the small workshop piece I made while taking two workshops from Vikki Pignatelli, quilt artist, in November 2009. It is bound using the whole cloth facing technique. |
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 Sandi Hetrick
Made at a class in
Denver.
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 S-Squared
Cathy Stone
This quilt evolved during a week-long class at Asilomar. The center panel used Vikki's pattern to get the hang of the technique; the outside panels were all created spontaneously
as I sewed. Great class, much fun, and I love Vikki's curved piecing method. It did win a first place in art quilt category at our local fair last summer.
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 Red Adair
Ingrid Cattaneo
"Red Adair" was created in Vikki's class at Asilomar (Monterey, CA). June 2010. Crunching of fabric, ironing it flat and then sewing curves was a great experience. Adding "shiny stuff" was an awesome experience the entire class will never forget. No longer am I intimidated by curves. In fact I love improvisational curves. This little wall hanging is small, yet fiery.
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 Angry
Owl
Esther Olesen
Made at a course in
Vejerslev in Denmark.
This is my first trial with Vikki's special way of
sewing curves. I just draw some lines with the flexible tool for
designing curves. Choose fabric. What came out, it looked like an
angry owl or a face of some kind. It made with a colour (pink) I
normally never use.
This was fun making and it will not be the
last time I try using Vikki's special way of sewing.
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 Red
Quilt
Jette
Irene Madsen
Made at a course in
Vejerslev in Denmark.
The red quilt I started on in Vejerslev (in
class). It is improvisation and I made it so I could try some
different techniques.
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 The
Owl
Jette
Irene Madsen
Made at a course in
Vejerslev in Denmark.
The owl was my own idea and I have been
drawing it with the flexi curve tool and sewing it after Vikki's
techniques. It was fun to make my own idea in a quilt. And it was
easy to work with the technique. |
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 42
Curves
Greg Barner
In learning Vikki's technique
I made an eighteen inch square and then for practice I made a
second. I decided to continue making squares to get better at the
topstitch piecing technique. I ended up making 42 of the squares,
put them together and ended up with a queen size quilt. It really
helped me get a good feel for the technique. |
 Evening
Tree
Greg
Barner
I started with a background made with the topstitch
piecing technique. I then added the trunk and major limps of the
tree using tubes and added smaller branches using steam a seam 2. I
enjoy drawing trees and I am finding I like designing trees with
fabric. |
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 Power
of Three
Linda Lewis Taylor |
 Power
of Three - Detail
The
three images on the black canvas were created individually using
Vikki Pignatelli's techniques. I decided I wanted them presented as
a whole so secured them to a canvas with a Gee's Bend not solid
black fabric top. For the individual images I used Vikki's topstitch
appliqué technique and heavy blanket stitch and finished each one
with her envelope backing. The binding for the larger canvas was
finished using a satin stitch.
I am new to quilting,
particularly art quilting, having been into it for just over a year
now. I had the creative ideas but not the skill of the craft,
i.e....the sewing machine. I happened upon Vikki's book and DVD and
off I went. I can relate to her quilting history as I too had no
desire to make traditional quilts. I was in a carriage driving
accident a couple of years ago and couldn't drive cars so was at the
mercy of friends. One friend, Pat Nelson, also a well-known quilter,
both traditional and art, took me to a local art quilt club meeting
(Mountain Art Quilters.) At this point, I would go anywhere, just to
get out of the house. Quilting didn't sound very interesting but I
quickly changed my mind as what I saw was fiber art, fantastic
creative art quilts. I was hooked and Pat took me down to the
Bernina dealer after the meeting where she helped me select the best
Bernina for my needs. I bought a Bernina Activa 240. The rest is
history. |
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 It's
Red
Bronwyn Ferrier
Australia
Award winning guild challenge piece. |
 Autumn
Elspeth Davis
39" H X 32" W
The veins on the leaves are metallic thread. The background is
quilted with traditional motifs using silk thread. The
background was appliquéd using your top stitch piecing method.
The leaves were fused because I had started the process before
reading your book. My triad color choice for the background
was chosen after reading your chapter on color in "Quilting by
Improvisation". My original background just wasn't working.
Then I tried the shades of violet and the leaves popped.
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