My Newest Mosaic Art Quilt

40" x 50"

I have fnished my newest mosaic quilt. I could have named it many things, but I've decided to keep it simple and call it Whitney Lake.  We have had a vacation home on Whitney Lake in Hawley, PA for 30 years.  There is so much Lynch  history there.  While our boys were growing up we spent a good part of the summers there.  There was swimming and fishing and blueberry picking.  There were video games on the rainy days and  a gang of boys that hung together and sometimes got into a little mischief. We spent Thanksgiving there and President's weekend ice fishing on the frozen lake.  I have wonderful memories of quilt retreats with girlfriends and students.  There was a little lull in our visits as the boys got interested in sports and headed off to college.  Fortunately, they both dated girls who loved it there too and both of them  married those girls lakeside. So it's a place with lots of memories.

I started the quilt 2 years ago using lots of photos to "stitch" together and construct the scene and thought often about those two empty chairs on our dock.  It has been a long road.  There was a 1 year hiatus where I just couldn't work on it.  Then when I finally returned to working on it I  had some issues with the lake water and contrast.  (Oh contrast, my nemesis!)
Here's an overview:

First the left side and then the right.

And now it's done, and it feels good!

I did debate wether to use a Curvalicious border since all of my mosaic art quilts include it for the border. So I scallopped the border this time and it's just perfect. My next post will have details of the  quilting and borders. You can purchase Curvalicious HERE and watch how to use Curvalicious to create an amazing border HERE:

"Whitney Lake"has now entered the inner circle of my most favorite quilts.
And what would a special quilt be without a special label.

It's a great time to finish a special quilt.

A Simply Elegant Border For Your Quilts

This is one of my silk dupioni quilts, "A Mid Summer Night's Dream".  I love this quilt.  It was a joy and challenge to design and stitch all of the appliques. Then to finish it, I created a border using Curvalicious.  I added concentric circles to the border and inside of it is rick rack, embellished with sequins and seed beads. It is an elegant finish.

Using my Curvalicious tool made it pretty easy.

I also used it to add a ice touch to this disappearing 4 patch quilt.

With this quilt, the border comes to a point, or what I call a cat's eye in the corners.

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The look of the corners depends on how the curvalicious border is placed.

If you're like me, usually when I finish making the body of a quilt top, the goal is to be done.  So, I just add a border that fits with the piecing.  The goal is to just get it quilted either myself  or by sending it out to the longarmer.  A light bulb went on one day and I thought about using Curvalicious to create an inner border.  I tried it and it worked!

Adding a Curvalicious border is simple and takes just a bit more time and you end up with an elegant frame for your quilt. You can use it with or without circles and the stitching is done before the border is added to the body of the quilt.  I have been sharing this border tip when I demo at quilt shows and have been asked exactly how I do it.  So I made a video. (That sounds much easier than it really is!)  Click on the arrow to watch.

I hope you find it helpful. 

And if you decide you want to see all the other fun things you can do with Curvalicious, click HERE.

I keep updating the Curvalicious website, www.Curvalicious.net