Fancy Folk Art Quilts

Within the world of quilting, an entire genre is thought of as folk art quilts (see Pinterest).  Sometimes these quilts have a primitive country style, featuring simple shapes, often done in wool (think:  penny rugs).  The quilts we're featuring today, however, are more of a fusion between new and old:  they have more stylized designs, fancy quilting, and contemporary colors.  We're liking this trend!

KFC at the Flea Market, 73 x 73", by Summer Truswell (Washington)

Summer Truswell says that bright colors make her happy, and the more the better.   The basis for this quilt is the Flea Market Treasure quilt pattern from Scrappy Firework Quilts: A Blast of Strips, Scraps and Triangles by Edyta Sitar. 

close up, KFC at the Flea Market by Summer Truswell

As she did the quilting, Summer pictured nighttime in a garden with a bright star overhead. The Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics really stand out against the black background in this photo. 

Duncan's Garden Party, 64 x 70", by Karolyn "Nubin" Jensen

Inspired by a Sue Spargo class, Karolyn designed her own flowers and birds and used her own hand-dyed wools, silks, and velvets to create this piece.  The description says, "Karolyn no longer has her sweet dogs, so she made this quilt as a reminder of them."

close up, Duncan's Garden Party by Karolyn "Nubin" Jensen

In this photo you can see quail, coneflowers, thistles, and birdhouses along with the white dogs. We admired the great color scheme, beautiful applique and machine quilting.  It also was awarded Speaker's Choice by Laura Wasilowski at the 2013 Tucson Quilt Fiesta. 

After The Rain by  Janet Rupp

After The Rain was the winner of a blue ribbon in the Appliqued - Hand Quilted category at the 2014 Tucson (Arizona) Quilt Show.  Janet Rupp used hand applique, embroidery and hand quilting (see the photo below). The pattern is by Nancy Landon at Cactus Quilt Shop, and Janet modified the center and border. She says,  "Because the pumpkin background was so dark, it was fun exploring the same colors on a light background."

Close-up, After The Rain by Janet Rupp

Janet's beautiful hand embroidery outlines the applique shapes and decorates each of the elements in the quilt.  She says, "Please note the motifs outlined with embroidery suggesting back lighting."  

Floral Fantasy by Manya Powell

Linda explains, "I saw this pattern and fell in love with it. It is from the book Flowerbed by Sue Spargo.  She does most of her patterns in wool with lots of stitch work. I redrew the patterns in quilt block sizes and made it all with cotton quilting fabric, using hand applique. I am pleased with the results. Hope you like it too."

Close-up, Floral Fantasy by Manya Powell, quilted by Linda Powell

We really enjoyed this whimsical, magical pattern with the polka-dotted hearts and flowers. The sky is really the limit when deciding which fabrics to use with this highly imaginative design. 

We Plant the Seeds by Julia Spalla, quilted by Barbara Angerhofer

Julia explains, "This was the first quilt that I have made with wool applique. So much fun. Love all the beautiful colors and textures. Everyone who appliques should try it. You will be hooked." A lovely block-of-the-month pattern, this quilt has colors in it for everyone. Both springtime and autumn motifs are perfectly blended. What a great project to do while waiting for spring and summer to arrive.

Julia's design source is "A Primitive Garden" block of the month pattern by Primitive Gatherings. This really makes us want to go shopping for some fun flowers to plant in a pot by a sunny window, balcony railing, backyard patio, or just about anywhere.

Letter Carriers by Janet Stone

Here's a darling assortment of baskets, with all the letters of the alphabet spilling out of the eleven large baskets in the quilt's center. Some of the baskets were created by weaving bias strips.  These are surrounded by 26 pieced basket blocks in the border.

The scalloped border with blanket-stitched circles can be seen in this photo, along with triangular prairie points attached with hand-covered buttons.  Janet used colorful beads and buttons to create a look of cozy, homespun embellishment to her original design. The baskets on the right-hand-side of this photo were embellished with letter beads.  

For this charming creation, Janet used cotton fabrics, cotton, polyester, and silk threads, plus wood, metal, plastic, and glass embellishments. Her techniques include machine piecing and quilting, machine applique, hand sewn and hot fixed embellishments, and hand-covered buttons. We especially love the curly, fluffy sheep in this close-up. Letter Carriers was featured in the Award Winning Quilts 2015 Calendar (Martingale). 

Grandma Chapman's China Cupboard  by Karolyn "Nubin" Jensen

Second place winner in the Whimsical Quilts category at the 2014 Tucson (Arizona) Quilt show, Karolyn notes, "My maternal grandmother was a very determined and hardworking woman. She had an amazing teacup and saucer collection. Her beautiful cups were all different sizes, shapes, and colors. This is my original design. I hand dyed the wool."

Two cute pink teapots cheerfully adorn the upper corners of Karolyn's quilt and stand out well against the chocolate brown border and background. The color combination of lime green, mauve, periwinkle, and chocolate brown is an unusual one, but it works well here to highlight the teacups and teapots. The chartreuse trim is crocheted lace.

These pretty spring blossoms seem to playfully dance around on this cheerful teacup. From a distance, the placemats have an appearance of being braided together. However, close up you can see that  they are actually quilted in a single feather design, which gives them the braided appearance.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2014 AQS and the 2014 Tucson Quilt Show.  Letter Carriers was photographed at the 2013 Houston IQF.