18" x 18"

The story of "Quilted Wreath"

Stitching all of these little squares became addictive. It was hard to put the piece away without doing just one more square. This wonderful workshop piece was designed by Pat Timpanaro. The design offered a way to experience stitching lots of new stitches and by the time I became tired of a pattern, I was on to the next one.

The rusts, peaches, golds, and greens of my Quilted Wreath were inspired by leaves in their magnificent change to fall colors. My wreath was stitched on peach colored canvas. I chose a matching perle cotton thread for the background and selected an open work pattern allowing the stitches and colors to stand out.

The exterior shape of this piece made it a challenge to frame and also to sign. I presented my framer with a large piece of watercolor paper which I had painted abstractly with the colors of the wreath. She then cut triangular shapes from the paper and inserted those shapes into the four corners of the piece as a fill in for the matte board. I stitched my initials on a separate of canvas which was then inserted under a hole cut into the matte board.

I couldn't get enough of stitching these small squares. For a while I thought of doing three more, winter, spring and summer but my idea was replaced by the inspiration to create my own piece titled "Aha!"

note: You will see "Aha!" in the Crescendo Gallery.

>Click within the stitchings to see the detail images: