Magenta and Fern

A Murder of Crows on a Very Hot Day

After spending several hours at Mary Jo's, a humongous fabric store in Gastonia, NC, I was tossing around the idea of of how hard it would be to change my name!    The 'M' had a lot of possibilities, but finding an 'F' that looked half-way presentable with each 'M' was driving me up the wall.  I ended up buying a lot of combinations for this quilt 'cause I just couldn't make up my mind.  Nothing looked good together!  You all know I'm a neutral kinda' gal.  This year's challenges are really making me stretch out of my comfort zone!  It wasn't until I got back to the cabin and dumped all the fabrics out on the floor that I settled on Magenta and Fern Green ... they happened to fall out of the bag on top of each other.

21 x 21 - The background and leaves are hand-quilted, the crows are machine embroidered. 

Next Challenge

For the next challenge, I'm picking one of my favorite schemes  The Triad. It is a color scheme with 3 more or less equally spaced colors such as Green, Orange, Violet.

Have fun.

Sapphire and Chartreuse

Hey, Sapphire Chartreuse sounds a little bit like a burlesque dancer's stage name, right?  Well, this piece is inspired by the natural world of Southeast Alaska, not by some secret life I long to lead.  I have posted details of this project over at my blog, so come on by when you have a chance.  This was a fun one!

'View from the Beach Fringe' by Susan Christensen; 11"x14"; fused applique and beads

Khaki Sapphire and Black

This work started as a commercial piece of fabric that had a traditional print.  

Painted over with textile paints, I came up with something that was close to Khaki and Sapphire. 

After painting the background fabric it was densely quilted with only vertical lines.

Then the flowers and stems were stitched and painted.

The tall stems are a crushed silk which was cut, folded and stitched with silk thread and then stitched to the background.

The dragonfly was sculpted with dressmaker fabrics, funky ribbons and bridal netting.

Black was used sparingly in the dragonfly wings, outlining or the flowers and a spider web.

You may find a few more detail pictures on my blog 

Dandelion Dreams

This challenge was fun!  The Lime was easy, but I couldn't think of a color that began with "D" other than  "dark" something. So I got out the large box of Crayola crayons that I keep for the grandkids and found my answer...Dandelion!

I've had dreams on my mind while working on my show quilts for next year, and that theme carried over to this project.  In fact, it spawned both a quilt and a poem of sorts.

31" x 41"

Dandelion Dreams

Under the night sky
Above leaves of  lime,
As dandelion pearls float on the wings of a breeze;
I caught a dream and made it fly.

"Dandelion Dreams"  is a painted Wholecloth quilt, using  Liquitex Professional Artist's inks. There are two layers of Quilters Dream batting...Wool over Puff, and it is quilted with Wonderfil Invisafil threads.

More photos can be found on my blog.

Two by Two by Two

Pinnacles ~ 20" x 22"

Family Farm ~ 11" x 24"

I seem to be doing everything in two's this challenge round.  I chose two names for C -- chartreuse and celadon -- and two for R -- rust and rosy-orange.

For more details on the quilts, check out my blog.

Dun Brown and Watermelon

In the beginning of this Challenge, I was unenthusiastic.  I wasn't feeling Daisy, Daffodil, or Daylight.  They were WAY too sunny for me.  Then there was Wisteria...

It wasn't until I google colors beginning with the letter D and W that it happened!  Dirty Brown is an actual color!  and Dun!  I have (until fairly recently) been described as having "dirty blond hair".  So Dirty Brown really felt comfortable.  I was on a little color high when I continued with my search into the W's.  

Watermelon!  I was done.

This challenge gave me an opportunity to explore using zippers.  I have amassed two big boxes of new and vintage zippers of all sizes that I had been wanting to incorporate.

Titled Prickly Secrets, it's about those little pesky secrets...not biggies.  No life altering, guilty secrets...just those little ones that you really wish you didn't know.

Nocturnal Business

 Nocturnal Business 20" x 18" 

I loved choosing my colors; Kiwi and Magenta! The limitations were the challenge for me, I love to use as many colors as possible in a my work.  


I used hand dyed fabrics from Vicki Welsh along with my own and a speckled black batik. I painted with acrylics and used cotton threads to enhance my design.

I enjoy replication of real life stuff but it was fun to use my imagination to create flora and fauna...

You can see more pictures and read more details on my blog kathleenmurphydesigns

Color Challenge 4

13" x 20"

For Challenge 4 we were to use our first and last name to pick two colors and then add black.  (Who picked that silly challenge anyway? haha)

 For Susan I chose the color saffron.  For Freund I chose french blue.

I had no idea what to do, but I knew I wanted to try out my new Big Shot cutter and circle dies.  What a great tool!

The "S" just kind of happened. "S" for Sunflower.....Saffron....Susan????

The butterfly is a Batesia Hypochlora native to the Amazon area.

I bejeweled my little quilt with lots of crystals although they really don't show up in the photo.

My S.F. quilt amongst the coreopsis

July Challenge

The July Challenge was clever and "challenging". We were to use 3 colors. The first color was to start with the first letter of our first name. The second color was to start with the first letter of our last name. The third color is black. Oh dear, what do I do with Jandik. Thanks husband. He said Jade and then Slate grey. These are even colors I like.

Blogger insisted that the detail post first.

The block is one I work with and need to do even more with. The piece insisted that each color area be quilted separately and in the background color.