Another improv quilt made with donations to Good Shepherd and with my fellow volunteer friends. This one was made with leftovers from the donation quilts I made last year.

Machine pieced and quilted.

Using the left over triangles from Bug-tron I found this starry fabric in my stash (hand-me-down from my Mom) and the colors are PERFECT.

I thought it would be fun to play around with directions and spacing and thinking of migrating birds as they fly apart and together.

This piece is all cotton, imrpov, and using up scraps and orphan blocks. Machine (domestic) pieced and quilted.

The machine-appliqued words used as quilting include: compassion (many times), mutual aid, rebel loon, ICE unconstitutional, democracy distressed, ICE out, Minnesota strong, no kings, (heart) ur neighbors, and WTF. This is a small piece, about 19" x 17".

I had thoughts and feelings, and began this project by viewing images that felt significant and also representative of the moment. Then, I created my own drawings, traced them onto the light blue background, used Steam-a-seam/raw-edge applique, machine zig-zag stitched the pieces down, quilted stitch-in-the-ditch style over the zigzag, and appliqued words as a part of the quilting.

This quilt is looking for a home/donation - the full amount will be donated to Twin Ports Rapid Response. Please email me if you are interested, lara.earth@proton.me.

This was my first quilt incorporating needleturn applique and sashiko together on a quilt. Unfortunately, the beautiful purple batik fabric ran when I washed it, so now it's a large potholder sent to a friend! Useful and pretty.

This started with a photo of a fort provided in the Cassandra Beaver class I took in 2025. Then I traced shapes I found interesting, and cut and pieced the background by machine. Then, to add layers, depth, and texture, I hand appliqued over the top, machine quilted (stitch in the ditch style), and finally added sashiko stitching to add even more depth and texture.

I was so excited to be invited by North and Shore as well as LSMQG to display my small collection of art quilts. They will be on display and for sale through the end of March 2026.

A call went out to make quilts for kids who will be receiving their own beds, possibly for the first time. The quilt group I am lucky to be a part of at Good Shepherd immediately decided to participate. Then we were told they had lots of quilts for girls but few appropriate for boys.

I found small amounts of donated fabric that felt appropriate for both boys and girls, and so I drafted a simple pattern to highlight the "fun" fabric but still make the quilt interesting and special. The first two are pictured above. These are simple strip quilts made with mostly fabric my mom has shared with me over the last few years, with framed fabrics scattered throughout.

The quilting is simple, with a take on the stitch-in-the-ditch method. I added little humps at random for interest.

I finally decided Bug-tron is not my favorite quilt, so I'm not adding hand-quilting embellishments. I liked the colors when selecting them, but in the end, I did not like the starkness of the black and white stripes.

Curious about the class? See this post to learn more.

If you look closely, you will see the bug's body and four wings quilted over the symmetrical form. It is not perfect, but it was a great practice of free-motion quilting.

The Travel Duffle Bag 2.1 by annie.com was the first bag I made to supplement my suitcase. After one trip, I realized it was a bit big and too much for me, and so I made the second smaller The City Bag by Lazy Girl Designs.

In both cases, I did not follow the pattern exactly, adding pockets, changing the size slightly, etc. In both cases, they were great patterns to base the bags on.

Last winter, I used the Travel Duffle Bag as it was designed to sit on my small roller suitcase. This year, as I am getting better at packing lighter, I will use The City Bag as I carry a Cotopaxi backpack I purchased late last year on my back, and this across the body bag.

An online weekend class offering through LSMQG by Irene Roderick was very exciting to me, as I have her book, Dancing with the Wall, and really want to incorporate what I have learned from Cassandra Beaver with the ideas in Roderick's book. I am not ready to spend a week at Madeline Island, so I thought this would be a great way to get a sense of her process and artistic eye in a quick online class.

Voltron is the title of Roderick's class, but in the end, I think mine looks more like a bug, and I intend to quilt it that way. The process of making strip sets, so many strip sets, that were cut into triangles, and using a center line to mirror the pieces. The prep work of ironing and using her "recipe" for the strip sets was meditative, and the assembly of the quilt top was actually quicker than I anticipated. Blocking this quilt is a must, even after checking each piece with the opposite to be sure the sizes would match the quilt was still not exactly symmetrical. Cutting strip sets on the bias left a lot of give in the fabric, and the top is oversized on the right.

After quilting, I will share Bug-tron in her completed form.

In my fabric stash, I am lucky enough to have several modern and vintage Asian fabrics from my mom's friends and from a guild member, Pam, who was looking to rehome her stash. These fabrics are beautiful and yet not really modern on their own. Leslie offered a class on the DWR with a modern take based on the quilts of Victoria Findlay Wolfe, and I knew this would be an amazing way to use a number of my more traditional gifted/thrifted fabrics in a more modern way. This is the first of what I intend to be many of these quilts.

While visiting my parents in November 2025, I decided to try a pattern I discovered at a thrift shop. The Kimura 1995 bag was a fun little project. As I try many things for the first time, I made this much smaller than the pattern and altered the fold-over flap a bit to include snaps for closure. I plan on making a larger one and will definitely use a stabilizer to help it hold its shape better.

A quilt featuring burning embers floating in the night sky was inspired by ongoing control burns as we clear our small property near Duluth, Minnesota. Including traditional prairie points and modern negative space allows the machine and hand quilting to create movement.

After drawing a quick sketch and realizing I could incorporate prairie points into the design, I set to work using the thrifted purple fabrics I had on hand. As usual, I did not draw out or use any rulers when quilting the layers together. Hand embellishments are included with a few purple stitches.

This was the culmination of my work through the three figures concept, inspired by Lee Krasner's work during Cassandra Beaver's class.

Like Figures Rising, I used machine piecing, machine quilting, hand applique, and hand quilting. This quilt only felt complete after adding the hand embroidery to the quilt top.

The inspiration for this quilt is from Rising Green, by Lee Krasner, through an amazing process taught by Cassandra Beaver. This quilt was long in the making; see my previous post on the prior versions. I began with appliqued figures in solid yellow fabric, which I removed to replace with the paisley after feedback.

Echo quilting and embellishment with hand stitching feels like the right balance in many of my quilts. I enjoy the movement and extra dimension both provide. I machine quilt on my domestic mostly without a plan and without drawing lines or using rulers. The freedom to follow the shapes and what the quilt top seems to want is how I prefer to finish. Imperfect and yet in flow.

A class with Cassandra Beaver, Inspiration to Abstraction, literally inspired over ten quilts so far and taught me a technique that provided vision and also left space for improvisation as the quilts came together. I cannot overstate the value of her teaching, coaching, and opportunity to have my work critiqued (very supportively) by the other amazing artists/quilters in the class.

This series of quilts is from traced drawings of a work of art called Rising Green by Lee Krasner. The inspiration art looks nothing like these pieces, but to me, it evokes a similar emotion and movement. There are three completed Rising Figures quilts in the series, including the first, which was sold untitled, the second titled Rising Figures (in progress at the bottom of the screen), and a third, which is not shown, titled Dark Figures Rising.