Wednesday, September 9, 2026

A Collection of Riches

 

I picked up three quilts from my longer quilter, Janet-Lee Santeusanio, the other day. This is Dancing Jewels, for my nephew. I'm happy with it, and will be working to finish it up for him ASAP.

I also picked up another quilt that doesn't have a name yet. I've been referring to is as the Jewel-toned Macnas quilt.

Here's another photo. This quilt has a home, so I'll be working on this one after I finish the one for my nephew.

The third quilt I picked up is the third Nightingale*** quilt. The first two of these flew out of my studio pretty quickly so it's nice to have this one to myself.

This photo of a small section of the back of the quilt may show the quilting better.

I have always loved brightly patterned fabrics on a black background, and since I believe if you are going to "go for it" you should really GO, I have picked equally vibrant prints for the back of this quilt. I also like to use panels on the backs of my quilts.

I was giving a talk to a quilt guild once and a lady came up to me afterwards and said, "You like busy backs." I looked at her and said, "Mostly, I hate boring ones." 

This reminds me of something some art critic or historian (I can't remember which) said of the artist and illustrator Alphonse Mucha: "...he doesn't like empty space." 

Apparently, neither do I.



***This quilt is really easy to make, and you can get the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. While I think it is pretty spectacular made with bright colors on a black background, you can of course make it any color or colors you want. You can see it in green here, And made from bright prints on a white background here.




4 comments:

Susie H said...

Three quilt finishes in one post. All of them beautiful. I especially like the one you're calling Jeweled Macnas.

Cherie Moore said...

They may have coined the “go big or go home” phrase just for you 😉

helenreimers said...

All the quilts l've made and l honestly never thought of the backs like that before. This thought will be on my mind for a while. Thank you for showing me another way.

Quiltdivajulie said...

I'm with you on the topic of empty space - why I rarely ever use solids. I love a good quilt back and never even considered any other approach (much to the consternation of my first LQS owner who used anything she had on hand rather than use "good quilt fabric"). All three quilts here are G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S !!