Heirloom Quilt for Tom Taylor

America The Beautiful

45"x62"

Click here for a 6-megabyte high-resolution photo that shows all of the quilting and fabric detail.

Here is the text of the quilt label:

America the Beautiful
David Moore
Vicksburg, MI
2006

This quilt is special. It was completed during late-night efforts in just 6 weeks to ensure that it could be brought with me on a trip to Arizona as a birthday present for my best friend in the entire world, Tom Taylor. While the overall theme of the quilt is America’s beautiful mountains, prairies and oceans, this quilt is inspired by, and meant to reflect, it’s surroundings in its new home- A Shooting Star Inn.

Tom, I have taken care to make sure that this quilt is the very best that I can make. Every fabric was either hand-dyed by me or specially chosen for use in this quilt. I used every construction technique I know to make the different kinds of blocks. I hope you love it. I love you. Happy Birthday!! The stars in this quilt symbolize the unbelievable skies in Kendrick Park, and all of the fabulous nights we have spent together observing and photographing them. I can’t imagine that I will ever be able to improve on those nights.

The bald eagles symbolize the American Dream, which A Shooting Star Inn epitomizes.

The mountain scenes symbolize the different presence that Humphrey’s Peak casts over the park in the morning, at noon, and at night.
The prairie blocks symbolize the park itself.

The trees symbolize the beautiful Ponderosa forests that surround the park.

And while there is no water in the park (or else it would be a meadow), I felt that it should be included in order to complete this “verse-in-fabric”.

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

The happy(?) owner!

I ate a baby!

Here it is in it's new home:

Wedding Quilt for Julie and Matt

My wife's nephew Matt got married to Julie on Saturday. She wanted to give them one of my quilts with Julie and Matt's name incorporated into it in an abstract way. Here is what I came up with. The fabrics are a combination of my own hand-dyes, purchased batiks and a few small pieces of shiny fabrics thrown in for some glitz. They LOVED it!

Julie and Matt

17x22

Here is the back of the quilt. The fabric is a batik with words of love, friends, family, etc. The photo is Julie's all-time favorite photo of the two of them and was used for her wedding shower announcement.

Here is a drawing to show how their names are incorporated into the design of the quilt.

Fused Quilt # 7- Fabric Sketch, Unquilted

This is an excersize from one of Melody Johnson's classes. It is called a fabric sketch. My friend wants me to work in blue for items to hang and sell in his bed and breakfast in Arizona- A Shooting Star Inn. I thought that maybe adding some leaves in yellow and green would be nice, be he thought it was too bright. I am not sure that I will continue to work in blue...

Untitled

13"x14"

Fused Quilt #6- Four Moons

I liked the foil and metallic thread so much, I decided to make a companian piece for Oberon Sky. It only took me one afternoon and into the evening to complete this quilt. I was very pleased with how everything went. The thread and foil does not shine as much as the flash makes them look like do in this photo. It is more subtle and sparkly. I like it.

Four Moons
9"x13"

The two together:

Fused Quilt #5- Oberon Sky

This was my first attempt at using foil. It worked perfectly with the Wonder Under. This was also the first time I quilted with metallic thread. Once I figured out to put the metallic into the bobbin and work upside-down, everything went fine. The machine quilting around the "sun" took forever!

Oberon Sky
11"x14"

Fused Quilt #4- Splintered Diffraction

This 9-patch quilt was inspired by Melody Johnson's ZigZag #5. It is the first quilt that uses solely fabric that I died myself. I used embroidery floss for the quilting. The shiny floss does not show its shine very well in the photos. I fused the binding on this one.

Splintered Diffraction (Carlos)
16"x16"

Detail #1

Detail #2

Detail #3

Detail #4

Detail #5

Detail #6

Detail #7

Detail #8

Detail #9

Fused Quilt #3- Gift for Ed Horski

I made this quilt for the man who led our group when I went through confirmation preparation. The sacred heart is Ed's favorite symbol for Christ. The white background of this quilt stands for Christ's purity. These are fabrics I dyed and I used embroidery floss for the quilting and PrimsmaColor pencils for the shading on the vines and the Celtic cross.

Gift for EdHorski

11"x14"

Alpha Detail

Celtic Cross Detail

Sacred Heart Detail

Fish Detail

Omega Detail

Fused Quilt #2- 8.5"x11.5" Untitled

Detail of quilting.

This is my first "art" quilt. It is not a representation of anything. It is made of my own hand-dyed fabrics. I am very proud of it, except for how the corners turned out. I may disassemble it and try the corners again. We will see.

Fused Quilt #1- Shooting Star

This is a detail of the hundreds of beads that make up the stars and Milky Way.

Here is first fused quilt that I have made complete from start to finish. It is 8"x10". The only reason that I knew I could make it is that Melody Johnson taught me that I could in a class. This is a big thing for me and I am so happy that I met her.

Self Portrait

Taken at work.