Ruth McDowell quilt added to Collection 03-01-15

Yes, I'm still buying Ruth McDowell quilts.  Each one is so special I just can't resist.  Every one has fascinating details from her very creative mind and the piecing is so amazing.  She does piece everything, even the tiniest eye or beak or toe.  And she does it "the old fashioned way: right sides together, machine stitch, open the seam and press."  Add another million pieces and you have a quilt.  It is like a jigsaw puzzle with seam allowances. 

"He Caught Her Eye" Ruth B. McDowell 2014  30"W x 34.5"L

Such a jazzy, glorious couple they are.

 

 

Such sexy chickens - no wonder he caught her eye.  The beaks are carefully selected fabrics that form top and bottom beaks with a quilted line delineating the divide. The eyes have a white paint dot.

I always love Ruth's choice of foot fabric; his are yellow with blue dots and hers are gold with pink dots.  The background fabric here is a traditional cotton print. 

The long sweeping tail feathers are backed by a black/gold print that shows through the feather tips.

For the border on the right side she used a vintage Marimekko bird fabric - we don't need to see the entire bird to know that it is a bird.   I love it.  The fabric in the lower left with the tiny pinkish-gold nine-patches is from a fabric line Ruth created for South Seas several decades ago.  It is at the top of the next image.

On this quilt Ruth has signed her name on the front....

...in addition to the label on the back.  Name, artist, date and contact is a minimum on a label.

And  here is the elegant back with a  vintage Marimekko print.  This is a quilt I will sometimes hang backward to admire the print and the quilting.

Here is a detail of the quilting from the back.  Ruth has a knack for inventing new quilting lines to enhance her quilts and add interest in different features.

 

Ruth's Comments: "It’s much harder to make high-contrast, boldly patterned, multi-colored fabrics work together as in this quilt. I was VERY careful which part of which fabric I cut for each piece and had to make multiple changes as the pieces were cut and pinned in place [on the design board]. There’s a very bold antique Marimekko fabric remnant for the back that has been on my shelves for decades. Cool!"

www.ruthbmcdowell.com