Cross Quilts

I shared some of Susan’s food quilts a few weeks back (click here for that post). This was her response:

“I just read this week’s post and I’m thrilled and honored to have my comments and photos included.  I’ve met you several times and have attended several lectures you gave, when the tech college in Oshkosh used to host a quilt show.  I enjoyed every single one of your lectures and love your work, especially your spiritual pieces.  Your work inspired me to make my own spiritual piece, a wall quilt of a cross, which I named “I Am the Light”.  I quilted lines running outward from the cross, which simulate Christ’s light of salvation, won for us on the cross.  I hang it in my living room during the Lent and Easter seasons.  I just love it!”

“I’ve attached photos of two difference cross quilts, and hopefully you can see the quilting lines radiating from the center of the cross.  I made mine (blues, grays, floral border) from a kit, and have also made a second for a friend of mine (greens).  I have a penpal, Astrid, in Netherlands, whose son is a pastor.  Last year, he was stricken with Guillian-Barre syndrome and has since recovered.  I had sent a photo of my quilt to Astrid and she asked me if I could make a similar quilt as a comfort for her son.  As a rule, I do not usually sew for others, but I made an exception in this case.  We chose the fabrics together (we communicated via Whatsapp and had a lovely conversation in JoAnn Fabrics that day!) and I drafted a smaller version of the original.  I completed it in less than two weeks, and shipped it to Astrid and it now hangs in her son’s living room.  Astrid chose the name: “Christ’s Love Radiates Light”.  In Dutch it is written as “Chistus’ Liefde straalt Licht uit”.  My husband and I traveled to Netherlands in May of this year, visited Astrid and her son and I was able to see the quilt again with my own eyes”.

I’m so grateful to know about these quilts and their stories! Thanks Susan!

I’ve made a number of cross quilts too. This one was a group quilt I coordinated in the “water color” style at my previous church:

And this one was made by my friend Maria when she took my classes at WCTC:

“Risen” was made for a Milwaukee Art Quilter’s challenge way back in 2010. Each quilt had to have the same red rayon rat tail cording entering from the left and exiting on the right. In this way they could be connected to one another when hanging at a show or exhibit. To see the rest of the quilts in this challenge click here!

“Puzzled No More” was made for a ThreadBender’s challenge entitled Colored by Emotion. Each participant randomly chose a color (hue) and emotion, and was challenged to make a quilt showing that emotion with only their color plus black and white. My color was purple and my emotion was puzzled. The label reads: “My life was a purposeless puzzle until I met Christ at the foot of His cross, and now I’m puzzled no more!”

To see all of those challenge quilts click here.

“Water and the Spirit” is a small art piece (14″ x 16″) from my Crossings series. It was made in four pieces from a lovely fat quarter of hand-dyed fabric, and then those pieces were beaded back together.

Many of you have seen this quilt before because it tends to jump into many of my lectures. It was made for an “Opposing Forces” themed challenge and is named “God is Light and in Him is no Darkness at All”.

Do you have a cross quilt you’d like to share? Please send photos to me at: