Little Quilts From Texas

Little quilts have become quite appealing to me lately. They are manageable, easy to work on while moving in and out of the guest room (my temporary studio), portable (as we bop all over the country in the 'Z'), and best of all....instant gratification. They are done so quickly.

And they make a wonderful travelogue! Here are three little quilts that resulted from photos taken while touring the South Texas Coast. If you ever want to escape the cold, but are tired of the Florida rat race...try South Texas. We stayed in Laguna Vista, just over the bridge from South Padre Island, and about twenty miles from Brownsville and the border with Mexico. We stayed the entire month of January and had a blast!

The Brownsville tour, provided by the Brownsville Historical Association out of the Stillman House was wonderful. I was fortunate to be on the same tour as the Texas magazine writer, so we got the full treatment! Really...it was a wonderful tour and I encourage anyone visiting the area to sign up for it...and only FIVE BUCKS!!!




The first quilt is 'Brownsville Market'. I've been experimenting with beads, and learned quite a bit on the subject while making this quilt! Like...don't use too many beads!

Brownsville has a wonderful old downtown, filled with 'Ropas' or second-hand shops. I loaded up with wonderful materials to recycle into quilts. Some of those materials are in this quilt.











This is the 'View From the Old Bakery'. Attached to an old store from the frontier days of Brownsville, the original ovens are still there. The building is now houses offices for the University of Texas - Brownsville. I've got other images to make into quilts from this site. One from the back veranda is calling to me as we speak!









And this little quilt is of a flower that was growing like a weed under the porch of our condo. I'd never seen such a pretty little flower. It needed to come out of hiding. I've since learned it is called a Peace Lily. Last year, I signed up for the Global Art Project for Peace and decided on this image as my entry. The project is a biennial exchange of art for artists of all ages from around the world. I will be exchanging works with an artist from India and sending this piece out on April 23rd. For more information on this wonderful project please go to: http://www.global-art.org/index.html.