"My Kitchen Window"

I signed up to take an art quilt class from Ricky Tims.  When I saw the birdhouses in the class, I knew this was the pattern for me.  

This is the view from my kitchen window.  The yellow house is a playhouse we built for our grandchildren.  The birdhouses were made by my sons at their Cub Scout Day Camp.  Behind the playhouse is a famous mountain in our area called Steeple Rock. There are yucca growing everywhere in the landscape.   We have a wildlife pond in front of the playhouse where the wildlife as well as the chickens drink.  To the side is a sandpile where my grandchildren play with their trucks and cars.  If you look at the sky, you will see clouds and a beautiful Arizona sunset.

When I originally decided on a border, I didn't know how I would quilt it.  By punching down two of the quarter squares, the middle quarter squares puffed out and made a really fun border effect.  The other blocks in the quilt are made of the different shapes of classic quilt blocks.  The colors represent the colors of the landscape.  Sometimes the quilting gives a clue to what the shape is as in the yucca plants.  Other times the quilting is just chosen to go with the shape of the block.

This is my first art quilt.  I had always wanted to learn to do art quilts and this was a design that I thought I could do since I knew I could make regular classic quilt blocks.  I felt like other forms of art quilts were beyond my reach.   The other day the grandkids came to the house.  They said, "Where is the playhouse quilt?"  I said, "It's finished!

This shows the chickens in the yard and the trucks in the play yard.

This is the yucca, birdhouse and a closeup of the border. 

Playhouse we built for our grandchildren.  Travis and Tony made the bird houses at Cub Scout Day Camp.

This is my image of Steeple Rock and a desert sunrise.  I like how the unquilted quarter squares pop up.

I won a Best of Fair Ribbon at the Greenlee County Fair.