Salli McQuaid: Little Big Easy, 12"x 12", 2010. Detail - center, reverse-R.

Artist 's Statement

I I learned to fabric weave from Venetta Morger, a master quilter who lives in The Woodlands, TX, when I made Little Big Easy. I first pieced two of Sara Moe's difficult "running curve" blocks in vibrant "Mardi Gras" fabrics. Then, under Venetta's excellent tutelage, I cut them up and wove them, bonding them together. When I got back to the Studios I joined all the small pieces with stitches, added the original "sax" embroidery, borders, and other stitching. Now, it's almost impossible to figure out how I pieced it. The quilt, for me, conveys joyous, mellow, celebratory New Orleans, at least before Katrina and all the other disasters. This exuberant quilt is one of my favorite mini's.

Materials: textiles and specialty threads (metallic, haloshimmer, variegated, cotton, rayon, invisible, polyester).

Techniques:  machine piecing, stitching, lettering, and embroidery; original embroidery (horn) fabric weaving, free-form machine quilting.