Ruth Beckett Quilts
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My Quilts - 2000 to 2009


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Cow Feathers
​2001
I started this quilt in a class which I took primarily to learn how to use a rotary cutter. I decided to try a machine trapunto technique which was also new to me. It is a feathered star design made with fabric containing cows, hence the name.

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Christmas Album Quilt
​2004
This quilt was a multi-year project that I started in 1983. The rules I set for myself were: only red & green colors, and I could only work on the quilt in December. If possible, I wanted the design to incorporate a memorable event that happened that year, i.e. I made the house block the year we bought our home in Magnolia. Eventually, the ritual included my shopping the January sales for Christmas fabric to  use in the next year's block.

Size: 89"x89"

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Pilgrim's Progress
​2004
Based on the scallop shell central to the Camino de Santiago, I made the central scallop piece with a rough cotton fabric, expanded with pin tucks made with zigzag stitching. that I stuffed and enhanced with a bit of fabric paint before attaching  to the same rough cotton. I fused the outer spiral , as well as the triangles, and then satin stitched with a variegated pattern  around both.


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SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SCALLOP SHELL

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Bless My Heart
​2005
I made this quilt the year I had my heart surgery. The central hearts are needle turned and the outer hearts are silk and satin fused with satin stitch edges. The labyrinth in the middle is a replica of the one at Chartres Cathedral (below) done in needle-turn applique. That complicated piece took forever!
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In the Beginning
​2005
​The center of this quilt is made from an African fabric  that I purchased at Seattle's annual Folklife Festival. I quilted the center of the piece in a spiral design with gold metallic thread. The adjacent circle is appliqued like three-dimensional Japanese origami. Around that, I made a circle of fused flame fabric satin stitched with variegated thread.


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I Get By With a Little Help
From My Friends
​2006
For this quilt, I chose to hand piece and machine quilt a sample of every fabric that I owned at the time. Then, I traced around the hands of all the members of the Thursday Quilt Group and appliquéd them onto the quilt top. At their request, I also embroidered the name of each group member onto the colored fabric hands. By alternating grey pieces between each patterned and colored piece, my final design formed a simple basket-weave.​​

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Natsumi"s Quilt
​2007
This is the only quilt I have ever agreed to do on commission (so far). The first child of the son of my Japanese friend was born in Japan and she wanted to take a very American gift to give to her wee granddaughter. Her only request was butterflies. This simple quilt has an original quilting pattern of continuous strings of butterflies done along the border sewn with variegated purple thread. Natsumi means "summer ocean," given to her by her surfer father.

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Allison's Quilt
​2009
This is an original design that I made for my niece, Allison. The triangles are machine pieced and the stems and yellow diamonds are needle turned appliquéd. Then, I quilted the whole top by hand. 
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