Quiltfest 2012
Dilys Fronks
Through the Garden Gate

Cheltenham Gate
32" x 49"  1996

I started to teach a class on 'Reverse appliqué inspired by wrought iron designs' and I was invited to teach it in Cheltenham. My hostess took me around the city to see the wonderful wrought iron there and it suddenly dawned on me that the beauty of the patterning in a gate was not lost when seen in front of a busy garden. I began to work on this, my first Garden Gate quilt, on my return home.

Machine piecing, hand reverse appliqué and hand quilting

*The squares are joined together with precision so that the corners match and the seam alternate to butt up to one another. There is extensive hand quilting to texture the picture but as it can't be seen clearly I began to wonder about the virtue of spending so much time on this aspect of the quilt.

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Grand Slam
23" x 35"  1998

This quilt was entered for the UK 'Grand Slam' competition, organised by the National Patchwork Championships in 1998 and it was selected to be displayed as part of the full pack of cards in the UK and Europe. This was the first time that I staggered the squares to create the picture, allowing for easier construction and a gentler fall between the fabric squares. 

Machine piecing, hand reverse appliqué and machine quilting

* I used a large patterned fashion fabric for the poppies and cut it into squares. The staggered lines meant that I had to re-style the flower heads to make them look correct. I tend not to use 'fussy cutting' as it is wasteful on fabric. The surrounding colours and textures are as important to a picture as the flowers themselves.

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Park Gates
2003

As in 'Hydrangea Fence', the background scene is made up of squares prepared with fabric strips. Colourful Bali's and Batiks were used for a painterly effect and a king sized flannelette sheet was used as a design wall. The gate was designed and drafted to size, using motifs seen in many different gates. Opening the gate invites the viewer to step through and be part of the picture

Machine piecing, machine quilting and hand reverse appliqué

*This quilt was a first prize winner in the pictorial section of the NEC show 2003 and was selected to hang in Houston.

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Open Gate
61" x 83"  1998

​I created the large background garden using a king-sized flannelette sheet as my design wall. The edge to edge squares made the garden seem enormous, but once the seams were sewn, it was reduce to a more manageable size. An open gate was drafted to size on graph paper, introducing the rules of perspective. 

Machine piecing, hand reverse appliqué and hand and machine quilting

*I started to hand quilt the very visible areas of sky first but, as a competition deadline loomed, I had to get a move on. Machine texturing, with cotton (50) threads that matched the background, helped me to speed up the quilting process. A busy background was very forgiving to my fairly inept attempts at machine quilting! But if you don't try, then you never learn.

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Country Gate
41" X 50"  2002

​A well trodden pathway invites you to open the gate and step through to explore the country garden beyond. There are flower borders, bushes and tangled undergrowth to lead you towards the light of the distant horizon.

Machine piecing, machine quilting and hand reverse appliqué

*Each element of this gate was designed using the same simple pattern shape. A heart template was used to create the circular motif, the row of over-lapping hearts and the line linking the traditional dog bars along the lower edge.

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Hydrangea Fence
42" X 46"  2000

This quilt represents a development in my method of creating the background pictures. In an attempt to give a 'painterly look' to the background, I am using larger squares (cut at 3 ¼), made up of strips of colored and dyed fabrics. Individual flowers are machine appliquéd in the foreground for added interest.

Machine piecing, machine quilting and hand reverse appliqué

* This is one of my favourite quilts because of its colours and associations with the Welsh village of Sychdyn where I live. It is the variety of colour within one flower head and from plant to plant which interests and delights me, so it came as no surprise when I was told that the Welsh word for Hydrangea, tri lliw ar ddeg', translates literally as 'three colours on ten'.

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Under the Covers
35" x 36"  1999

I am a member of the The Quilters' Guild of the BI and this quilt was juried into the Guild's 'Under the Covers' exhibition in 1999, held at Lord's Cricket Ground in London. To justify its suitability for selection, I reasoned that the water is 'under the cover' of the trees and the process by which I hand sew the decorative wrought iron over the top, uncovers the picture underneath. The water was created from one fabric which was shaded from light through to dark. I chose to use only the reverse side of the fabric to give a softer effect and to give the impression that the light was reflecting off the surface of the water.
 
Machine piecing, machine quilting and hand reverse appliqué

*When I machine quilted 'Open Gate' I had to stop every time I came up against a wrought iron shape and restart on the other side of it. As a development, I decided to machine quilt this picture first before covering it with the black foreground fabric, marked with the pattern. I reasoned that I could do this because I sew flat on a table surface with my fingers on top and I don't have to pick up my work to sew. It worked and the rest of the gate quilts have been made this way. 

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Sashiko Gate
2004

Japanese Sashiko patterns were the  inspiration behind the wrought iron patterns used to design this gate. The gate provides a decorative screen in front of distant cherry blossom trees and trailing wisteria, created with staggered fabric squares. Textural machine quilting adds interest and detail to the background picture.

Machine piecing, machine texturing and hand reverse appliqué

*I was greatly honoured to receive an invitation from the Japanese Handicraft Instructors Association and Kokusai Art  to make a quilt on the theme of Japanese Imagery in Contemporary Quilts. This quilt will tour for 18 months in Japan, USA and Europe.

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Spring Gate
2002

The fresh greens of new growth and the yellows and purples that represent spring flowers have been used to make this garden.  The strong diagonal line of lager yellow flowers pulls the eye to the centre of the scene and away into the distance.

Machine piecing, machine quilting and hand needle-turn applique.

A limited pallette of eleven fabrics was used in this quilt.  the scale of the prints and the use of both sides of the fabric helped to create perspective.

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Gothic Gate
1997

A picket gate and rose trellis can be seen in the garden beyond the gate, again constructed from squares placed side by side.  Fewer fabrics were used to make the garden and the gate was designed with many Gothic arches which were much easier to sew.

Machine patchwork, hand needle-turn appliuque and machine quilting.

Using fewer fabrics for the garden was a effective as using many fabrics.

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Autumn Gate
38" X 39"  2001

This quilt illustrates well that skies don't necessarily have to be blue! There are wonderful fabrics available to make colourful and atmospheric skies which blend more easily with the adjacent foliage. Apart from the sky, only leafy fabrics were used in this garden which is a favourite quilt of mine because of the colouring.

Machine piecing, machine quilting and hand reverse appliqué

*I habitually use a limited palette of fabric in my garden pictures. A small selection of the right fabrics make the pictures easier to 'paint' and results in fewer unused squares.

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Summer Gate
40" x 42"  2001

The light and bright colours of summer are captured in this garden picture. It is seen through a gate which I designed to show a silhouetted garden, with a tree, flowers and grasses. I bought the batik fabric surrounding the gate because it looked like stonework, and I used it to surround the gate, to make an archway.

Machine piecing, machine quilting and hand reverse appliqué

*I'm sometimes asked if I mistakenly cut through my background fabrics when I am needle-turning. The answer is 'yes' and, to cover the problem,  I usually sew a spider over the cut and place it in a web!

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Hoffman gate
40" X 30"  1999

The Hoffman challenge fabric created the top quarter of the background picture.  Instead of working with vertically staggered lines of squares, these squares were staggered in horizontal lines to give a flat horizon and a straight wall.

Machine piecing, hand reverse appliqué and machine quilting

*This quilt was awarded an Honourable Mention in the challenge and travelled from exhibition to exhibition  for 18 months. It returned to me eventually like a homing pigeon!

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