Froggie is hopping off to a new home

Red-Eyed Tree Frog
11-3/4" x 9-1/4"
by Susan Brubaker Knapp

This is one of my very first thread-sketched art quilts. I made it in 2006, using a method of capturing cut pieces of fabric under tulle that I learned from Bonnie McCafferey in her Portrait Quilts: Painted Faces You Can Do book. Now, it is hopping off to a new home! 

A few weeks ago, I got a message from my friend Kelly Jackson. She told me that she had asked her husband to buy her this piece for Christmas. Apparently he didn’t get the hint right away. She was in the jewelers having her wedding ring cleaned, and her husband told her to take a look around and asked if there was anything she’d like for Christmas. “I said, ‘I don’t see any Red-Eyed Tree Frogs,’” Kelly wrote. “He cracked up laughing.”

Then she kept checking on my website to see if the piece had sold (to her husband). It hadn’t. So she wrote to tell me that she was putting a check in the mail. “I’m having the Red-Eyed Tree Frog one way or another before someone else buys it,” she said. “I love frogs and I so admire your work that it will be wonderful to have it here to enjoy every day. I guess you can now brag that your work is more precious than diamonds and gold. :)”

What a fun story. And how flattering that she wanted my art – and something handmade – more than a piece of jewelry! I am totally thrilled. It is an amazing feeling to know that your work is going to someone who will love and appreciate it. Thanks, Kelly!

Red-Eyed Tree Frog (detail)
by Susan Brubaker Knapp

The shot above shows some of the thread detail on the frog’s chest. I know this is totally against the rules of the Quilt Police (and quilt show judges), but I often adjust the tension on my machine so that some of the little flecks of bobbin thread come up to the top. It adds really cool spots of color, and texture.