“Prayer”

 

“Prayer” 14x11" (Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp, 2026)

White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, cotton thread, cotton batting, interfacing. Painted, stenciled, free-motion machine quilted. 

Made in early 2026, during our government’s attack by ICE on Minneapolis, the kidnappings and killings.  

“Spring Fever”

 

“Spring Fever” Copyright 2026 by Susan Brubaker Knapp. 17x22" Cotton fabric, cotton thread, cotton batting, interfacing, glue. Raw-edge appliqué, free-motion quilted. The times are dark, the news is awful. I am trying to hold on to hope.

Plight of the Swifts

Plight of the Swifts
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2026
51" square

 

Materials: Cotton, silk and linen fabric, fusible interfacing, fusible web, wool batting, cotton backing. Hand embroidered, free-motion quilted. 

I’ve been working on this piece for months, and it is one of the most labor-intensive pieces I've ever made. I started by ironing pieces of fabric from my scrap basket onto a light-weight fusible interfacing, and then machine stitching them down. Then I cut out hundreds of birds from different black fabrics backed with fusible web, and lots of circles and dots, and ironed them down and machine stitched each one to the background. Then I spent more than a month, hundreds of hours, hand embroidering the background with perle cotton. 

Then I free-motion machine stitched the background, going around the birds and circles, and around each stitch of hand embroidery. This quilt is larger and heavier than most of my work because of all the different fabrics and the embroidery, and I was very thankful to have my BERNINA Q16 with its extended table to support the weight and bulk while I quilted.  

When observing the natural world, I often wonder if earth would have been better off without humans. After America destroyed much of its old growth forests, Swifts started roosting in chimneys. Now, many chimneys have narrow flues and caps, and Chimney Swifts (Chaetura pelagica) have lost even more of their homes. Populations have declined by 50% in the last 50 years. 

These birds spend almost all of their lives airborne. When they land, these graceful smudge-gray birds are unable to perch; they cling to the vertical walls inside hollow trees, caves and chimneys. During migration, thousands of swifts roost together. I’ve been lucky enough to witness them flying at dusk, then funneling like a tornado into the hollow trunk of the historic Davie Poplar on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Migration is a process common in the natural world, affecting many animal species, including homo sapiens – human beings. Like the swifts, human beings go where the conditions are better for them to live, make homes, and raise their young. 

While making this piece, I thought a lot about the political turmoil over human migration that has been so divisive in the world, and in the United States' politics, for decades. Even more so this year, with the Trump administration’s cruel policies of arrest, detention and deportation that have brought such anguish, pain and destruction to our country. 

On Feb. 2, 2025, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sought to terminate Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation, but was temporarily halted by a judge's orders. On Dec. 1, 2025, Noem posted: “I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom—not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS. WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.”

Such unbelievable anger, hatred, and misunderstanding. 

Migration is an-old process. How is it that we have learned so little about how to accommodate it – how to welcome and celebrate it – how to make it work for all of us so that we can to live together in harmony? It is a tragedy… for the Swifts, and for humans. 

 

 

“Midnight in the Garden”

 

“Midnight in the Garden”
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025
56" x 48"

The decision to bear children was, for me, partly a decision that humanity was worth continuing. These days, I’m not so sure. As a mother, I yearn for my children – all children – to live in a world of beauty and peace (represented by the flowers at the bottom). But our world is filled with horrors, too. Wars and genocide; government corruption; the influence of neo-Nazis and white supremacists; degradation of civil rights, human rights, women’s rights and voting rights; school shootings; poisoning of our water, air and land; and environmental catastrophes brought on by man-made climate change. What will we choose for our children and their descendants as the clock strikes midnight?

White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint. Wholecloth painted with collaged painted elements, free-motion machine quilted.

“I Told You So”

 

 “I Told You So.” 
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025
11” x 15.5” 

 

This one just applies to so many situations! Another piece in my “Short and Sweet” series. 

White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, cotton thread, cotton batting. Wholecloth painted, stenciled, free motion machine quilted.

“Swimming at the Pink Pony Club"

 

“Swimming at the Pink Pony Club” 
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025
11.5” x 11.5” 

White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, cotton thread, cotton batting, interfacing. Wholecloth painted, free-motion machine quilted.

 

“Sugar Junkie”

 

"Sugar Junkie" 
(Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025) 
15" x 10.75"

That’s me. I’m a sugar junkie.

This is another piece in the series I’m doing called “Short and Sweet” – short phrases on my painted/stenciled fabric backgrounds. They are so fun! 

Have a phrase you’d like? I do commissions!

White cotton fabric, acrylic paint, cotton thread, interfacing, cotton batting. Wholecloth painted, stenciled, free-motion machine quilted.

“Nobody’s Free”

“Nobody’s Free” (copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025) 18” x 11”

I love this quote by Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977), American voting and women’s rights activist, community organizer, and leader of the civil rights movement. We are all interconnected and bound to each other by our humanity, and until we can achieve justice and freedom for everyone, none of us are truly free in the “land of the free and home of the brave.”

White fabric, acrylic paint, cotton batting, interfacing. Wholecloth painted, stenciled, free-motion machine quilted. 

 

Sugar Maple series

 

“Sugar Maple 2”
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025
10.5” x 14.25”

I'm working on a series of pieces featuring sugar maple leaves, using the same techique – I paint white fabric, stencil it, paint around the imagery, then free-motion quilt.  

White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, cotton thread, cotton batting. Wholecloth painted, stenciled, free motion machine quilted.

“Sugar Maple 1”
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025
10.5” x 14.25”

“Our House”

 

 

“Our House”
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025
17” x 25”

White fabric, acrylic textile paint, interfacing, cotton batting, cotton backing. Painted, stenciled, free-motion machine quilted. 

These words are from the song “Our House” on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s 1970 album, Déjà Vu.

… I'll light the fire
You place the flowers in the vase
That you bought today

 

… Staring at the fire
For hours and hours while I listen to you
Play your love songs all night long for me
Only for me

 

… Come to me now (come to me now)
And rest your head for just five minutes
Everything is done
Such a cozy room (such a cozy room)
The windows are illuminated
By the evening sunshine through them
Fiery gems for you, only for you

 

… Our house is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy 'cause of you
And our

 

… La-la, la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la, la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la

 

… Our house is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy 'cause of you 
And our

 

… I'll light the fire
While you place the flowers in the vase
That you bought today

“Kintsugi”

“Kintsugi”
(Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025) 21" x 16.25”

Just finished this piece, “Kintsugi,” last night. 

Kintsugi (金継ぎ), or kintsukuroi (金繕い), is a Japanese method of repairing cracks or broken pieces of pottery. After the repair, the crack is lacquered, then dusted with powdered gold, silver or platinum. The idea is that the imperfections can also be beautiful, and that cracks are not flaws. 

I pieced “Kintsugi” with cotton fabrics — dyed, painted, marbled and stenciled — and then used cotton thread, perle cotton, sequins, and beads to embellish it. Free-motion machine quilted, hand embroidered. 

 The fabrics in those three appliquéd circles are by Melissa DeLisio. She's on Instagram @lostmymarblesfabric. 

 

“Kintsugi” (detail)

“Kintsugi” (detail)

  

“Kintsugi” (detail)

 

“Kintsugi” (detail)

 

Moon Moths

“Moon Moths” – 41x56"
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2023

I realized today that I had not posted about this piece, “Moon Moths,” which I made in 2023!

My fascination with moths and butterflies has spanned decades, and I have been making art about them since I started making art quilts around 2005. (The first was “Gossamer,” which I made in 2006. It featured a woman’s body on a Blue Morpho butterfly, soaring through a spiral of thread and hundreds of glass beads.)

“Moon Moths” features four spectacular moths: Luna (green moth at the top, Io moth on the right, Madagascan moon moth on the bottom, and Emperor moth on the left). They encircle the moon and the moon phases. It is a wholecloth painted piece. 

It was purchased before I could exhibit it, and perhaps that is why I forgot to post about it!

 

Shooting "Quilting Arts TV" Series 3200

I’m just back from Denver, where we shot the latest series of “Quilting Arts TV.” I shot three segments for this series, which will come out this fall.  

I have been the host of Quilting Arts TV since 2014. I was also a guest on the show several times (Series 500 in 2009; Series 700 in 2010; Series 1300 in 2014) while Pokey Bolton, the founding editor of Quilting Arts magazine, was host. 

QATV is shown on more than 400 PBS stations across the U.S., as well as Create TV, and showcases the work of expert art quilters who explain and teach innovative surface design, construction, embellishment, and hand and machine stitching techniques. Novice and professional art quilters alike can learn something new from the wide variety of topics explored on the show.

To see the show on your television: Visit your local Public Television station’s website to see if the show is available in your area. Or watch on Create TV, if you get it.

 

To purchase downloads to individual series, or to get access to all seasons: Video Downloads or Stream All Episodes on QuiltingDaily.com.

We have some fabulous guests in Series 3200!

Quilting Arts magazine’s Contributing Editor Brandy Maslowski shot two segments. She’s the host of the popular “Quilter on Fire” podcast (she was a firefighter previously). You can listen here: https://quilteronfire.com/podcast/

 

 

Our other guests in Series 3200 are: 

David Owen Hastings

 

David M. Taylor

Diana Fox

Kestrel Michaud

Mel Beach

Pat Bishop

Sarah Spencer

Sondrasa

Several artists who shot last year have segments in Series 3200 as well (this is the series where I caught Covid just before the shoot, so Brandy and Vivika Hansen DeNegre stepped up as co-hosts):

Vivika with Kimberley Pierce Cartwright

Brandy with Shannon Conley

 

 

Brandy with Kimberley Vicki Conley

Cindy Lohbeck with Vivika Hansen DeNegre

 

 

There’s more information about QATV on my website here: https://susanbrubakerknapp.com/quilting-arts-tv

“Beach Access”

“Beach Access” (Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025) 11” x 9” 

 

Cotton fabric, interfacing, cotton batting, cotton thread, ink, acrylic textile paint. Fusible appliqué, free-motion thread sketched and quilted. 

“Red Rocks”

 

“Red Rocks” (Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025). 

Cotton fabric, cotton thread, cotton batting, interfacing, ink. Fusible appliqué, free motion machine quilted.

Asilomar Sunset

 

“Asilomar Sunset” (Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025) 

Cotton fabric, fusible adhesive, ink, cotton batting, interfacing, cotton thread. Fusible appliqué, free-motion machine quilted.

“Blue Mountain Lake, 1968”

 

“Blue Mountain Lake, 1968” (Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025) 11” x 9” 

Cotton fabric, interfacing, cotton batting, cotton thread, ink, acrylic textile paint. Fusible appliqué, free-motion thread sketched and quilted.

“‘Marsh View”

Marsh View
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025
11" x 9.5"

 

This piece is based on a photo I took last summer from one of my favorite vantage points to view the marsh on Bald Head Island. It’s the dock at the Creek Access on North Bald Head Wynd, just east of Old Baldy lighthouse. 

I love this view best in summertime, because the blues and greens really make my soul sing. It’s also very peaceful. Last winter, when there was no one around, we saw a river otter there.

I’m doing a series of small landscapes right now, in preparation for shooting a segment for Quilting Arts TV in a few months.

“Common Buckeye”

 

“Common Buckeye”
16" x 12.75"
© Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025

I took the photo on which this piece was based at a local garden center last summer. 

White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, interfacing, cotton batting, cotton thread, cotton backing. Wholecloth painted, free-motion machine quilted.