“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.

“Mascara”

“Mascara”
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025
9"x9"

 

This is my daughter Julia’s eye. I created this piece for a segment on Quilting Arts TV several years ago, and just quilted it today. White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, cotton batting, interfacing, cotton thread. Wholecloth painted, free-motion machine quilted. 

“Scissors at the Disco”

“Scissors at the Disco”
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025
14.5" x 8.25"

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

“American Robin”

“American Robin”
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025
23.5" x 33.5"

I have loved robins since I was a child, and have made several pieces featuring them and their nests. The background fabric for this piece is one I made in a class with Pat Pauly – screen printing with thickened dyes. 

Hand-dyed cotton fabric and commercially printed fabric, glue, paint, ink, cotton thread, fusible adhesive, interfacing, cotton batting. 3-D elements made from cotton thread on water-soluble stabilizer.

Fusible and raw-edge appliqué, free-motion quilted.

“Little Christmas Fern"

“Little Christmas Fern”
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025
7.5 x 17.5"

Started as a demonstration piece for my “Stencil Magic” class, this piece is painted, stenciled, and free-motion machine quilted.

White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, cotton thread, cotton batting, cotton backing.  

“Zinnias On Parade” and “In the Pink”

“Zinnias On Parade”
Copyright 2025 by Susan Brubaker Knapp
14" x 24"

 

“In the Pink”
Copyright 2025 by Susan Brubaker Knapp
11.5" square

I made “Zinnias On Parade” for a class sample, and made the simpler, smaller “In the Pink” to demonstrate the techniques to students. Something bright and breezy in these troubled times. 

Cotton fabric, cotton batting, interfacing, cotton thread, cotton backing fabric. Raw-edge applique, free-motion quilted.

“Varigated Poinsettia”

 

“Varigated Poinsettia” © Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025. 17 x 23” White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, cotton batting, interfacing, cotton backing fabric. Wholecloth painted, free-motion quilted.

This one is based on a photo I took at a nursery at the Ivy Corner Garden Center, near Charlottesville, Virginia, in December. They had the most spectacular poinsettias. I’ve never been particularly fond of poinsettias, but they had some varigated varieties that were really amazing. 

 

Old Baldy #2

Old Baldy #2
12.5 x 21"

 

This piece is based on a photo I took many summers ago on a family vacation to Bald Head Island. 

The brick structure is called “the oil house.”Here is information about it from the Old Baldy Foundation’s website:

“The federal government built the oil house to store kerosene when lighthouse fuel changed from the noncombustible whale oil to the highly explosive kerosene. The exact date of when this structure was built is unknown. Our educated guess is that it was built after 1879, as at that time, funds were allocated to the United States Lighthouse Service to build oil houses. When Old Baldy was deactivated in 1935, the Coast Guard repurposed this structure as a radio house in WWII. This was the last time this structure has an official use, except when they were repurposed in the 1970s as a restroom for lighthouse visitors.”

The lighthouse, built in 1817, is nicknamed “Old Baldy.” It has 108 stairs, and the base is 36 feet wide. The top is 14 feet wide. It is constructed of brick and painted with plaster on the exterior; maintenance over the years has given it a patchy look. The “lantern room,” the structure at the very top that once held the light, is offset from the center of the tower.

 

Fuchsia

My first piece of 2025. I threw myself into this one last week to help deal with my distress over the state of my country. Painting is always an escape for me, and the heavy quilting on the gray siding behind the flowers was very repetitive and meditative. This piece is based on a photo I took several years ago, while teaching in the Pacific Northwest.

“Fuchsia” (© Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025) 16.25 x 21". White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, interfacing, cotton batting, cotton thread. Wholecloth painted, free-motion machine quilted. 

Have questions? There's lots of info on my technique and materials here:
https://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/2014/01/faqs-wholecloth-painting.html