Nina’s Leopard

One day my daughter Nina mentioned that I had never done a quilt with a leopard on it. I decided to humor her and painted an image of a leopard on a moonlit walk through a dark and mysterious jungle. I realized I was trying to capture a quality I sometimes see in her, which makes it a very special quilt.

whole cloth black fabric painted with Lumiere paints. 36”x 21” 2002

Graven Images

I was inspired to make “Graven Images” while visiting cemeteries in New England, following up on some ancestral research. I found the symbols and images carved into the various stones fascinating in design, symbolism and historical context. Wanting to recreate the look of stone in cloth, I hand dyed fabric in shades of gray using various techniques to emulate stone. I enlarged my photos of the stones and traced the designs using tracing paper. I put my dyed fabric over the line drawings on a light box and traced the designs with pencil. The images were free motion quilted onto fabric and batting sandwiches creating dimensional images as though carving them into the fabric with needle and thread. Colored pencil was added to the recessed areas to create more depth. After the panels were quilted I trimmed them and arranged them filling in any holes with small strips of quilted carved stone details and pieced them together.

The most haunting aspect of making this quilt was that after working on it, on and off for two years quilting the various panels, I spent 3 straight days piecing it together and began putting the binding on it the morning of September 11, 2001. I found this to be so unsettling; I did not feel comfortable showing the quilt for a year.
50” x 79” 2001

This was the first quilt I entered into the IQF show in Houston in 2002, it won Judges Choice and 3rd place Art Quilt Large.

Noggins

I started making a series of heads on 12” square pieces of fabric. The images were machine apliqued onto the background fabric. I used some commercial fabric but mostly hand dyed fabric. The butterfly wings have clear micro beads fused onto the pink areas, and the head in the bottom left has some painted and beaded Tyvek on the edges. Each block was quilted individually and then sewn together with a wide satin stitch that was covered by a fused sashing strip with the edges couched with gold cording.
37” x 37” 2001

Word Quilts

Tea


This quilt was the first in a series of word quilts. The definition from the dictionary of the word tea is written on the center panel. With a teacup drawn on fusible interfacing fused on top of the writing. The tea bag is made from sheer interfacing filled with snippets of fabric. 14” x 12” 2000

Heart


This quilt was the second in the series, this expanded on the idea of language and the different things one word can mean. The definitions of the word heart is in the center of the quilt. The illustrated heart is made from fusible interfacing, colored with Prisma brand colored pencils. Surrounding the central image are all the related idioms such as heart sick, heart throb, and whole hearted. I transferred the type onto the fabric using Citrasolve from toner based laser prints.

Hand dyed fabric and crochet cotton, citrasolve transfers, fusible
interfacing, raw edge appliqué 23”x 21” 2001

All Men Are Created Equal


This was the last in the series. The definitions of woman and man are printed on the quilt. With the related idioms in the rectangles around it. I thought it was interesting to see how much more extensive the definition of man is. I sold this quilt and Tea too quick and do not have good slides only these photos. Make sure you get slides etc. before you sell your work, later you will regret not having it documented. 31” x 29” 2001

The Worms Crawl In...

I wanted to experiment with dimension on this quilt, and see what would happen if things broke the surface and went through the quilt. There are wholes in the quilt that the worms crawl through, you can see this clearly on the back of the quilt.


There are also a few shapes that are stuffed with several layers of batting. My good friend and surface designer Kathy McTee from Austin referred to one of these shapes as a cosmic steak. My worms really resemble nematodes, but that would not have made as nice a name.

26 1/2”x 28” 2000

Green Tea & Plum Wine

I made this quilt so that I could have a good surface to experiment with machine quilting. To avoid putting a binding on it I satin stitched the outside with thread. I like the look, but it took a long time to sew and a lot of thread. 32”x 34” 1999

Recycled Nine Patch

I had read about annealing metal and wanted to try it. I cut up several coke cans and held the metal over a candle flame outside (bad fumes). The aluminum became smoky and gold. When you heat metal evidently it goes through a molecular change and it becomes softer. So I took an old ballpoint pen that no longer wrote and drew on the metal. I poked holes down the sides so I could sew it. Using wire and beads I wove the metal squares with the quilted squares that I had sewn jump rings onto. 11” x 11” 1999

Wheel of Time

When I made this quilt, I wrote this prayer to go with it.

Mother Earth, Queen of Heaven,
we celebrate with your many names.

Within the earth that is your body,
the waters of your living womb,
the air that is your sacred breath,
and the fire that is your radiant spirit
life is born, grows, dies and is reborn.

Instill in us an awareness of
the cycles and rhythms of nature.
As seeds sprout in the spring,
so should the inspiration of new ideas.
From summers fiery heat we shall
harness positive energy and
celebrate the abundance around us.
When the days grow short in the fall
we will listen to the wise intuitive inner voice
and honor our feelings.
During winters cold days and long nights
we will acknowledge our bodies wisdom
and the healing power of dreams.
The moons celestial light and sacred dark
keep us in balance as our bodies cycle in harmony.

We will dance around the tree of life
listening to your leaves whisper words of wisdom,
and celebrate your abundant beauty.

this quilt is machine appliqued, hand dyed, hand painted, and machine quilted. 59" x 59" 1999
This quilt was used as the theme of a March of Dimes benefit in Austin, TX called A Stitch in Time, as the featured art is was auctioned off and half the proceeds went to the March of Dimes. I am very happy that it is in the collection of my good friend Frances Holliday Alford.

Joan of Arc

I think Joan of Arc was an interesting figure in history; courageous, spiritual, devout, used for political gain and wrongly condemned. Joan and the angels are painted with textile paints and colored pencil. All of the cloth is either painted or hand dyed, It is machine appliquéd, pieced and quilted.
42” x 49” 1999

The Create-her

Prior to the introduction of Judeo-Christian mythology in Europe, the early
agricultural peoples worshipped a god in female form. The creation myth of this early culture describes a Mother Goddess who creates a serpent to be Her mate, and tells the story of how they created the universe together. The four elements of creation are represented by the earth, water, air and fire around Her. Within Her womb the creation of the universe takes place

Appliquéd, and pieced hand painted quilt
40”x76” 1998