Beneath The Tides      Sold

68” x 90”

Made with hand-dyed cotton; commercial sheer over-panel; Cotton flannel; polyester crushed velvet, assorted fabrics of unknown fiber; silk, cotton, rayon, polyester and monofilament threads; assorted yarns, ribbons and cords of various fibers; beads; glass and ceramic fish ; lace; metal wire 

After a trip to Monterrey Ca., I was inspired to attempt to recreate the quiet magnificence of the underwater world.  Most of the animals and creatures found in this quilt were an adventure in working with new fabrics and sewing/quilting skills.  I tried to develop each plant/animal as closely to nature as possible as well as three dimensional.  I had to make it large enough to accommodate all my ideas and fabrics and still had plenty of room for more and more fish beads and baubles.  There are approximately 47 living things represented here and I will probably find myself adding more (such as beads and shells) as time goes on.   

Psalm 104:24 - 33
    O LORD, what a variety of things you have made!
       In wisdom you have made them all.
       The earth is full of your creatures.     
    Here is the ocean, vast and wide,
       teeming with life of every kind,
       both great and small.    Every one of these depends on you
       to give them their food as they need it.   When you supply it, they gather it.
       You open your hand to feed them, and they are satisfied.   

When you send your Spirit, new life is born
       to replenish all the living of the earth.     
    May the glory of the LORD last forever!
       The LORD rejoices in all he has made!     
    I will sing to the LORD as long as I live.
       I will praise my God to my last breath!

 I have created this wallhanging 6 times now and have either sold or given away the previous editions.  The wallhanging is constructed of 125 different cotton fabrics, including ones I have hand-dyed myself which include; tulle, spun and unspun mohair yarns, wool and other fiber yarns, semi-precious stones and findings, metallic, rayon and monofilament threads.  Machine Quilted

The inspiration for this wall-hanging came from an Art class I took a few years ago.  The students were asked to produce a self-portrait or personal symbol using their choice of medium.  Being a quilter, of course I chose fabric as my medium.  My personal symbol was a favorite verse from the Bible that I had used as my goal since my college days.  The entire piece was an experiment in using fabric like a collage and the tree was an adventure in multiple stabilizing products available through the quilt shop where I was working as a teacher at the time.  The verse is as follows:

                        Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord

                        Whose confidence is in Him, he will be like a tree

                        Planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream

                        It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.

                        It has no worries in a year of drought and it never fails to bear fruit.

                                                            Jeremiah 17:7,8

             Both  trees symbolize an entire lifetime lived out through the rotation of 5 seasons – winter, spring, summer, fall, rain.  The circle of light symbolizes that most of the days are happy but the storms of life (depression and disappointment) surround the tree as suggested by the  rainy skies.  The root systems symbolize the depth the trees have to dig to root themselves into the water table below– where it’s dark, cold and hard work but necessary in order to grow tall and well-formed.  Both trees have the same challenges in life yet one digs deeper than the other which results in a more developed and mature oak (outer life) with an equally mature root system (inner life).  The water table represents the nourishment that comes from digging into the bedrock and growing roots that feed the entire tree from underneath.  The well-formed branches are raised in praise to the Master Designer.  The outer borders suggest the continuation of the story beyond the edges of the quilt – the future yet unseen. 

Blessed Is The Woman #1    Sold

46” x 47”

Made with my own hand dyed and commercial cottons, tissue lame, tulle, polyester sheer, rayon, metallic and monofilament threads, wool, shells, rayon fringe.  Machine quilted

I used my own hand-marbled fabrics around the edges of the window to simulate a tropical plaster wall.  I wanted the viewer to feel like they were looking out a window, from a balcony out over a tidal flat area at sunrise.   It also includes some of my experimental work with unusual embellishment techniques that I hope help it to appear more realistic and lifelike. 

Every once in awhile I need some more machine quilting practice and decided to put some new machine quilting patterns altogether in one project.  This is actually a classic trapunto quilt, meaning that part of it is "double stuffed" to raise the surface in some areas and "single stuffed" in others.  I designed the the stuffed leaves  from a Victorian iron gate and decided to call them Victorian Leaf Vine.  The name Etude is a musical term to describe a composition written solely to improve technique, often performed for artistic interest.  The term Legato means that the work is to be performed smoothly.  I felt like I was playing the sewing machine as if it were a musical instrument for hours and hours as I stitched away, so I gave it musical name.   I used a cream colored marbled batik  for this and it was very difficult to photograph. 

72" x 72"

Cotton, cotton blends, tissue Lame, metallic polyester, metallic threads,machine pieced and hand quilted

I create this quilt to portray the creation of the universe.  The colors around the outside of the wheel represent the basic elements and gases which make up the substances of our earth and solar system.  These elements begin to spin and blend toward the center of the quilt and the final result is seen in the center “window” on the universe.  The Mariner’s Compass represents a sense of order, balance, and direction.  Each element of creation has its own purpose and function, just waiting to be discovered and appreciated by modern man.  The small pictures in the corners are an aspect of each created form:  the sky, the sea, the land and the vegetation.  The dark border surrounding the quilt represents the nothingness that existed when “the world was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.”  Genesis 1:2The swirling wheel effect was designed with the 9 Degree Circle Wedge Ruler with extensions added to enlarge the center. After struggling with finding gradations of solid colors for the center wheel of this quilt, I decided to learn how to dye my own fabrics for my own work – a whole new learning curve which resulted in the creation of the quilt – Colorwheel.

Cotton, Satin, Tissue Lame, Silk, Rayon Threads, Wool Yarn
Machine Pieced and Quilted 

   For the past few years I have been studying color and experimenting extensively with dyes and pigments.  I decided to incorporate my hand-dyed colorwheel fabrics into one quilt and use it as a backdrop for my dye workshops when I teach fiberart classes.   I found the idea for the central design in a book by Barbara Kaempfer entitled, "Log Cabin With A Twist".  I organized the flow of color around the design in the order of an Artist's Colorwheel.  The border re-emphasizes the order of color as in a rainbow or prism. I also utilized purchased fabrics and scattered them throughout the quilt in order to provide variety in texture as well as an element of surprise as the eye travels.  I chose black as a background because it best displays the brilliance of hand-dyed fabrics in the pure hues.  I chose to machine-quilt the entire piece with variegated rayon thread to re-emphasize the multiple colors and when I discovered the colorful yarn in a local sheep and wool shop I knew I just HAD to work it in somewhere.  I truly had fun experimenting with the lavish color combinations in this project.

This quilt is a memory of winter family trips to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  We spent our honeymoon here and brought our children back again and again for many years.  On one such trip, my husband drove through a blizzard on back roads to the Keepsake Quilt Shop where we purchased the fabrics in this piece.    It is meant to be imaginative and dreamlike as it describes a snow squall at sunset with a prism-like snowflake flying out of the lower right-hand corner representing winter.

84” x 108”
Cotton fabric, cotton and metallic threads
Machine Pieced and Hand Quilted

  After building a new church building in Ontario, New York, we needed some adornment for the front of the sanctuary.  I applied for and received a grant from the Wayne County Council for the Arts Program to complete this work for the church sanctuary.  I reworked a pattern from a Quilter’s Newletter Magazine pattern (March 1977 issue) and organized the colors into the formation of a cross.  Somehow, I stayed within the required timeline and finished the quilt before the end of the year.  This quilt hung for 3 months in the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY and won Third Prize in its category.  It hung in the church sanctuary in Ontario for 13 years after that. 

Flannel border print and floral cutouts on flannel ground, machine pieced, embroidered and quilted

 I originally designed this pattern for Andover Fabrics and their Museum of American Folk Art Fabric Line to be presented at Quilt Market in Houston, TX.  I  used Chintz fabric for the border print and cutouts for the floral arrangement but made another version in flannel in a different colorway to capture the warm appeal of a real Persian Carpet . 

Sold

This quilt is completely Hand Appliquéd.  I used the freezer paper method to turn all the edges under and used bias stems and embroidery for the greenery.  I incorporated free-form floral designs on top of structured quilting lines and experimented with different techniques to render the tiny wildlife of spring – bugs, worms, flies, etc.

  I had the privilege of working in an Artist In Residency Program with 21 fabulous High School students, each with their own creative ideas for the project.  My goal was to help them  accurately interpret  their original vision into fabric.  Here is what the Art Enrichment Group Director, Robyn Burckhardt had to say,  "Our Artist in Residency program has been in place since 1999. The Spring-Ford Area School District provides us with funding to sponsor one artist per year to work with a select group of art students in the production of one final “product” that becomes part of our Permanent Collection. Each of these works was designed by students with the technique of  the artist being shared".  Here is the finished product that 21 students from the Art Enrichment Club worked on individually with their chosen media, then, with my guidance, translated into fabric, thread and many embellishments.  Upon completion it was unveiled at the Spring Ford School Districts'  2006 Art Fair.  Each block is an individual masterpiece!