Quilting From My Heart

Quilting evokes strong emotions within me. I strive to create pieces that are not only beautiful but functional; I see the quilt titles and labels as a bridge from me to the viewer.

When starting a new project, I’ll be drawn to a “focus” fabric first. From there, the search is on for the perfect way to showcase that fabric—it might be a traditional pieced quilt, a whole cloth quilt, maybe a stained glass quilt, or possibly a purse.

I continue to explore ways to turn deep emotions into tangible artworks. Currently I am creating Victorian Gate Closure (extremely unique hardware) purses. The body of the purse is made from a mother’s or grandmother’s wedding gown, and then given to the bride (a daughter, grand daughter or daughter-in-law-to-be) as her “something old” for her wedding day.

In addition, I am working on pieces where I recreate a grandparent’s signature on a baby blanket; a child’s hand print and signature on a wall hanging; taking a mother’s aprons and fashioning them into pillows for each of her children; and fashioning a great-great grandmother’s long forgotten crazy quilt squares into piano runners. The quilt titles usually come quickly to me; the soul searching takes place while composing the label.

By far the most technically challenging are the stained glass quilts. In the future, I would like to learn to do custom fabric dying to recreate fabric colors I see in my mind’s eye!