Contemporary Quilts

Led by my grandmothers, I started sewing as a young girl. One grandmother - a seamstress - taught me hand embroidery. My other grandmother - a quilter - taught me to be unafraid of bold choices. Although both women were very traditional, they had imaginative ideas of color and an irreverent sense of whimsy. These two women instilled in me a love of fabric design, and making functional art that enriches our daily lives.

Between the ages of fifteen and thirty I made four quilts as gifts for family and friends. They were very traditional quilts, never straying far from variations on the nine-patches I had been taught by my grandmother. Looking back these quilts were testaments of what my grandmothers meant to me, more than any expression or vision of myself as an artist.

I went to Smith College, studied theater, and later became a professional set designer. In 1998 I was commissioned to design a touring set for a one-woman show. My husband and I designed three drops that used fabric collages to create the interior of an apartment, a clearing in the woods, and a set of ornate doors. As I created this set I rediscovered myself as a quilter. While I had always appreciated the beauty of geometric quilt designs; I was enthralled with he idea of fashioning fabric images, pictures and even murals into my quilts.

Combining my background in quilting with this idea of fabric collage, transformed my concept of what a quilt could be. I became a woman possessed. I read books, studied technique, fell in love with appliqué, went to shows, and began to make three or four quilts a year. I began to experiment with traditional piecing intertwining with appliquéd images. I became fascinated with the added layer of design that is achieved by the quilting. I loved the way my machine began to feel like a pencil in my hands as I broke out of the box of “quilting in the ditch” and began to create intricate patterns.