Label
"My quilting career began in 2004 and I really started quilting by accident. I had a blank wall in my stairwell that needed something to brighten it up; perhaps a large-print fabric. Nothing caught my eye but I did stumble on a book of simple quilts - “Just Can’t Cut It” by Pamela Mostek. I figured, 'how hard could this be?' I knew absolutely nothing about quilting but I altered the original 3’ x 3’ size into 4’ x 8’ and proceeded to make a visually-striking but very poorly-constructed quilt. By the time it was done, I was hooked. My next quilt was an original design using paper-pieced blocks that I drafted on graph paper. Shortly after that, I discovered two things that literally changed my life - my local quilt guild and “Simply Quilts” with Alex Anderson, both of which introduced me to the larger quilting world. I began taking classes and attending shows and continued making my original designs. The National Quilt Museum’s New Quilts from an Old Favorite contest - Sawtooth was the first competition I entered. I have been making quilts for competition ever since along with wedding quilts for my children and charity quilts for my guild.
'Dans les Bains de Maroc' was my third miniature quilt. It was started and completed in 2013.
The top of the quilt is composed of hand-dyed Robert Kaufman Radiance fabric (most purchased but some dyed by me) which was fused to a foundation of Ricky Tims’ Stable Stuff. The backing is commercial batik. All of the thread used is 100-wt. silk and the batting is wool.
The quilt was actually inspired by the Moroccan patterns in my bathroom wallpaper. Many of my quilts are inspired by older artistic styles and motifs - Art Nouveau, medieval, historic ethnic prints. I often begin by designing what I call the underlying architecture of the quilt (e.g. decorative lines and borders) and then add details that thematically express the style I wish to convey.
All of the detailed appliqué elements were fused to the background and stitched down with tiny blanket stitches on my Bernina. The quilting was all done on that same machine.
I love playing with color and various ways of using value and contrast. In this quilt, I was aiming for something that seemed to glow from the center and that dictated my choices of the varying gold and blue fabrics.
Ever since my first visit to the National Quilt Museum, I have been fascinated with the miniature quilt collection. Four years ago, I was inspired by one of my larger quilts to experiment with the same Art Nouveau themes but on a miniature scale. I was surprised by how much fun it was!
Careful cutting of the appliqué shapes with a very sharp, small scissors, good tweezers for picking up the pieces and using a magnifier on my Bernina (otherwise, I couldn’t see where to put my tiny stitches) were the keys to success. I have developed some unique construction methods that allow me to mark the entire quilt for quilting before any of the appliqué goes on and aid in producing narrow bindings.
I don’t think that making minis is appreciably harder than making larger quilts, although there are unique challenges, and I like that I can experiment with original designs without committing a lot of dollars or fabric. They are time-consuming for me because everything goes much more slowly when the pieces are small and unfortunately, minis don’t use up much of my scrap collection. I wish that miniature quilts received more respect and that more people would attempt them."