• Setting

Most histories begin with maps and settings to set the stage...




__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________






This closet is never neat but it is handy. For storage containers and for as many tools as possible, I reuse household items. I aspire to be as resourceful as a Depression Era housewife and would rather spend pin money on fabric, thread, and little tools called "notions".

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________





Best machine ever.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




Best behind-the-sewing-machine tool box ever.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________





Best sewing basket ever.




Behold the full splendor of the multi-level sewing basket.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Quilt Chronology

1999, Sampler.

Until 1999, the only quilts I saw were at Pottery Barn or on the walls of Restaurant Nora in Washington, DC's Dupont Circle neighborhood.

Madeline Shepperson taught me how to make this sampler in a hand-quilting class for beginners. Her store, Quilt N Stuff, was in Alexandria, Virginia, a few blocks away from my office. When I did exercise walks during my lunch hour, I often passed by the store but wouldn't let myself go in for months. Too many interests already consumed my free time. 

I wonder how I was able to predict I would enjoy quilting. It is time-consuming and seemingly impractical, in the 21st century, to cut up fabric and sew it back together. People sometimes say, "How do you find the patience?"

When I'm doing any stage or aspect of quilting, I am so absorbed that I don't want to stop. I love learning about different kinds of thread, I love staring at hexagon shapes and thinking about how shapes can be organized into an endless variety of patterns. Similarly, during the act of writing, words can be combined and recombined into an endless variety of sentences. 

My immersion into quilting and writing is a tidal wave, a spiritual practice, and a mystery to me.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• "Washingtonia" Quilt, 2000

In February 2000, I served as a juror on a murder trial near a downtown block in DC that had been demolished, except for its facade. It looked so strange that I couldn't take my eyes off it because I could not process it visually. If I looked away, even after looking at it for a while, my memory couldn't reconstruct it, so I'd look back and stare more. Finally I photographed it and appliqued the images onto historic fabrics from the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum, which was a few blocks away and a sociological world away.

I'm not happy with the aesthetic result of this, but the process enabled me to reconstruct what I could not absorb in real life. My homemade printing method involved much trial and error, if you'll forgive the pun.

A few weeks after the murder trial began, our jury found the young man guilty of manslaughter. Although I knew he had done violent acts from the testimony and the evidence, his eyes betrayed nothing more than benign confusion. He grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in DC, hanging out all day in an environment without anyone to point him and his friends toward absorbing, constructive activities. His victim never had a chance, and neither did he.

Image on fabric, prepped for ink jet printer--I think I used Bubble Jet Set but it's so long ago I can't remember.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• September 2000 issue of Mademoiselle magazine

This photo appeared in an article called "Are You A New Lady?" about Gentries (Girls Embracing Nostalgic Traditions Radically). The off-putting term "Gentries" never took off, but the trend toward domesticity, DIY, and arts and crafts has. 

I was pregnant with my daughter at the time so I particularly love this. Unfortunately, I have no idea where that quilt is now. I give away almost all my quilts, but I know I wouldn't have given away that one, and I declutter often enough that I would have found it if it was still around the house. 


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• PROJECT LINUS

I've been making quilts for Project Linus since 2005 (www.projectlinus.org).


 

Please click here for information about this great charity, and to see more of my Project Linus quilts.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Quilts for Family
  

2001:  My Daughter's "Welcome to the World" Quilt.








This quilt is still on the wall in my daughter's room. Whenever I look at this I think about how much fun I had doing the embroidery. There is a type of embroidery called "redwork" or "bluework" due to the use of red or blue embroidery floss. If you're interested in seeing this technique's striking contrasts, it's worth a Google Image search on "redwork" and then on "bluework" so you can get a sense of consistency and variety within that medium.

This is a needlepoint pillow from 2005. I think the flowers are begonias:






This "Chinese coin" quilt is on my daughter's bed. It has a purple side:




__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10th Anniversary Quilt, 2007
 



A Spring 2007 celebration of Jeremy’s and my 10th anniversary (June 7, 1997). My daughter helped me make it for him, and there are a few tin buttons sewn on (you can see them in the second image) because tin is the traditional gift for 10th anniversaries.



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


2007:  My nephew's "Welcome to the World" quilt




This pattern is Atkinson Design's "Yellow Brick Road."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


2008:  These twin "Welcome to the World" quilts are for my niece and nephew. Some patches are leftovers from their big brother's 2007 quilt











I love these two fabrics--this is the back of the quilt I made for my niece. I hope she will host a tea party on it.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Paper-piecing

 

This fish is from a paper-piecing class I took at Capital Quilts in Gaithersburg, MD  http://www.capitalquilts.com/.




Paper-piecing involves sewing fabric to paper that has been marked with lines. It's an easy way to make patchwork crisper and more precise.
Someday I would like to take more classes and experiment more with techniques like paper-piecing.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Patchwork for Clean Water 

Patchwork illustrates the importance of reusing and preserving precious resources. In February 2009 I entered an art contest sponsored by the Tap Project, which advocates water conservation. The beads in this sewn collage represent water's ripples, droplets, and shine.


Return to Top of Page