I am a fiber artist, quilt pattern designer, and teacher. Quilting started as my hobby, but has turned into a passion and a business. I teach classes at quilt guilds, at quilt festivals – and occasionally online — and have published patterns and books for my original quilt designs.I love traditional hand quilting and needleturn appliqué, but have embraced innovative machine techniques. I started making “art quilts” — works of art executed in fabrics and fibers — in 2005. My quilts have won national as well as local awards, and have been exhibited at national and international venues. I have won seven Best of Show awards at three different quilting guilds, with six different quilts.
My work has been featured in several national magazines, and in the 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 Quilting Arts Calendars and the 2012 Quilt Art Engagement Calendar. I am the author of two books – Point, Click, Quilt! Turn Your Photos into Fabulous Fabric Art (C&T Publishing, 2011), and Applique Petal Party (C&T Publishing, 2009).
I have also produced three DVDs with Quilting Arts: “Master Machine Quilting: Free-Motion Stitching and Thread Sketching” (2009), “Master Machine Stitching: Thread Sketching Beyond the Basics” (2010), and “Dynamic Quilt Design: Paint Meets Stitch.” My series of six lessons on thread sketching ran in Quilting Arts magazine throughout 2010, and I appear in seasons 900, 700 and 500 of Quilting Arts TV. In 2011, I was featured in episode 901 of “The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims.” And I’ve been interviewed by Mark Lipinski and Pat Sloan on their radio shows.
Through Black Cat Graphics, my graphic design and communications business, I have been designing logos, corporate identity systems, newsletters, magazines, annual reports and brochures since 1989. I am an experienced writer, and have worked in corporate communications and also as a page designer for The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) and The Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.).
I grew up in Mt. Lebanon, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh, and earned my B.A. in English at Allegheny College (Meadville, Pa.) and my M.A. in journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I now live near Charlotte, N.C., with my husband, Rob, and two daughters.
Artist’s statement
Creating fiber art is my consuming passion. I am an artist who works in fabric and thread. I find great joy in creating works that draw people closer and invite them to savor color, texture and form. The art I create is my way of celebrating and documenting the deep mysteries of the world that are to be experienced only by close inspection of the miraculous details of nature.
While my core materials — cloth and thread — are those used in traditional quilting, I often employ substances such as fabric paints and dyes, Tyvek, Angelina fibers, and water-soluble wax pastels, to transform the cloth. Nearly all of my work is realistic in style, and starts with original photographs of the subjects. I use two primary techniques – wholecloth painting, and fused applique – then heavily free-motion thread sketch the surface before quilting.
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To see my art quilts and my quilt patterns, please visit www.bluemoonriver.com
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