Creative Life Sampler

Beauty in Mishap Usually, I try to finish up projects to start the new year with a fresh slate, but I have several things in the works right now. I find myself in the position of working against a self-imposed deadline! (That can be a joy drain for sure.) And while these "works in progress" (WIPs) get juggled with end of the year activities and holiday celebrations, one of the things put on the back burner is keeping up-to-date with social media. So, I'm putting a pause on all this activity, as the clock ticks off the last hours of 2025, to present my final finish of 2025: Beauty in Mishap . This continues my improvisation with random scraps to create what I hope are interesting compositions. Lately, I'm really enjoying the theme of "contrast." Juxtaposing thin lines and large shapes, or open spaces with more populated areas of random forms and connecting lines, opens up opportunities to enhance the surface with quilting that reinforces the design.   The bo...

  Lord's Snowfall, 2018 Season's Greetings!!! I'm indulging in a flashback Friday for a visual to accompany my very best wishes for happy, healthy holidays to one and all.  It's always productive to look back at your work, to appreciate what you've done and acknowledge how far you've come. It brings perspective. Lord's snowfall was finished in 2018, appliqu é d by hand and hand quilted. It was one of the first times I "went off script" without a pattern and it took over 2 years to execute. Not only has my work evolved significantly in the last 7 years, but I've gotten much faster at handwork. It kinda boggles my mind. This was an improv quilt; there was no plan starting out. Each snow crystal is unique. They were cut out and centered on varying sized blocks using a variation of the Hawaiian appliqu é  technique. As the blocks began to accumulate, conscious choices were made so the background would be a gradual transformation from blue to white ...

Q=A=Q 2025 at Schweinfurth Art Center, Albany NY We arrived a bit later than planned for the opening night of the Q=A=Q exhibit at the Schweinfurth Art Center on October 25. It was a rainy evening; the cloak room was filled. People were milling about taking in the show, reconnecting with friends, enjoying refreshments.  Opening Night 10-25-2025 This is always a special event, showcasing a wide range of unique voices from the quilting world in a wonderful setting. The staff at SAC handle the art work with great care and professionalism. The staging is thoughtfully and tastefully presented. This year's j urors,  Petra Fallaux and Paula Kovarik , chose 70 art quilts from pieces submitted by 330 artists who could submitted no more than two pieces for consideration. Curating a show is a major feat and their choices spotlight quilts from across the country as well as Australia, Canada, Germany, Norway, and  South Korea.   When you enter the space, you are aware ...

Midnight & Noon- sides "A" & "B" The two sides of this quilt could stand separately, but I think they are stronger together. The navy background top, (side "A"), was finished first. Since it has a vertical, portrait, orientation, I deliberately approached the composition of the second top with a different vision. For side "B," I chose to do the reverse, making the shapes dark with a light background and a horizontal orientation. When the two sides were complete they evoked very different feelings.  The forms on side "A" take on a sculptural quality. This side brings to mind walking down the street on a cool night and seeing a streetlight up ahead which spotlights an object. Within that cone of light the form is illuminated but the environment around it falls away into the darkness. We instinctively know that there's more there than we can see.  In contrast, side "B" looks more like a landscape with structures. Its ...

Midnight and Noon, 2025, side "A" The focus of my work lately has been on creating more dynamic compositions. Of course, this is rather a broad, open ended challenge. It might be easier if I were drawing from reality, we are so familiar with arranging images these days. But, I have chosen to strip out the details of known objects and work with shapes. Even narrowing down what will be in the composition, the question still stands; "Where do you get the shapes?" "What is the starting point?"  I use the scraps from earlier projects to construct shapes for two reasons. First, I enjoy the challenge of creating new forms that I haven't seen before but that still reference their origins, the work that came before. Second, using every bit of fabric is a quilting tradition. It is mindful of resources, minimizes waste, and honors the history of this art form. Midnight and Noon is a double sided quilt, hand appliquéd and hand quilted. I designed the cream on na...

  Balance of Light & Dark In this composition the image area has been roughly divided in half vertically. The dark contours on the right have been repeated in the light color and reoriented on the left, creating a tension between light and dark shapes. The quilting for this piece, continues my experimentation with textures to enhance the project’s design. Gentle arches and a subtle, directional flow in the background quilting provides some motion across the surface. For a contrast, the traditional treatment of echo quilting the shapes gives them a more solid, steady feeling, even as they are stacked and precariously rest on thin lines. So, we have a balance between light and dark, solid shapes and graceful line, movement and stability. Here is a detail of the quilting from the opposite side: Seeing the seed and running stitches in multiple colors against the solid fabric from the backside gives food for thought on possibilities for future projects.  Stay tuned to see mor...