Working Larger, Stitching More (1 of 3)

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 navy side first with the challenge to contrast the silhouettes with wide open negative spaces. The second side is the opposite, shapes are dark and the background is light. Here, I focused on balancing delicate shapes and line with large shapes.

Midnight and Noon, 2025, side "B"

Side "A" has a vertical direction, side "B" has a horizontal orientation; another way the two sides are opposites. 

In the quilting stage, I chose to take advantage of the orientation of each side by overlapping the horizontal contours with the vertical contours. The shapes that emerged from the intersecting outlines gave me new shapes in which to play with textures and add hints of color that can be seen from each side.