Quilting started as my hobby, but has turned into a
passion and a business. I teach quilting classes for quilt
groups and online at Joggles.com, and have published patterns for my original quilt designs. Some of my patterns are carried by Moda/United Notions, Keepsake Quilting and Clotilde catalogs, and FatQuarterShop.com.
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 six Best of Show awards at three different quilting guilds, with five different quilts.
My work has been featured in several national magazines. I am the author of Applique Petal Party (C&T Publishing, 2009) and have produced a DVD with Quilting Arts called “Master Machine Quilting: Free-Motion Stitching and Thread Sketching.” My series of six articles on Thread Sketching are running in Quilting Arts magazine throughout 2010.
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.). Many clients
of Black Cat Graphics come to me because of my combination of skills in both the verbal and the visual.
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 and texture. All my art is a deep expression of my values and a succinct statement about my hopes for and concerns about our world.
Each piece is an emotional catharsis, and begins when
I am filled with a strong emotion: awe at the beauty of nature, joy in nursing a baby, anger at an injustice.
Art is my way of celebrating and documenting the deep mysteries of human beings’ relationships with each other, with our innate creativity, and with the natural world. Much of my work explores metamorphosis and transformation.
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.
For more information, click on the "Curriculum Vitae" and "See my studio" buttons in the sidebar at the upper left.