Crochet lizard on art quilt wall hanging

Title:  Tropical Vacation

    Materials: Cotton fabrics, yarn, beads, thread

    Size: 21 H x 18.5 W

    Year: 2016

This is a quilted wall hanging with a crocheted, beaded lizard attached. The green and orange area of the quilt consists of fabric strips wrapped around cotton clothesline that was then stitched together.

Goundhog Eating Kudzu Art Quilt

This wall hanging was made as a challenge quilt for the Heart in Hand Quilt Guild of Dawsonville, GA. For the challenge, each member selected a brown bag that contained about a half yard of fabric. Mine was a brown batik that I cut into strips and reassembled as the groundhog in this piece.

I titled the wall hanging, "Groundhog + Kudzu: A Love Story." I was inspired by all the groundhogs I see by the side of the road wherever kudzu grows.

 Kudzu, the notorious invasive vine from Asia, has choked thousands of acres of forests in the southeastern USA. One beneficiary of the vine, however, has been the groundhog who derives room and board from it.

In turn, the groundhog donates its dung as fertilizer. The vine can easily regenerate any leaves eaten by the groundhog

Dimensions: 28 inches height x 22 inches width

                Materials: Cotton and silk fabrics, thread, broken jewelry, buttons, paper, tulle.

Techniques: Hand applique, machine thread sketching, hand embellishment, yo-yo construction.

The Gastro Guest House--a free form crochet and knit wall hanging

The Gastro Guest House is a free-form crochet/knit wall hanging that was accepted into Tangled, a Montana Fiber Arts Collective exhibition called Shelter. It was exhibited for the month of October, 2013 at The Purple Pomegranate, 222 Central Ave. Whitefish, MT 59937. 

 

Here was my artist's statement:

Trained as a biologist, I have a special interest in the living arrangements, good or bad, made between organisms. In The Gastro Guest House, small creatures peer out from their niches in the viscera of an unknown species. As guests, are they welcome, or not?

Fiber is the foundation from which I create my sculptural pieces, which I then embellish with beads, buttons, fabric, and found objects. Sometimes the goal is to express my odd sense of humor and hopefully make the viewer smile. I also like to remind the viewer of life's transience. In this regard, the haiku of Issa, who viewed insects and other small creatures with humor and pathos, is an inspiration.

Year completed: 2013

Dimensions: 22 inches wide by 31 inches high; 4.5 lbs.

Materials and techniques: Yarn, beads, felt, trim; crochet, loom knit, needle felt, hand beading.

 

 

 

Cat Face--A portrait in purple fabric of my long-hair cat.

I take a lot of pictures of my female cat PT, and I particularly liked this one.

I decided to make an art quilt titled "Cat Face" based on this picture. I thought it would be fun to make her fur purple and to enhance the green of her eyes. The finished piece measures 45 inches high by 46 inches wide. 

Materials and techniques: cotton and pearl organza, tulle, rickrack, thread; hand appliqué, machine quilted.

"Cat Face" was juried into the 2013 East Cobb Quilt Guild Show in Marietta, Georgia and won third place viewer's choice at the Heart in Hand Quilt Guild Show in Dawsonville, Georgia.

Not Thinking--an art quilt that depicts The Buddha in a leafy setting

I bought a 4-inch statue of the Buddha in a little shop in Manhattan.  I photographed it in many settings until I found a leafy one that inspired an interpretation into fabric.  For me, the color green and the Buddha have similar associations--nature, peace, tranquility, and balance. 

The finished piece measures 34 inches wide x 38 inches high. Materials: hand-dyed and commercial cotton fabrics, tulle, embroidery thread, and glass beads. Techniques: hand applique, hand beaded & embroidered, machine quilted. The title is "Not Thinking."

This piece was exhibited at the 2012 (November)Heart in Hand quilt guild show at the Bowen Art Center in Dawsonville, Georgia. 

 

The Cat--A Portrait in Fabric Strips

Last year, I took a class from Esterita Austin at Empty Spools Seminars near Pacific Grove, CA. Students were supposed to bring to class a picture of a person to use as a template for a wall hanging. Instead, I brought a photograph I took of my female cat, "PT." It was a lot of work to cut all those fabric strips for her fur and to sew each one to a background, but I love the results. This piece, which measures about 35 x 22 inches has won two ribbons at quilt shows in Georgia.

Fabric Mandala--Astral Projection

This one measures about 2 ft in diameter and is made of fabric coiled around clothesline with surface treatments of applique (mola style) and lots and lots of beads plus paint.