I am an Artist
I work entirely in fabric, thread and paint.
I love to construct things.
I was born to create and I create because I love the journey of each piece I do. The joy is in the making for me. Working with my hands brings me immense satisfaction. Taking the beauty I see out in the world and turning it into a unique piece of art feels inspiring and purposeful.
The technique used in the making of my pieces is called Collage Art Quilting. I usually use a photo as inspiration for a piece. I manipulate that photo on my computer, enlarging it to the size I want for a pattern. Sometimes I draw my own pattern. Next I have the fun of choosing the fabrics that I will use to construct my vision. There can be 10 to 20 or more different fabrics in one collage. Pieces of fabric are cut according to the pattern and fused together with an iron to assemble the picture. Sometimes I add paint to create shadows, highlights and details during the assembling phase, sometimes I wait until the whole quilt top is assembled to do that part. After I have the whole quilt top picture assembled then the quilting process starts. I have to have a large selection of threads to match the fabrics I used. Free motion quilting is very different from regular sewing and takes a lot of skill. This part is very meditative to me; I get into a flowing rhythm when I am quilting. At the end, a binding or facing is sewn on to finish the edges, this final stage of this is done by hand and allows me to have closure in making the piece.
It is very important to me to give back to my community, both local and global. When I sell one of my pieces I choose a non profit to donate 25% of the selling price to. The buyer has two ways to do this: they can make out two checks, one for the 25% to the non profit (that way they get a tax credit for the donation) and another check to me for the other 75%. I then mail the check to the non profit with a picture of the quilt, explaining the donation. Or the buyer can make one check to me, knowing I will donate the 25%. I also like to donate my work to non profits that do art auctions to raise money. That way the non profit gets the benefit of the whole value of my piece. I love being able to give back through my art!
My Vision Art Quilts 