What's New

Well, for me its always, either producing a ton of work, or nothing. I finally recovered from working on all the school/kid related quilts and have had time to work on the quilts that im making for the grant i recieved from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. I hope to have 6 pieces to present to them by the end of the year. So far i have 5 started and i have to start on the key piece this week. The full skeleton. Here are a few of the in progress pieces. I started to quilt the Mary piece.. FINALLY. I really like the look of the gold thread, but tying them off in the back is taking way to long! And sorry to the quilt police, but my quilt backs are NOT pretty. This piece for some reason is VERY HEAVY. and difficult to work with.

The next one is "RED". not yet quilted, im hoping that the quilt work will pull this one out. I like the simplicity.. but it might be too simple.

"Split personality" I just made last night. Im thinking of adding a rib cage to the two heads. lots of painting, i really have been enjoying the process of painting, something that i thought i would never say!

Then next unnamed piece has just the back done. lots of hand dyed commercial fabrics and one piece of fabric done with the shaving cream technique of marbling. (very fun, but very messy). Im looking into adding news print, watches, and old lace on top of this one.

well, folks. there you have it. And thanks to the Massachusetts Cultural Council for the funding of this project.

First Grade Quilting Project

One more student piece. This one was done by the first grade class at the local elementary school. My twins both are in this class i was suckered into helping them do this piece. I was really supposed to be just someone to bounce ideas off of... but somehow I ended up "just" getting the fabrics, then I ended up putting the thing together. It is a large quilt. 72 x 72 inches. And for someone who is more comfortable doing quilts in the 40 inch range this was a monster. Im really seeing the need for a longarm after doing the last 4 large quilts. I cant wait to get back to journal quilts! lol. The children did such a wonderful job on this piece. They did all the drawins in transferable crayons. The teachers on this project are just the best. They really brought out the artist in all of them. They also were incharge of having the kids sew on the 150+ that they put on to keep this monster together. They all should be very proud of the work they put into this piece. I wish i had a better photo. I did hear that it might be hung up in the school, so if that is the case I will snap a shot of it in September.

One more quilt for the charter school

Here is the last quilt for the charter school. I just finished it up tonight and will be able to get it back to them before their school year ends. It was a wonderful experiance and the kids were just great. I hope to return to the school next year for another project.

More Student Work

These two pieces were done by a local charter school. I worked with the 6th grade (60 kids, 3 quilts and only 24 hours to complete them!) They are fairly large, around 3.5 ft by 6ft. The top quilt was done in the science class and they did the universe. Whole cloth background with fabric paint and plantes that are on patches. the white "universes" dont show up very well, they are made of angelica fibers. there are lots of beads and sparkly things on this piece. The bottom piece had the theme of "green village" and the kids were encouraged to use recycled materials. the little trees are made of fabric and newspaper. I just adore this piece.

Student Work

I have been very busy working, just not on my own stuff. Now that summer is here I hope to return to working on my personal work. For now, I have some wonderful work some of my students have done in the last couple months. These are from a local Elementary school where I ran an afterschool art program. The kids were age 10-12. The assignment was to do a face. They had a great time making these, a little crazy with the fabric paint! Over all it was a very successful class and I hope to run a few more next year.

Still working

Another day in the studio. I'm triing really hard to keep my self up and working. It is difficult when I see all the mess in my house that needs to be cleaned to keep focased at quilting. Here is the quilt that i have been working on. The top is nearly done and soon i will be able to quilt it. I really like the quilting process and love working on the machine. I also am looking forward to embellishing this piece. Let me know what you think!

Gallery Show

Hi all, I'm staying busy, it is still too wet, cold and frozen to work outside. This is not always a bad thing, i dont have to feel guilty that I am quilting instead of working on the house. One of my journal quilts will be at a gallery in Somerville, MA. Looks like about 27 artists from all over the USA and sevareal artists from outside of the USA. Here is the promo photo. This is my second "art" show this year.