What's Next 64.5" x 64.5"   This one gave me a perfect distraction and escape this last year while taking care of my mother. It was one of those projects that you could work on for just a few minutes a day, and still feel like you were making progress. I wanted something big and modern for the wall in my studio, and this looks WONDERFUL there! The sections represent different stages of my life. I am wondering what is next in my life as I navigate a world without my mother. The grief so far has been hard to bear, it just leaks out unexpectedly. However, if I were to guess, when more time ..read more

Garden Girl by the Sea 36" x 36" I wanted to make a quilt that celebrates the extensive gardening I have been doing. I have also been missing the ocean.  I grew up by the ocean but rarely want to drive far to visit again. Many times I have wished for an ocean front property with a lovely house, but the geologist in me does not really want that. I understand about barrier islands and hurricanes. So, I will put it here in my art, and dream of it instead. Then I remembered that I already had a quilt like that. One that I didn't like anymore, and didn't need anymore, and was stored deep in ..read more

Where the Walls Have Eyes is going to Quilt National 25! And I couldn't be happier!! It is difficult to photograph a 3D art project.  I guess I did okay with these because the jurors liked them! A big thanks to Martha Sielman, Luke Haynes, and Ellen Blalock for their efforts in putting this exhibit together and including me in their decisions! I have only been in Quilt National once before.  It was '09. That was quite the emotional experience for me. It validated my new identity as an artist. This time around was very different. It was also very emotional but for a differe ..read more

The Outtakes, fabric waste Regarding, Where the Walls Have Eyes, I think I have mentioned before how BIG a project this was. It also created a lot of waste..I made the following videos of the piles of "leftovers" from the project.  Here are the cutouts from making the eyes... And here are the quilt sandwich circle cutouts from quilted blocks...   And last, the quilted pieces that were trimmed off all 4 sides of each block ..read more

Where the Walls Have Eyes, Part 14 Sometimes, when I get to a certain stage of making a quilt, the work speeds up for me, in eager anticipation of the finish. This was not one of those kind of projects. I had to deliberately work slowly so as not to tax my hands. And then there were the unintentional delays.  The six stranded floss, at the point where it goes through the eye of the needle, becomes 12 strands. It is hard to push through the little quilted blocks, and much harder when there are also fused eyes to contend with.  Sometimes I would just yank it and accidentally peal off ..read more

Where the Walls Have Eyes, Part 13 This part took so long to complete! Wahhhh! I took hundreds of photos along the way, and it has taken me a while to narrow it down a bit.  And, it is still too many photos for one post, so I will be making two posts about the building. It is all hand sewn, like the prototype. Every seam is a different color.  Some of the seams have 2 squares, some have 3, and some have 4.  As expected the ones with 4 pieces being combined in a single seam were the most difficult physically.  I am pushing a needle through 4 quilted pieces while it is thre ..read more

Mary Lou York 1940-2024 I loved my mother so much and I am completely overwhelmed now that she is gone. She was my number one supporter in my life and my work. She bought me my first sewing machine and got me started in quilting. She never tired of showing my work to anyone and everyone. And no matter how busy she was, she always had time for me and her grandchildren. My mom loved dominoes and dancing, cooking and gardening, making money and spending money. She played the piano and was an excellent seamstress. She was always fashionably dressed and perfectly coiffed. She loved to wear beaut ..read more

Where the Walls Have Eyes, Part 12 I almost did not make this in a 3D form.  I was looking through my second prototype, and I realized that beyond one block in, I could not see most of the work I had done. I could not see the batik, I could not see the satin stitching, I could not see the colors of the blocks, I could not see the colorful threads I would use to sew the blocks together.  All I could see was the hole, and some of the stitching around the hole. (ps. if you are wondering where the eyes are, remember, this view is on the prototype, not the actual project) I also realiz ..read more

Where the Walls Have Eyes, Part 11 I was looking for a way to more literally and visually show the loss of privacy when I remembered this expression.  So I decided to put eyes on the insides of the walls, and ceilings, and floors of the project. How? I tried a few things, but this is the one that stuck! (ha ha!) Mistyfuse (to the rescue again!) on the back of white fabric.  Draw the eyeball with a pencil.  Outline it with the black posca paint pen. And then cut them out with scissors. I did not have perfect cutting technique, so after the center circles were also cut out ..read more

Untitled, Part 10 It began with a concept, the loss of privacy. And morphed into a big project. I started forming a very long list. A list of events, places, and ways to loose privacy. I drew a distinction between ways to loose privacy in public, and ways to loose privacy in your own home where there is supposed to be an expectation of privacy. There are so many privacy losses related to the internet that I knew that was the focus of my project. I had to question: who is doing the 'looking'. Is it friend or foe? It kind of haunts me. .......Cambridge Analytica, algorthims, hot mics, third ..read more