Vessels
The vessel series started with a ’What if?’ question
while making some of the structures for my botanical series.
What if I leave these pieces open?
Receptaculum IV : Arbores unus
(Tree one receptacle)
Celebrating Craft in America
September 8 – October 31, 2025
Sarratt Art Studios and Gallery
Vanderbilt University
Nashville Tennessee
Method:
Machine quilted, machine raw edge appliqued, hand & machine constructed
Materials:
Materials Cotton & other textiles, an old quilt with polyester batting, and thread.
Creative Crafts Council Biennial
March 15 – May 24, 2025
Strathmore Mansion
Rockville Maryland
Verdant, Viridis pratum & Azure Aqua
(Green, Green Grass & Azure Aqua)
a series of 6 vessels
Inspired by the streams and rivers in Central Pennsylvania that feed into the Chesapeake Bay and the farmlands that surround them. Reusing textiles discarded by designers and decorators, I create with small bits of ephemeral fabrics from sample books & leftover scraps from other work. Once used, I cannot replace them. Textile production is a resource-intensive industry: the more I keep out of the landfills the more at peace I feel with my chosen medium. Once a traditional flat quilter, my work now rises from the surface to escape the boundaries of flat surface art, becoming increasingly abstract, with sculptural elements trying to leave the quilt that taunts the viewer to reach out and touch
Method:
Machine quilted, machine thread painted, machine raw edge applique, hand & machine constructed
Materials:
Materials: Reclaimed wool tablecloth, decorator samples and other textiles, cotton batting, thread, wire
Verdant, Viridis pratum & Azure Aqua I (Green, Green Grass & Azure Aqua I)
Verdant, Viridis pratum & Azure Aqua II (Green, Green Grass & Azure Aqua II)
The Whitewashed Series:
I’ve always made pretty, happy art.
The last few years the anxiety has built as I listened to the words that
came out of the mouths of the community where I live.
Politicians are trying to gaslight us, whitewashing over the facts.
Pretending inconvenient realities don’t exist.
Skewing realities.
Creating a dizzying spin.
Whitewashed series: Mine?
Method:
Machine quilted, machine thread painted, machine raw edge applique, hand & machine constructed
Materials:
Materials: Reclaimed wool tablecloth, decorator samples and other textiles, cotton batting, thread, wire
Whitewashed series: Human. Kind?
Method:
Machine quilted, machine thread painted, machine raw edge applique,
hand & machine constructed
Materials:
Materials: Reclaimed decorator samples and other textiles, cotton batting, thread
Receptaculum VI: Iris sibirica disseminated
Method:
Machine quilted, machine thread painted, machine raw edge applique, hand & machine constructed, hand cut
Materials:
Reclaimed decorator samples and other textiles, cotton batting thread, wire matte medium
Receptaculum III: puer universum transites femina incrementum
(A Boy’s World’s transition growth to a woman receptacle)
I made this quilt for my oldest son when he was 2 years old, it was handed down to my second child and loved to tatters. It grew soft and worn with all the washings then tucked away as it was outgrown. As my child grew into an adult she realized she was in the wrong body and her transition began.
Franklin County Art Association 2024 Member Show
Franklin County Pennsylvania
Interpretations 2025
Visions Textile Museum
San Diego, California
Method:
Machine quilted, machine raw edge appliqued, hand & machine constructed
Materials:
Materials Cotton & other textiles, an old quilt with polyester batting, and thread.
Receptaculum I: Lutcus lumen
(Orange light receptacle)
Nothing Rhymes With Orange
2024 Member Color Show
Carlisle Learning Arts Center
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
SAQA’s Context in Blue exhibition
Premiering at the European Quilt Show in Alsace from September 18 through 21. Carrefour, Alsace, France
Brno Patchwork Meeting in Brno, Czech Republic from April 24 through April 26, 2026
Method:
Machine quilted, machine raw edge appliqued, hand & machine constructed
Materials:
Materials Cotton & other textiles, an old quilt with polyester batting, and thread.
Receptaculum II: Caeruleum tenebra
(Cerulean blue darkness receptacle)
Nothing Rhymes With Orange
2024 Member Color Show
Carlisle Learning Arts Center
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
SAQA’s Context in Blue exhibition
Premiering at the European Quilt Show in Alsace from September 18 through 21. Carrefour, Alsace, France
Brno Patchwork Meeting in Brno, Czech Republic from April 24 through April 26, 2026
Method:
Machine quilted, machine raw edge appliqued, hand & machine constructed
Materials:
Materials Cotton & other textiles, an old quilt with polyester batting, and thread.
Amethyst
February 14 – March 15, 2025
Carlisle Arts Learning Center
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Receptaculum V: Iris sibirica
Method:
Machine quilted, machine thread painted, machine raw edge applique, hand & machine constructed, hand cut
Materials:
Reclaimed decorator samples and other textiles, cotton batting thread, wire, matte medium
This piece has found a home.