Looking Back on 30 Years of Quilting

I’m in my thirtieth year of quilting! I’m currently in the midst of lots of exciting projects and it seems like a good time to review my personal quilt history.

It’s been so interesting to look through old photos, scroll my original blog and think about the events, projects, people and opportunities that really formed the artist I am today.

This is mostly for me. I’m so thankful for the amazing opportunities I’ve had. I love that I get to make art, share it with people in lots of different ways and continue to learn and grow. Reviewing the moments that got me to this place, helps me think about what’s next.

If you’re reading this incredibly long post, you’re part of the journey too! I’m so grateful my work has connected with you.

1996

I made my first quilt in 1996 when we were living in Coronado, CA. There was a surge in quilting popularity as the rotary cutter and strip piecing became more common. I used Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day Winning Hand pattern. It took much longer than a day, but I learned so much about fabric selection, sewing a quarter inch seam and basic construction.

*My first quilt! Made in 1997 using Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day Winning Hand pattern in teal and dusty rose (naturally). Hand quilting by my mother, Kathy.*

I decided I wanted a puffy, cozy quilt so I opted for the thickest batting I could find. I pin-basted it on the floor of an empty conference room in the local library. I thought I’d be able to machine quilt it on my Kenmore domestic. Of course, that proved impossible. My mother offered to hand quilt it for me and I gladly took her up on it.

1997 to 1999

I loved making that first quilt and continued to make many pieced quilts from patterns including lots of baby quilts. I subscribed to Quilters Newsletter Magazine and enjoyed reading about all the different types of quilting that were popular at the time. I remember the last page of the magazine always featured an art quilt and I was inspired and impressed by the idea of creating art with fabric and stitch. I was also watching Simply Quilts on PBS which introduced me to so many amazing quilts and artists.

1999

I’d made several baby quilts for friends in the late 90’s and I was super excited to make a quilt for our daughter Claire! We were living in Jacksonville, FL and I also made coordinating crib bumper, crib skirt, diaper stacker and other nursery decor as was popular at the time. I especially loved varying the scale of the saw tooth star blocks in this quilt.

When Claire was a tiny baby, my husband was often away on deployment with the US Navy. I’d purchased Karen Stone’s New York Beauty pattern which included paper foundations for 30 different blocks. I’d built up a small stash (naturally) and I loved working on this project. I remember it was spread out over the dining room table and I’d rigged up a flannel design wall in the living room.

Working on New York Odyssey made me think about color differently, and why using lots of different fabrics is interesting, and the joy of letting a project take over space.

***New York Odyssey, 1999, 46×37”*** *paper pieced using Karen’s Stone’s New York Beauty pattern, walking foot quilted*

Early 2000s

I continued to subscribe to Quilters Newsletter Magazine, and I was thrilled when Quilting Arts Magazine began publication in 2001. I was also a huge fan of Somerset Studio and other mixed media magazines.

2001

Inspired by all the mixed media trends of the late 90s, I took on a huge project. I wanted to make a medallion quilt that could also be a sort-of family tree. This art quilt incorporated photo transfer, paper piecing, thread lace, free motion quilting, regular piecing, fused applique, machine button hole stitches, raw edges, rick-rack, many beads and other junky embellishments. It’s very heavy. There are pictures of all my extended family members in the windows of the houses. I made it right before our son, Benjamin, was born. It makes me smile. It’s a true marker of a moment in time — both in my creative development and in the trends that were popular at the time.

Apparently, I learned to free motion quilt around this time, though I don’t remember exactly how that developed. This is the first quilt I can track that incorporates free motion quilting.

***Medallion Family Tree, 2001, 59×59”*** *• I thought of the design as starting with the sun in the center, then the sky, neighborhood, grasses and flowers, roads and bordered by the waters at the edges.*

2004

We moved to Maine and I took a few workshops from Melody Johnson around this time. They were absolutely pivotal in my creative development.

Learning the basics of raw edge fused appliqué, the power of color and many design concepts was the beginning of developing my own personal creative voice.

I started blogging in December of 2004, joined the Artful Quilters Blogging and began building community with other art quilters and learning what stories I wanted to tell about my artwork and creative life.

*I blogged here from 2004 to 2022. It’s an amazing record of my creative and personal life from all those years. (Some of it is bit cringey, but I think that’s how we often feel as we look back.)*

I blogged a few times a month through 2018. Posts dwindled in the next years and my last post on that old blog is from December of 2022 — eighteen years after I started. It’s still live and I refer to it often as a historical record.

2005

I don’t remember exactly how we got together, but in 2005 Sarah Ann Smith and I started a small art quilt group we called The Frayed Edges. It was one of the very best parts of my time living in Maine. These women were brilliant artists and wonderful friends — and still are. Spending time with them really helped me envision what a creative, professional life could look like.

*Sarah Ann Smith, Kate Cutko, Kathy Daniels and me at one of our Frayed Edges art exhibitions.*

2006

As I began exhibiting my work and submitting for publication, it was time for a real website.

*I got this image of my very first home page from the internet’s “way back machine.” It makes me realize that even as many things change, many things stay the same.*

My first magazine publication was in Somerset Studio. I loved their regular featured called Exemplar which featured an artistic interpretation of the alphabet. The magazine was primarily mixed media, but I thought a piece of artwork made with fabric and thread might connect with their readers so I submitted a few pieces. Editor Jenny Doh actually called me on the phone to tell me they’d selected my work. I was thrilled. We’d moved to Texas and I remember exactly where I was when I got that phone call. So exciting!

***Why, 10×12” 2006*** • When I cut this alphabet from a beautiful piece of hand dyed fabric, I inadvertently left out the Y, so I free motion-quilted the word “why” all around the edge. It was published in Somerset Studio in their regular Exemplar section.

2007

Diane Perin invited me to participate in 12×12: The International Art Quilt Challenge. Twelve artists collaborated together for five years and it’s one of the most important creative, personal and professional projects of my life as an artist. We took turns picking themes and each artist made a 12×12” art quilt then revealed them on our collaborative blog.

The first theme of the 12×12 project was Dandelion. My piece is in the upper left corner. For each theme we shared an image of all 12 quilts like this one. We called these “mosaics.” The beauty of the project is that it’s so cool to see them all together AND to appreciate them as individual works of art.

2008

As I began to develop my own personal style, I was eager to find ways to share my ideas about creating art with fabric and stitch. I dipped my toe into teaching by hosting a small workshop in my home here in Lewisville, TX.

2009

My first full magazine article appeared in Quilting Arts Magazine in 2009. It was titled Illuminated Art Quilts and featured several small art quilt collages that incorporated metallic letters. I made step-outs to show the technique, wrote about my inspiration and detailed how to use embellishments.

I also taught my first guild workshops in 2009 with the Denton Guild and the Trinity Valley Guild here in north Dallas.

2010

In 2010, my family and I moved to Annapolis, MD. I was invited to join a critique group with several other artists and it made a huge impact on how I thought about making art, taking it seriously, editing, reviewing, looking carefully, and giving myself the time to really create what I wanted to create. I was making lots of art work and beginning to teach more workshops — these things complement each other nicely, and yet… they’re different kinds of endeavors.

I also opened my Etsy shop in 2010 where I sold zines and small art quilts. I’ve now had my shop for 16 years! It’s the primary channel I still use for selling books, workbooks, patterns and original art.

2011

The 12×12 project really caught on — we were making interesting, inspiring work and sharing our process, collaboration and inspiration on our group blog. All this attention led to a book deal. The book featuring our “theme series” was published in 2011.

*The 12×12* *book* *featuring our “theme series” was such an intense and fun project to work on. Each of the twelve artists wrote a chapter.*

Creating a new piece of art every two months for the 12×12 challenge, pushed me to refine my ideas about the materials, techniques, and themes that became essential parts of my creative voice.

We also had the incredible opportunity to exhibit our work at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in 2011. The entire “theme series” plus our following collection the “color play series” were displayed. That’s 288 12×12” art quilts. Nine of us attended and it was the first time many of us had met in person. I’m delighted to say that I’ve since met all the “twelves” and I consider them some of my closest friends and collaborators.

*The “twelves” at International Quilt Festival in Houston in 2011 where our collaborative art quilt project was displayed.*

2012

I met Alma Stoller in the early days of blogging and love her work. She launched an online workshop with several other artists and invited me to participate. This was the early days of online learning. I created a project called Blooms, Branches and Buds that explored surface design, fused applique and hand embroidery.

*This was a super fun, collaborative, online workshop project that capitalized on the growing community of artists connecting online via blogs and list serves.*

I later converted this same workshop to my own platform. When online learning became so much more popular in 2020, I was able to draw on this experience to pivot my own classes to virtual.

2012

As I began to teach, exhibit and publish more of my work, I was invited to participate is lots of wonderful projects including the Dinner @ Eight exhibitions at the International Quilt Festival. These were juried invitationals curated by Leslie Tucker Jenison and Jamie Fingal. Each year they introduced a new theme and size. I think I was included in five of these exhibitions. These opportunities encouraged me to make larger work and push my creative voice in new ways.

*I participated in several Dinner @ Eight exhibitions including the Patterns theme in 2016. My art quilt is second from the left:* ***Provisions, 40×40”***

After years of reading Quilting Arts Magazine, I was thrilled to be invited to appear on Quilting Arts TV in 2012. Pokey Bolton is such an incredible force in the world of art quilting. (She started so many great projects including the magazine, TV show, Make It University at Quilt Festival and Craft Napa!) I also recorded a DVD workshop and discovered how much I love sharing my process and ideas about making art with fabric and stitch.

I appeared on Quilting Arts TV with Pokey Bolton in 2012 at a fancy production studio in Ohio. I also recorded a DVD workshop on this trip. I learned so much! Even though video production and distribution has changed SO MUCH since then, I still use lots of the skills I developed working on these projects.

2016

As I continued to publish and exhibit my work, the good folks at C&T Publishing came calling. Would you like to write a book? I would! Art Quilt Collage: A Creative Journey in Fabric, Paint, and Stitch was published in November 2016. What a huge undertaking! It was a really cool challenge to structure and share my process in book form.

My book launched at International Quilt Market in Houston in November 2016. I also had an art quilt juried into the judged show that year and I was thrilled to win first place in the Art Miniature category. It’s a big deal to win a ribbon in Houston, the biggest quilt show in the US! I often felt like my artwork was on the fringy edges of the quilt world — which was fine, that’s where I wanted to be.

Winning first place at Quilt Festival validated my work in a way that made me more confident about things like raw edges, acrylic paint and contemporary compositions.

In 2016, my art quilt Green Bowl Gathering won first place in the Art Miniature category at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. The gala award ceremony was an absolute creative career highlight.

2017

I really settled into a sweet spot around this time. I felt confident in my creative voice. I loved making art using the materials and techniques that I’d mastered — and continued to learn, experiment and consider new possibilities.

People often commented on my unique personal style and asked me how I got to this point in my creative life. Such interesting and important questions! I decided to put my ideas about creative voice into a workbook titled Head, Heart and Hands: Developing Your Creative Voice. I self published it in 2017.

*My workbook, Head, Heart and Hands: Developing Your Creative Voice is full of prompts, exercises, challenges, lists and inspiring quotes about the creative life.*

I remember watching Simply Quilts when Claire was a baby, so I was a thrilled when I was invited to appear on TheQuiltShow.com with Alex Anderson and Ricky Timms. On my episode, I shared projects from my book, sang songs from Hamilton with Ricky, and introduced my workbook, Head, Heart and Hands: Developing Your Creative Voice.

*In 2017, I appeared on* *TheQuiltShow.com* *with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. I demo’ed some print making techniques and share my exercises for developing your creative voice.*

2018

I continued to write articles for Quilting Arts magazine and my work was featured on the cover in 2018. The article was about creating stencils using hot glue. There’s a special thrill being a cover girl.

Also in 2018, I taught my first retreat-style workshop at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshop in Greenville, NY. It was a dream. I worked so hard on preparing a format for a five-day schedule that would offer lots of guidance plus opportunity for unique creative decisions along the way.

*In 2018 I taught my first retreat-style five day workshop at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshop.*

I loved working with enthusiastic, creative students during this five day retreat. There’s time to make discoveries, learn from each other, experiment and create unique, personal artwork. Over five days we can have thoughtful conversations and work together as the creative process unfolds.

2019

I settled into a regular rhythm of making art quilts, entering exhibitions, and teaching workshops. As I look back, a few art quilts stand out as works that really felt like I created something special including these two below: Day Break and Through and Through.

***Through and Through, 2019, 60×40”*** • This is the first in my series of works exploring abstract rectangular stacks combined with ladder shapes. Many of the art quilts in this series represent personal experiences and emotions that I hope translate in a variety of ways for a variety of viewers.

2020

The first year of the pandemic was the beginning of my two-year term as President of Studio Art Quilt Assciates. I’d served on the board since 2016 and was honored to be part of the leadership team that generated lots of new programs, ideas and community for this wonderful organization dedicated to promoting the art quilt and art quilters.

In 2020, I also made all my lectures and workshops to be available virtually and this opened up so many wonderful opportunities to teach and share my art with folks all over the world.

I truly believe virtual and in person workshops each have their own very unique and special qualities. I always try to maximize the benefits of each — no matter where I’m teaching.

2022

As my artwork was included in more exhibitions, my sales started to increase. It’s such an honor when someone connects with a piece and wants it in their home.

*Collector Frank Klein has several pieces of my work including the piece just behind us,* ***Rising and Setting, 40×16”*** *It was included in a special exhibition of pieces from his collection at International Quilt Festival in 2022.*

2023

One of the highlights of my creative career was having my work selected for the 2023 Art on the Plaza mural by the Catholic Foundation in Dallas. The original artwork was just 9×23” and they took a high resolution scan of the work, printed it on vinyl and installed it on this wall. You can read more about the mural in this blog post.

I am especially proud of the fact that anyone who saw this mural could look closely and see that the original was created with fabric and stitch. It was an opportunity for people to think broadly about quilts, textiles and fiber as art.

Another professional highlight that occurred in 2023 was being selected as a judge for the International Quilt Festival. It was such an honor to spend time with all the quilts in this massive show. There’s something really sacred about the opportunity to view and comment on a piece of artwork that someone has poured their heart into and put it out into the world for attendees at the US’s largest quilt show. You can read more about my judging experience and the process in this blog post.

*In 2023, Karen Stone, Charlotte Angotti Cormier and I spent three full days going through 218 quilts in seven categories for the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I loved every minute.*

2024

After years of teaching, exciting new opportunities started to come my way. I had the great pleasure of teaching several times at Quilters Affair in Sisters, OR. I was one of the international tutors at Quilt Symposium in New Zealand — and I’m returning to that amazing event in October 2026. I also had a magical week leading a workshop at a chateau in France.

*This picture gives the tiniest sense of the joy and adventure we shared at this art quilt collage retreat at Chateau Dumas in France.*

Thinking back on the exhibitions I’ve been juried into, the one that feels most personally significant was Quilts=Art=Quilts 2024 at the Schweinfurth Art Center in in 2024 in Auburn, NY. The jurors were Michael James and Dorothy Caldwell. I have loved Caldwell’s work for years and years. I’ve only seen her work in person twice, but I remember those moments with surprising clarity. I’ve studied her art online, and listened to every lecture I can find. (Michael James is no slouch either!) So when they selected Percolating to be part of the 2024 exhibition, it really felt like a moment to celebrate.

*Juror Dorothy Caldwell and I with my art quilt collage,* ***Percolating****, at the 2024 Quilts=Art=Quilts exhibition at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY.*

Also in 2024 (big year!), several of art quilts from the 12×12 The International Art Quilt Challenge were acquired by the International Quilt Museum. I reached out to the museum to inquire about making a donation of our work. We felt like our project was significant in the history of art quilting, collaborative projects, and quilt blogging. They agreed and selected four quilts from each artist to be added to their collection. There was an exhibition of these pieces at the museum in Spring on 2024. I still am thrilled to type my name into the collection search bar and see my artwork pop up.

*Selections from the 12×12: The International Art Quilt Challenge at the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, NE in Spring 2024.*

2025

In 2025, the Quilters Guild of Dallas invited me to be the featured member at their show. I’ve been a member for years and the Dallas Quilt Show is one of my favorite events of the year, so it was an honor to exhibit 26 of my art quilt collages at the 2025 show. You can read more about it in this blog post and watch a walk through of the exhibit here.

2026

Here we are! I’ve been making quilts for thirty years! A hobby turned into a passion that filled my life in so many wonderful ways. Some of my best friends and biggest supporters are quilters. My creative career began with teaching workshops in my home and occasionally seeing my work published in magazines. Now I’m teaching 30+ times a year, my art is included in lots of exhibitions, I’ve launched a new website and the second printing of my book is coming this fall.

It’s been so interesting to look back on these 30 years and think about the creative, professional and personal events that were important along the way.

Most important, I still love creating with layers of fabric, paint and stitch. Every professional opportunity comes from what’s happening in my studio and I’m eager to make more art!

How ever and when ever you connected with me along the way, thanks so much for being a part of my creative journey.

Looking Back on 30 Years of Quilting

1996

1997 to 1999

1999

Early 2000s

2001

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2012

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026

Featured Member Special Exhibit at the Dallas Quilt Show