I have always loved to sew since picking up an embroidery needle as a child. Throughout my career as an academic and Professor of Sociology, I continued to sew as my main hobby, achieving a City and Guilds Diploma in Embroidery just as I retired. Once retired, however, this part-time hobby has almost become a new full-time job!
Inspiration for my art quilts comes from both natural and built environments. Usually graphic and abstract rather than figurative, my work is a response to the sense and quality of these spaces. I often work from photographs, but I sometimes begin making my designs with a paper collage. I enjoy the challenge and freedom of improvised scrap piecing, often combining this with the greater precision that fused applique permits. This leads to a process of textile layering, which I finish with machine embroidery and quilting. Sometimes, I stitch in further detail by hand. I am excited by the additional textures and complexities that these different stitches can bring to any piece.
I have been a member of SAQA since 2019 and enjoy the challenge of responding to the various calls for entry as they arise. To my delight, my quilt was accepted into the recent Haven exhibition. I belong to the Quilters Guild of the British Isles, where I was an Education Officer for two years, and to 20 Perspectives, an international textile art group. Through my membership of 20 Perspectives, I have been able to exhibit my work internationally – so far, in the USA, Germany, and France. I also exhibit regularly in the UK with a mixed-media art group called Ecostitchers, and last summer, I held my first solo exhibition in the UK.
Bluebell Wood
36" x 35"
2022
