Feather Study #30:

For many years birds have been a recurring theme in my work. At one point I began focusing on the patterns within a single feather, and the patterns created when feathers overlap. I have made hundreds of sketches/doodles using these patterns as a launch-pad for my imagination. Many of these flights of fantasy go far beyond anything that could be found in a real bird, but they still reflect patterns found in nature, both in birds and in plants. During the last eight years, I have made a series of quilts based on the most interesting of these raw sketches. This is the thirtieth quilt in the series.

The fabrics for this quilt were hand dyed and painted in gradations of color and value. The juxtaposition of intersecting gradations creates the illusion that the feathers are lit from within, rather than from an outside source. The machine quilting was done freehand with many different colors of thread.