Why Art Quilts?

My very first block I ever did was a year ago and I went straight for all the triangles and squares I could handle. No nine-patch for me. What was I thinking? "Good Lord," a quilting friend told me when she found out. "You're just starting and made that? No wonder you got scared to make anything else for a while!" It was all a little too regimented for me. I'm a rebel, YEAH.

"Traditional" quilts just don't appeal to me as something I want to do quilt-wise. Like my watercolors or sketches, I prefer to be a little more freewheeling and improvisational in terms of my techniques and material usage, etc. I love seeing the incredible things that other quilt artists like Hollis Chatelain and Faith Ringgold do. These are the types of quilts that I aspire to make someday.

For me, art quilting is the ultimate blend of my visual arts background and my love of sewing. There's just something about the feel of fabric between your fingers, the hum of a machine, the needle in your fingers as you pull thread through, or the sheer satisfaction once it's done. Ahhh...