Quilted Works

To create a painted landscape, I start with a scene that inspires a feeling of awe: a high, endless sky, a beach rippled with sand, a calm watercourse reflecting the sunset. To reproduce the scene, I cut a piece of finely woven Pima cotton and then use a brush to apply a fabric medium, which prevents my paint from running and spreading. With a light touch, I outline the scene onto the treated cotton. My paint of choice is Jacquard Lumiere, a metallic acrylic that provides shine and luster. I carefully mix my colors ahead of time, applying them to practice fabrics until I have the shades I need. After I’ve applied the paint, and when it is dry, I sometimes embellish the scene with thread painting, which creates small details. Finally, I layer the painted cotton with batting and backing, then machine-sew contour lines to give it texture. The result is a whole-cloth quilt, a creation that has a layer of backing and an interior layer of batting like any quilt. Unlike traditional quilts, made from smaller pieces sewn together, whole-cloth quilts are created from one single piece of fabric.