This piece was made for the Sunriver Guild's 2010 Shaker Challenge, in which the theme was "Starry, Starry Night". I chose to honor "stars" of the fine arts using the comedy (Thalia) and tragedy (Melpomene) masks to depict theater; the mask strings to depict music; and the background sky (reproduction of the sky in Van Goh's painting) to depict surface art. The masks were adapted from images I found online when I googled "comedy and tragedy masks". The large stars in the background were painted with Shiva paint sticks and embellished with beads. The smaller stars are bugle and seed beads. It is densely quilted using batting made from bamboo. This piece was voted "best workmanship" by guild members during the show. All The World's A Stage is for sale.

The Sewjourners art quilting group took on a project in 2010 where we divided up the Ives Color Wheel into 19 sections and each drew colors "out of a hat". Then we were to make an 18" x 40" piece that would read the chosen color from ten feet away. These 19 panels would then be exhibited in a continuous line, butted up against one another to form a quilted "Color Cascade". The colors I drew to work with were cerulean blue and blue (colors 10 and 11 on the 3-in1 Color Tool by Joen Wolfrom). The technique of curved applique' was inspired by a workshop with Vikki Pignatelli in 2009. Fabrics are all commercially printed 100% cotton with "rain" achieved by diagonal silver metallic stitching and silver bugle beads.

The "Color Cascade" exhibit received rave reviews from the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, California, the Mancuso show in New Jersey, and Quilts in the Garden, Livermore, California in 2010 and 2011. It has been enjoyed locally at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and the Quilt Works Gallery in Bend, Oregon. I am in the process of obtaining a good photo of the entire exhibit to add to my website.

This quilt was made after taking a workshop with Jan Krentz in Bend, Oregon, exploring the possibilities of the Lone Star diamonds. Fabrics used are cotton lame', commercially produced 100% cotton, and glass beads. Clarissa placed second for Viewers' Choice in the Sunriver Guild's Shaker Challenge in 2002.

Dianne was made to use as a fundraiser for the Linda L. Vladyka Breast Wellness Foundation in Salem, Oregon. I felt that a quilt for such a cause should be pink and incorporate the symbolic pink ribbon. The center medallion is a stylized pink breast cancer ribbon done in folded cutwork (cut as a paper snowflake); then hand applique'd to the background in the Hawaiian applique' method, and outlined with hand embroidery. The background of the quilt is made up to two-inch "color wash" squares and surrounded by borders of pink ribbon inspired by "The Curved Two-Patch System" by Joyce M. Schlotzauer. All fabrics are commercially produced 100% cotton.

Dianne was sold at silent auction in 2003. The winning bid was submitted by a friend and survivor, Dianne Luiz, for whom the quilt was named.

I have chosen this piece to be representative of my work on my website header, business cards, etc. Below is what I printed on the label of the quilt:

Nature is made up of many opposing forces. I chose fire and ice to depict the oppositional realities of hot and cold or light and dark, which are obvious. Fire and ice can also represent the more emotional forces of passion and apathy. In every case, the two forces act on each other and even battle with one another. Fire melts ice and the melting ice extinguishes the fire. The flames are hand applique'd and the icicles are machine applique'd. Fibers include cotton, Angelina Fibers, nylon tulle, satin, rhinestones, and glass beads.

Fire and Ice was made for the 2007 Mountain Meadow Quilt Guild's annual Shaker Challenge with the theme "Forces of Nature" and was awarded Best Interpretation of Theme. In 2008, Fire and Ice was juried into the Betty Gray Gallery show in the Sunriver Resort Lodge and its photo was featured on the publicity poster.

The theme for my guild's 2008 Shaker Challenge was "Wordplay" and I took it quite literally after finding a fabric with printed letters. I love international cuisine and chose to use cooking terms that weren't necessarily used every day in American kitchens. This was my second venture into fabric collage after Double Vision. There are 40 food-themed novelty fabrics on the quilt that were "fussy cut" and placed with one another to form the borders and enhance the puzzle (plus a few butterflies for fun). Fabric used is 100% commercially produced cotton with rayon, polyester, cotton and metallic threads. Thanks to Kathy Shaker, the coordinator of the challenge named for her, for sharing her chili pepper fabric collection with me.

All of the 2008 Shaker Challenge quilts were shown as a special exhibit at the 2008 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. Gastronomique was also juried into the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, California in 2008. This piece is for sale.

This is one of two pieces I was commissioned to make for the newly constructed Lake House at Caldera Springs, near Sunriver, Oregon. This area of Central Oregon has a volcanic history and I was inspired by the Convergence quilts of Ricky Tims to achieve the volcanic matter converging with the existing soils and vegetation to form a new landscape. All fabrics are commercially produced 100% cotton.

Nantucket Noon was my first foray into pictorial design. I borrowed a photograph from Mary Buxton that showed the back yard of her friend in Nantucket. There were several chairs in the original photo, but I reduced it to one lonely empty chair...waiting... The quilt is hand applique'd in the center and then "fractures" out in machine piecing. The pink tree blossoms are hand embroidered with countless silk ribbon French knots on a machine embroidered trunk. The hand applique'd center is hand quilted and the fractured border is machine quilted. This quilt is symbolic of my transition into and acceptance of using the machine more in my work. Fabrics are commercially produced and hand-dyed 100% cotton, nylon tulle, silk ribbon, and silk embroidery floss.

Nantucket Noon was juried into the Deschutes County Public Library show in 2004 and into the International Quilt Association show in Houston, Texas in 2005.

I am one of four daughters and the year after I moved back to the U.S. from the Middle East, all four of us took our mother on a vacation to Hawaii. We had such a good time laughing, we dubbed ourselves "The Hawaiian Hen Party". My younger sister, a massage therapist wanted a soothing wall hanging for her massage room and chose a pattern by Nancy Lee Chong and Janice Lee Baehr to be a reminder of our trip. The center of the quilt is that pattern and I adapted the pattern to make a border that extended the design. Ohelo is 100% cotton Batik, entirely hand applique'd with silk thread, and hand quilted.

I participated in a workshop with Gail Garber in Bend, Oregon in 2002, in which we learned about drafting our original design into a circle. The large circular block, which depicts the sun, was designed by me in that workshop. The medium block (the moon) is from Gail's book, Stellar Journeys. The quilt was completed for the 2004 Shaker Challenge, which required us to use the tan paisley fabric in the center of the moon. The basic lines of the quilt were drawn on a regular sheet of paper. Then, using the overhead projector, it was enlarged so that the circle drawn for the sun fit the actual block I had done in Gail's workshop. The design depicts the fourth day of creation of the earth (sun, moon, and stars) and the ribbon represents the Spirit of God moving throughout the universe. The entire quilt was paper pieced on freezer paper with the only hand applique' being where the ribbon crosses over the moon. Materials include commercially produced and hand-dyed 100% cotton fabrics, synthetic, cotton, and metallic threads, and Czech fire polish glass beads.

In 2004, The Fourth Day was voted Viewers' Choice in the Shaker Challege at the Sunriver Quilt Show and Sale.

Treasure in Earthen Vessels is the result of a class I taught in the use of the overhead projector as a tool in design. The pots were just samples that I drew for the class, but I liked them enough to go ahead and finish them as a quilt. The pots are raw-edge machine applique'd to a pieced background, colored with oil pastels, and heavily thread painted to give dimension. The rays of light coming down from the upper right (Heaven) are made of gold organza, heavily encrusted with multiple sizes of gold seed beads and bugle beads, filling the pots. Each of the thousands of beads was hand sewn after quilting, keeping the beading thread between the quilt layers. Fibers are commercially produced 100% cotton, nylon tulle, and organza. The label on the back is the full size of the pots and contains the following scripture, which was the inspiration for the final design:

"For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed..."      II Corinthians 4:6-9

Treasure In Earthen Vessels won the award for Best Use of Color in The Shaker Challenge in 2006 before all of the beading was completed. It was juried into the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, California in 2008.

I belong to a small group of friends who are exploring new ideas in quilting--we call ourselves the Fiber Chix (as in fibers of thread--not granola!). In 2011, we were inspired by a guest speaker whose group brought scraps in laundry baskets and had to work within a certain color boundary. Using the 3-in-1 Color Tool by Joen Wolfrom, we decided to stay within cards 3 to 13 (green to violet) for our scrap exchange boundary. There were eight of us and we each brought 10-inch squares of five different fabrics for each person, including ourselves--so we ended up with 40 fabrics. Since we were inspired by the lady with the laundry baskets, we called our project "Laundry Blues" and each named our quilt accordingly. After receiving our 40 fabrics, we were allowed to "push" those colors further. Since I was preparing to teach a class using Wendy Hill's book Easy Bias Covered Curves, I used my fabrics to make a class sample. Our entire exhibit has been shown at the Sunriver Quilt Show and Sale and at the Art Gallery Monthly Exhibit at Quilt Works in Bend, Oregon. Tumble Dry is for sale.

Tutti Fior was made specifically for the Obsidian Opera Company to use as a fund raiser. I wanted the quilt to convey an opera theme, so I started out by deciding on a name for it and then designed it to fit the name. Tutti Fior ("all flowers") is the name of the flower duet in Madame Butterfly written by Giacomo Puccini. The color wash piecing method was used for flower bouquets adorning the corners. The vivid blue center medallion, with a hint of an Asian look, uses the initials "O.O.C." (Obsidian Opera Company) extending outward from the center, cut as one would cut a snowflake; then hand applique'd to the black background (known as the Hawaiian applique' technique). The center is embellished with embroidered flower buds, beads, and handmade silk ribbon roses. Hand embroidered silver floss outlines the medallion. The flower bouquets are bedewed with Swarovski crystals and Czech fire polish glass beads. Borders were inspired by The Curved Two-Patch System by Joyce M. Schlotzhouer. All fabrics including more than 50 flower fabrics with black backgrounds are commercially produced 100% cotton.

Tutti Fior was juried into shows in the Deschutes County Library and the American Quilters Society Show in Paducah, Kentucky in 2006.