Design Concept

This quilt was inspired by the day lilies that grew under the fence in front of our Oswego, IL house. My intention was to capture the essence of the flowers. My challenge was to show the stages in the life of a day lily, while keeping the composition as simple as possible. The background fabric was painted with fiber reactive dyes and the lily fabric was painted with textile paint (see picture below). The lilies are sculptural and somewhat aggressive. The real lilies were planted under the fence to choke out the grass and weeds, so we wouldn’t have to mow there, so the aggressiveness is appropriate. The surface texture was achieved by combining sculptural machine applique with machine embroidery and quilting. The back of the quilt was pieced from fabrics left over from the front.

Exhibitions:

• Courthouse Quilt Conference, Geneva, IL, 1987 (invitational)
• Quilt Conference ’87, Carlinville, IL 1987 (invitational)
• Gaijin: American Quilters Visit Japan, 1987 Berkley, CA (invitational)

Publications

• None as of December 30, 2016