My landscape quilts reflect my life long passion for trees and flowers. I particularly love humble nature scenes where humans have interfered with nature with mixed results: overgrown gardens, old fences covered with vines, rustic clotheslines in the woods, black eyed susans brown with age against an old barn wall, and especially trees. I love creating bark, brush, shrubbery, leaves and ground-cover, and spend many happy hours buying the fabric to make these elements and fabric paints and threads to embellish them.

All of my leaves, tree trunks foliage and flowers are “cut-outs” from my large collection of printed and hand-dyed cottons which I machine appliqué to a background fabric. I freely add fabric paint before, during and after appliquéing the pieces to enhance their hues and colors. Then I machine quilt each piece within an inch of its life, using free motion stitching. This technique allows me almost as much spontaneity as painting, and I never plan ahead or create drawings as a guide. I do, however, love photographs of nature scenes and use them as jumping off points to get started on a scene.

I’ve been a quilter for 12 years and have spent the last ten of them making landscape quilts. My quilts have won major prizes at numerous national competitions including those sponsored by the American Quilter’s Society in Paducah, Kentucky, Visions in San Diego, California, and the National Quilters’ Association. I’ve recently completed two books, both co-authored by Nancy Zieman, that describe every phase of my technique: “Landscape Quilts,” published by Oxmoor House and “Landscape Quilts for Kids,” published by Krause. Nancy and I have also created four three-part television series together, all focusing on various aspects of landscape quilts. They are available on video cassettes and DVDs from Nancy’s Notions. (See my publications and products page for more information.)

I have three grown children, seven grandchildren and have lived in Madison, Wisconsin with my husband, Richard, since 1971. I’m also an avid gardener and love to use photos of my garden as inspirations for my quilts.