Quilt Gallery

Techniques: Machine quilted, hand beaded

Design Source: I lived in New Orleans for 10 years and developed a real love for zydeco music

Zydeco music is a music genre that evolved in southwest Louisiana by French Creole speakers. The French culture permeated that of the Irish, Spanish, Native American, and German people already populating the area. My zydeco girls are the sirens of the bayou.

Techniques: Machine quilted, painted

Design Source: Women working together to obtain land, make a living, and survive out West

Women needed a combination of bravery and adventure to move and live out West.  They soon acquired new skills, such as taming horses and branding cattle. Many were pioneers filled with grit, ambition, and great determination. Often women teamed up with relatives and friends, working together to create a new life in the West.

Techniques: Machine quilted, painted, silk-screened

Design Source: Tall grass prairies

Inspired by fields of tall prairie grasses and colorful wildflowers, we challenged ourselves to bring the beauty and joy of nature together with art and fabric.

Techniques: Machine appliquéd, painted, inkjet printed

Design Source: Stories from western state historical societies

The Homestead Act of 1862 offered free land in the Great American Plains. Single women were eligible to acquire 160 acres of federal land in their own name. Building a home was an important undertaking. If the prairie lacked building materials, such as wood or stone, sod from prairie grass was used to create brick-like shapes, that formed the walls of a home.

Techniques: Machine quilted, hand beaded

Design Source: A twist on the song “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!”

Sometimes it is fun to be the bad guy...or girl. This stagecoach robber was just looking for some bling, accompanied by her bored wolves.

Techniques: Machine quilted, hand beaded

Design Source: The moon and all things space-related

I imagined this Native American girl as one of the first people to see an alien. In the 1960s, my mother used to have us sit out on the patio on summer nights and watch for aliens.

Techniques: Machine quilted, painted, silk screened

Design Source: Storms across the wide open prairie

A blue norther is a fast moving cold front, marked by an exceptionally rapid drop in temperatures, strong winds, and dark blue skies. It can send temperatures plummeting by 20 or 30 degrees in minutes. On clear fall days, white clouds rise from the prairie and the storm quickly envelopes the horizon.

Techniques: Machine quilted, painted, silk-screened

Design Source: Historical data describing how settlers came to the West after the Homestead Act

Between 1862 and 1934, the federal government granted 1.6 million homesteads of federal land for private ownership. Immigrants moved from Switzerland, Norway, and Sweden. Many died from the long trip over the ocean, contracting malaria from mosquitoes. Americans owe a debt of gratitude to immigrants who built towns, hospitals and schools.