Honoring Women

I have such a love for nature. I'm infatuated with leaves and flowers especially. When Working Mother Media from NYC contacted me to do another piece for them, I eventually produced this one.



It was made for a woman from the Middle East who helped women rebuild their lives after being in wars. I got a note from her saying that she was an artist also and her favorite color was red. I loved hearing from her for several reasons, one being that she validated for me that I was "getting" the information about her correctly while working on her wall hanging.

I thread painted flowers and leaves onto netting and then heavily stitched around the outside of the flowers on the netting to sew it down to the wall hanging. This piece is actually 4 small "quilts" sewn together with beads and hand-sewn beaded fringe embellishing it.

This piece was made from strips of hand-dyed cotton fabrics woven together, stitched down, painted with acrylics and then 3-D leaves sewn onto the top. I made the leaves from fabric snippets, leftover threads, and anything that was small enough to use like pieces of elastic and clothing labels. I also used metallic fabric paints to highlight the quilting stitches

I love Angelina fibers and created the flower from it. These fibers change colors and texture once they're heated. I create "fabrics" from the fibers by fusing them together and then cutting them into different shapes before sewing them onto my artwork.

The black swirls are appliqued onto the quilt top and then sewn as a background with the other black and red fabric. There's nothing like a lot of stitching to enhance any piece.


I have such fond memories of this wall hanging because I took it to NYC with me when I met the women at Working Mother Media that I've been working with for years. I loved being able to see the looks on their faces when they saw it for the first time. We were in Luci Knight's office. She hung it on her bookcase and invited all to come in and view it. The women there were so gracious and complimentary. What a treat for me to meet them and have lunch with Luci and Janet Wigfield.

The hats on this piece are appliqued and beaded. The top parts of them stand up a bit to make it look like they're talking because it was made for a woman who wrote a play called "If Hats Could Talk."



This was made for a female singer, if I recall correctly. Someone from California. The bird is made from a wedding dress and thread painted heavily to show the feathers, beak, claws, and eye. He's sitting on a tree branch and illuminated with gold paint stick. Thread and ribbons are couched on top of the piece. He stands out against black velvet and his feathers may be touched up a bit with watercolor pencil. It's been so long since I've done this, I can't be positive.

It's been fun tripping down Memory Lane with some of the work I've done for Working Mother Media. I just got off the phone with Luci. We were talking about my next piece for Henrietta Mann due next month. I look forward to seeing what shows up in my studio when I get to work on her piece.

Working Mother Media, Luci, Janet, and all others involved, thank you for such a great experience with you for all these years. And all you women out there, keep giving the world your best. It's an honor to call ourselves women.