Techniques

I make a point of using only my own dyed fabrics in my art quilts. Occasionally, a piece of suitable, commercially printed fabric makes its way into the arrangement of backing fabrics, and the backing is often artistically interesting. I usually start out with white cotton broadcloth fabric. I employ Procion mx fiber reactive dyes for various techniques: hand painting, monoprinting, screen printing, batik or immersion dyeing. The fabrics are assembled and machine quilted; batting is 100% needle-punched cotton. Most of my works are fairly large in scale. Sometimes I'll work in modular form to achieve an even larger scale.

Above, white fabric is stretched over a 3 yard table covered with vinyl. Areas are monoprinted and painted with thickened Procion fiber reactive dyes.		Some areas are masked with butcher paper during repeated printings. When the fabric is deemed finished, it is steamed and washed.
Fabric swatch showing painted area, paper stencil, and flexible vinyl used for printing.		So many fabrics to choose from when assembling the art quilt!
A quilt "sandwich" is pinned together using the quilt top, the 100% needlepunched cotton batting, and the backing.		Machine Stitching (left) and finished free-form stitching patterns