This quilt is a symphony of locally foraged and home grown plant dyed cotton fabric. To assist in the dyeing process the cotton was pre-treated with soymilk in lieu of using a metal salt mordant.

The traditional “Barnraiser” quilt pattern comes alive with the subtle shifting colors contrasting the tannin and iron blacks.

I machine pieced and hand quilted with cotton sashiko thread,

The plants used to dye the fabric include: indigo, sulfur cosmos, madder, and foraged acorns, maple leaf, oak leaf and black walnut with ferrous sulfate modifier. The fabric was pre-treated with soy milk in lieu of an alum mordant.

SIZE: 82in X 108in

This strip pieced quilt is carefully chaotic. I limited my pallet to home grown indigo blues and foraged tannin blacks.

I started each gradient form from the center out beginning with a random geometric shape optimistically hoping I would be able to bring them all together in the end. They did.

The conceptual inspiration for the piece was Paul Baran’s module of a “Distributed Network” “A network configuration where every participant can communicate with one another without going through a centralized point”.

62in x 76in

92” X 102”

Machine pieced and hand quilted with cotton sashiko thread,

Fabric is found and second hand cotton dyed with only home grown indigo, weld, sulfur cosmos and foraged acorns and black walnut, aluminum acetate mordant and ferrous sulfate modifier.