My work, Flash Flood Watch, hanging at The Dairy Barn Arts Center for tonight’s opening of OH +5. Photo courtesy of Afinchsong Creation - Andrea Finch, who also has work in the exhibit. #artquilt

Sunday Spotlight: In Dreams I Slept in a Cabin. I lived near the mighty Susquehanna River most of my life and it is the inspiration for much of my artwork. This piece stems from a dream where I lived a simple life in a cabin near the river, lulled to sleep each night by the sound of it flowing.

Happy Solstice! As is my practice, today I retrieved the pinhole cameras I mounted at the summer solstice, and hung up a new batch. It's an extremely low-tech operation, using a beer can with a single pinhole poked in it with a sheet of 5" x 7" black and white photo paper loaded inside.

Under the needle, a monoprint of a tulip poplar leaf, on cotton. It will be an element in a large quilt I’m working on. #artquilt #fiberart #printmaking

Welcome to part 6 of my occasional experiments with film soup. This is a continuation of the same roll of 35mm Kodak gold that I shot in part 5, on my Olympus OM10. I souped it for about 24 hours with dish soap. I love a good pedestrian bridge, with all those struts and angles and shadows.

New Work! I am happy to present my latest quilt, Flash Flood Watch. And it's going places! Alarmed by global climate change and frequent dramatic weather events, I’m working on a series of weather-related quilts. #artquilt #fiberart #wetcyanotype #needlefelting #handembroidery

Persistently picking peppers in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Forecasted freeze foretells finale.

Sunday spotlight, "Squirrel and Locust", cyanotypes on cotton, heliographic prints on cotton, vintage embroidery, artist painted fabric, commercial fabric, stitching, hand beadwork. Size: 47"h x 37"w This seemed like a good moment to share this momento mori quilt. #cyanotype #artquilt #fiberart

Welcome to part 99 featuring Spikenard, Aralia racemosa. It's a perennial that grows to shrub height in summer, with large coarse leaves, and spikes of inconspicuous flowers that mature to purple berries. I started with a print on cotton sateen, using cyanotype chemicals with a splash of Solarfast.

Welcome to part 5 of my series where I share images altered by the film soup process. These were taken on 35mm Kodak film, with an Olympus OM10 camera. After finishing the roll, I soaked the film canister in a solution of water with a bit of dish soap for 24 hrs., drained it, and let it dry .

Spending a rainy afternoon stitching french knots on wool tweed. It’s slow but satisfying work. #slowstitch #handembroidery #frenchknots

I hadn’t done a cyanotype print from a photo for a while, but I still remember how. 10” x 12” on cotton sateen. #sealskull #cyanotype #blueprint #altphotography

Welcome to part 98 of my ongoing experiments with the wet cyanotype process. In this post I continue my mini-obsession with red mulberry leaves. The red mulberry, Morus rubra, is the native tree here in the eastern US.

Today’s moment of zen courtesy of the spectacular VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, British Columbia. It’s 55 acres of themed gardens and woodsy areas and it’s just superb. #botanicalgardens

Today’s moment of zen, from Grouse Mountain, British Columbia. #hiking

Welcome to part 97 of my documented experiments in wet cyanotype printing. I started this project in June of 2017, and it has continued to hold my interest over the intervening years. I began this batch with a large branch of red mulberry leaves on a cotton sateen panel.

Sunday Spotlight: I've spent a lot of my life closely observing the natural world along the Susquehanna River, and yes, it really does show up in my dreams. In this work, it serves as an allegory for a world where all is in balance and beauty abounds. #artquilt #fiberart

Today’s moment of zen, at the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. #artinstallations

I am delighted to share that Greenhouse Effect has been juried into Celebrating American Craft 2025 at the Sarratt Gallery at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. This juried exhibition features the work of 34 craft based artists from across the USA.

The first set of striking images were taken in a somewhat mundane place, the Waterfront shopping center in Homestead, PA, just outside of Pittsburgh. One of the reasons I love it here is that the mundane is often side-by-side with the transmundane; there are relics of the industrial age everywhere.

Preliminary design work on a project using the luscious woolens I brought back from Cloth Dublin (+ a bit of Harris tweed.) I thank my lucky stars I ended up as a fiber artist- the weight and texture of this cloth in my hands, and the slightly wooly smell when I steam press it is divine . #fiberart

Wet cyanotype experiments on cotton and mineral paper, part 96. Be sure to click through as there's a lot of variety in this batch. #wetcyanotype

I make these film soup images as a sort of special treat to myself. It's a mildly complicated process; taking pictures with an eye as to what might translate well to the format, "souping" the film in solution for a period of time, drying the film, sending it for processing, then editing the results.

Welcome to more adventures in wet cyanotype printing, starting with the leaves of that crowd favorite, tall blue lettuce, Lactuca biennis. The next is a leaf of the lettuce and a sprig of the decidedly non-native Japanese knotweed, Fallopia japonica. The last print is a solo image of the knotweed.

I'm thrilled to be one of the 40 SAQA artists selected by juror Marcia Young for the 2025 SAQA Journal Gallery. This exhibition in print will be included in the SAQA Journal 2025 Issue #4. My Greenhouse Effect will be featured along with the extraordinary work of other textile artists worldwide.

A beautiful wet cyan print of box elder leaves with an angry red slash running through it? That's where I'm at right now. Also some really detailed and lovely milkweed leaf prints. It's not a weed in my garden! Details on my blog, link in comments. #wetcyan #cyanotype #printmaking #altphotography

I am happy to announce that Flash Flood Warning and In Dreams I Drifted Away, accepted for Treasures of Our Local Watersheds, at the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Eppig Gallery, Cleveland, OH 44116, Aug. 20, 2025 through Oct. 31, 2025. More details on my blog, link in comments. #quiltsky #fiberart

Here’s the finished print from yesterday’s in-progress post. Despite the shortish exposure time (seemingly endless rainstorms here) it turned out really complex and interesting. Maybe I DO know what I’m doing 😄 #wetcyanotype #wetcyan #printmaking #altphotography #photogram

A wet cyan print in progress, on mineral paper. I had to pull it early due to a surprise thunderstorm, so it’s not fully exposed by my standards. And since it’s mineral paper, the whole thing could slide right off when I rinse it tomorrow. But at this moment in time it’s fantastic! #wetcyanotype

I am honored and delighted to share that my 52 Ways to Look at the River has been acquired by the Phillips Museum of Art at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Read all about it on my blog, link in comments. #quiltsky

It's that time again! Here's my best of the batch of pinhole camera images I retrieved yesterday, 6/20/25. It's an extremely low-tech operation, using a beer can with a single pinhole poked in it with a sheet of 5" x 7" black and white photo paper loaded inside.

The finished milkweed leaf print, wet cyanotype process on mineral paper. I love the delicate leaf veining! Lots more to come, the weather is excellent and I am in a printmaking frenzy. #cyanotype

Yesterday’s milkweed wet cyan, on mineral paper, after hours of outdoor exposure. I love it when I capture the tiny details of the leaf veins! Today I’ll do the rinse-out for the final print. #cyanotype

In other news, my suburban doe from the past several years has moved on, and there’s a new doe making herself at home. She’s staking her claim by trialing lots of shrubs and perennials, even “deer resistant” ones. Time to (belatedly) break out the repellent spray. Gardening will keep you humble!

Finally a day with printmaking weather! I opened cyanotype season with some milkweed leaves on mineral paper. When set out for a prolonged wet cyan exposure, things start happening immediately, then continue to change over the next several hours. The process is deeply satisfying for me. #cyanotype

An exhibit note for anyone in Oklahoma or making travel plans; my "Mole and Fern", as part of the SAQA Global Exhibit "Fur, Fangs, Feathers & Fins" will be at the Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, starting May 27 and running until July 26th.

Years ago in another time and a distant garden, I found a volunteer Jack in the Pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum, in my garden. I nurtured it along carefully for years, taking a few leaves for printmaking, and made this eponymously named art quilt. It remains one of my favorites. #fiberart

Under the needle—echo quilting a silver maple leaf heliographic print, with hand embroidery, on silk/hemp fabric. A study in line and texture. #fiberarts

A beautiful zebulon skipper visiting my garden on this beautiful rain-sprinkled morning. I just finished all the heavy garden work-pruning, planting, and mulching-in my large, idiosyncratic garden that features mainly native plants, and it’s starting out as the best year ever here.

Sunday Spotlight--Big Root Geranium, a blast from the past (2008), and one I revisit every year as my perennial geraniums emerge and bloom in a very reliable and beautiful manner. Cyanotypes on silk, artist-painted and commercial silks and cottons, machine stitching, and hand beading. 38"h x 43"w

During Gov. Wolfe's administration, I was invited twice to be a part of a plein air artist event at the Governor's Residence in Harrisburg, PA. I began these works on site in the beautiful gardens and later finished them in the studio. 1/2

Sunday spotlight: Partly Cloudy Alarmed by global climate change and dramatic weather events, I’ve been working on a series of weather-related quilts. Materials: artist-painted and commercial silk fabrics Techniques: wet process cyanotype, monoprints, hand-stitched patchwork, stitching 51"h x 43"w

Ok! Prepped and ready for another round of late night stress sewing. Each clip holds a set of 7 hand basted, coordinated hexagons, that will be stitched together into a “flower” Future me is going to have a hell of a lot of new artwork to share. #handstitch #hexies #textileart #fiberart #quiltart

A small but very vocal flock of starlings in the locust tree. Things are happening! #starlings #migration #Pennsylvania

A horse of a different color awaits as you click through my experiments with Lomochrome turquoise 35mm film. I had mixed results, and mixed feelings, about my results with this film, but as always that's the purpose of experimentation. More deep thoughts on my blog, link in comments #lomoturquoise

It’s a needlefelting kind of day—building a woolen river landscape, stab by stab by stab. #quiltsky #needelfelting #Fiberart #artquilt

New Work! Here's a quilt I made for my upcoming exhibit, The Enduring Beauty of the Susquehanna. Flash Flood Warning is part of a series about climate change. It features a needlefelted panel and wet cyanotype prints. It measures 59'h x 49'w. details on blog, link in comments #fiberart

Today's focus is In Dreams I Saw the Rift, part of my exhibit at the Philips Museum of Art, on the campus of F&M in Lancaster, PA which will run from 1/ 21 to 4/24. The panels in this work combine cyanotype prints, a needlefelted river panel, and hand stitched hexagons. details on blog, link below.

Today the focus is on my artquilt Ice Jam. It's part of my exhibit at the Philips Museum of Art on the campus of F&M College in Lancaster, PA. The Enduring Beauty of the Susquehanna River will run from 1/21 -4/24. It measures at 43"h x 52"w. Details on blog, link in comments #fiberart