Beginning with my first quilt, Cover/Undercover (1981), I have researched and been inspired by old textiles, technically, formally, and iconographically.

Once in a blue moon an inspiration comes whole, as a gift.  The Wild Goose Chase (below) is a case in point. This traditional version of the pattern shows vertical rows of identical triangular shapes. My two wild goose chase quilts in the Security Blanket series Wild Goose Chase (Brown Stripes) and Wild Goose Chase: B-2-Stealth Bomber convert the triangles into stealth bomber silhouettes. Both the triangles of the original and its title aptly dovetail into the new works.

Alberta (1990) followed the lead of early 19-Century British quilters who gathered leaves to study in the evenings as they planned their quilting patterns. What makes Alberta different from a traditional “whole cloth quilt” is the four Cruise Missile silhouettes that interrupt the central diamond “filler” quilting. At the time I made this quilt, the Cruise was being tested in northern Alberta.

I fell in love with Center Star with Corner Stars (c.1890), an Amish quilt in the collection of the Museum of American Folk Art, from the first moment I saw it. It haunted me until finally I decided to recreate it as meticulously as possible. The difference was that mine would be “black and white” (as in a black-and-white photograph) to the original’s color. Making this quilt was an act of homage.

I first used the printed fabric motif  Trees with Leaves (c.1948), designed by Stanley Cosgrove (with permission), for one of the panels of  Healing Garden (2008). Later, I played with lines in the silhouette of one of the leaf shapes from Cosgrove’s design to make a series of collages Leaves and Trees.