The abstract log cabin quilt is based on my photo of the cubist style villa and studio in the garden of Jacque Majorelle. Designed by Paul Sinoir in 1931 and later owned by Yves Saint Laurent and Piere Berge who restored it, the villa now houses a Berber museum that is open to the public. The photo I took was gridded with a wonky-style acetate overlay and each section became a log cabin based on color percentages in the original photo. This technique is originated and taught by Katie Pasquini Masopust whose workshop I took in February of 2020. The quilt size is 32” x 41” and made of 100% cotton, machine pieced and quilted with the addition of hand embroidery.
This piece is in the collection of Central Bank of Boone County having received the purchase award at the 2021 Boone County Art Show sponsored by the Columbia Art League. The piece also received 1st Place in Fibers.
close up of embroidered section of Jardin Majorelle, Marrakesh, Morocco
"The 2016 melt season on Greenland started "freakishly early" astonishing scientists who study the phenomenon. Ice streams, or moulin, have resulted in the loss of more than a trillion tons of ice in the last four years. Depicted in the piece are the ice free zones on the coasts and the fast flowing moulin indicated by the embroidered arrows. It appears Greenland's ice is vanishing at an unstoppable pace." My piece was based on an article by New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert.
This piece was shown at Speaking of Fibers in November of 2017 at Maryville University. The juror was Amanda McCavour and the piece received an Honorable Mention.
Another venue for the piece was an international juried, online exhibit sponsored by the Swiss Hand-Embroiderer’s Guild. The piece appeared on the Exhibit website and in a self-published book. The theme of the show was Depth. https://depthtiefe.wordpress.com/gallery/
The background of this piece is linen that is stitched by hand with valdani embroidery floss. The top layer is hand-dyed silk organza on which I stitched the text Greenland five times. Each time the word becomes less complete until at the bottom Greenland can hardly be read. Each letter took about two hours to stitch.
This is the map of Greenland hand-stitched on white linen using valdani thread. I indicated the latitude and longitude lines and the dark dots are the larger "cities" in Greenland. The melted ice zones are indicated by the black to light gray as this much ice on Greenland is already gone. The arrows indicate the largest ice flows.
Small hand pieced quilt embellished with hand stitching and quilting. 16 x 16 inches. Mounted on 1” deep cradle board.
Curvelets was displayed at the juried show Repeat at the Columbia Art League, Fall 2022.
Hand dyed silk depicts the redbud trees in front of our house and the various streets we have lived on are silkscreened on to the background. Hand stitching, hand quilting 28.5” x 46.5”
"How beautiful when it rains, you can hear the nighttime sing."
"Sometimes with the wrong key, the door unlocks."
"May we lose all sense of time, may we be patient as a stone."
Lyrics by David Wax
photo transfer on fabric, dyed silk organza, hand stitched text, quilted and mounted on cradle board
Background fabric is kantha stitched silk collected in India. Figure is free motion machine stitched on muslin, quilted with a hand-embroidered border.
Background fabric is kantha stitched silk collected in India. Figure is free motion machine stitched on muslin, quilted with a hand-embroidered border. This piece received an Honorable Mention award at the Missouri Fiber Artists exhibit at the Foundry in St Charles, Missouri in November, 2017.
Over-dyed, screen printed background, textile paint, hand embroidery, micron pen writing, tea-dyed gauze, hand quilted
I created this piece for my son's wedding. The silk organza was hand dyed and stitched together in the style of korean bojagi. It was 4 feet wide by 22 feet long. The design was inspired by the stained glass in the chapel where I was married. Eero Saarinen designed the chapel on the Stephens College campus in the late 1950's and he also designed the St. Louis Arch.
Chuppah is displayed in a show at the Davis Art Gallery at Stephens College.
I love moonflowers and have finally learned how to grow them each year. This piece was a part of the project "Pairings" and my partner was Judy Cobillas from St Louis. The work evolved out of meeting with Judy over the period of a year in which time we each created a piece and also did a collaborative piece. The media is needle-felted wool on canvas. This medium was new to me and involved a learning curve and some very sore shoulders. I based the piece on a photo I took of my own moonflower.
These are the three pieces together in a show at William Woods College in Fulton, Missouri. Judy Cobillas created the sunflower using wool roving and the top piece is the collaboration.
Completed in Jan of 2023, this quilt was pieced by machine and machine quilted by me. The niece this was created for had already turned three so I made it larger than a baby quilt. 50” x 50” square
Always add a quilt label on the back!
Shibori dyed fabric, hand embroidered sections, rust dyed cotton border.
Rusted dish towel from Mexican market, stamped with paint and embroidered, quilted.
Inspired by walks in Minneapolis, this piece is constructed of lashed twigs, lokta paper with oil stick embellishments and embroidery. Rocks were collected along the shore of Lake Superior.
Dyed flat reed, lokta paper, collaged elements including father's original drawings and writings, twine, waxed linen.
stamped cotton, silk organza, embroidery for Missouri Fiber Artists Conference "Currents"
Stamped cotton, dyed silk organza, embroidery, machine quilting
dyed silk organza, stitching, machine quilted
vintage quilt block, dyed cotton and silk, ink-jet printed text, stamped with textile ink, hand embroidered
Vintage quilt block, dyed silk and cotton, stamped with textile inks, ink-jet printed text, hand embroidered details
vintage quilt block, dyed cotton and silk, ink-jet printed text, stamped with textile ink, hand embroidered
vintage quilt block, dyed cotton and silk, ink-jet printed text, stamped with textile ink, hand embroidered
vintage quilt block, dyed cotton and silk, ink-jet printed text, stamped with textile ink, hand embroidered
Hand-stitched bee
oil stick rubbings on cotton, felt, yarn, embellishments, stitching for Missouri Fiber Artists Conference "Resurgence"
oil stick rubbings on cotton, felt, yarn, embellishments, stitching for Missouri Fiber Artists Conference "Resurgence"
oil stick rubbings on cotton, felt, yarn, embellishments, stitching for Missouri Fiber Artists Conference "Resurgence"
oil stick rubbings on cotton, felt, yarn, embellishments, stitching for Missouri Fiber Artists Conference "Resurgence"
oil stick rubbings on cotton, felt, yarn, embellishments, stitching for Missouri Fiber Artists Conference "Resurgence"
Coiled basket using waxed linen on wire filled paper cord.
reed and knotted hog gut, waxed linen
Hog gut, reed, ephemera inclusions, free motion stitching
The zipper directions were written in my mother's hand, discovered this in her 1949 Singer sewing book.
In this box, I have collected and created memorabilia from Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. I collected original postcards from the early 1900’s that showed images of the lake and made a book where the front and back of the postcard could be displayed. I illustrated an accordion book which depicted the band shells that were built at the lake since about 1880. I included a bike bell, and a street car token that belonged to my mother. My parents were engaged at the Beard’s Plaisance parking lot on the lake which is one of the oldest parks in the Twin Cities. Many happy memories are recalled when I think about Lake Harriet and its importance in my life even though I no longer live in Minneapolis.
I recently added four pages to this book begun in 2019 as a part of the Missouri Fiber Artists Contemplations Book Project. The book was shown at the Bunker Center for the Arts in Kansas City in the summer of 2022.
The cover of the cloth book called Album. Repurposed fabric, hand-pieced, hand-stitched and hand-quilted.
Missouri map printed on cotton lawn, transparent silk-organza layers, embroidered map that Harvey sketched for his work around Missouri. He would refer to these little maps on index cards before GPS was available. All of these elements are layered on a repurposed linen napkin.
Using linen purchased at Ingebretson’s in Minneapolis, I designed and stitched a sampler with this meaningful proverb after a particularly hard year, 2018. I used to love to do this tiny cross-stitch and enjoyed finding fabric from my stash that was at least 40 years old.
I found these photo booth images in an envelope among my mother’s things. Another treasure is her leather notebook that she carried in high school, college and graduate school. I scanned everything, printed it on fabric and appliqued the notebook over the photos. The lace border was also hers. She loved to learn and she also loved hats.
Jonah Gabriel Wax is our first grandchild. He drew this dragon when he was five. Printed on silk organza and embellished.
When I was one, I received this hand-made and hand-smocked dress from my Aunt Marietta Anderson. It was loved and saved all of these years and now photographed and printed on cloth in black and white, though it was originally a pale yellow. Embellished with embroidery.
My dad was a lover of nature and it shows in his sketches from a high school biology course. His handwriting from a report about natural resources is behind drawings which I printed on organza and hand stitched.
This rather crooked house represents our family with a phase of the moon over our house, one for each family member. Dedicated to Harvey, Benjamin, David and Jonathan.
Our granddaughter wrote this page in her journal after visiting the University of Missouri sunflower field in the summer of 2020. The sunflowers were photos we took that evening, embellished with free motion embroidery over organza. Calliope Ruth Wax was six years old.
completed in 2022
Chloe Jeannette Wax created this drawing when she was being homeschooled (by me) during the pandemic of 2020. Her favorite animal to draw is a cat and she was seven years old.
completed in 2022
Another art lover, Mosey Wax drew his version of a dinosaur when he was five years old. I hand embroidered over his very colorful crayon marks. The dots underneath were painted when we did a zoom art class one day. Moses Quixote Wax lives in Virginia.
completed in 2022
These hand outlines belong to my sons from about the age of five or six. The handwriting inside is also theirs. Near each hand is a self-portrait figure they made on the first day of first grade. Jonathan on the left, David in the center and Benjamin on the right. Ben is holding a basketball and has muscles. Some musical notes by Ben are included as is fabric from one of my mother’s scarves and other vintage fabrics.
completed in 2022
The blue city
Tile on front of Royal Palace in Fes.
One summer night, 7/31/22, I took this photo by my favorite lake at 9:30 PM. Love the moon peaking out above the wings of the clouds.
In January of 2017 I found an Instagram project that inspired me to participate. Instructions were to stitch a little bit each day this year. I chose some black linen to work on and found a hoop I thought would be fun to use. I haven't taken a photo each day but have made some progress. The best part has been checking in with other stitchers to see what they are doing. It is always inspiring. The project is #365 days of stitching.
This is the completed piece from the online project. Mounted in an embroidery hoop I painted black and backed with black felt. This piece received a 2nd Place Prize in Fibers at the 59th Annual Boone County Art Show in Columbia, Missouri, October 2018.
A couple days before the Total Eclipse happened in Missouri, I started my interpretation of the event even though it had not occurred yet. The experience was fantastic and while my stitching doesn't look much like the real thing, it does bring that day back in my mind.
a larger view with the eclipse
In the summer of 2019 I decided to take my first traditional quilting class at Appletree Quilting Center. This is my first piece done under the instruction of Millie Kaiser and Marilyn Rowe. It was a delightful learning experience and was indeed a challenge. My having been a life-long sewer helped and working on my new Bernina was a plus, too. The hard part was being exact doing lots of measuring and keeping up with the homework. I loved working with the commercial fabrics and this collection is called “A Day in Paris.”
Adding the three borders was brilliant as we were taught to miter the corners.
On to my third traditional quilting class and this time I was introduced to Electric Quilt. Hours were spent on the computer learning to design, scan fabrics, play with various combinations and print out guideline pages for each block. Millie Kaiser taught this on line class and I loved learning the technology and many new block cutting techniques. The quilt top was machine quilted by Michelle Cecil on her new longarm (pattern Citrine) in her home. A great experience all around. The finished quilt is 62 3/4 “ x 80”.
Using a rather complicated pattern and extra silk taffeta fabric I had sewn with 45 years earlier, I created this doll dress for my granddaughter. The lace trim was also a remnant. After raising three sons, how wonderful to have a granddaughter who knows what she is looking for when it comes to doll clothes.
It took us a long time to look through the fabric bins and choose this cotton striped fabric for our latest collaboration.
