Kay’s Art

These quilts and wall hangings tell stories with fabric, thread, embellishments, and other mixed media.

If you like these, also check out my inspirational wall-hangings.

Kay’s Art

Price Range: Varies

 

Blue Men of Alexandria

June, 2006

19.5” x 31”

$400

 

This piece, “The Blue Men of Alexandria,” was juried into an Art League show at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia in June, 2006 and into the Alexandria Festival of the Arts in September, 2006.  (For info on my participation in these events, see my Schedule and Events section).  At its base are photographs that I took all around the streets and water of Old Town Alexandria, plus assorted fabrics for good measure.  They are all layered together and affixed either with free motion quilting or with acrylic gel medium.

 

Christmas Bowl

December, 2005

14” x 10” by 4”

Not for Sale.

 

This is a bowl I made for my world-traveling mother for Christmas.  Most of the fabric is a portrait from a Mozambican “fancy print,” a genre of fabric design in Africa that features political figures, slogans, and logos in huge designs that look more like billboards than wearable fabric.  This politician’s platform must have included agrarian reform or food distribution, because his face was framed with huge ears of corn, as shown on the back.

 

In the midst of all this fun, I have also worked in a few photographs of my step-sisters and other family members.  The free motion quilting features a funky blue metallic fabric to add to the emotion.

 

 

 

Preacher

April, 2006

14” x 17”

$200. 

 

A photo in the Washington Post inspired this linoleum cut print years ago.  The picture was of a minister leading his flock through a crisis in their Maryland church.  I recently printed the block with acrylic paint on upholstery fabric (with another print on sheer fabric in the lower left corner) and built the rest of the quilt around it.  Materials include upholstery prints and woven fabrics, Indian metallic fabric, a used dryer sheet, vintage buttons, and metallic and cotton thread.

 

 

© 2006 by Fiber of Her Being, LLC.  All rights reserved.

When you commission a custom item from Fiber of Her Being, you can pay directly with check or cash, or you can use a major credit card and pay online through PayPal. 

Run a Mile in Her Shoes

August, 2006

14”x 14”

$180. 

 

I made this piece for Girls Gotta Run, a nonprofit organization that raises money to support the education and athletic training of young girls in Ethiopia. The organization’s goal is to give Ethiopian girls a viable alternative to early marriage.   

 

The piece features lino cut prints and quilted fabric photographs of my feet.  The shoes featured have each been important in certain times in my life.

 

See the Schedule and Events section for information about my participation in the Girls Gotta Run art sales and other events.

Butterflies

May, 2006

40” x 60”

$300

 

This quilt features three sets of prints of a linoleum cut triptych.  I made the lino cut several years ago after visiting a butterfly sanctuary in Maryland.  For years I had a paper version of this piece in my office when I was practicing law.  It reminded me that I was an artist, too.  When I quit that job, it was a celebration to make a corresponding quilt for this new phase of my life.

 

 

Watch Us Grow

June, 2006

Approx. 30” x 60”

$300

 

The photographs for this quilt come from Arlington’s Courthouse neighborhood.  I was impressed how Arlington was attempting to balance its rapid urban growth with trees and plants.  As the buildings grow to the sky, so do the rows of new trees and flowers. 

 

A parking lot right by these buildings is where my husband and I first kissed.  We had to stop making out in the car because we saw a police car drive up.  That’s just like I had to stop taking photos of the court house for this piece when a post-9/11-era policeman asked me what I was doing “hiding in the bushes” with a camera.

 

The photos and lettering in this piece were printed onto fabric either directly with an ink-jet printer, or onto a transparency sheet and then transferred to the fabric with acrylic gel medium.  I then combined the photos with other fabric in a collage and put them all together with gel medium and metallic thread.

Angel

July, 2006

Approx. 13” x 17” with frame

$200

 

This piece is an acrylic print of the first lino cut I ever made, back in 1999.  It is printed onto sheer light blue fabric, and torn squares of Indian silk show through the light spots from underneath.  I stitched along the outline of the print with a free-motion quilting stitch with gold metallic thread, sewed red glass beads on the lady’s wings, and painted gold circles and a border on the print.

 

In the detail below, you can see paint, thread, beads, and the different layers of fabric.

 

 

Blue

April, 2006

20” x 20”

$200. 

 

This is one of my favorite pieces, even though it has a sad theme.  It is made with a lino cut, printed onto a used dryer sheet with acrylic paint.  From there I have added various fabrics in a collage, and stitched over the lino cut and some of the flowers with metallic thread in a free-motion stitch.  The little brown house is made with polymer clay. 

 

This ended up being a piece of art to express feelings of loss.  It follows a divorce from the family, thus the “I miss her” message stitched in red.  I think that message renders this piece a little too melancholy to ever be sold.  Of course, if you want it...

 

 

Portrait of a Home Town

November, 2006

30” x 42”

$400

 

At the base of this collage are photos of nine of the founding houses of Huntsville, Texas.  Most of the pictures were featured on antique postcards.  I scanned them into the computer then printed them onto treated cotton sheets.  I then enhanced their colors with colored pencils and quilted the rest of the collage around them.  Note that the center bottom house is the president’s house of Sam Houston State Teachers’ College (now Sam Houston State University) and the house in the bottom left corner belonged to General Sam Houston, one of Huntsville’s most famous sons, the first President of the Republic of Texas.   Sam Houston earned the name “The Raven” when he lived for a while among the local Native American population, so a raven flies at the top right of the picture.  The red printed border alludes to the quilt medium itself, and how quilting has been used for generations to capture and interpret personal histories.

Portrait of a Home Town (detail)

A collage made for a cardiac nurse who loves Mother Teresa, full moons, and birds of paradise.  Not for Sale.