My mother used to tell a story about tapdancing in a USO show. She would stand on her head and someone would hold a piece of wood above her feet. That story took place long before I was born, but Mom continued to turn everyday living upside down. In the absolute best ways.
Created as part of the 50 Golden Years celebration of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, this piece celebrates the 50 golden years I spent alongside my mother – and the way her life continues to influence my own.
- Materials: Upcycled fabrics including suede and lining from my mother’s coat, damask from one of her cocktail dresses (with her own hand hemming), fabric from thrifted dress, vintage linens and burlap remnant. Threads include Weeks Dye Works; DMC Painter’s Threads Collection, cotton perle and 25 floss; Olympus Sashiko. Photo transferred with Lesley Riley’s Transfer Art Paper.
- Techniques: (More complicated than it looks!) Stitched and beaded completely by hand (except hanging sleeve). Black and white vintage photo digitally colorized in Adobe PhotoShop then transferred to fabric using transfer art paper. Tapdancing leg image drawn using artificial intelligence on dreams.ai with prompt “black and white line drawing of woman’s legs, tap dancing, front view while wearing 1940s shorts” (then I turned it upside down). Corkscrew willow Christmas tree silhouette traced from freeze frame of digitized home movie of 1964 family Christmas.
- Dimensions: 18” w x 40” h
- Exhibitions:
2025 – Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, Central Oregon SAQA Special Exhibit “50 Golden Years,” Sisters, Oregon
2026 – 2028 – SAQA Washington, “Markings” exhibit, various venues, Washington State
