2009, 20” square, made using wools that were hand dyed, not by me. I had intended to use them for hooking, but thought them too nice to cut up. The small horse in the upper left is Arrow, my first horse, he is done in reverse appliqué, as he is on the other side, no longer with me. The other horse is Fifty/50. He wasn’t feeling well and I was afraid he was slowing entering the circle… once fully inside he would be gone as well. However, he rallied and was with me for another four years. I had both horses for 18+ years each and they both lived to be 32 and 33.

2008, 41” x 38”, this was my interpretation of a Native American piece to honor my horse. I used a full chamois I had purchased many many years before. Powdered paints colored around a cut out of my horse’s out line (Fifty/50) and along the edge of the chamois. I had 29 cuts of hair in metal cones to represent how old he was. In hindsight some of my choices may not have been wise… is it too much an appropriation? Do the hair bundles look too much like scalps? I did it to honor him and in appreciation of Native American art and the history of how the horse changed their lives.

2010, they are easily an inch around and rather bulky. I saw something like them in Vogue and thought to try knitting them with a pattern and beads with metallic looking yarn. Impractical and time consuming, but why not?

2013, 17” x 25”, I had a trunk of fabric that got musty and mildewed…. what a mess. Most I had to toss, but some I decided to wash and dry and see what was what. Some pieces came out looking rather interesting. I beaded an outline and embellished with feathers and horsehair.

2014, 30” square, I often make small knitted squares and strips just to see how a particular yarn or combination of yarns looks. Then I decide to join them together. I was pinning this together to seam up the last sections when I thought it looked interesting with little gaps between the pins… out came the cover your own buttons and it looks much more interesting.

2014, 20” square, in my restoration work I ended up with lots of paisley shawl remnants. I made a patchwork of squares from and of them… oh my what a lot of work that was, but I wasn’t satisfied, so I beaded in a cobweb in one of the corners. They were worn in the Victorian era, which was also when Crazy Quilts were popular and a cobweb was a regular embroidered design on those quilts.

2014, about 12” tall, I collect bones, feathers and shells when I go for a walk or ride. I got the idea to bundle them together.

2014, about 12” tall, I collect bones, feathers and shells when I go for a walk or ride. I got the idea to bundle them together. This one I still have which is why I know what the number is.

2014 , 8.5” x 12.5”, I love the soft blue in the shells and the fabric was some I’d saved when I had a trunk full of fabric that molded and mildewed… I saved some and rather like the damaged looks. I think these shells were gathered on Fire Island.

2014, 8” x 24”, shell shards worn so smooth that they are a delight to just rub between your fingers, gathered on Fire Island.

2011, 32” x 16”, while moving I came across canceled checks, so nice we don’t have those any more. I thought shredding them was the best way to go, but then I loved running my hands through the bag of shreds. Hmmm, what if I stitched them onto fabric? Let me use the colored checks for a design. This was around the horrid recession and the yellow is a giant question mark as so many had no idea what was going to happen. I then found some shredded dollar bills at a party store and wouldn’t they look cool hooked around the edge? All mounted in a lucite box as any bumping and rubbing (people always want to run their hands all over fiber work) would have caused them to fall off.