Kaleidoscope the very word promises surprise and magic, change and chance. Exploding with visual excitement, a kaleidoscopic design organizes an abundance of light and color, form and motion into a complex and coherent image. My goal is to harmoniously integrate the idea of a kaleidoscope with the techniques and materials of quiltmaking. I try to free myself from a conventional sense of fabric orderliness, seeking a random quality in order to imitate the succession of chance interlinkings and endless possibilities synonymous with kaleidoscopes.

I make quilts on the same block in the Bronx where I grew up. Being a New Yorker wrapped up in the fabric of city life creates an inherent paradox contrasting the traditional image of quiltmaking as part of a simple, make-do, rural way of life with my own
complex urban-shaped space.

Historians have suggested that the block-style method of quiltmaking evolved in response to the cramped quarters of early American life. My family’s living arrangement in an urban environment created similar considerations which, unwittingly, I resolved in much the same way. For over twenty years, my work space in our two bedroom apartment was the forty-inch round kitchen table. A long distance view, alternate space, or not making quilts were not options. I believe this reality merged with my personality and passion for fabric in shaping the direction of my kaleidoscopic piecework, causing me to rely on intricate detail and inherent symmetry, and to invent a shape that makes the most of limited space. My block style method is based on a pie-slice section.

Until I met quilts, I thought I was creative but not talented. To find something you love to do is a gift. To achieve recognition for it is a miracle. Whenever I got overwhelmed by a longing for functional space, complete with a door I could close, I tried to remember this.

Lives change shape. In 2003, the second bedroom of our apartment was transformed into a studio.

My quilts have been exhibited internationally, in solo exhibits mounted at the Museum of the American Quilters Society, at the Houston International Quilt Festival, and in Japan, as well as featured in television shows, online websites, books and magazines. One quilt was included in the “Twentieth Century’s 100 Best American Quilts” exhibit. I travel extensively teaching the kaleidoscopic quiltmaking techniques and design concepts explored in my books, Kaleidoscopes & Quilts, Snowflakes & Quilts and Puzzle Quilts: Simple Blocks, Complex Fabric. A recipient of fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 1995 and 2001 and from the Bronx Council on the Arts in 1996, I design textile prints exclusively for Benartex, Inc.