Welcome To Dark Heart Quilts!

One of my favorite lap quilts.

I’ve always been romanced by darkness.  Halloween is my favorite time of the year, and I adore the art and fiesta colors from Day of the Dead festivities.  Over the past twenty-plus years, I’ve collected hundreds of fabrics, many of them reflecting and expanding on this taste: Goth patterns, glow in the dark accents, and skulls, SKULLS, SKULLS!

I’ve acquired other fabrics that relate to Day of the Dead, but also anything I thought was interesting or just plain fun: motorcycles, Madonnas, cars, food and drink, work, play, handcuffs, caution tape, Frida, and fireworks just to name a few.  These fabrics found their way into my designs.  And at that moment, my quilts transcended any one holiday.  They became a style of their own.

They became Dark Heart Quilts.

My process begins with a single image from my collection - a color, a pattern, a character.  That piece, usually about 8-12 inches, becomes the feature pattern of my quilt.  From there, I stitch together everything that feature reminds me of, using smaller pieces from ½ inch to 4 inches.  I repeat the process with another feature piece, then often another, surrounding each with a kind of controlled randomness and advancing scale.  What thrills me is the moment these pieces come together, forming a new and unique Dark Heart Quilt.

A touch of Edgar Allan Poe.

What I like about this approach is the flexibility it affords.  My work often takes a mind of its own, sometimes ending up as a queen sized quilt, other times a lap quilt, or even a placemat.  The only thing that remains the same are the dimensions of the various pieces themselves.  Each small quilt takes between two weeks to a month to complete with larger projects taking longer.  And every quilt is unique, a journey to a destination that I need not revisit.  Because of this, no two quilts are exactly alike.

Any quilt can be hung or displayed on a wall.  But Dark Heart Quilts are as sturdy as they are beautiful and soft, designed to be used, examined, and enjoyed on a favorite bed or couch.  Each piece is infinitely explorable.  Just as no two quilts are alike, no two viewers will see them quite the same way.  Different pieces will jump out at you that others may not notice.  Little details, like skulls I’ve appliqued on a donkey or the machine-stitched pattern in the quilt.

Each quilt is also a tribute to my heritage.  A favorite and constant element in my quilts is a reference to my home state of California, often using bright colors that light up a room - or a moment.

But most of all, you will see the passion and pride I take in my work in each Dark Heart Quilt!