The Artistic Process

The process to create Mixed Media Fiber Art can take me several weeks or months depending on its complexity.

Sew Unique Art is mixed media fiber art created through a series of steps from using:

  • painting techniques on fabric for backgrounds
  • free motion hand embroidery, hand appliqué, or free motion machine drawing for the subject matter
  •  hand embellishing with specialty threads, silk ribbons, and beads to give it details

Throughout my life, I resonated with art, fibers and storytelling, but never imagined myself as creative.  In my forties, I decided to take some art and quilting classes finding them challenging, as I tried to master their techniques, and although they were somewhat enjoyable, and very much a learning experience, they did not captivate my attention.

Then I came upon a crazy quilt class (a crazy quilt is a patchwork of fabrics of randomly varying sizes, shapes, and colors embellished with various embroidery stitches, threads, or beads).  It was through this crazy quilt class that I awoke to my own creativity, and it changed the way I viewed life. In the class, the instructor taught us about the fibers, fabrics, and basic stitches that are used to make up a crazy quilt, but her moment of teaching genius was when she instructed us to create our own designs.  I had never been told to create anything from my imagination.  I was shocked that it was possible, and then surprised, that I could.

I began to explore the art of crazy quilting.  I found books on how to embellish a crazy quilt. I taught myself some intricate embellish stitches to design my class crazy quilt.  When I had finished it reflected a scene of an ocean reef with a beach, and it felt like I was telling a story of one of my favorite places growing up.  This challenge brought out a passion within me to stitch scenes of places that captivated my heart, and artistically I wanted to share them with everyone.  It was the beginning of my creative journey.

Contact Me

In 2007, I started Sew Unique Art, to be able to showcase my fiber art, teach about my craft, and share this wonderous journey of creative expression with hopes of inspiring others to explore their creativity.

I currently have a home studio in Edwardsville, Illinois where my imagination is allowed to roam, and create art that expresses the beauty that I sees in the world.