I first discovered art quilts on a trip to the Dairy Barn in Athens, Ohio in 2013 for the Annual National Quilt exhibit that year. Much impressed by this new (to me) art form, I started quilting. At first, I was interested in building my fabric stash with fabric designers I was discovering, including some favorites such as Luella Doss and many of the Westminster Fabrics artists (Amy Butler, Martha Negley, Dan Bennett, Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably). Some fabric designs I like are on Pinterest. (link) I wanted to make my quilts more personal, however, so I started adding original pieces printed 8 ½ x 11 on cotton and silk fabrics with an Epson inkjet printer. This was soon too limiting, so I learned to upload digital image files to Spoonflower.com (link) which enabled me to print my own designs on as much fabric as needed. Now I could generate enough fabric to sew my own designs into custom T shirts, and quilted jackets, as well as print more yardage for quilt backs. My first forays into T shirt design used a drawing done in art class of noses, mouths, eyes and ears, and some pen, and ink drawings I had done over the years of a variety of reptiles.
