The first of my Noisy Flowers quilts was never a flower at all.

It was, like most of my artwork, based on a memory.
This was my attempt to capture a moment where my kids were in a pool in Costa Rica and they were all happy. It was one of those fathomless moments that I call “unspeakable joy” and I felt like I was desperate to find a way to capture the feeling in a piece of art.

Up to that point as an artist, I had really only used painting, drawing and collage, and I had spent the last 10 years learning how to quilt, but the two practices (art vs quilting) had not combined.
I got this idea, and contacted a friend who sent me middle of the night, tutorial videos on how to handle some of the intense curves that I was attempting. (Thanks @latifahsaafirstudios )
Once I made that first piece, I realized I was on the edge of a whole new journey. My trajectory changed.

This first one was made in the blues of the swimming pool that you can see in the photo below, but following my initial experiments, I ended up obsessing over the thousands of shades of green that were also in my memories from Costa Rica.

I’ll never sell the original piece. My husband asked for it, and it lives in our home in a place of honor in the living room.

This last image is a picture of an edition that I made by digitally printing the original and stitching into it before mounting it onto board. It’s kind of a cool way to make a reproduction and all of my years as a corporate textile designer gave me a picky eye for surface design, so I feel like it’s a pretty cool way to have a version that’s available. (It is, by the way, available- and super affordable, too. Feel free to ask if you’re curious. It’s under $500)

Also. The name “Noisy Flowers” is actually from this song which I played on repeat the summer I started making these. It was less about florals and more about rambunctious joy.