Quilt and Fiber Artist Profile

Gina is a self taught fiber artist.  She has developed a traditional craft in unique ways. Color and simple shapes drive the quilt making process. Using her own hand dyed fabrics, she combines traditional techniques and patterns in bright and vivid contemporary expressions.

Gina creates visual and emotional impressions in her fiber art by allowing a relationship between various fabrics to emerge. The stunning results of various dyeing and sewing techniques energize
the direction each art work takes.

Gina’s artwork hangs in private collections from London to New York to California.

Quilt Show Prize Winner

Winner at Dallas Quilt Celebration 1997

Featured Artist

2005 Sedona, AZ, Sedona Art & Architecuture Home Show

Featured Publications

PHOENIX HOME & GARDEN, May 2005

AMERICAN STYLE, October 2005

QUILT ART '98 Engagement Calendar

Arts Associations

Executive Member Sedona Art & Architecture Home Tour (2002-2006)

Member Arizona Commission for the Arts (2005 -2008)

Member Young Arts Arizona

Reference

“The colors are so vibrant, one’s eye is mesmerized.”
Eva Birkner, California artist represented in

TRANSLATING  PERSONAL GROWTH INTO SPECTACULAR QUILTS

Kudos Article, by Tracey Moore

When Gina’s first son was born, she made a quilt. It was 1977 and well before the explosion of interest in quilts and the incredibly wide array of quilting supplies which are taken for granted now. Back then, she followed traditional methods, used conventional patterns and bought whatever fabric was available for quilting. She devoured books on quilting and its history. She analyzed various techniques and historical features of quilting. Gina made a lot of quilts and gave most of them away.

After a number of years, her talent and imagination outgrew those limitations. She began to study the subtleties of color and the art of dyeing fabric for her quilting. Blending all these wonderful colors on a crisp piece of new white cotton was exhilarating. Now her work is ever-changing as she reacts to what happens around her.  By constantly experimenting with dyeing methods and fabric treatments, more ideas come. Mistakes count too.

Gina enjoys the aesthetic pleasures of quilting, from the tactile feel of various types of fabric to the musical rhythm of the sewing machine. She says she cannot resist the lure of bold, vivid color in big splashy areas, especially when hung vertically on a wall.  However she believes in the strong discipline of excellent sewing skills and technique and their fundamental relation to the basic concepts of art. Fleeting novelties and embellishments such as attaching found objects, buttons, twigs or photos have no appeal.

The Friendship quilt came about when Gina found some African inspired fabric. All the pieces were cut free hand, (no rulers). First she made quite a number of “focal” patches and then arranged them on her design wall, adding filler pieces until she was satisfied with the whole. It is hand quilted with one quarter inch stitches using yarn. This technique gives the quilt a primitive look.
Solar Flare is made completely with Gina’s hand dyed fabric, including the backing. The spacial forms on the quilt are enhanced by the meandering style of machine quilting. It makes the quilt seem deeper, more intriguing. The quilting stitches and style are chosen to enhance the look of the hand dyed fabric and the quilt’s design.

Gina also paints with dye directly onto white cotton. She uses very finely woven mercerized broadcloth. Mercerized describes the twist and finish of the cotton threads. It is her favorite cotton so she buys it in 50 yard bolts. The dyes “take” better and so the colors are brighter and deeper.

Gina uses Fiber Reactive cold water process dyes. These dyes were developed almost 50 years ago. They produce colors which are as permanent as is possible when the fabric is given proper care and respect. The dye molecules permanently bond with the fiber molecules but don’t affect the feel of the cloth. The colors remain vivid over time.

Gina’s very dear friend, the late Ruth Birkner, encouraged her to begin making more quilts and to sell them.  Ruth and her husband Larry bought Allegria. Ruth’s mother-in-law, Eva Birkner is a California artist represented in the Smithsonian and the Museum of Contemporary Craft in New York City. Eva has said, “Gina has taken an art form which has been used since the 14th century and brought it into the 21st century. Her designs are so unique that abstract thoughts become a reality. The colors are so vibrant that one’s eye is mesmerized.”

Gina owns and operates Quilts4U.

You can also visit Gina’s Contemporary Quilt Art Forum at
www.contemporaryquiltart.org