Pelican Quilts Journal - June 2026

June 2026 -Volume 4, Issue 6

For quilt lovers and creatives of all kinds — quilts in progress and visual studies to cultivate aesthetic literacy for everyday life.

My focus this month is a quilt I’ve had on the back burner for a few years. I still love the idea, but the design isn’t quite there yet. his issue follows the visual research I'm doing to understand why—from colonial gravestone carving to broader American folk art—and how that research is reshaping the quilt. As always, I've included a few notes from the studio and the parts of my life that continue to shape the work.

• Orienting my Practice to Summer - Behind the Scenes in my Studio

• Awake Under the Quilt: Menopause, Adolescence, and the Work of Cloth

• Field Notes on Yellow Natural Dye: A Yellow Surprise from my Dye Lab

• Pelican Quilts Journal - May 2026

Examining the motifs that shape the quilt.

I drew the winged skull from an eighteenth-century New England gravestone for this quilt. Then I added other imagery but something felt off. The more I looked at it, the more I realized I had drawn from too many disconnected visual references. The winged skull is part of a visual language that I wasn’t paying attention to. These winged skulls come from an American Folk Art tradition from the 18th century. I want to pull from this tradition to work out the rest of the motifs on this piece.

Each skilled workshop had their own unique twist on the central motif. They would add curling scrollwork, rosettes, vines, geometric borders, and beautifully lettered inscriptions. Looking through old cemeteries, you could try to recognized specific workshop styles or eras based on the central motif and the style. Over time, the stark winged skull softened into cherubs and soul effigies, and later gave way to urns beneath weeping willow trees. Here are some samples of some of my favorites.

Looking beyond the quilt to build a visual vocabulary.

The winged skull at the center of this quilt comes from early New England gravestone carving, but I don’t want the quilt to draw from gravestones alone. I'm trying to build a broader visual language rooted in American folk art. Tramp art, folded letters, and samplers all come from roughly the same period and share a vocabulary of simple geometric forms and repeated motifs that translate naturally into quilt design. Together, they feel like they belong to the same visual world.

I’m also starting to collect ideas for a few blue projects. I keep looking at these great wallpapers. I love the different tones of blue and the accent colors with these. It’s definitely the vibe I’m leaning into.

This month has felt like the beginning of a reset. New machine, new linen, and new ideas. This will be blending into the rest of June as I focus on drawing and solving problems with quilt projects that I want to get to.

I have started sewing the strips together for what I’m starting to think of as the Shimmer Quilt. I posted a picture of it on social media and I got so many comments about how it shimmers. The small differences in tones and colors give the feeling of the light playing around the surface.

I started a little local quilt group with some friends where we actually work on quilt ideas, quilting, and talking about quilts. I brought out my white star quilt and we talked it over till I actually had a solution for how to move forward. I won’t be taking it all apart, but I will be making some big changes. I’m excited to show these in the next few weeks.

My color shelves are getting low. I need to restock linen. About a year and a half ago I bought 30 yards of linen and I have used the majority of it. I ordered from two different sources and I’ll be sharing more about it and the colors I have planned over this next month.

This last couple weeks have been filled with some fun and some hard aspects of parenting. Both have taken up most of my free time. I have been doing a lot of extra support for end of year schoolwork to get one child through.

My oldest child has two more years at home and for her birthday she requested a glam room make over. It took up most of the time I typically use on quilting. The silver walls took 6 coats, I used fabric paint on a cheap old chair, added a dark grey rug and some of the requested posters and animal print bedding.