She learned to sew as a child through the 4-H program and later honed those skills as a costume design major at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota. “That’s where I learned to dye fabric,” she recalls. After earning a master’s degree in studio art, she began selling her hand-dyed, stamped, silk-screened, and painted fabrics in boutiques. A neighbor introduced her to quilting.

   “The quilts I make often document my own life,” she says. “My current landscape series tells of the places I’ve lived and the colorful fields, rivers, and trees found there.”

Sisters II
(a) began with a sketch. “My father was a farmer, so I have an affinity for the land,” Laura says. “I also have an affinity for my four sisters. This quilt is my homage to both.” She never follows a pattern, preferring to free-cut with sharp scissors or a rotary cutter.

Young Forest
(b) “My work is improvisational,” Laura says. This silk and cotton quilt was inspired by a plane ride over the fields of southern Wisconsin. She uses a technique called fusing, in which a dry glue is placed on the back of fabric and activated by the heat of an iron. “It gives me the freedom to create any image I want.”

top stitch archive »