Greensboro, AL is known as the Catfish Capital of the World, but as technologies evolve and food sources change, many of these catfish ponds are drained or abandoned as livelihoods are forced to shift. This quilt uses a traditional log cabin block to depict the landscape surrounding the city, dotted with catfish ponds. The fabric in these pieces was dyed using goldenrod and indigo, all from Greensboro.

Many traditional handwork techniques are designed to hide the fact that the human hand was involved at all, as mechanical perfection has historically been a standard of excellence. A lot of my work is about calling attention to handwork, so I often have to reverse these traditional handwork techniques. In this detail of About Being Spent, I have reversed the ties of the quilt so that the long tails and bold crosses can be seen on the front of the piece, so there is no illusion of just what is holding the landscape together.

The patchwork technique used in this piece is known as Manx patchwork, which has its origins on the Isle of Mann. The size of each component in the patchwork is based off the actual maker's hand and fingers, making each block a completely unique reflection of the maker. Combining the personalized scale with natural dye materials grown from seed by me, I have really come to view this work as a self-portrait.

The large central component is a screenprint on rust dyed fabric, dyed similar to how fabrics were dyed for my pine burr quilt. The bottom section features additional Manx patchwork, configured to the size of my hand. Natural dyes featured include sumac, madder, indigo, marigold, and black walnut.