Through studying art for a couple of years, I learnt a great deal about colour and design and worked in different mediums painting, screen printing, glass and metal. When I left college I started working with fabric, enjoying its tactile qualities and unlimited colours. I joined the Northern Ireland Patchwork Guild and the Irish Patchwork Society and found exciting things happening in the world of fabric. I also learnt from doing workshops and lectures. I have taken numerous classes with quilt makers I admire learning different techniques and see the way they work.

I get inspiration from the world around, taking photographs and keeping a day journal of magazine collages that stretches the mind. I need the challenge of working to a deadline. I have exhibited work in my own country and in Europe, U.S.A and Japan. I belong to a contemporary group called Quilt Art and sometimes working for a theme makes me design something I would never have thought of before.

Recently I started working on a series based on the spiral, an old Celtic symbol found on ancient stones here in Ireland. It is a very therapeutic symbol to work with and it has made me develop and find a method of working which I find very satisfying. This work is based on layering fabric, cutting and layering again. I also use fusing as part of the method. This way of working helps me play with colour and shape in a contemporary way. The other way I work it is as if I am drawing, by using fused fabric as free cut collage and machine stitching. There may be a very vague idea which develops as the work progresses, but nothing is really planned. Going with the flow is much more exciting.

I travel to Nepal about twice a year to buy my beautiful coloured fabric and I also teach the local women patchwork.