I hand piece, hand appliqué and hand quilt science/art quilts based on plot points of tidal ranges on a given day, specifically along the coast of the North Shore of Maui, where I live. The quilts I design and construct are for beds and they range from 6x7 feet to 4x4 feet.

When I began to research tides five years ago, I had no idea that my curiosity would be insatiable. 

My most recent work is a twelve part Quilt Series based on Tide levels affected by Earth’s rotation, as well as its position to the Moon and Sun… and about four hundred other factors.  When I began this study, the first quilt I made was a depiction of a tide chart, slightly abstracted.  Sixteen quilts later, my most recent quilt explores amphidromic circulation as well as my evolving understanding of the equilibrium theory of tides and the dynamic theory of tides. Each quilt in my series represents a deepening of my understanding. 

Though I use my computer for research I use no machines to make my quilts. I machine pieced the first few, but when my machine broke I was liberated into the slow and very gratifying life of all hand sewing.  My original designs, in the form of sketches as well as my slow-sewing, is my own form of resistance to the tsunami of technology and our growing addiction to bigger, better, faster.  Connecting to the ancient dance of the Moon, Sun and Earth’s oceans-a dance as old as our solar system- by creating original designs sewn by hand, feels like my way of paying homage to the very real history of our collective home: Earth and her Ocean. 

I call the body of work consisting of twelve quilts, “Amplitude and Frequency I-XII”
 

The fifth Tide Quilt in the series depicts the equilibrium theory of tides.  The top is the sun- the middle the moon- and the bottom the earth.  Embroidery shows: The orbit of the moon around earth and the earth around sun; the symbol of water as wave shows the bulge of earth's oceans in relation to the sun and moon. In the case of this Quilt, the moon and sun are in syzygy--it is the twenty four hours of the new moon phase.  There is an embroidered symbol on earth as seen from above the North Pole that represents Maui.  On the static quilt you will see the time of day next to that symbol.  Different times in the 24+-hour day surround earth showing the revolution of earth in that time period of one day.  Also depicted are the high and low tide levels in that day, corresponding to the bulge of earths oceans.  You will see these in the graph form displayed with red fabric denoting the two high and two low tides that day, which also corresponds to the axis point on the left showing the zero, one foot, two foot and three foot points.  The quilting lines radiating out from the sun, earth and moon denote the gravitational waves which interact in the form of a shared barycenter which pulls earths waters towards the moon (and sun), creating the tide level changes throughout the day as earth rotates on its axis while the bulge remains steady and relatively fixed. All this is according to the equilibrium theory of tides and my well meaning interpretation and artistic expression of this theory in the form of a Quilt.