Painted Stitches
Temperanceville, PA
Website

Donna is an avid quilter who has been sewing since she was 12, inheriting her love for quilts from her mother’s Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors. Inspired by their work, Donna started quilting 40 years ago. In 1997, she began to explore ‘surface design’ techniques in fiber and to incorporate them into her quilts, resulting in “Art Quilts”… quilted wall hangings that, from a distance, look like traditional painted art. Each piece starts as an original acrylic painting on a canvas of cotton. Raw edge piecing gives texture and thread sketching enhances detail while adding color. Stitching through the layers creates highlights on the loft as well as subtle shadows in the valleys. Using brightly bold colors or softly muted shades, she loves to interpret the beauty that she finds in nature. Donna and her husband, Derry, live on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, in Temperanceville near Chincoteague and Assateague Islands, where her work is inspired by the natural beauty of the area.

Donna teaches, lectures, and exhibits her work throughout the northeast and mid-Atlantic region, participating in national quilt shows as well as local art/craft events. She is a three-time winner in Quilting Arts Magazine’s annual calendar contest (2005, 2006, 2008) and a 2007 winner of their Judge’s Choice Award. Donna was honored to win a blue ribbon at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival for Best Wall Quilt in 2012. She also won ribbons at MAQF for Best Pictorial Quilt in 2013 and Judge’s Choice in 2014. In 2015 she won an Honorable Mention Ribbon at the Denver National Quilt Show, and in 2016 February she won a third-place ribbon for her entry at MAQF.

Donna is a juried member of the Artisans Center of Virginia, a juried member of the Eastern Shore Artisan’s Guild, and a member of Virginia’s Eastern Shore Artisan’s Trail.