When she's not sewing, Martha finds inspiration in photography, puzzles, cooking, and dancing. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and daughter.

Artistic influences:

Amish Quilts

Beth Carney

James Christensen

Latter day Rennaissance painter with a remarkable imagination and a sense of humor to boot.

M. C. Escher

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

I saw an exhibition of these quilts at the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) in August 2005. What struck me most was the amount of time and artistic thought that went into these quilts, although the quilters were limited by time, money, and need. Jessie T. Pettway and Annie Mae Young, in particular, use color in interesting ways; Nettie Young's quilt "Milky Way" tricks the eye with its contrasts and composition.

Andy Goldsworthy

Sculptor of nature.

Michael James

His early work fascinated me when I first saw it at the Renwick Museum. It's a symphony of color, in which tints and hues flow through each other, changing each other in the process. Technically, his quilts are mind-boggling: it's impossible to tell by looking at the corners whether the straight or the curved lines were sewn first. In the 1990's, James started using a fabric printer to incorporate digital images, and his style changed dramatically.

Moroccan Tiles

William Morris

Preraphaelite painter, designer of textiles, and founder of the Kelmscott Press.

Hilary Scott

Surrealist sculptor.

Erin Wilson