Most of the pieces you see here are made by cutting shapes of fabric and collaging them in a “crazy quilt” or “mosaic” style, to a cotton canvas base. Kirsten uses the sewing machine to piece it all together with “free-motion machine embroidery”. This is a technique that allows her to use the speed of the sewing machine, while moving the fabric in any direction. The sewing machine becomes a drawing tool, or a tool for “painting with thread.”

Once the initial design is pieced together, she adds hand embroidery stitches (she is especially fond of the French knot), and a technique called “couching”, where yarns and decorative threads are sewn to the surface using small stitches.

Traditional quilts have a filling or batting, which gives dimension, but Kirsten likes to work on a flat surface and build the layers.

Planning and designing now play a large part in her work, but there are still many moments of spontaneity along the way.