An intimate conversation
with the cloth.

Artist Statement

Cloth speaks to me.

For me as an artist, as a quilter, there is only one way to make art successful. And that is to have an intimate conversation with my fabric, the rotary cutter and the sewing machine. For in the tactile comfort of the cloth, the addition of unique markings, the roll of the cutter, the hum of the machine, I fall under the spell of the needle and thread.

I allow the fabric to transform itself into a playful, sometimes quiet narrative that may or may not be the result of my conscious or unconscious thoughts.

Biography

Peggy Black is a full-time textile studio artist in rural Jenner Township, Pennsylvania. Although she is a retired accountant, a sewing machine has been central to her life since the age of eight. As a 4-H leader, she has taught basic sewing and tailoring for more than 30 years.

In the mid-1990s she discovered the work of quilter Nancy Crow and began following her practice. In 2011 Peggy ventured to the Crow Barn Art Retreat Center to begin her studies into quiltmaking as art, and has studied with Nancy for more than ten years. Among other teachers who have shaped Peggy's journey are Lisa Call, Jan Myers-Newbury, Claire Benn and David Hornung.

She is an improvisational machine piecer creating original art without using rulers or measurements. Rhythm and repetition, as well as abstract line patterning, are at the core of her designs. In recent years she has been dyeing her own fabrics using wringer washers and MX dyes, and works in surface design with thickened dyes, screenprinting, paper lamination, monoprinting and shibori. Most recently, she has begun designing fiber art with earth pigments.

In 2017, Peggy was honored to receive Best of Show at Quilt National '17 at The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio. She received Best of Show at Biennial 2020, a regional multi-media show, and has earned Awards of Excellence and Honorable Mentions at Quilt Art Elements (Wayne Art Center, PA), Form, Not Function (Carnegie Center, IN), and Quilts=Art=Quilts (Schweinfurth Art Center, NY). Her work appears in several private collections.

Peggy serves on the Gallery Committee at Laurel Arts in Somerset, PA.