Aullwood: Kathleen Irons Sweeney

Kathleen Irons Sweeney is a quilter after my own heart. Her pieces are deep--thickly laden with texture. Multiple layers of unusual fabrics, manipulated in order to give the essence of the texture of tree bark, highlighted with with gems.

Notice how her pieces, for the most part, are not contained, but continue off the edge. This piece is called Into the Wood, and I'm afraid my picture doesn't do it justice. It was over my head and in an alcove making for a very tough shot.

This is Shaded Glen. In it, Kathleen employs tulle and other sheers in order to create the ghostly tree shapes in the background. The tree itself is made of a very odd sort of fabric---similar to ones I find in the "red tag" section of JoAnn fabrics.

By Wooded Water shows a pool at the edge of a forest path. In the details you can see how she frayed linen in order to make the mossy sort of forest floor. One of the great delights in this piece is that she used a brocade which effectively created water. I don't think I would have thought of using the fabric in this particular way, but it is really quite wonderful.

Kathleen says that this is a vintage fabric which she found at a used clothing store. "It just called out to be water." I'm glad Kathleen listened to the call!


Kathleen lives in Cedarburg, Wisconsin and is a member of North Shore Quilters Guild as well as belonging to other quilting organizations. She has been a moving force in encouraging other quilters.

She doesn't have a website, but if you google her name with the word "quilt", you'll find lots of her other work.