November 10, 2005

Melody’s quilts have been exhibited in national shows such as, all the Mancuso shows, the American Quilter’s Society, the International Quilt Festival in Houston and Chicago, and five times in Visions, and three times in Quilt National. Her major awards include a 1995 AQS Best Wall Quilt and in 1998, the IQA’s Pfaff Master of Machine Artistry. She has also participated in exhibits in Japan, Great Britain, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Her experiences in Japan and New Zealand have had a major influence on her desire to focus on teaching.

“As a child I thought being an artist meant only being a painter, so I did everything necessary to live out that role. Painting realistically was my aim and achievement, but it gave me no great satisfaction. In my last semester of art school, a classmate introduced me to quilting and something about its scale, process, and non-pictorial geometry attracted me. Once I made that first quilt I found an excitement that was missing from my painting experience. I switched to making quilts and have never had a moment of regret.”

Melody describes herself as an artist whose medium for the last 23 years has been quiltmaking. She was a professional dyer for twelve years and formed a company with Laura Wasilowski, called Artfabr!k. This creative duo traveled to quilt shows and conferences selling their hand dyed fabrics and threads, while at the same time making award winning quilts and teaching workshops in fusing both here and abroad. The Chicago School of Fusing, a completely imaginary school, became world renowned due to the musical antics of these two artists. Her education includes a BA in painting and drawing from Northeastern Illinois University in1981 and an MA in Fibers from Northern Illinois University in 1994.