Sewing & fabric have been an obsession for Mandi since she was a little girl. Begging her mom to teach her how to sew (don’t all moms know how to sew?) at age 9 got her into her first class making a dress for her doll. That ugly little doll dress was to set Mandi on her future path!

Several sewing machines, lots of fabric, & many funky sewn projects led to a degree in fashion design from FIDM in Los Angeles, CA. After a short time working in the garment industry in Los Angeles, Mandi & her husband moved to Austin in 1997, where her involvement in belly dance helped her make lots of friends & start a couture costume business for the local dancers.

Eventually retiring from full time costume making (there is such a thing as too many sequins), Mandi took up quilting.. Hooked from the start on the creative challenge of combining color and pattern with the tactile quality of quilts, she started developing her own patterns and abstract works, to be hung on walls, and not on beds!

Textile Art is how Mandi describes her current work. More dimensional and less like a quilt, though still sewn with fabric and thread, the work is about abstracting the essence of the inspiration. Combining dyed cottons and silks, paints and stitching, stamps and silkscreens, an image is created to represent an emotional response to the natural beauty that surrounds all.