For 37 years I ran a successful design agency, Grafik, outside of Washington DC. Business came first and my art took second place- sometimes third place when my children were young. I had always loved tailoring and a passion for Issey Miyake, and all of my free time went into sewing. But after a while I had simply too many clothes, so I needed to find another outlet for my passion. I was bored by traditional quilting and honestly did not know that an alternative to the repetition found in most quilting blocks existed. That is until one day, skimming through my old copies of Threads magazine, I came upon an article on Nancy Crow. Looking at her pieces I was transfixed. They redefined what a quilt could be. I immediately did a search online and found that she gave classes. I signed up immediately and my life has never been the same since that day. Starting in 2007 I have made yearly pilgrimages to Baltimore Ohio to study with Nancy. She has been a demanding teacher, a wonderful mentor and now a dear friend.

My work is directed by my emotions. From the beauty of the Icelandic landscape to memory loss and cancer, my emotions guide me and inform my work. I work in a series and often come back to a subject matter over and over. 

For the last 8 years I have worked almost extensively with a cotton fabric that I source out of China. One side is glossy and one side is matte. i continue to push the limits of this fabric; painting it, pleating it, distressing it and quilting it. I continue to be fascinated by this cotton.

I love the juxtaposition of spontaneity and precision. To get a composition to look free flowing and gestural demands great control and exactness. This is my holy grail and I still have not cracked that nut. But I continue to try. I do not regularly applique or fuse materials. . All of my work is machine pieced and machine and hand stitched and while it would be far faster and easier to fuse fabric together, it is not a technique that I often use.

Interviews: Textile Study Group of NY click this link: https://vimeo.com/447483400/9e781cba3d.
Carolyn Kipp, Curator of the Textile Museum in Washington DC, http://carolinekipp.com/social-distancing-studio-visits/2020/5/7/5-judy-kirpich

Textilecurator.com has several of my pieces as well as an interview.

I am lucky to have a close family that I do not see often enough.  I split my time between our house near the nation's capital and an old 1880's farmhouse in Lewes, Delaware only minutes from the ocean. I am indeed lucky.