There is no top and no bottom, there is only the center.  How to regain the center when equilibrium is lost?  Slow, repetitive, meditative stitching: slow, repetitive, meditative prayer.

This quilt, inspired by the feel of an illuminated manuscript, is designed to capture the feeling of walking in a prayer garden or labyrinth.  It features a central amibigram on the word Gloria, giving it 180 degree rotational symmetry.

2015, 35 x 31, NFS

For more information on this piece, please check out the blog posts featuring it.

Part of my ongoing liturgical series, this piece reflects our spiritual charge to care for our planet. As a reference to my local environment it features state symbols of Oklahoma.

2024, 58”H x 42”W, NFS

For more about this piece, see the blog posts here.

This quilt was inspired by medieval illuminated prayer books, specifically the Small Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry and the Book of Hours of the Marshal of Boucicaut. I’m drawn to the slowness of the text in these works, the deliberate nature of line and character which, when combined with the unfamiliar Latin, merge to form pictorial prayers. Such a contrast to the transient, careless treatment we so often give text today. What sentiments are worthy of such lasting treatment? Adoration, supplication, meditation? Here, in tribute to the home of my heart, are rhythmic excerpts from the Psalms of David, “O Lord, thou wilt open my lips and my mouth shall declare thy praise” [Ps 50(51):17] and “I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me” [Ps 120(121):1].

2013, 24 x 29, NFS

For more on this piece, you can see my in progress posts on the blog.

This piece highlights the importance of the Christian trinity and features text from the Nicene Creed. Medieval illuminated manuscripts were filled with images, including flora and fauna, rich with symbolism and meaning. The things that keep my heart grounded and joyful are home and family, so I have populated this quilt with places, flowers, plants, and animals dear to me and my loved ones.

2020, 61” x 40”, NFS

For more information about this piece, check out the blog posts about it.

Part of my ongoing liturgical series, this piece reflects our spiritual charge to care for our world. Each week we pray collectively for the Universal Church, its members, and its mission; the nation and all in authority, he welfare of the world, the concerns of the local community, those who suffer and those in any trouble, and the departed. Prayer is the first step, and care and action are the next. Hear us Lord, for your mercy is great.

c. Shannon Conley

2025, 61” x 44”, NFS

For more on this piece, please see the blog posts about it.

This piece is part of an ongoing series exploring parts of the Episcopal liturgy. It depicts our prayer of confession, a time in the service to reflect on our sins and our failings. A time to ask forgiveness and resolve to seek to follow the will of God. I’m continually haunted by the line “what I have left undone, undone, undone…”, worrying that I haven’t done enough, been kind enough, been helpful enough.

2017, 38"W x 38"H, Sold

For more about this quilt, please see my blog posts about it.

Peace be with you...and also with you. These words are exchanged as parishioners greet one another during the episcopal worship service (and many others).

They remind me that peace, like so many other ideals, begins at home in the small daily interactions we have with those around us, that a little kindness and patience go a long way. The piece is part of an ongoing series inspired by historical illuminations and tile work from many different traditions.

2015, 48"x50", NFS

For more information on this piece, please check out the blog posts featuring it.

This piece is part of an ongoing series depicting the pieces of the Episcopal liturgy. It features text from one of our Eucharistic Prayers and served as a jumping off point for my explorations of the intersection of science and faith. My version of the garden of Eden and the tree of life is a culmination of eons of evolution of life on earth, as depicted in the quilt's borders and echoed in the text of the prayer.

2016, 60 x 45, NFS

For more information on this piece, check out my blog posts on it

This piece is part of an ongoing series depicting the pieces of the Episcopal liturgy inspired by the design style of medieval illuminated manuscripts. It features the text of the Lord’s Prayer set to service music written by my dear friend Dr. Linda Kelly.

2019, 73 x 53, NFS

For more information on this piece, check out my blog posts on it

During the 2020 shutdown, our extended family gathered several times a week for prayer and worship, for conversation, for games, for connection. Our eight zoom screens kept us together as I felt the year slide by: winter to spring, and then summer. On each panel I have written the prayer of St. Chrysostom, with which we close our liturgies of Morning and Evening Prayer. The refrain “and you have promised…that when two or three are gathered in his Name, you will be in the midst of them” coming out of my speakers is a sign of the essential virtual connections that kept me grounded and forward looking even as we physically isolated from each other and from the world.

2020, 40” x 30” NFS

For more on this piece, see the blog posts about it.

This piece is entirely covered in couched yarn. The bright vibrant colors and exuberant shapes reflect the joy I feel as we are dismissed at the end of worship.

2022, 39”H x 25”W, $2000

For more information about this piece, please see the blog posts about it.

Inspired loosely by the vast expanse of interstellar space, and the words of Eucharistic Prayer C from the Book of Common Prayer (1979). Look for patterns and wonder in the shapes.

2024, $31”H x 31”W, $800

For more information about this piece, please see the blog posts about it.

Inspired by cottonwoods in northern New Mexico

For as rain and snow fall from the heavens
and return not again, but water the earth,
Bringing forth life and giving growth,
seed for sowing and bread for eating,
So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
For you shall go out in joy,
and be led back in peace;
The mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Isaiah 55: 10-12

2025, 50×39” $1,000

For more on this piece, see my blog post about it.

This quilt is an original design, mosaic style quilt. The fused pieces are covered with tulle and free motion quilted. My heart is filled with joy as the eye travels from the light of the Star of Bethlehem to the Baby Jesus.

2012, 39 x 39, NFS

For more info about the making of this quilt, you can take a look at the relevant blog posts.

Lux Venit

The light of Christ incarnate comes into the world at Christmas time. 

24"x24", c.2016, NFS

For more, please check out the blog post.

This quilt was inspired by an inhabited initial from a twelfth century German manuscript which depicted an S-shaped dragon. I love the colors and vibrancy of illuminated manuscripts and the emotion with which illuminations can imbue their associated text. While making this quilt I meditated on all the lush, rich S-words that the dragon brought to mind: slithery, shimmering, saturated, symphonic, spectral....

2011, 27.5 x 30, $500

For more on the making of this quilt, click over to the blog.

This piece was a commission for Montessori Episcopal School, on the occasion of their 50th anniversary. It was designed to fit into my liturgical, illuminated style while highlighting the interest and feeling of the school. It is sized to be carried to weekly chapel by kindergarten students.

2019, 30” H x 20” W, sold

For more information about this project, see my blog posts about it.

This design was based on Greek architectural elements and is constructed out of a variety of gold apparel fabrics chosen for their shimmery reflective quality. The large sprouting feathers at the top remind me of a calm, civilized, classical version of the snake haired Medusa, one of the three monstrous Gorgon sisters of Greek myth.

2013, 18 x 24, $350

For more on the making of this quilt, check out my blog posts about it.