On a gray, bone-cold day, Peig Fairbrook's art studio is a warm, inviting mess.

Fabric soaks in two tropical-blue dye baths on a large work table. Scads of finished material, dyed parrot colors, lie bundled and waiting. Deep sinks at one end of her studio establish a starting point for a process that ends on the opposite side of the room at a sewing machine.

The wall above her whirring Bernina is dominated by a work in progress, an irregular 5-foot-by-5-foot fabric collage where the pages of "The Bee Tree" by Oakland author Patricia Polacco come to life in a new creation. Here, the onion domes of a Russian village sparkle in an orange sherbet sky. A pigtailed girl reads under a tree as a ragtag parade of geese and peasants assembles.

In this tale, the girl complains to her grandfather that she is tired of reading, so he takes her on a journey to the home of bees. In the process, village residents and animals join the procession until everyone arrives at the hive and gathers the honey for an impromptu feast.

This is Fairbrook's second storybook quilt funded by a grant from the $1.3 million City Endowment for the Arts. The first art quilt, based on Eric Carle's book "Draw Me a Star," already hangs in the Cesar Chavez Central Library in the children's room. Fairbrook was selected by a Stockton Arts Commission committee for work which can easily travel to all branches of the public library system.

Art commissioner Donna Brown was well aware of Fairbrook's work, which has been displayed throughout the county, when she voted to accept the storybook quilt proposal.

"(We) thought the library was a good location where the next generation of the artists would see and appreciate the artwork," Brown said.

Children love following the star quilt to the actual book and even more books by the same author, said children's librarian Suzy Daveluy.

"Draw Me a Star" begins with a child's recollection of grandmother's instruction on drawing a star. That leads to the drawing of a sun, the night, a tree, a man and a woman, a house and a family.

Mia Barba is a longtime Carle fan. Carle's popular book "The Hungry Caterpillar" is a favorite of the 11-year-old Oakside Christian School student. Mia eyed the star quilt and quickly appraised Fairbrook's artistic intentions.

"I think of a lovely family that loves each other and likes to think colorful things," Mia said.

Unlike traditional quilters who cut and sew hundred of tiny pieces into geometric patterns, Fairbrook paints with fabric that she creates, cuts and appliqués. She makes a front and a back to sandwich cotton batting, which is machine-stitched together by Linda Haskell, but any similarity to a knee-warming quilt ends there.

Each quilt is a canvas that grows in her mind as the colors materialize through the mixing and bleeding of the dyes. A gold background with feathery green shapes looks like reflections in water.

No, trees on hillside in late fall. With those images surging through her imagination, she lets the color and the fabric speak their parts.

"Any piece of fabric has possibility to be included in a quilt," Fairbrook said. "These are accidents by color, color by design."

Fairbrook has always worked with her hands. Born one of eight children in Dublin, Ireland, she was taught young to sew and knit. A sister is a weaver. A brother is a ship builder. Another brother and her father are architects.

She began working in clay during her career as a teacher of severely handicapped children in the 1980s. Eight years ago, she switched to fabric. Material is more forgiving than clay, which can break at any time during the firing process, she said.

She has more control of the chaos with fabric and dye, even if it doesn't turn out as she expects.

"Some of the fabric works, some doesn't. I take the stuff that doesn't and do something else," she said.

Though largely self-taught, Fairbrook attended the Haystack School of Art in Maine in 1996 and has maintained connections with women she met there. They gather once a year to dye fabrics, meeting in each other's work rooms.

While Fairbrook's technique continues to evolve, her sense of color is rooted in her past.

Her brother Raymond, a Catholic priest, founded Concern International, of which there are many chapters today. He was engaged in relief work in Biafra (now part of Nigeria).

During the country's devastating wars, many African students lived in their home when she was a young teen.

Their colorful clothing against their dark skin has always been an inspiration, she said.

She continues to develop strong primary colors, the colors of celebration, which are muted by the dust of drought, the smoke and ash of destruction.

Fairbrook labels herself a nonconformist.

"That's what prevented me from becoming a production potter," she said. "I couldn't imagine producing 20 cups all the same."

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* To reach reporter Paula Sheil, phone (209) 546-8257 or e-mail psheil@recordnet.com