By PENELOPE GREEN

Boo Davis likes to say that she makes quilts “just like your metalloving, half-blind grandma would.” An Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica and all-around thrash-metal fan from way back, Ms. Davis, 36, became an alternative-craft darling by using traditional quilting techniques to create designs featuring skulls or a devil horn’s hand sign, under the label Quiltsryche. After a flurry of press in Seattle, Washington, her hometown, she wrote “Dare to Be Square Quilting.”

It’s a serious quilting book, but with patterns that “skew more cute than evil,” to borrow a phrase from Ms. Davis . QUESTION. Can you share some of the projects in that first proposal? ANSWER. [Chuckling] There are some gems in here. There’s Hell Hole, a tribute to the Swedish death-metal heroes At the Gates. [Reading from her proposal]: “This quilt features the Gates of Hell welcoming you with a Roman-stripe variation.” Q. Has Slash or any of your other musician heroes bought a quilt? A. Let’s just say that I haven’t exactly cracked the code on the quilting business model.

Two years ago, I was contacted by the wife of a band member of Slayer. I designed an angel of death pattern, and I’m still waiting to make the quilt. The quilts I have sold break down to sweat-shop wages, though when it comes to heavy metal quilts, I don’t mind doing charity work for Satan. However, it would be nice to figure out a way to pay the mortgage on my hovel and buy some frozen dinners at the end of the day. Q. Vegan frozen dinners, I’m assuming.

Why are so many punk/metal fans vegan? A. It’s about looking at the world and seeing what’s wrong and going against it, so I think it all fits together. Q. Tell me about your hovel. A. It’s a condo. My quilt studio is my dining room. This book was a bit of a suicide mission, I have to say.

It was a journey into madness unlike no other. I’m lucky if I can make one quilt in a year, and for the book I did 12 in three months. I quit my job to do this. I had worked for 10 years as a designer at The Seattle Times. It was a huge leap of faith. I didn’t have a dime saved. I took out a loan and got pretty wildly into debt. You know, as a creative person I’m prone to melancholy, and I was just shuffling around my apartment. But I think the gamble might have paid off. Q. What would you like to do next? Would you work in other media? A.

I’m not interested in other media. The appeal of quilts is that they are usable pieces of art. To me, when a quilt ceases to be cozy or if it’s so precious it has to be stuck on a wall, it’s not of interest anymore. Anything outside of classic cotton, that’s just crazy to me. Can I give you a little bit of a diatribe that’s been cooking in my mind? Q. Of course, diatribe away. A.

I just want to say that it’s extremely upsetting to see quilts and patchwork projects being sold for next to nothing on Etsy. You’ll see these elaborate quilts for $300. That’s pennies an hour. So much of a person goes into a quilt. It’s an artistic labor of love that deserves respect.