Secret Conversations in the Midnight Garden

Secret Conversations in the Midnight Garden

13" x 15.5"

This work began with white cotton.  The figures are an adaption of a photo I took, as are the little birds, using water soluble fabric.  The background is a combination of dye and prints of my drawings.

Originally I thought to keep the figures white but it seemed too stark a contrast and so I painted them.

Detail: here it is easier to see the free motion stitching that highlights the garden flowers as well as the figures.  It would be interesting to know what they are talking about. 

 

Our Humanity Binds Us

 

 Our Humanity Binds us

17" wide x 23" high.

                                              Detail:  All the Fabric in this work began as white cotton.  It has been dyed, printed, layered, pieced and stitched. The pair of heads is a print of one of my drawings.  Then they were painted and hand stitched.

Detail:  In the background you can see examples of dyed as well as prints made of my own drawings on thermofax screens.  The foreground is an element of the lettering appliqued with free motion stitching.

Detail: Dyed and over printed.

Again, I return to my theme, we are all connected and need to count on each other for support and guidance.  We are inevitably bound together through life's journey.

Bouncing Baby Boy

Baby Boy 'I Spy' Quilt

My version of an "I Spy" baby quilt for a beautiful baby boy.

42" x 36"

Detail:  Since both parents are well educated academics, I decided to place aspirational hopes and wishes throughout the quilt.  As he grows, they can find the words together, and hopefully feel the love in the messages.

Back of quilt:  There were a few extra blocks  and so they landed on the back.

                  Detail:  I free motion embroidered his name all around the perimeter of his quilt.  Hopefully this will help with language acquisition skills!😁

But for now; tummy time play is where its at.

Lots of room to grow.

Detail:  The back has a label with a date

                   Wishing for many many more fun play times for this sweet baby on his quilt!

 

 

Care for a Cuppa?

26" x 31"

Detail:  This piece was created with elements I printed, dyed, stamped, painted, and layered.  The cotton fabric began as white.  Many of the techniques I experimented with in a Pat Pauly workshop which was fun and joyful and wild.  I highly recommend working with Pat.  These loose processes were quite outside my perfectionistic mindset and were a very good exercise for me.  However, I came home with lots of yardage and wasn't quite sure what to do with it until one day it came to me.  The black round prints looked like coffee beans and I could cut the yellow dots to resemble coffee cups and then it came together very quickly and easily.  I have many other experiments and half finished projects patiently waiting for my eureka moment on their behalf.

And here it is, installed in its new 'forever home'.

Upcycling my own

 

Longing

      11.5" x 32"

In this collage I challenged myself to use only the fabrics I already had, and too, the fabrics that I had created.  All the fabrics in this piece began as white, either cotton or silk organza.  I painted, printed, dyed, on each piece.  Therefore, this is a collage of truly one-of-a-kind elements.

My title references the composition while leaving room for interpretation.  One idea is that the two little beings who are grounded are longing to join their sister at the top of the tree but cannot seem to achieve lift off.  Or, conversely, the little one who did manage to get to the top is now missing her community on the ground and is longing for re-unification.  But, as always, I am leaving the pathway open to the viewer to create their own narrative.

                                       Detail:  after creating the composition and placing the various 

                                     elements I embelleshed with free motion stitchery as well as 

hand embroidery.

      Detail: From the sky, we can appreciate the sun, 

            the clouds and the details in the tree, all free motion stitchery.  

There is a layer of dyed, silk organza in the tree canopy.

                           Detail:  From the ground we can see the tree is 

                      well rooted into dyed silk organza as well as 

grounded by hand embroidery.

The Prairie

41" x 32"

Detail:   A dear friend grew up in Western Canada on a prairie farm.  Her memories are of the good food, the hard work and the wide open fields and skies, honest living.  For her birthday, I tried to duplicate the essence of the beauty of the farm.  This was very far from my experience but I tried to capture the feeling of her stories.

                     detail:  hay bails.  It took me a while to create the shadow, but from a distance I think I              managed.  Each hay bail was created separately and then appliqued onto the field.

detail:  a truer duplication of the actual colour with the iconic red barn in the background.  The grasses and bushes are all free motion stitchery as are the rows in the field.

detail:  an image of the back where you can get a better understanding of the stitchery.

This was a fun project for me, learning about a different landscape, and trying to capture something so huge into something relatively small.  I thought by having the landscape literally falling off the edge of the work, I was suggesting the endless nature of this world.

 

The Road Chosen

"The Road Chosen"

                                                                              16" x 23"

Detail:  This small wall hanging was an exploration in creating a natural backdrop with figures in the forground.  The parent and child are based on a photograph I took.  I copied the photo onto water soluble fabric and then stitched the forms on to white cotton.

Detail:  The landscape was created using hand dyed fabrics with raw edge applique.  The clouds were highlighted with fabric paint.

Detail:  I created the road with a commercial fabric I loved.  I used reference photos to create the winding road shape.  When all the fabrics were in place, I free motion quilted the entire piece, hoping the different lines would suggest landscape both near and far.