Minneonto

Minneonto, photo transfers on muslin, machine pieced, hand quilted.

I made this little quilt as a sample when I was teaching for a weekend conference put on by a quilt shop in Sudbury, Ontario.  The shop wanted me to teach a project would use new fabrics that they could pre-cut and sell.

It was the only time I've ever made a kit like this.  Participants brought their own high contrast photo copies of family photos, and I showed them how to use xylene blending markers to make clear transfers.  Those markers have since been banned.

The photos are of my parents in the early years of their marriage.  They had just purchased the highway farm ten miles out of Fort Frances where I grew up.  You can just glimpse the old granary that my father converted into a house in the above photo.  His friend Wally helped to tear the ancient barn down and push the granary into a new place for their house.

I gave this wall hanging to my father the Christmas after I made it, but my parents did not hang it.  My younger sister Nancy was not included because she wasn't yet born when the photo above was taken.  Silly me.

I call this piece Minneonto because one of my father's many achievements in the North Western Ontario community of LaVallee-Fort Frances area was to help bring television to the area.  Relay towers were put up from Duluth Minnesota along Highway 53 north to the border town of International Falls. I remember having to use a converter for years to get a signal until CBC towers were built north of Devlin.

1997
Number 90

starry night

 plant dyed wool and silk, shibori markings,

38" wide, 43" high, embroidered and quilted by hand

2012

number 89 

silver water

Silver Water , indigo dyed linen, shibori markings, hand quilted twice, once with sewing thread and again with embroidery floss, 15 inches wide, 35 inches long

 It reminds me of the way the lake looks at night, with a full moon's shine.

 The reverse: procion dyed cotton lower section, procion dyed rayon top section, hand quilted with sewing thread and embroidery floss,  a cotton batt.

Tucks on both front and back.  Layered seams.  Two sides.
Gifted to daughter Grace in October 2012 to celebrate so many things.  Her great job, her new apartment, her engagement to Asan.

Made in 2012.  
Number eighty eight.

Trinity

This small quilt is a liturgical piece.

It was designed to hang in front of the pulpit in the Little Current United Church, Manitoulin Island.

Judy studied Liturgical Embroidery in 2009.

This piece is the first of the Manitoulin Circle Project - a community sewing circle that is creating four large meditation panels that will eventually hang in the church's sanctuary.

Foundation hand pieced, free-cut. Each small piece of cloth is unique.

recycled damask table napkins and silk
completed in 2011

number eighty seven

the house with the golden windows: north wall

We lived in Kenora, North Western Ontrio for ten years in a narrow two story brick house on a quiet street. In our back yard we had tall maple trees. There was a lane.


It was the only time that I have ever lived in a town.























I studied fine art through Lakehead University at the time. The professors would come to Kenora from Thunder Bay every two weeks. Our classes were on alternate weekends.

During the last two years, my friend Barbara Sprague and I would drive to Thunder Bay for conferences with our professors. I made this house for my graduate exhibition.


At the 1994 convocation, I was awarded the chancellor's medal for the highest marks of any part time student that year. We did not attend the ceremony. By then, we were already living on Manitoulin Island.

number eighty six

Lucky Protection

Made for my grandson Jack, who was born Friday the 13th, October 2009.




I finished it Christmas 2011.





I used red thread for protection.
On the back, I embroidered the Hemp Leaf (asanoha), a classic sashiko stitch used in Japanese infant clothing and bedding. For luck.


number eighty five

April Lily

A baby quilt for my youngest child, April Anne. Born in April, 1987. Entirely hand pieced and quilted.

number eighty four

log cabin flip

This is a string quilt made one block at a time. The batting and backing are layered, and then the logs are built up by stitching with machine, then flipping flat and stitching further logs. Log cabin blocks begin at the central square, usually red. Dark and light logs make up the strong design and with this method, the quilting just happens as the block is stitched. The blocks are joined afterwards by hand.


This quilt is now used at our cottage on one of the single beds in the new guest cabin.
number eighty three

Storm at Sea

I made this quilt for my husband's brother Tom and his new wife Margaret in 1988 as a wedding gift. It is from a collection of blue scraps in my collection, plus some new fabrics. I followed a pattern I found in Judy Martin's book Scrap Quilts.

Many people still think that I am the Judy Martin who wrote all those wonderful quilt pattern books but I am not her. I would reccomend her books however, as they are excellent resources for traditional piecework patterns.

number eighty two

Frank's Quilt

There was a period when I was trying to use up all my scraps. In this quilt, I sorted my printed fabrics into darks and lights, and pieced one of each square together. When arranged, they formed a new pattern, as yet un named.
I gave the quilt to my new nephew Frank in 1989.


number eighty one

Trees in Winter

Stitched photos,
silk
puff paint


Photos of our back yard
in Kenora, North Western Ontario
taken from the kitchen
window

1990

Number eighty

Light Of The Moon

Collage on canvas
painted, stitched
backed with hand dyed cotton
Quilted with a couched binding



Circle imagery


2009


number seventy nine

Twenty Four Hour Care

hand dyed, over dyed cotton
Cotton velvet
buttons, rayon ribbon
machine pieced, hand quilted
This piece was in the
works for six years.


2009


number seventy eight

AWARD: First place Traditional Wall Quilt
National Juried Show (Canada) Saskatoon 2009

Somewhere there are heirlooms

favourite night dress
hand dyed rayon, paper
artist canvas, cotton perle,
hand stitch


2008

deconstructed in 2012

number seventy seven

Zen Ecstacy

Sari Fabric and mixed media
Hand stitch
raw edge applique, couching
embroidery, embellishments.

Part of the Millenium Journal

2006


seventy six