Beds at cottage

the middle bedroom, 'family life' quilt made in 1990 from children's clothes, bear's paw pattern the day bed, bed coverings from Nigeria, note the beautiful vintage wool rag rug front bedroom, star quilt made in 1985 from dress fabrics the back bedroom and bunk bed, the top quilt from about 1986 is a machine flip and stitched log cabin, the bottom quilt is called "summertime dream" (1984) and has some of my first painted and dyed fabric.


Last weekend I made six beds up, stripped ours (not shown) and found the cot and the crib. Our kids are all (4) coming!! They spent all their growing up summers in that old family place, so of course that is where they like to congregate - with their partners, children (only two grand babies so far) and of course, Ned and I. We do have enough beds. Just. Safe travels every one, I can hardly wait.

This can be understood

The colours in this quilt took a long time to be.

The fabrics are rayons and cottons dyed with procion mx fibre reactive dyes.


Some are overdyed commercial prints.

They were hand stitched and embellished.

After stitching, everything was dyed again, this time red procion mx.


The layers of dye have made colours that are un-namable but for some reason, they touch us.


I photographed the crosses on the front of the quilt, as a way to say fare well.

It was sold just after the local art tour. For a full view of the entire quilt, please click here.

Art is not about beauty!
Art is about exultation.
Art is about absolute emotion.
Art is about self evident authenticity.

Barnett Newman

soft and gentle colour

A basket of plant dyes on top of seta painted silk. In the basket: dandelion, daffodil, bracken, false indigo, tulip, forget me not, and day lily dyed velvet. I've been making myself paint on Mondays, more as a way to open myself up than to achieve perfection. Last week, I painted on china silk with transparent seta colour. I would have used blue, but I am out of blue. Using up art supplies is another thing I'm doing on Mondays. Wet fabric was spread across a table and the diluted seta colour was loosely applied. More important was how the materials dried. One piece was folded and wrapped in plastic to blend the colours, then taken out and sprinkled with salt before leaving in 'lumps' for 48 hours. The other was gathered up into loose pleats while wet and left to dry in that position. The colour wicked and arranged itself into waves. I heat set with an iron and also in a hot dryer for one hour. Then washed with mild detergent and dried in the dryer again. Now what?

natural dye-sasters

All these fabrics came out of the jars that had been left in a sunny window for three July weeks. The three on left are the results of raspberries and red wine. (the orange piece used to be yellow cotton velveteen) The two small green ones were coloured with onion skins and the final four are from the day lily jars. They had more colour before rinsing. The three pieces on the left are the result of an experiment of heating the the solar liquid. Negligible result. The two pieces on the right were steeped 24 hours in a dye produced from frozen day lilies and alum. The fabrics in this photo are either silk velvet or wool and were pre-mordanted with alum and cream of tartar. They were originally white. The four jars left in the sunny window for three weeks developed mould. Day lilies steeped with un-mordanted cotton did not have much results. Raspberries and wine - well yes.The frozen rose petals were so gorgeous and gave a heavenly scent but no colour in warm water. The frozen day lilies were the most successful of these experiments, and gave out their pink colour immediately. In fact, when I added a little alum and cream of tartar powders, the water turned a deep purple and had good results.

I suppose.

earth ark update

The first meditation panel is fondly named "earth ark" to emphasize the boat and rainbow shapes witihin it. It has been on the quilting frame since early May and we have 'rolled' it three times, bringing the center within reach. This past week I made some decisions about the quilting designs in the large crescent shape and in the knot-dotted silk squares. There are a few leaves visible in the weave of the damask in the crescent so I traced those and then added more of the same shape. The squares will be quilted with embroidery floss in a chain stitch horizontal line. Every Thursday, the project is open to the communitiy, and here is a photo of yesterday's participants at work.
And here are their faces. From left to right, Marian, Rita, Judy, Wendy, Heather H, Heather T, Sylvia, my empty chair, Anita, and Cornelia. Thanks for coming out.

Too many photos, too little time

collage of digital photos of a single drawing done in August 2008

This photo is from my "july 2008 and onwards" file in "judy's pictures". I have just spent half an hour looking (for a different photo). Could not find it, but felt I had to post something. Yes, digital cameras are wonderful and it's great to be able to take so many photos so cheaply and have them at one's fingertips in the computer, but who has time to sort them?

I did this collage after researching Muybridge two years ago.

inspired by Finnish rugs

My father came over from Finland when he was five years old. The rugs woven from cloth and clothing have always been my favourites, and we have several. In researching my own heritage, I was reminded of these rugs and considered learning to weave them. My technique however, is not weaving - it is couching.

The art tour is over

I looked in the mirror and said to myself "You're fine."
water based resist with procion dye on paper

I am suddenly tired. I feel distanced from what used to be my normal life, and look forward to returning to it.

Even as it opens up, a rose already knows about dying down.


Luce Iragaray

stands by my man

I'd like to showcase some of the display stands that my husband, Ned, has made for me over the years. I'm using them this weekend in my studio (turned into a gallery) for the Manitoulin Art Tour.

This is the oldest, made in 1991 for an exhibition I had in the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. I needed a stand that could hold an embroidered panel and asked him for something like what used to hold towels in public bathrooms. You might remember them, they held cloth that one could tug at and a clean area would be revealed? I've used it many times since for showing pieces that have two sides. (like this stitching)

He made this presentaton shelf/table for an exhibition of millennium journal in 2004. I'm using it this year to present my heart shaped boxes.


In 2006 I exhibited quilts at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. This shelf is perfect for stashing folded quilts. (He also made one that show-cased three hung up large quilts, not shown here) This is his most recent achievement, completed for this year's art tour. It is for flipping through unframed work.

Mary Ellen visited today and told me she loved April's etsy shop.
Ebullient Bonnie Kogos also visited and I am still recovering from her enthusiasm. She promised to contact me in November for an article.

Page turner delight

Survey books can sometimes be overwhelming, but when this one arrived yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised. The 1000 images are well laid out, and are accompanied only by the artist's name and country. The simplification worked well.






Six continents are represented and my eyes are opened! I was especially interested (and proud) to see Canada represented so often. (17 artists)

This is just one of many images of Marjolein Dallinga's felt works. She's from Canada. Ulrieke Benner was also well represented in the book. She's from Canada Anni Hunt is from Canada

The art quilt category took up 302 of the 1000 spots and these artists from the USA stand out for me. Some are familiar names, others I appreciated for the very first time. I singled these out because of their use of hand dyes in a pared down aesthetic. I am inspired by their work.
Ann Johnston
Desiree Vaughn
Sue Cavanaugh
Lynn Krawczyk
Deidre Adams
Lisa Call
Fulvia Boriani Luciano I have three quilts included in the book. Pictured here is Emily Carr Visited Me, a piece I made in 2005. Gina M. Brown invited me to participate by email. She and her sister Sandra Salamony are the co-authors.
Thank you Gina, it is an honour to be included.

Authentic and original artwork, made with an open heart

I am an artist. I make things. I’ve been showing my paintings at the Perivale Gallery on Manitoulin for fifteen years. In the early years, I showed watercolours of my four children and nature, because that’s what my life was about. Over time, those simple paintings changed into more involved mixed media pieces and collages. Lately, I’ve been attempting to depict the invisible. Things that are feminine, intelligent, emotional. Sheila McMullan at the Perivale has always encouraged me in my experiments, but pieces that do not sell during the short summer season are given back. It has been good to be pushed to create new work for Sheila every year. All along, I’ve been making quilts. Quilts that seem to be more real somehow than the paintings, they are based on tradition mixed with experimentation. Many are made with hand-dyed fabrics and are covered with embroidery. I think that I have made about a hundred quilts. That’s a lot. Many quilts were made as gifts. Baby quilts, wedding quilts, quilts for friends who were moving, my flown-the-coop children, my parents. (My mother was never without the quilt I made her.) When we first moved to Manitoulin, I was invited to participate in the Festival Boreal, a music festival in Sudbury with an artist’s village. I showed my quilts. People wanted to buy them, but I said they weren’t for sale. I wonder why I felt that? I think it was because they were like personal journals. I just could not believe that others would understand. I now realize that my quilts might be desirable to own. They are authentic. They hold so much spirit. They make the time it took to create them visible and tangible while at the same time, they demand that the viewer slows down and spends time with them. Look. Touch. So much of our culture; books, music, film is “free” today. Reproduced. Not original. Just download it. Open a magazine and see Monet. These original and authentic pieces of art have each been made over lengthy periods and they are honest expressions of what it is to be alive.

Above: Images of six of the ten quilts that are 'for sale' at my studio during the Manitoulin Art Tour this coming weekend.