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| Crown of Thorns 1972. first quilt by Judy Martin re-purposed clothing and curtain fabric, hand pieced and hand quilted, (no longer exists) |
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| self portrait, 1985 hand painted cotton, re-purposed maternity clothing, hand quilted 42 x 42 inches |
When I started having babies, quilt making fit into my day better than any other art form.
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| Judy (31 years) with her two older children in 1982 |
I live in Northern Ontario. I've lived here all my life.
The quilts I made during my 30’s and 40’s are shocking in their lack of skill. I gave the baby quilts (learning samples) away to new parents who accepted them graciously.
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| spider web baby quilt, 1983 polyester-cotton blends, machine pieced, hand quilted this photo from 1999 when the baby was 16. She was using it as a car blanket. |
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| Skipping, 1988 fabric paint, cotton fabrics, machine pieced, hand quilted |
Quilts are slow to make.
There are a lot of repetitive tasks involved that put a person into a meditative state.
And as I was making them, not only did I feel comforted, I also felt that here was the place I could say things that were not "normal".
About the photos in this blog post. I spent all day yesterday writing and deleting text, but the images here have been stable. I wanted to write about how I learned to quilt with no mentor.
I studied fine art and received a fine art degree from Lakehead University while the kids were still little, but quilts were not part of the curriculum. Quilts are not part of the fine art world.
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| Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow, 1995 hand painted clotton, overdyed cotton, machine pieced, hand quilted, grocery list embroidered on reverse side |
And the quilting world was very rigid at the time. There were quilt police with rules and points and 12 stitches per inch. My quilts were accepted into juried shows but they rarely won awards. They were not understood in the quilt world.
The quilts I made when I was actively mothering were related to my daily life as a mother and also to the fantasy I had about what quilts could be. Even when they were finished, I maintained that fantasy and loved my own work. I believe that making them saved my life.
We moved from Kenora to Manitoulin when the kids were 6, 8, 13, and 15 years old. They went to school and I taught classical piano in a church basement.
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| protection blanket 2005. Chemical dyes on rayon embellished with sequins and ribbon, machine pieced, hand quilted |
In 2005, we had an empty nest. I began this blog in 2006.
I kept making my quilts. I didn't know what I was doing in so many words, but I kept doing it.
When I gathered up the few here I looked at them more critically. They don't speak for me the way they used to but they remain evidence that I was here.
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| prayer cloth: hope 2024 natural dyes on cotton, hand pieced, hand quilted with red thread |
This is a much edited post. Thank you for continuing to read it.
Psychic: derived from the unconscious rather than the conscious.
Therapy: care and attention
Making quilts: still saving my life.
