Original Photograph

Title: Bee Balm with Bumblebee

Title: Bee’s Balm

Artist: Ingrid Langhorst

Artist Statement: Being in natural environments brings me joy, and by portraying nature’s beauty in fabric, I hope to inspire others to not only appreciate it, but protect it as well. Whether it be birds or pollinators, I plant my own garden to attract these creatures, and then often photograph them as well. I love the photograph of bergamot/bee balm taken by Dawn Labelle which inspired this art quilt, offering a palette of rich colours and a bee busy gathering nectar and pollen, fulfilling its role as a pollinator.

Artist Biography: Ingrid Langhorst is a Dundalk, Ontario artist who has enjoyed photography and creating with fibre, whether sewing, knitting or embroidering, since her teen years. Her first exposure to art quilting was a presentation at her local quilt guild, and she knew this was a path she wanted to explore. Ingrid now combines her love of colour, texture and nature into representational and abstract works of art. Much of her work includes hand dyed, painted or mono printed fabrics as well as hand stitching, and she loves experimenting with new techniques and materials.
Ingrid is currently the Central Canada Regional Rep for Studio Art Quilt Associates.

Medium/ Media: hand dyed fabric, commercial fabric, hand embroidery, paint, angelina fibres and machine stitching

Price: NFS

Title: It’s all about the nectar

Artist: Millie Cumming

Artist Statement: The quilt image forwarded to me was predominantly a wonderful flower, being feasted on by a bee. I enjoy watching hummingbirds sampling flowers at our cottage, and so wanted to focus on the hummingbird, less on the flowers: by the time I had finished, there were more flowers than I had planned for, and the hummingbird had moved from my original plan– like in nature, hummingbirds don’t stay in one place very long.

Artist Biography: Millie Cumming became a quilter in the early 1990’s (starting with quilts for her infant son), and has had quilts in curated and juried shows since 2000. Nature, textiles and family are her major sources of inspiration, and she incorporates commercial fabrics, hand-created fabrics, ethnic textiles, and reclaimed fabrics. Even while exploring new ways of expression in her art, she appreciates the rich heritage left by the quilters and other fabric artists of previous generations. She particularly enjoys working with other quilters to help them express their own voice in their quilts.
There are three main themes in her own work:
“cottage” quilts (quilts that reflect the peace and renewal that she experiences when at her cottage in Muskoka); “linen” quilts (that incorporate the needlework of women in previous times, often undervalued); “memory” quilts (quilts that reflect on special family members, special personal events, or milestones in her own life).
To view her quilts and further bio, see www.millieandgraeme.ca

Medium/ Media: primarily upcycled fabrics, hand embroidery, hand and machine applique, machine quilted

Price: $250

Title: A Garden Visitor

Artist: Kathleen Rodgers

Artist Statement: I liked the circular layout that Millie had in her piece. I recreated it using two layers of leaves, the first was painted and the second was appliquéd. I changed the flower and its colour to purple in memory of a friend. It was still missing a focal point. It took a while before I chose a butterfly. I wanted to provide a peaceful scene after years of pandemic upheaval.

Artist Biography: Kathleen Rodgers retired in 2015 as an elementary school teacher and lives in Maple, Ontario. As a lifelong learner, she has explored many different mediums, taught workshops and sold her finished pieces for over 30 years, most recently in studio tours and art shows. A summer course at Haliburton School of Design introduced her to hand dyed fabrics and the world of art quilts. After exploring traditional quilt blocks for years, Kathleen began creating fibre art designs based on colour, shape, and movement for art quilts (as wall hangings), table runners, journal covers, etc. using her own hand dyed fabrics and batiks.

Medium/ Media: hand dyed cotton fabric, leaf stencil, Shiva oil paints, commercial fabric, machine quilting

Price: $250

Title: Hidden Treasure

Artist: Heather Hager

Artist Statement: I have been drawn to insects ever since studying entomology as an undergraduate, and this piece was inspired by the rainbow butterfly in the preceding artwork. Many people would recognize the monarch butterfly and, perhaps, its caterpillar. However, the monarch’s chrysalis is green and well camouflaged until just before the new butterfly emerges. At that time, the chrysalis turns translucent black, and the distinctive orange and white markings on the folded wing become visible. I used paper to create the chrysalids as a metaphor for the transience and fragility of these insects that are threatened by human activities.

Artist Biography: Heather A. Hager is a Waterloo, Ontario-based textile artist working in mixed-media, non-traditional art quilts. She has a PhD in ecology and pursued her art education informally. In her current artworks, she investigates the life cycles of insects and other organisms while exploring the interaction of fabric and paper. She is influenced by scientific illustrations, botanical line drawings, and the detailed sketches made while studying organisms under the microscope. Her work has been exhibited regionally and internationally and is held in various private collections. She can be found on Instagram @drhhager.

Medium/Materials: 

Medium: Mixed-media textile

Materials: Cotton fabric; acrylic paint; Japanese, Korean, and Nepalese paper; ink; starch paste; cotton batting; cotton and polyester thread

Techniques: Drawing, monoprinting, painting, resists, quilting

Price: $250

Title: Life thrives in the quiet of the forest

Artist: Sheila Thompson

Artist Statement: I connected with the quiet green vegetation and the monarch chrysalis in Heather’s piece (A4). I imagined a forest floor with a soft green mossy carpet interspersed with lichens. The reassembled cricular cocoons represent new life ready to burst onto this quiet scene.

Artist Biography: Sheila Thompson is a full-time fibre artist with a studio in Guelph. She employs wet felting techniques to transform wools, silks and paper into sculptural forms. Her lifelong interest in ecology and environmental impact informs her art in terms of its geographic perspective, organic imagery, and environmental/political narratives. Her two main bodies of work are Habitat 2050 – a series of felted 3d topographic maps and Erlenmeyer Imposters – a collection of felted lab flasks honouring women in science. She won an Ontario Art Council grant for a travelling textile show “Edge of the Forest” and exhibits widely. She is the co-representative for the Canada region of the International Felt makers Association and is active in several eco-art organizations.

Medium/ Media: Hand felted wool fibre, merino wool roving, silk habotai digital print, reassembled cricula cocoons, throwster’s waste

Price: $250

Original Photograph

Title: Iceberg

Title: Chill

Artist: June Horwich

Artist Statement: Frozen crystals glisten in the sun like diamonds. The sight of only the tip of an iceberg elicits awe; imagine what we would feel if it were entirely visible. Challenge yourself to risk revealing your own inner beauty to the world.

Artist Biography: June Horwich has built her practice on refining techniques of dyeing cloth using a variety of resists, and delights in the serendipity of her results. Most of her pieces now include some of her hand-dyed cloth. Active in sewing from childhood, June was drawn into making art quilts, and from there into producing other forms of fibre art, including three-dimensional work. June has exhibited in national and international juried shows, with art currently on tour in Canada and the U.S.A.

Medium/ Media: hand-dyed and purchased cotton and silk fabric, thread, bamboo batting

Price: $250

Title: Water Formations

Artist: Diana Bennet

Artist Statement: There were many interesting elements that I could have chosen for my art piece. I chose water and it’s many forms. The white area depicts the iceberg with satin stitching to portray the cracks in the ice. Water colour is used as the background with circles and stars portraying ice crystals and drops of water.

Artist Biography: Originally, Diana Bennet was a weaver and clothes designer for over 20 years. Since then, she has gravitated to fiber arts. She loves fabric, fibers, colour and any technique that embellishes the cloth. Please see her work on her Instagram account dianaben_fiberartist.

Medium/ Media: cotton and acrylic fabrics, perle cotton and cotton thread and beads. Techniques include machine quilting, hand embroidery and beading.

Price: $250

Title: Botanical Beauties

Artist: Mary Ann Rich

Artist Statement: My “botanical beauties” amble across the composition in a somewhat distracted manner, reminiscent of a lazy summer day. In my abstraction of the previous delightful piece, I attempted to capture its mood. By blending blue into green, adding circles, lace, and just a few stitches, the work revealed itself. I hope it plays well with the previous piece.

Artist Biography: Ever since she was a child, Mary Ann Rich has been drawn to fabric. Vivid memories of childhood clothing remain for her still. In her present life, she has dabbled in many various mediums in her textile explorations. Her passion is texture and the possibilities for experimenting it presents. Delving deeper into her creative process she is attempting to further her own unique understanding of the myriad of ideas she incorporates into her work.

Medium/ Media: hand dyed cotton fabrics, repurposed crochet heirloom handkerchief and embroidery

Price: NFS

Title: Grandmother Moon

Artist: Theresa Stafford

Artist Statement: I saw greens and blues, lace and hand stitch in the piece that was sent to me. I used similar colours and lacy cheesecloth to create a First Nations inspired reverence for nature including the moon. We are all a part of this numinous creation that should be respected.

Artist Biography: Theresa Stafford is a free spirit who enjoys creating art quilts as one of her passions, bringing joy and meaning to into her life. She tries to incorporate her interests in nature, aboriginal culture, spirituality, reading and travel in her art. She loves to experiment with dyes, paint, printing and digital images. She is a retired educator living at Sauble Beach.

Medium/ Media: Batik fabric, fused Angelina fibres, dyed cheesecloth, shell buttons, machine and hand stitched

Price: $250

Title: Over the Earth on Wings

Artist: Judy Gingrich

Artist Statement: I work in two streams, textiles and mixed media painting. My work signifies my love for the colours, textures, patterns and marks in nature. I can best express my love and appreciation for a subject through abstraction.

Artist Biography: Judy Gingrich has loved working with cloth most of her life, first sewing clothing and much later making art quilts. Her main preoccupation has been applying colour in a number of forms to various types of cloth. She has loved the puzzle-solving challenge of how to piece these various coloured fabrics together. Judy is grateful to the wonderful teachers who have helped her along the way.

Medium/ Media: Various silks

Price: NFS

Original Photograph

Title: Algonquin Highlands

Title: Algonquin Highlands

Artist: Toni Major

Artist Statement: What attracts us to a northern lake? I don’t live on a shoreline so I relish the unique scenery, the stroke of a canoe paddle or the exhilaration of a sail on a breezy lake. I revel in the beauty of the sun, sky, rocks and trees reflecting in and off the water. Seasonal colour changes add yet another dynamic as I dread the good-bye to fall colours before the cold of winter moves in.

Artist Biography: As a young girl, Toni Major learned to sew clothing for herself and eventually for her family. High school art classes catalyzed her passion for pottery, painting, quilting and textile arts. Her teaching background led to sharing her knowledge with adult sewing and quilting students. As an artist, Toni embellishes fabrics with paint, dye and stitch to create textile visual art. Inspired by natural settings she creates landscapes, embraces texture, colour and movement. As a member of the international Studio Art Quilts Associates (SAQA), she participates in local and regional SAQA groups, conferences and seminars. Additional classes, workshops and retreats further stimulate her creativity. Toni’s work has been exhibited in many local shows. She had work travel in exhibitions throughout Canada, Europe and the USA. Her work has found homes internationally. She is honoured to have a juried art quilt in the permanent collection at the National Quilt Museum in Kentucky, USA, thanks to SAQA.

Medium/ Media: Hand-dyed and commercial cotton and silk fabrics, cotton threads, cotton/polyester quilt batting

Price: NFS

Title: Autumn Along the Columbia

Artist: Mary Hopkins

Artist Statement: As the year ends, the shores of the Columbia River offer a quiet oasis in the Rockies amidst the towering mountains and brooding sky. Time spent just looking at the wide river and the whispering trees along the shore inspire me to capture the moment in colour and shape.

Artist Biography: Interpreting nature is in Mary Hopkins’ blood. Most of her life has been spent interacting with the life around her, capturing moments with her art. Adding detail, depth and dimension to her work gives her great joy and satisfaction and helps her remembers moments in time, spent in complete contentment.

Price: $250

Title: Seasons Change

Artist: Beverly Allen

Artist Statement: Mary Hopkins' quilt whispered the word "Change" to me. Her rich primary colours beautifully portrayed an idyllic fall scene. To me, autumn is change and that's the whispered word I illustrated.
In my piece, I began with a favourite photo I took after a walk through Hamilton's Red Hill Bowl after a snow storm. I printed it on muslin and surrounded it with some favourite fabric bits I had hand printed and dyed. For autumn I included a maple leaf printed with orange, for spring some indigo fabric I dyed then printed with early flowers. For summer a plum tree leaf enhanced with French knot embroidery. Fall and winter get additional nods with hand dyed cotton fabric. My muted colour scheme walks you through the seasons in a change from Mary's bright, clear colours. Dimensionality is added with embroidery and paint highlights. Changes in seasons and colour flow through my quilt, Seasons Change.

Artist Biography: Beverly Allen is a Burlington, Ontario based multi-disciplinary artist with a love of travel and adventure. She is a maker of marks - textiles, prints, drawings and artist’s books. She has focused her research on natural dyes, investigating their availability locally and printing (coaxing) textile topographies with colour from plants. Her scientific curiosity is engaged by the chemical reactions and insights into plant ecology. She explores plant structures through traditional printmaking as well. With an honours Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, she has shown in numerous group shows across the province and internationally. Her work is in public and private collections in Canada, the United States, Norway, England and Germany.

Medium/ Media: Mixed Media (quilt, embroidery, digital photo, paint)

Price: $250

Title: The Golden Apples of the Hesperides

Artist: Melanie Kindrachuk

Artist Statement: I took the colour tones and silhouette of a tree from the work I was reinterpreting for this piece, and shifted them into a brighter palette. I envisioned a walled garden enclosing an apple tree, inspired by the myth of the Golden Apples of the Hesperides. I wanted to create a sense of the mysterious with this imagery, while also working with a simplicity of detail.

Artist Biography: Melanie Kindrachuk is an emerging artist based in Stratford, Ontario, where she also works as a librarian. Her background in garment making and traditional needlework informs the way she works with cloth.
She is interested in upcycling thrifted fabrics and garment making scraps, and is often inspired by literature and other texts.

Medium/ Media: Commercial fabrics, sequins, beads, machine and hand stitching

Price: $250

Title: Mountain

Artist: Traceyann Crawford

Artist Statement: To spark inspiration, I ran the photo through several filters in my camera looking for interesting effects. This piece is the result of combining Vintage, Negative and Cartoon effects but keeping focal points similar. The background turned black in one filter so added red stitching to relate to the previous photo. The mountain (influenced by the magic pen effect filter) is fractured to indicate seam lines between possible differences of rock types, fault lines, trails, waterways, etc and a suggestion of foliage with the stitched outline of the tree. The piece is machine pieced, fused applique, free motion quilted with commercial and hand painted textiles.

Artist Biography: Traceyann Crawford resides in Brampton, Ontario, Canada and has been exploring fiber art since 2000. Her joyful approach to art is "What If?" and is quite likely to go off in creative tangents when this question arises during a project. She is self taught working intuitively in textiles, paper and paint.

Medium/ Media: Cotton fabric (commercial and hand painted)

Price: $250

Original Photograph

Title: Church Door in Ottawa

Title: Unravelling

Artist: Linda Campbell

Artist Statement: Doors represent many things to me. Beautiful doors can sometimes hide uncomfortable secrets and sometimes old and weathered doors hide an inner beauty. Reconciliation has laid bare some uncomfortable truths about our history. This piece speaks to the unravelling of higher powers in the face of truths revealed.

Artist Biography: Linda Campbell is an artist in Norfolk County. She has a degree in Art and Art History from McMaster University. She has been involved in the arts as a teacher, creator, designer and supporter. Currently she works in a variety of media including water colour, acrylics, fabrics, fibers and mixed media. Linda looks for ways to use upcycled materials such as aluminum, vintage fabrics and natural materials.
Linda also does commissions upon request. She has work in a variety of collects in the Canada, the United States and Europe.

Medium/ Media: Hand Painted and Commercial Fabric, Hand Painted Papers, Photograph on paper, Threads, Acrylic Medium on a Birch Panel.

Price: $250

Title: Choosing - Serenity or Chaos

Artist: Maggie Vanderweit

Artist Statement: Standing in the doorway, which way will she go?

Artist Biography: Maggie Vanderweit has taught, lectured and exhibited globally. Her work includes surface design and intricate machine quilting. She sits on the board of SAQA and is a Juried Art Member.

Medium/ Media: Photo transfer, machine pieced and quilted

Price: NFS

Title: Choosing and Losing (Roe vs Wade 2022)

Artist: Laura Wythe

Artist Statement: I love the colours and structural elements of Maggie’s “Choosing: Order or Chaos.” As I was making this, Roe vs Wade was overturned, and so my title echoes the idea of choosing. In “Choosing and Losing” the columns become more organic, and I speculated on the story of the unknown woman. The sky takes all the colour, while the earth below holds hidden treasures. This piece will become part of a larger quilt inspired by lines from Toni Morrison’s novel Sula.

Artist Biography: A graduate of University of Guelph’s BFA program, Laura Wythe has returned to her roots in textiles, where women clothed, mended, and invented with clever choices and amazing technical skills. She currently makes modern baby quilts and pushes the limits of what can be hand-stitched while exploring women’s and environmental themes.
Laura also combines her textiles with written projects, most recently in Text to Textile (2017), a showcase of stitched illustrations based on her novel, The Bones. Her works have been included in many small exhibits and she is a member of the Canadian Embroiders’ Guild, London, and a general member of SAQA.

Medium/ Media: Cyano prints on cotton, linen and silk, naturally tinted cotton and cheesecloth, hand-painted cotton, hand stitched, quilted with sashiko and cotton embroidery thread, polyester organza.

Price: NFS

Title: Connected

Artist: Maria Kee

Artist Statement: Inspired by the recent thought provoking meme on social media that the female fetus is born with all the eggs she will ever have in her lifetime. As a woman, this means that when your Grandmother was carrying your Mother in her womb, you were a tiny egg in your Mother's ovaries!!! The Celtic symbol of mother and child, spirals, lotus, the moon and stylized ovum convey the theme of motherhood and fertility.

Artist Biography: Maria Kee has had a lifelong interest in working with fibre whether it be fabric, yarns or threads. She began quilting in the early 90’s and was always intrigued by non-traditional art quilts. Learning techniques to manipulate fibre whether it be by stitch, dye or paint and then incorporating the skill into her work has become a passion. Creating art that tells a story or provides a connection to someone inspires her.

Medium/ Media: Machine quilted fusible applique on Japanese linen with hand embroidery and couching.

Price: $250

Title: Where Do I Belong?

Artist: Helen Baker

Artist Statement: The shapes and crescent moon in the previous piece (D4) reminded me of Istanbul where I had an interesting cab ride going around the city in circles because the driver couldn’t find the hotel. The pink represents the sunrise as you sail into the city.

Artist Biography: Quilting was a retirement project for Helen Baker. She is now on a journey moving away from the traditional to the abstract while exploring different fabrics, textures and media.

Medium/ Media: Applique, embroidery, beading and machine quilting on hand dyed and commercial silk fabric.

Price: $250

Original Photograph

Title: Woodland