Painted Frayed Fabric Bird Collage Quilt

Raw edge fabric and free-motion stitching create a lush setting for In the Greenery. The art quilt is a collage of dyed fabrics with a brown bird of painted torn fabric strips. Round metallic beads in green, bronze and gold are added for a touch of glow.

Safety Pin Stitched Scrappy Birds

At around two inches each, these little birds are scrappy stitched brooches. The flock was made with many wee scraps of colourful fabric free-motion stitched to create an abstract patchwork body. The addition of wings, beak and bead for an eye brought each bird to life.

Gray Catbird Raw Edge Stitched Picture

A transparent gray catbird is portrayed in this stitched picture. Akin to sketching in an art journal, a fabric picture can come to life by laying down strips of torn fabric and then stitching and sketching with a sewing machine. In this piece the variegated threads add colour and the raw edges of the fabric, free to fray and unravel, add texture. And similar to a paper journal, journal quilting is an excellent process for playing, meditating and working out ideas.

Brown Bird Raw Edge Patchwork Art Quilt

Gazing up into the sky, Brown Birdie is dreaming of flying high in this raw edge patchwork art quilt.

Scraps of fabric, stitched down with miles and miles of sewing make up the background and tiny strips of brown and white fabric make up the feathers for the bird. He's a cute little character, dreamt up in a sketchbook and brought to life in fabric and stitch.

Folk Art Fabric Bird Soft Sculpture with Raw Edges

A new addition to the flock, this soft sculpture bird joins the other patchwork birds born in the studio this winter. With raw unraveling edges, this stitched folk art doll is full of texture in shades of chocolate brown, burgundy and mossy green with soft brown wings.

Sewing with Felted Wool, a Penguin with Patchwork

The newest penguin softie born in the studio is just over 3 inches tall. He has a frayed patchwork tummy of turquoise, bright green, yellow, orange and pink fabrics sewn with free-motion embroidery stitching.

Sewing Soft Sculpture Patchwork Fabric Birds

Sewn by both hand and machine, two bird soft sculptures with patchwork bodies.

Full of texture and colour, this bird softie is in shades of turquoise, pink, orange, green and yellow with a raw edge patchwork body and red wings. The patchwork is heavily embellished with colourful free-motion embroidery stitching in shades of blue, orange, pink and red creating a new rustic durable surface. The red wings feature feathery hand embroidery stitches in orange.

Canadian Symbols Art Journal Stitched Collage

This Canadian themed stitched collage is an art journal page featuring the maple leaf, the loon and a miniature map of the country. Created to contemplate and reflect on Canadian identity, the collage includes both words and symbols.

Painter Girl Stitched Art Journal Portrait

This stitched art journal page is a folky artsy girl who is happy and colorful. With a paint palette and easel, she is a painter, ready to create a masterpiece.

Bird Quilt with Raw Edge Patchwork

Looking on the bright side of life, this bird character in fabric and stitch is part of a little bird told me series.

Drawing with Sewing Machine and Thread

Taking a drawing or painting and translating it into fabric and thread is challenging and delightful. This mini art quilt of a cheery brown bird is a rendition of the painting Happy Bird, part of a little bird told me series. Created with a sewing machine and thread instead of a paintbrush, it mimics the colors and mood of the original but in a new, fun and touchable way.

Sewing with Frayed Fabric and Raw Edges

This art quilt embraces sewing with raw edges, ragged fabric and loose threads. Part of a little bird told me series, this piece is by far the most untamed, frayed fabric and all.

Free-Motion Sewing Bird Feathers

Free-motion sewing creates feathers full of texture for this orange fellow, a thread art interpretation of the painting Jolly Bird.

Green Bird Sewing Embroidery Art Quilt

This thread stitched art quilt of a green bird on purple is part of a little bird told me series. It's a sewing and fabric interpretation of the Joy Bird painting from the series:

Yellow Bird: From Painting to Art Quilt

The a little bird told me series is branching off into art quilts, and this piece is a replica in fabric based on the painting Have Courage -

Stitch Play

 Playing with some creative stitch on a piece of my overdyded cotton.

No Rules Quilt in Progress

 More stitching progress. No pattern, no rules, no straight lines. Plenty of raw unraveled edges.

Raw Edge Sewing

 In the early stages of a raw edge art quilt in orange, pink, purple & yellow-green. Hand scrubbed to distort and fray the edges, the pieces are ready to assemble.

From Painting to Art Quilt

Galactic art quilt (16 X 16 inches) is inspired by my abstract paintings. The challenge was to translate the texture and lines that can be achieved in acrylic paint to soft fabrics and machine stitch.

The base fabric is batik with three additional layers of hand painted fabric. The aim was to create depth & texture with raw unraveling edges, meandering stitches and couched lines. The addition of the roundness of tortoiseshell buttons and tiger's eye beads was a balancing counterpoint to the raw edge cutwork of the lines.

As an exploration of surface design and a rendering of acrylic painting to fabric art, this was a fantastic, fun & interesting challenge.

Little Cottage

I wanted to spend some time at the sewing machine and this little cottage is the result. With no plan in mind, I began to put together some fabric scraps. At first, the piece looked landscape-ish, but eventually a house began to emerge. With the addition of black stitching, all the details of the house came to life. As a fan of raw edges, I decided to leave it unbound. The little cottage is 7 1/2 X 7 1/2 inches.

This small piece provided the perfect opportunity to stitch the afternoon away after a busy week.