Sisters

Sisters
by Ilene Atkins

One day in October several years ago, three of my sisters were here in Ontario for a visit. The weather was one of those perfect warm sunny fall days that we all love so much. We just had to go for a drive to see some of what Southern Ontario has to offer. 

We were all quite taken with the fall colours, and stopped a few times to take it all in. On one of those stops, near Collingwood, these two sailboats happened to go by. I snapped a few photos, and later printed this on onto fabric. 

I spent many an hour doing the threadpainting, and thinking fondly of my sisters and that great get-together. 

This quilt was chosen for exhibit at Quilt Canada, coming up June 15 to 18, 2016, in Toronto.

Update:  My quilt won first place in its category at Quilt Canada, in the National Juried Show. This is quite an honour, since my name was called with many other big names in the Canadian art quilt world. I am quite pleased. When I was at the show in Toronto, talking to people about my quilt, I was joined by one of my sisters who enjoyed that October day with me, and my good quilting friend from Alberta. It was a sweet moment in my life. 

A Little Thread Sketching

Snyder's Flats II
by Ilene Atkins  14" x 14"

I'd been working on this one for quite some time, It is a print of my own photo, and thread-painted quite intensely. I mounted it on the grey background for a bit of extra.

If you enlarge the detail photo, you can see the stitching I put into this. There are many, many colours and brands of thread. I try to blend the thread colours, working paint-by-number style, and reference my photo on my laptop. It is all free-motion stitched. My photo printed fabric is fused onto a stiff interfacing to keep it from distorting.

Snyder's Flats II detail
by Ilene Atkins

This one was accepted into Threadworks, currently on exhibition at the Wellington County Museum, and travelling to other locations for the next three years.