In 1982 Ned and I moved from Thunder Bay to Kenora, a smaller town but still in North Western Ontario.  We had two little kids at the time, a four year old girl and a two year old boy. Our new home was a two story brick house walking distance from schools and my husband’s workplace.  I was able to continue my part time studies for a Fine Art degree with Lakehead University.  The professors made the six hour drive or bus trip every other weekend and we students would meet in the high school for lectures. I found sanity in those university courses, and eventually graduated.  I started painting on fabric and also began to experiment with fabric dyeing.  At first I used RIT kitchen dyes but soon moved on to fiber-reactive cold water dyes. (Procion MX).   

In July 1985 I had a solo exhibition of my watercolour paintings in a Kenora gallery and earlier in that same month our 3rd child, a girl, was born. The quilt pictured in this post is about her and it’s about me and it’s about the creativity of that time in my life, open ended and bursting.

The main image in the quilt is a stylized painting of three women who are in the act of breastfeeding their three babies. The women have pink and blue robes, opened to accommodate their babies. It is the same woman, repeated three times. She is looking down and to the right because she is drawing her self portrait with one hand while the other one tenderly holds her baby’s small body.

Self Portrait hand-painted cotton, repurposed maternity clothing , hand pieced, hand quilted, 50 x 47 inches.  1985.