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Professional Fibre Artists of Western Canada

 

 

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Kristin Miller


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390 Dunshire Drive,
Gabriola, BC
V0R 1X2
Canada

Phone 250-247-7656
kristinmiller@shaw.ca
www.kristinmillerquilts.com

Artist Statement

I want my quilts to startle and delight, to wake you up, not put you to sleep. Even so, I have made many bed quilts--or works of art to sleep under.  And I make smaller quilts too, of course. 

I do not plan or design my quilts--I just start sewing. Scraps of fabric are my preferred medium, and reacting to their non-linear shapes is often my primary inspiration. Scraps are more suggestive and evocative than whole fabric, and convey motion, meaning, and emotion more readily.

At present, I am following half a dozen paths with my quilts:

 - medallions, often elaborated and re-structured

- spirals developing in free form patterns

- abstract designs with dynamic motion and vitality

- message quilts, memory quilts, and commemorative quilts

- scrap and raveled-thread pictorials and landscapes

The actual quilting stitches are of great importance to me. I do both hand and machine quilting. Quilting by machine is a job, something to be accomplished competently. Quilting by hand is a slow and meditative process that etches an added layer of beauty and meaning into the quilt.

Jake's Quilt
85" x 85" - NFS

A bed quilt for my nephew Jake's graduation, machine pieced from new and recycled fabrics, hand appliquéd, and quilted by hand with DMC perl cotton. What a pleasure to work without a pattern, building outward from the three central medallions to create shapes full of energy and vitality. As I sewed, the forms came to suggest flowers and a butterfly, so I used my hand-quilting to enhance the sense of liveliness and growth.
 

Mountains In Autumn
19" x 15" - $200.00 Cdn

Layered and sculpted landscape made from varied scraps, threads, and fabric ravelings. A Patrick Morrow photo inspired this ephemeral thread embroidery, sewn mainly by hand with invisible stitches that barely hold the elements in place. This delicate textile invites touch, and the three-dimensional foliage can be subtly rearranged. This piece could be framed and protected under glass, but I prefer it accessible to touch and to the effects of time.
 

Tendrils
35" x 45" - $1,200.00 Cdn

Drawing a spiral with a pencil only takes a second, so it may be hard for the non-quilter to understand how difficult and exhilarating it is to sew free-form patchwork spirals without a pattern. Each spiral developed its own unique shape and energy, then intertwined with the others, like tendrils reaching for the sun. Extensive hand-quilting accentuates the design. Machine-pieced using cotton and rayon fabrics, hand appliquéd; and quilted by hand with DMC perl cotton.


Andy's Quilt
75" x 95" approx. - NFS

My nephew Andy picked out rambunctious fabric for his graduation quilt, and I had great fun piecing together this very modern and colourful double-bed-sized quilt. I worked without any particular expectations of how the quilt would turn out, arranging new and recycled fabric by eye as I added border after border concentrically around the medallion. I outlined fabric motifs with elaborate hand-quilting stitches, using bright-coloured DMC perl cotton for my quilting thread.

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