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Wally Dion, born 1976, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Fabric Star Quilts.

Wally (Walter) Dion is a Canadian artist of Saulteaux ancestry living and working in Upstate New York. Working in a number of media including painting, drawing and sculpture.

Wally explains:

"The first fabric star quilt was made as part of a 2022 residency at Wanuskewin Park. It was my way of reflecting upon prairie tall grass and the reintroduction of bison into the Great Plaines. I wanted to make several transparent quilts and superimpose them; one in front another... a quilt for the microbiome, another for the bison, their manure & hooves, another for the summer fires that scorch the ground and a final quilt for the sweetgrass braid.

I was considering how all of these things worked together for thousands of years to create what is known as the 'prairie tall grass ecosystem'. A vast and fertile expanse of land stretching from the foothills of Alberta to the banks of the Mississippi. I wanted to highlight the invisibility of systems when everything is working well, as it should be.

I started with the green quilt because it is the colour of the sweet grass braid that is exchanged in ceremony and relationship building. I considered the nature and tradition of quilting; impoverished craftspeople using tiny scraps of fabric. I considered the act of offering fabric and adherence to tradition. I thought of a thousand tiny prayers and how that might look; invisible acts of respect and adherence to protocols spanning decades. My thoughts travelled across the land, imagining the trees and rocks collecting these prayers like a bush of cloth, or an etched boulders."

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I willow weaved a bird feeder at the garden yesterday. I love it so much ❤️

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by shriveling

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Erika Stearly

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new hobby: unlocked. as we all know, the four things I love the most in the world are (1) sewing, (2) paper embroidery, (3) swirls, and (4) love letters.

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Bringing one of my favorite patterns into the third dimension

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This one's got personality

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Anyway, here's what I'm working on right now

Hand for scale

This pattern is fun and I'd like to try it on some thicker yarn for something really blocky. I'm starting to get into the rhythm of an even beat, but it's tricky with such thin, high contrast yarn because everything stands out so much.

8/2 cotton at 22 epi for some Christmas dish towels. When I do this again, I'll do 24 epi because the thread is finer than I realized. Truthfully, I misrememberd the size we used for the class I took in the spring and just...did not verify before ordering. Oh well! I'm curious about how these will wash up-- so far I'm worried they're too fine to feel very towel-y. But I've got a whole bunch now so I guess I'll just have to figured something out! I think the next thing I will try is a waffle texture. I'm thinking that'll help make the towels thicker and more substantial.

Here's my sampling section:

It turns out that all the patterns for the towels I planned to weave on this warp just do not work the way I was hoping. The birdseye and zigzag are fine, but I have to go back to the drawing board on this one.

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Caroline McFadden

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Alexander McQueen: Blood Stained Anemone Dress Autumn/Winter 2021

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nature artwork by Andy Goldsworthy

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Rachel Rector: 'Teabag Cyanotypes' (2021)

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Hadi Rahnaward: 'Fragile Balance' (2023) rug sculpture created with matches

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Something a little different, something a little fun. An experiment for a dear friend.