Field of Light

Field of Light, linen and silk, hand dyed, hand pieced, hand quiltted.  There is a velvet border, also hand dyed and hand quilted with big thread.  

Field of Light was started during the winter of the pandemic, around Christmas 2020.  The small squares of  fabric were pinned to the living room wall as they were cut out.  Once the colour way was decided, the artist stitched them together using the nine-pach method and then each section was pinned up again to maintain the design.   

Ourselves Immortal

The reverse side of Field of Light is lightweight silk woven in India, and sent to Judy from Italy by an artist who was declutering her studio.  The material and these gorgeous colours were a gift.

The title, Ourselves Immortal, comes from the poem Spring Song, by Canadian poet Al Purdy,

detail of Field of Light

detail of Ourselves Immortal

Field of Light had its premier showing in Toronto of 2026 at the two person exhibition of Judy Martin and her daughter, April Martin at the Craft Ontario gallery.  The exhibition was entitled Earlier and Later.

  

Measurements:  207 x 203 cm or 81.5 x 80 inches, 2026

The first four photographs of this quilted textile are by Nick Dubecki, and the last one is by Jocelyn Reynolds / Craft Ontario.

Lake Full of Stars

Lake Full of Stars  

cotton, linen, silk.  applique and embroidery.  A hand stitched quilt.  197 x 104 cm.  2025
 

Lake Full of Stars is a reversible quilt.

The second side is a mirror image of the first side.  

It is a very thin quilt with a black silk bating.  

Lake Full of Stars detail

My work is inspired by my view of the horizon but is not really an illustration of what I see.  Looking at the sky and the water causes me to go within myself where there is a huge inner world.   Judy Martin

This quilt is more like a drawing.  

It was created very intuitively.

Lake Full of Stars was included in the two-person exhibition, Earlier and Later, that featured Judy Martin and her daughter April Martin.  It was held in the Craft Ontario gallery at 401 Richmond Street, Toronto during June and July of 2026.  

Before this, Lake Full of Stars was presented on a horizontal format and had title: The Day, The Night, and then The Day Again.

The Day, The Night, and then the Day Again was shown in Judy Martin's solo exhibition The Sky: New Quilts by Judy Martin at the Art Gallery of Sudbury in 2025. 

The horizontal version also showed at Quilts-Art-Quilts 2025 at the Schweinfurth art Gallery in Auburn, New York State. USA.

  

the time cloaks

 

time present:  the softness inside her  2021

time future: touch the stars

time past:  island heart

time past: island heart other side

The time cloaks were created in 2021.  Two of them used exisiting art textiles (time present and time past) see here for time present, here for time past. The third one began it's exhibition life as a 3-dimensional piece and took on a 2-dimensional presentation in 2025 with the title:  River of Softness.  (see here).  

These texitles were presented as three dimensional hanging cloaks or figures as part of the In the Middle of the World exhibitioin that toureed Ontario and Nova Scotia between 2021 and 2024.

Starry Starry / Holy Holy

 Starry Starry  84 x 61 inches  (213 x 155 cm)  linen, velvet, hand stitch 2023

Starry Starry uses reverse applique for the velvet dots in the centre of hand embroidered floral/stars.

It is densely hand stitched.

The second side of this textile is layered with organza.  Holes in the organza reveal the reverse side of the velvet dots.  There is also a layer of naturally dyed silk velvet, hand quilted, as a lower border.

The title of the second side is Holy Holy.  

Completed in 2023 after 10 years in themaking, Starry Starry / Holy Holy has shown three times in public before entering private collection in September 2025.  

2023:  Inside Out solo exhibition at Homer Watson House / Gallery in Kitchener Ontario Canada

2024:  Softer and Dreamier solo exhibition at Festival of Quilts Birmingham United Kingdom

2025:  The Sky solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Sudbury, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

River of Softness

River of Softness   Strips of silk velvet that were coloured with natural dyes are sewn to commercially embroidered linen and then pleated with hand stitch.

The piece is as heavy as an animal's fur pelt and just as soft.   22 x 49 inches (56 x 124 cm)  2025

River of Softness reverse side, block printed heavy silk satin from India, hand quilted, 

detail 

River of Softness was included in The Sky, an exhibition on display during the summer of 2025 at the Art Gallery of Sudbury.  

Before this, River of Softness was displayed as a cape / cocoon sculpture entitled Touch the Stars and was part of In the Middle of the World, a two person exhibition that toured Ontario and Nova Scotia, Canad between 2021 - 2024. 

Prayers for the Twenty-first Century

 

Prayer for the twenty-first century:  Courage        silk thread on linen, mounted on wool, wood frame 12 x 12 inches, 2025

Prayer for the twenty-first century:  Family    silk thread on linen and wool, mounted on wool, wood frame, 12 x 12 inches, 2025

Prayer for the Twenty-first century:  Freedom    silk thread on linen,moutned on wool, wood frame, 12 x 12 inches, 2025

Prayer for the Twenty-first century:  Understanding        silk thread on linen, mounted on wool, wood frame, 12 x 12 inches, 2025

freedom, understanding, courage, family
silk thread on linen, mounted on wool, signed with embroidery on front
each 12 inches by 12 inches, 
framed in wood frames 
2025

These four small red-thread embroideries will debut at the Perivale Gallery for the 2025 season.

Inspired by a poem that John Marsden from Australia wrote in 1997.

 Prayer for the twenty-first century

May the road be free for the journey

May it lead where it promised it would.

May the stars that gave ancient bearings

Be seen, still be understood.

May every aircraft fly safely,

May ever traveller be found,

May sailors in crossing the ocean

Not hear the cries of the drowned.

 

May gardens be wild, like jungles,

May nature never be tamed,

May dangers create of us heroes,

May fears always have names.

May the mountains stand to remind us

Of what it means to be young,

May we be outlived by our daughters,

May we be outlived by our sons.

 

May the bombs rust away in the bunkers,

And the doomsday clock not be rewound,

May the solitary scientists, working,

Remember the holes in the ground.

May the knife remain in the holder,

May the bullet stay in the gun,

May those who live in the shadows

Be seen by those in the sun.

The four Prayers for the twenty-first century will debut at the Perivale Gallery for the 2025 season.  Opening weekend is May 16-17-18 2025 🙌

Your Fragile Life / Intimacy

Your Fragile Life   

naturally dyed vintage table linens, bordered with hand woven silk from India, hand pieced and hand quilted, 175 x 172 cm or 69 x 68 inches, 2024

The fabrics were sorted by value, light to dark.

Beginning with the lightest value in the centre, rows of hand pieced squares were added in turn around all four sides until the that particular colour ran out.

Some of the old fabrics were quite fragile, but the hand piecing and hand quilting strengthened them.

The more that you use linen damask, the softer it gets.

Using them up until they ran out seemed a metaphor for our own mortality.  We do not know how long we have.  

The grid of hand pieced squares were then quilted in the seamlines ( in the ditch) and also with a secondary grid.  The appearance of a safety net and the softness of the fabrics reads as loving strength.

Intimacy

The second side of Your Fragile Life, the fabric is hand woven silk from India that was given to the artist by a textile artist in Italy who was decluttering her own studio.  The size of the hot pink silk determined the finished size of the quilt, and was used in its entirety.  

hand quilted, 175 x 172 cm or 69 x 68 cm

The title is Intimacy because it is the back side of the quilt, and when you pull a quilt over you, the back side is the side that touches your body in an intimate way.

This is a quilt about touch and time and care.

Premier showing at The Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK, in Judith Martin's solo exhibition, Softer and Dreamier.