Lamentation / The Good and the True

Lamentation   dyed and painted cloth, hand pieced, hand quilted, then hand stitched with red cotton sashiko thread.  57.5 x 58"  146 x 147 cm  2022

detail of Lamentation by Judy Martin

I used up all the green fabrics I had on hand to make this piece when my niece died of cancer age 38. 

The Good and the True  white wool whole cloth quilt, hand quilted, and then hand embroidered, (This quilt is the second side of the above quilt, Lamentation).   57.5 x 58"  147 x 146 cm  2022

Red thread is used in all cultures and has taken on meaning depending on where you live and what you want to believe.  Sometimes it means happiness, some times it means protection.  It also means good luck.   Red thread is the most powerful.   

White fabric most often refers to purity.  Liturgical embroidery uses white for celebration cloths.   

Exhibitions:  

 

Inside Out:  Judith e Martin's solo show in Kitchener Ontario in spring 2023. 

Stardust:  Martin's solo exhibition Gore Bay, Manitoulin Island, summer 2023.

Softer and Dreamier:  Judy Martin's solo exhibition at the Festival of Quilts Birmingham, UK in  August 2024.  

In private collection:  Ottawa, Ontario

Under Drifting Stars

Under Drifting Stars

2022, very light weight cotton with a silk batt, 86 x 91 inches.

A world of spirit thinly veiled, a secret mystery.  Our cosmos, our day and night, the sun and the moon, and also the stars.  Childhood and also eternity.  Also emotions.  Also dreams.

I make quilts that are large enough to cover a family.

The cotton was first treated with tannin (sumac leaves) and then dot-painted with water that had a little iron powder in it.  Judy painted the fabrics on her birthday in July 2020, during the height of the pandemic.  In the spring of 2022, she arranged the fabrics and hand pieced them.  Over the summer, she hand embroidery-quilted the large quilt in a hoop.  

The upper half of the quilt has shapes that resemble a moon and some suns, or maybe all of them are moons.  

The dots were outlined with quilting thread and pulled tightly so that they would puff out.  Some of them are so puffy, they look as if they are appliqued, but they are painted.

A thicker wool thread was used to outline the larger shapes.

The lower part of the quilt also has painted dots, but this time the artist embroidered over each dot with embroidery floss to make rough satin stitch dots.

The lower half of the quilt was quilted with pink silk thread, while the upper half was quilted with white silk thread.  The subtle change of colour of thread is noticeable.

Yes that is a seam that joins the upper and lower halves of the quilt and it has been made into a tuck to create a wavering horizon line.  

The back of the quilt is also marked with the same dots, but not with paint.  Just the threads are used and you can see how they are actually a way of quilting the two sides of the quilt together, while also making a pleasing image on the back.  The pink fabric is cotton dyed with avocado.

Under Drifting Stars made its premier in the prestigious Quilt National 23 exhibition in Athens Ohio in May of 2023.  

It was awarded the Handwork award.

A video of Judy speaking about making this quilt can be viewed here.  

The exhibition of Quilt National continued at the Dairy Barn until September 11, 2024, and then toured to Canton Museum of Art in Canton, Ohio and the Historical Society of Clay County in Morehead, Minnesota in 2023-2024.

A Quilt For Baby Earth

A Quilt For Baby Earth    2022    handkerchief linen, small amounts of velvet and cotton, silk and cotton red threads, the backing is a linen damask table cloth, dyed with cochineal.  48 x 46.5 inches (122 x 118 cm) 

Hand embroidered with the poem, Planet Earth by Canadian poet PK Page.

Hand quilted.

Part of the Inside Out exhibition, Homer Watson House and Gallery in Kitchener Ontario, 2023 

Part of the Stardust exhibition, Gore Bay museum in Gore Bay, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, 2023.

It has to be loved the way a laundress loves her linens,

the way she moves her hands, caressing the fine muslins, 

knowing their warp and woof,

like a lover coaxing, or a mother praising,

It has to be loved as if it were embroidered 

with flowers and birds and two joined hearts upon it.

                        P.K. Page   (complete poem on website)

"Planet Earth" by PK Page (1993) is used with permission from the Estate of PK Page.

A Quilt for Baby Earth is available through the Perivale gallery, 2025 season.  

The Planet You're Standing On

The Planet You're Standing On

stitched paper, watercolour, silk thread, text written in pencil  30 x 24 inches  (76 x 60 cm)

The planet you're standing on looking out at the stars is the earth, the third planet from the sun and the mildest and softest of the nine.  Solid and rocky and heavy we think it is when actually it's as pale and lovely as a bubble.  It floats in nothing with all of us on it shining like a bubble.

excerpt from Only a Little Planet by Lawrence Collins 

Showed at Perivale Gallery, Spring Bay Manitoulin Island in 2022

In private collection, Lapeer, Michigan. 

Earth Dance

Earth Dance silk thread, watercolour paper, hand stitched  21" x 20.5"   (53 x 50 cm)  2022 (metal frame with glass)

for our imaginations and for our hearts

Premier showing at the Perivale Gallery, Manitoulin Island  in 2022  

Part of Judy's Inside Out exhibition in spring of 2023, at the Homer Watson House in Kitchener.

Also part of Judy's Stardust exhibition, Gore Bay museum, summer 2023. 

Fourth and final showing:  Le Nouveau Louvre, galerie du nouvel-ontario, december 2023.  Sold on opening day.

In private collection, Sudbury, Ontario..