@cowan.trudy

Trudy Cowan began “playing with needles” when she was a child, learning and later teaching many techniques including knitting, embroidery, crochet, beadwork, even designing and sewing much of her own clothing.   A career in museums and historic sites included writing stories to connect young people to history and opened her to the textile and visual arts of past eras and world cultures.  All this needle and art experience came together as she retired from full-time heritage work in 2005 when quilting came into, and took over, her life.  By 2008she was enticed to design and create her first art quilt.  Her time is now filled with expanding her repertoire of award-winning textile art and travelling to present talks, trunk shows and workshops.  Trudy was named Quilter of Distinction at the Heritage Park Quilt Festival in 2017.  Her first “illustration” came in 2016 - a quilt for her brother’s poem about physics, chemistry & biology, entitled “Mummy, Where Did I Come From?”  Her most recent children’s book is a story-poem illustrated with11 of her delightful picture quilts - The Little Grey Mouse: A Fable in Fabric, published by Frontenac House Press in 2018. Her quilts, including commissions, live happily in collections across Canada and United States. Every quilt has a story – when, why, for whom, colour and design choices, techniques selected and more. Some of that might be on a label on the back.  Trudy Cowan, art quilter and teacher takes her quilts further into the realm of storytelling and illustration.  How do the image, fabrics, embellishments and techniques convey and support the tale you wish to tell?

@sandra.e.melnik

Sandra Melnik is on a journey of exploring textile arts, intuitively driven, following original sketches, or interesting photographs. Sandra hopes tp inspire the viewer to make their own story when enjoying her pieces.