While travelling through Croatia, Jan Lindstrom saw cheerful poppies growing near houses marked by bullet holes.
The sight stayed with her.
“With bullet holes in houses, the poppies seemed a sign of hope,” she said.
That memory helped inspire “Pleasures are Like Poppies Spread,” one of her works in Beauty Surrounds Us, a new quilt art exhibition on display at the Lake of the Woods Museum until Nov. 14.
The collection brings together three years of work by QA5, or Quilting Arts 5. Its members — Lindstrom, Nancy Bergman, Judy Christie, Maryanne Nilson and Pat Schwartz — each explored a different subject: fields of abundance, white pines, skies, water and butterflies.
All five are retired educators who have quilted for many years. They have been together as a group for about a decade, moving from bed quilts to landscape scenes, then to abstract designs, close-up objects, and other subjects.
For this collection, they wanted a shared project that would allow each artist to pursue her own ideas. Inspiration was close at hand.
“Because we live in such a beautiful area on Lake of the Woods, it seemed natural that we would use that as a basis of our project,” Lindstrom said in written responses to the Miner and News.
Lindstrom chose flowers, particularly the broad fields of them she has always loved. Bringing her poppy scene to life meant figuring out how to depict a hill sloping into a valley and finding the right fabric for tiny lupins among the poppies.
The valley also contains unexpected material: Tyvek, a building product she painted and melted before incorporating it into the quilt.
In another piece, “Spiritual Enlightenment,” she tried a new way of making grasses that appear to blow in the wind. She used tulle, extensive stitching and Solvy, a material that dissolves in water.
The work begins with an idea, sometimes imagined and often inspired by a photograph or picture. From there, the artists develop a pattern, considering composition and a focal point before choosing their fabrics.
“Sometimes the most difficult part is deciding what you want to do!” Lindstrom said.
Fabric is then “auditioned,” with colour, pattern and proportion all contributing to the result.
Schwartz chose monarch butterflies, painted them, and combined them with purchased background fabric. Her original design, “Beautiful Debut,” is based on a photograph Karen McKim took as she released a butterfly for its first flight toward Laurenson Lake.
Bergman’s white pine theme takes in the trees themselves as well as their roots and growth rings. Her pieces include “Yearly Rings” and “Stormy Weather.”
For Christie, years of watching cloud formations, sunrises and sunsets while travelling and from her deck provided material for her exploration of skies. “A Storm is Brewing” reflects the seemingly endless Saskatchewan sky.
Nilson chose water, a presence throughout her life, from playing in it as a child to working in it as a teenager and travelling on it.
Her “Late Season Bloom” was inspired by an algae bloom in Lake of the Woods. In “Waves in Action,” she explored the colour, movement and power of ocean waves breaking on shore, watching numerous videos as she worked to get the wave action right.
The artists make their own pieces, but they regularly turn to one another for advice. When they meet, they discuss colours, patterns, sizes, and accents. Bergman contributes experience from researching quilting arts and teaching workshops, and their friendship leaves room for honest opinions.
“It helps that we are great friends and can say ‘what we think’!” Lindstrom said.
Working alongside the others has also given her a fresh appreciation for a familiar view. Nilson’s water pieces, she said, have prompted her to look more closely at the lake.
Lindstrom hopes visitors leave feeling fortunate to live amid so much natural beauty, with a little amazement at what the artists have made using “some fabric, needles, thread and imagination!”
