Andree Fredette in the Quiltart Gallery

I am a Canadian and I live in Toronto, Ontario. Although I'd always admired the ingenuity and creative spirit - not to mention the technical skills - of the makers of traditional quilts, I was bowled over by the energy and the expressive quality of contemporary art quilts. I discovered these modern works through the Internet when I started cruising it in 1995. This discovery led me to books, teachers, galleries and guilds. I had so much to learn... and I still have so much to learn that every day brings new discoveries and the renewed pleasure of working with colour and fabric.

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Au Jardin Transgénique
© 1999
51" x 51"

In 1999, genetically-modified foods were front page news and I started wondering: what am I really feeding my family? So I "grew" this quilt with its bizarre garden, cells moving around, a quilted DNA helix and so on.

Au Jardin Transgénique
detail

The quilt was juried into "Keeping the World Sewing", and international exhibition sponsored by Husqvarna-Viking. It has been shown at Quilt Expo VII, in Strasbourg, France, in Sweden and at Quilt Festival in Houston, USA. It also won Viewers' Choice on the Quilting Arts Forum.

Pieced, appliquéd, reverse-appliquéd, quilted and embroidered by machine.

Nature Study 1 - Green Leaf
© 2000
58" x 55"

In July 2000, I attended a Nancy Crow workshop at Quilting By The Lake, in upstate New York. During the final two days of this 10-day 'boot camp', Nancy's students were challenged to create what she called a Major Work. By then, every student was pretty tired. Still, I was amazed at the works that were 'birthed'

Green Leaf - Detail

all around me during those two days. What an incredible buzz!

Working directly with the fabrics, I played with value contrasts to highlight the leaf shapes. I discovered that I really enjoy free-cutting and sewing sensuous curves. They take on a life of their own.

Hand-dyed and commercial cottons. Pieced and quilted by machine.

While I worked on other quilts, this one was 'parked' on my design wall, in pieces, for several months. I called it

Detail

"Spinning my Wheels" because I was not going anywhere with it.

Suddenly, last November, inspiration struck. Probably my antidote to all that nasty cold and grey Torontoweather. I really should have been born in the tropics, judging by those colours.

Hand-dyed and commercial cottons, machine pieced, reverse-appliquéd, machine quilted.