In the Stash

At a northern dawn, a weary soul pulls a small tree, crooked and lacking a crown, towards a place he knows in the woods. Most would have chosen a more perfect specimen but nearly every tree here is sparsely branched and misshapen. As it stands in this woodsman’s eye, the little fir is as stately as the finest of pines. From a branch of the biggest tree around, a small blackened and flat bottomed kettle hangs with an enamelled mug, just where he had left them. Here he makes a small fire, fills the kettle at a nearby brook and...

It was inevitable that once we got around to ‘A Cuppa Tea in the Woods’ that a Canada Jay would show up. Our designs often start with memories and stories; our love of this place and its culture and traditions. The way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas. Didn’t take long for us to go from Jam Jams to Jays when we were remembering ‘boil ups’.  Canada Jays are winged greyscales. Little surprise that they are so at home in the boreal forest. Northern light is low, the shade and shadows long and grey, picking...

This post is the first in a series exploring elements of design such as line, form, colour, shape, pattern etc. and how they can be expressed in various types of quilting. We’ll start with texture and how it’s used in the collaged elements of our work. Unlike other design elements, texture can be experienced with two senses. You can touch quilts and feel the actual physical texture of the fabric. You also experience texture with your eyes. many prints and patterns on fabrics look like they could be felt. Fabric collage is often used to create an image. The subject...

Mummers were expected unexpected guests during the holidays when I was a kid. Larger than life, padded, playful and talented - they made for a bit of fun. I was happy to be old enough to join in that first wave of younger mummers to venture out for an evening. I had no sense of it as an old tradition or that I was part of a revival, it was simply something to be expected and practiced during the holidays. Mummers have figured largely in the life of The Quilted Stash too. The Scrappy Mummers were our first product line....

Hi Stashers! I was born on a farm in rural Newfoundland and now spend my time between St. John’s and a converted church in New Chelsea, Trinity Bay. I’ve enjoyed a multi-faceted career which has blended natural history, environmental education, graphic design and artistic expression. I have been an interpretive naturalist, nature park manager and museum curator. A love of nature, particularly the incredible spaces and species of Newfoundland and Labrador have driven my creative instincts and curiosity. As an artist, I have contributed paintings and illustrations to museum exhibits, publications, educational materials and gallery exhibitions in Canada and abroad. ...