Sometimes we all lose our inspiration for a piece that we are working on and set it aside for a time. This is exactly what happened to Winter Sunset. After four months of work on the central medallion, Colette “got stuck”. She had lost her inspiration, folded up the medallion, and tucked it away for six months. (In the meantime she created Ookpik, but we’ll come back to that.)
Colette has a complex design process, including many steps, techniques and tools. To begin, she draws her designs by hand, and scans and manipulates them using software. Appliqué templates are printed on freezer paper, ironed onto fabric, cut out leaving an 18″ margin, and then turned using glue. These pieces are attached to the fabric, Colette’s original digitized embroidery is added, and then she returns to the appliqué pieces, sewing with invisible thread and a tiny blanket stitch. Other techniques include machine piecing and long arm quilting with a stitch regulator.
The title of this quilt is inspired by the sunsets that Colette feels lucky to see from her rural property. She often sees the sky colours of orange, pink, purple, and blue reflected on the snow.
After spending time studying how jewelry makers work with beads, Colette was inspired to incorporate these techniques into her designs. Winter Sunset has 31,000 beads embellishing the surface and edges. This is an element we have seen before in Colette’s work. At previous Quilt Canada National Juried Shows, her 2019 Best of Show quilt entitled Fleur de Glace used seed beads and Swarovski crystals. And Ookpik, with a beautifully beaded binding, won first place in the Textile Translation category in 2019.
Colette has been sewing since the age of five. Her journey includes making doll clothes, toys, home décor, and she spent many years as a garment maker. Since 2017 she has enjoyed many successes in juried shows in Canada and the US.
Living rurally, COVID-19 has not had a huge impact on her life, nor her creativity. She has a facility for learning, and a very complete studio that includes a domestic, mid-arm, long-arm, and industrial embroidery machine. Like so many others, she has pivoted to a “virtual” platform, speaking and teaching for Courtepointe Quebec. And, like the rest of us, she looks forward to quilting events and seeing friends in person.
Winter Sunset
Colette Dumont, Saint-Romain, QC
DIMENSIONS 80″ x 80″
MATERIALS 100% cotton and tissue lamé (45% nylon/55%metallic).
TECHNIQUES Machine piecing, machine appliqué, original digitized embroidery, longarm quilting with a stitch regulator, embellishments, beading.
STATEMENT This quilt was a UFO before, so I decided to finish it. The colours orange, pink, purple, and blue represent the colours of a winter sunset on the whiteness of the snow. More than 30,000 beads were hand sewn. Turned-edge appliqué was used under the embroidery.
