TEXTILES_00076_Waterlife II_2026

RG-8_TEXTILES_00076
WaterLife II
PIECED Series
pieced
18″ square
Abstract design; mosaics; commercial fabrics
2026
QUILTS, WaterLife Series, 2026, pieced, blues, greens, purples, turquoise

Artist Statement

Water. Life giving. Constantly moving. Ebbing and flowing. Captivating. Immersive. With this series, I desired to paint with mosaic cuts of fabrics. The quilts use many fabrics used to ebb and flow throughout an immersive canvas. For instance, Water Life I uses 35 different fabrics – some commercial, some I’ve digitally created myself. The lighter blues in the quilt represent the ebb while the darker blues represents the flow of the deep waters. The center area of the quilt denotes the flurry of activity from a uniform school of water life that travel in unison through the depths of the see.

Process

Fabrics. There were many fabrics chosen for the Water Life series. Mainly cottons of different weights – from lightweight to heavier weight canvas. The fabrics are commercial screen-painted and printed; as well as dyed solid color Kona and mottled fabrics.

Colors.  Sections are made to look like one color from a distance, up close there are many colors making up that area of the quilt. The colors in Water Life II are bolder and more dramatic. The intent is to show schools of chaotic frenzy in the depths of the mesmerizing sea.

Fusing. The quilt was created on a substrate muslin backing fabric with the handcut mosaic squares and rectangles are fused down onto the backing fabric. The handcut pieces create an irregularity and perfect imperfectness to represent the movement in the deep sea.

Backing the quilt. The quilt is then sewn as a whole cloth onto a muslin backing. Traditional quilt batting was not used to keep the quilt sandwich as thin and tapestry-like as possible. The hand of the quilt is sinewy like water.

Quilting. Stitching was done to enforce movement. Thread colors in the turquoise was chosen for an eye-catching, dramatic effect which differs slightly from the more tranquil Water Life I. Repeated wavy patterns with cotton threads with stitches of varying lengths were used.

Orientation. The quilt is meant to be oriented horizontally or vertically. This flexibility in viewing is present in most of my quilt designs as it allows the viewer control over the experience.

Stretched on Canvas. It was decided early on to present this quilt in a standard picture size that could be stretched on an 18″ square canvas.

Details

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A Heath

A Heath is an experienced librarian, archivist, author, curator and artist. Her work in metadata management, archiving and product management spans over 20+ years across many sectors - corporate, government, publishing, healthcare, education and ecommerce. On a personal note, Angela is a designer, textile artist and painter. She also has been an avid jigsaw puzzle collector for 30+ years.