2014

SAQA Portfolio 21

978-0-9896896-4-9

see page 209

Spring 2014

COMMUNIQUE ... editors: Beverley Cairns & Patricia Reimer

"Maggie Meredith Vanderweit,
Stone Threads Fibre Arts Studio"

She gave up a career as a French/ESL teacher to devote herself to the universe of the threaded needle.

The Connections textile show is once more at the Wellington County Museum, reminding us of the remarkable upsurge of creativity in the textile arts which has emerged from traditional quilting, embroidery, beading and weaving.

In textile shows across Canada and internationally, you will find the imaginative wall hangings of Maggie Vanderweit, created in her Stone Threads Textile Arts Studio, Fergus. In this purposely designed space, with glass doors giving onto trees and the Grand River, Maggie chooses fabrics, paints them, dyes them and quilts on her simple domestic sewing machine.

Maggie says "One of the most important aspects of life is the tactile experience. We are wrapped in fabrics till we die. We live in all manners of textiles". In trips abroad such as a recent journey to South Africa, she has witnessed the new and the traditional roles of fabrics in daily life.

A remarkably successful artist, Maggie has energetically sought connections and markets for her work. She is a member of Silo Weavery, St Jacob's, the Grand Quilt Guild, Studio Art Quilt Associates (international), Canadian Quilting Association, Connections, CFUW Guelph Textile Art Group, and the Harris Artist Collective ECFTA. Her Studio can be visited on the Elora Fergus Studio Tour and she submits works to Insights, the national Creativ Festival in Toronto, and, in addition, Maggie teaches at the Haliburton School of the Arts, and in the Wellington County Museum Summer Art program. She enjoys presenting to quilting groups and guilds with Trunk Shows, and frequently lectures with demonstrations of techniques to fellow fibre artistssuch as Canadian Quilt Association members. Though she seldom holds courses at her home studio, groups who might like instruction in techniques listed on the Stone Threads website are welcome to request workshops.

Maggie is of Dutch heritage. She started to knit & crotchet at a very young age, and to embroider in the Dutch tradition of embellishing even simple items with beauty. Her mother was always knitting or sewing, hands never idle. A woman who had a CAN DO approach to creativity, asking her children " what do you want?" Whatever was conceptualized, drawn or described, her mum would sew and make it.

From 1976 to1980 Maggie studied French and English literature at University of Toronto, and in her third year went to a studio program at Aix En Provence, France. In 1992-93 she took a Diploma of Education at McGill, which led to work in northern Quebec for the Cree School Board, where she taught for three years, married into a Cree family to which she is still very connected, and had two children. She has always searched for understanding and connection, and to know what its like to be in a minority, During the children's pre-school years, Maggie stayed home. At this time she began to explore traditional quilting, but using machine stitching. The early '90s saw the introduction of rotary cutters for fabric making it easy to cut patterns through multiple layers of cloth. Her proficiency and vision took her to new improvisations.

She has the greatest respect for creativity and experiment, telling her pupils when teaching art "I have a magic wand" that would allow freedom of personal expression, but provided the students with a tool box of possibilities. Ever inventive, Maggie was possibly the first in this area to introduce Silk Fusion techniques, using silk rovings and silk paper laminates to embellish textiles. She also paints on fabric, stitching in relation to the patterns. She is now working almost exclusively with rust staining and botanical materials to dye fabric and create prints on wool. Her design wall is covered with white felt to which swatches adhere, making it simple to visualize the assembly of a piece..

The theme of her present exploration is "What Remains?" Everything is on earth for a short time, but after disintegration, a spirit is left here. Maggie's work seeks to capture the essence and spirit of substances. Origins of metal and plants may be gone, but their spirit remains: the rust from lids of paint cans, the chlorophyll dye of leaves, the fleeting colour of flowers and berries, they all stain patterns into the wool to later be machine stitched in reflective patterns.

Speaking of her success, Maggie says she feels blessed to be able to follow a creative life. She has happily remarried a supportive husband and built a dream house in Fergus. With children leaving home, she has recently become an "empty nester', dealing with letting go; hands off parenting. Loving her children but allowing space. Her goal is to exhibit more internationally.Through her work she will continue to talk about emotional and social issues, and to explore.

The above map is inscribed in stone near Lake Como, Italy It is called the Bedolina map. It marks the transition from a Hunter- Gatherer to an Agrarian society, cut into the rock at Capo di Ponti btween 8000 to 3000 years ago Maggie interpreted Bedolina in a monochrome quilted wall hanging which won the national award for excellence in innovation for the Canadian Quilt Association..

"I am inspired by my spiritual beliefs about why we are here and what we are supposed to be doing while we are here, and I hope my work conveys wonder and joy. I find the whole process of working with textiles meditative and invigorating and I feel most blessed to be able to teach and create".
Interviewed by Beverley Cairns

2013

"Metaphors on Aging"
Catalogue design by Deirdre Adams
ISBN:978-0-9834468-6-6
see pages 70-75
available at SAQA

This beautiful book features moving images from a show that is travelling the world.

SAQA Journal
Fall 2013
see page 39

2012

"Talent Next Door - Cambridge Guelph & Area Volume 1"
edited by Craig Musselman
ISBN:978-0-9877895-2-5
see page 91
available at Amazon

This inspiring collection showcases a wide-ranging variety of artists living and working in Southern Ontario. Lots of eye-candy!

"Connecting Design to Stitch" by Sandra Meech
C&T Publishing
ISBN: 978-60705-622
see page 61 "Sacred Circles"

This is Sandra's fourth book in a fantastic series meant to delight, provoke, animate and spark textile artists of all abilities and interests. You will come away from any part of your reading galvanized and excited to try her ideas. Sandra designed this book herself and her skills as a graphic and textile artist and teacher shine from every page. I am so pleased and honoured to be included in this cast of many inspiring international fibre artists. Highly recommended.

Check out Sandra Meech's three other books as well:

• Contemporary Quilts - Design, Surface and Stitch
• Creative Quilts - Inspiration, Texture & Stitch
• Connecting Art to Stitch

Click here to view my article in Sideroads magazine.

Photo credit: Bonnie McCaffery