Studio series: Forgiveness #4

Forgiveness #4 © Karen Thiessen, 1999; Photo credit: Julian Beveridge

Forgiveness #4 may be the only whole cloth quilt that I have ever made. I dyed it using red onion skins from Nova Scotia farmer Ted Hutten and then burned small holes in the cloth and repaired them with fabrics stained with rust and blood. It was in Fibreworks 2000, along with Forgiveness #6. This is also the only textile that I have dyed using red onion skins. The dye liquor was a nice maroon red, so I was surprised that the end result would be a deep gold. It is in the collection of the Cambridge Gallery in Ontario.