More Spawning Salmon Art Quilts

It is now late September and fall is really in the air. The leaves on the trees are starting to change their colours and the air is decidedly cooler. The salmon are en route to their spawning grounds and already we are seeing the streams turn red from all the sockeye that are returning. It is so incredible to see how very red their body becomes and how the head is a true olive green. The best time to see them on the Adams River is October 2-24 when there is an abundance of salmon as well as lots of festivities celebrating the salmon. Roderick Haig Brown park, just across the Squilax bridge from the Trans Canada Highway is the place to go.

I couldn't stop at creating one spawning salmon art quilt this year so here are photos of two others.

This is a small art quilt (approximately 23 " x 11.5") with a background that is charcoal and black. The background is also hand stitched and beaded and the salmon has additional hand stitching. It has additional organza ripples and free motion machine stitching. This quilt is SOLD.


The next quilt is approximately 18" x 28" and it has been entirely free-motion machine quilted. It has been quilted quite densely and I am very pleased with the results. Be sure to click on the images to zoom in on the details . . .Many of the free motion designs used in this quilt were inspired by Leah Day (daystyledesigns.com) who has created and blogged over two hundred free motion designs that are posted on her website. What an incredibly talented person she is.

This art quilt won a Juror's Choice award at the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts in July 2011. SOLD

Spawning Salmon Art Quilt

2010 is the year of a big run of sockeye salmon that spawn in the Adams River, near our home. In October the river will be the scene of millions of these salmon that are returning to the river of their birth to lay their eggs. There is a salmon run every year . . . but every fourth year is a "dominant" run and this one is the biggest since 1913 with an estimate of 30 million sockeye spawning.

This art quilt has been made in honour of the salmon returning to the Adams River. The sockeye salmon becomes very red as it returns from the sea, the head becomes green and the shape changes. To see more about the salmon run click here.

This art quilt measures 19.5" x 27.5" and is constructed from synthetic crushed fabrics and dupioni silk that have a bit of sheen and iridescence that mimic the waters of the river and cottons that I have used to create the salmon and the rocks of the river bottom. The bright salmon eggs are laid in the gravel rock bed. This has been made using curved piecing as well as raw-edge applique to add some more texture to the water. There is hand embroidery and beading on the background as well as on the salmon and the tail-end of another salmon is ghost-stitched on the top left side.

If you click on the photo you will see more of the details of this piece.

UPDATED July 9, 2010: This art quilt has been awarded a "Juror's Choice" Award at the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts this week. This quilt is SOLD.