The prompt “Climate Change” could not have come at a more poignant moment for me. Just the weekend before, on September 24, post-tropical storm “Fiona” had devastated our region with hurricane-strength winds. In Atlantic Canada, there was torrential rainfall, winds up to 179 km/h, flooding, washed-out streets and houses, and a small number of deaths, unfortunately. Half a million people, (which is half the population of our province) lost power. We got ours back after 3 days, but some people had to wait 10 days to get their power restored.

The damage in our town was unbelievable, this had never happened before. Hundreds of trees were lost, most front yards had a tree or two lying down, and some landed on roofs, garages, and fences. For days afterward, you could hear the noise of the chainsaw motors. People were cleaning up, and a lot of minor damages on roofs are still not repaired.

The likelihood of a record storm like this reoccurring is getting larger. This is a direct impact of global warming and climate change. It was the first major event where I would say I was directly impacted by global warming. Maybe we will get the next big storm in 50 years, but I fear it will be more like 5 years or maybe next year.

My quilt is a memento of all the trees we lost. The town looks different in certain areas, bare and wounded somehow. Some of the trees were 100 years old or older, and some were younger, but all of them are missed. It was sad to see all the pieces of wood in piles, the branches had still leaves on them and the huge root balls were up in the air.

I gathered wood pieces from my neighbours down the street. I had some explaining to do for sure, they wanted to know how I would use them for my art project. I made prints on hand-dyed cotton fabrics, using block printing ink.

I also incorporated some leaf prints I had made earlier in the year.

The blue/white pieces are stitched shibori and indigo dyed, they represent the tree rings. To me, they almost look like ghost trees, a reminder of what we have lost.

After the Storm, h 40″ x w 24.25″

Techniques: printing, shibori stitching, piecing, free motion machine stitching

Materials: cotton fabric, indigo dye, acrylic paint, block printing ink, threads