Cherie Ekholm

Cherie is the owner of Farm Fresh Textiles. Her colors are vibrant and her techniques sensible and fun. I learned to dye from Cherie in her kitchen. This is the next best thing to being there. Her techniques are so easy, that my 7 and 8 year old grandkids dyed fabric with me a few weeks ago. After I mixed the dye of course. Cherie loves to do things with her nieces and nephews and they came up with Grandpa's quilt
Her website is http://www.farmfreshtextiles.com

My dogs Simi (almost 17), Sammy and Dandy (both 4) split our time between the east and west sides of Washington State. I work in Redmond, but my heart and our family farm is in Mead, just outside of Spokane. We spend as much time there as we can and are building a home with a huge studio. I learned sewing, embroidery, quilting, crocheting and other needle arts as a child from my mother and grandmothers. When I started dyeing fabric almost a decade ago, I fell in love with textiles all over again.

The quilt pictured here is one I did a few years ago for the Tarot Art Quilt Project. It remains one of my favorites because it pulled me way, way outside my comfort zone and forced me to try several new techniques. The image is of the Queen of Wands, a sensual figure who is an artist to her core, but with a somewhat limited attention span, so she has many things going at once. I identify a little too closely with that. This piece gave me a chance to play with perspective and some 3-D work. The central figure is on a stage, curtain up and open, ready to perform. Her wand is a pen and her familiar, usually a cat in traditional tarot decks, is my Bichon Frise Simi. The figure was created and dressed separately from the quilt, then attached with invisible thread. Her hair is a mane of fiery beads and charms dot the surface of the quilt to add to the artistic endeavors represented.
Though it doesn't show up in the picture, the words "All the world's a stage, the men and women merely players ..." is written in metallic thread flowing from the pen.