Inspiring Speaker Denise Labadie With Her Stone Quilts

Posted on by

Wow! These quilts from a distance look just like a painting!! And up close they are quilts to get lost in. Denise spoke of the stones at these sacred sites (see her much more in-depth website http://www.labadiefiberart.com) speaking to her. I can relate to that! I love stones, rocks, formations, mountains. So I was deeply intrigued by her story of her journey through becoming a world renowned speaker, traveling to the places that inspired her to create these quilts. She also has archways, stone steps, many from monasteries, all in Ireland, but speaking and giving workshops all over the world.

Denise paints a lot of her fabric to get that variety of colors that many stones have. She’s also thankful for Stonehenge fabric!

Denise spoke about the way she “builds” the stone walls as though she is actually building them!
Close up of the arch. She does tiny quilting in between the stones to be the mortar, and highlighting the stones.
I was intrigued with how she got the edge of the shadowed arch to be so sharp, and contrasting.
Here’s a close-up of the floor in front of the arch. Check out her website for many different quilts!!
Look at the edges of those steps!! And the shadows that make them 3D! This quilt has a bottom edge that follows the steps (I couldn’t crop out the background behind this hanging quilt). She met the owner of this quilt when she picked it up to show at our meeting. She must have sold it over the internet.
Making stones look like stones!!
An early quilt with standing stones. Check out her many others at http://www.labadiefiberart.com!

Denise also does workshops, one is coming up in Mendocino, CA in October. She lives in Colorado. Please go to her website to see other quilts, hear from her directly, perhaps get as inspired as I did with her very meaningful quilts!

Leave a comment