Kathy Tidswell’s interest and attention to the details in nature are a continuing thread in her life.  She graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a BSc in Honours Biology and worked as a fish health technician and later a forest genetics technician for Environment Canada.  After ten years of marriage, she started a family and chose to stay home to raise her two children in a  two hundred year old farmhouse.

     Around 1989, Kathy began her quilting career with traditional machine piecing and appliqué.  In 1992 and 1993 she hand quilted two quilts, discovering that she really didn’t enjoy it. While making her beautiful small even stitches, she was wishing to be up in her sewing room!  In 1991 an American guest teacher, Ann Boyce, introduced members of the Fredericton Quilters’ Guild to the world of using machines for everything from mock hand applique to machine quilting.  With her creativity sparked, Kathy became hooked on the possibilities of machine work.  

     Over the next few years, she took courses from a number of Canadian and American quilt teachers and machine embroidery specialists, collected an extensive library of quilting and machine embroidery technique books and took drawing, water colour and oil painting lessons. From these, she developed her own techniques for painting on fabric and using free motion machine embroidery to produce thread painted works of art as well as quilted wall hangings and wearable art.  Her creations are unique and her style is recognizable as her own. Her thread painted birds and landscapes cause the viewer to pause and wonder how they have been accomplished.

     The level of her work has been recognized by her peers and she is a juried member of the New Brunswick Crafts Council, selling her work at local art galleries and seasonal arts and craft markets. Her wearable art has been accepted into CQA/ACC National Juried Shows in 1999, 2001 and 2005. In 1999 she won the Award of Excellence for Wearable Art and in 2005 she won an Honourable Mention.  In 2005 and 2006 her entries were accepted into the Grand National Juried Invitational Quilt Exhibition being held at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery.  Her work has been published both nationally and internationally. In 2007 she received a New Brunswick Crafts Foundation Professional Development Award towards her study with Alison Holt in Oswestry, United Kingdom. Since 1993, Kathy has been sharing her knowledge and techniques through teaching for guilds, needlework festivals, fabric shops and sewing machine shops. She has taught throughout the Atlantic provinces, Ontario, Quebec, for the Mayflower Quilter’s Guild 2001 biannual retreat in Pictou, Nova Scotia, at Ready Set Sew in Halifax, Nova Scotia May 2004, at Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival in Toronto, Ontario Oct. 2005, at Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival in Gibsons, British Columbia August 2006 and at the Canadian Quilters’ Association/Association canadienne de la courtepointe biannual national conferences, Quilt Canada 2000 in Toronto, Ontario and 2004 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has been selected to teach at Quilt Canada 2008 in St.John’s, Newfoundland and for the 2008 Fredericton EdVentures vacation learning program. The highlight of her career has been receiving the Canadian Quilters’ Association/ACC 2005 Teacher of the Year Award. She enjoys working and teaching in both the quilting world and the art world.

 

Kathy Tidswell

CQA/ACC  2005 Teacher of the Year

Biography

Kathy Tidswell, Burtts Corner NB Canada

Fibre Artist www.kathytidswell.com email: kathy@kathytidswell.com