About Heidi
Through a strong connection with color, texture and cloth I create abstract compositions for the wall with the hope of communicating and sharing my deep admiration and respect for the natural world and the beauty to be found there.
My work is mostly an abstract collage style with free motion machine quilting—meaning the designs and lines are all guided by my own hand. Frequently I add elements of embroidery, beading, couched yarns/fibers and various surface design techniques like stamping. I use various techniques/materials to add imagery from nature into my quilts. Recent work has incorporated my own ice dyed fabrics, but many pieces are still inspired by commercial textiles that I love from my collection.
I use a Pfaff Performance 5.0 domestic sewing machine and a Handiquilter Sweet 16 for the machine stitching of my work. The Sweet 16 is a sit-down machine that only does a straight stitch and is set in a large table. I move the quilt to create the stitch designs. The embroidery and beading are done by hand. I love all parts of the process from selecting the fabric to attaching the label on the back, and I never seem to run out of inspiration for the next one!
The artist grew up and currently lives in western Montana where mountains, rivers, forests and wildlife abound. Her mother, a talented quilter, shared her love of the outdoors with Heidi from the time she was a small child. Her father was an avid birder, professor of Forestry, and watercolor painter of birds in their habitats who also truly appreciated nature. The birds at her feeders, the mountain vistas out her windows and the flowers in her garden—all of these things and more inspire Heidi’s art. Her passion for the medium of fabric and for incorporating stitch and embellishment into her work is obvous.
Heidi has been showing and selling her fiber art under her business name, Fiber Into Art by Heidi, since 2007. She has shown at galleries, national/international level juried art and quilt shows across the country, an annual open house/studio tour, various other regional and local venues. Heidi has had many solo exhibitions and participated in lots of group exhibitions. She has written numerous magazine articles featuring her art and techniques in various print and on-line publications.
She was honored to be invited to be on Quilting Arts TV for two seasons which originally aired in 2022 and 2023. QATV Series 2900 has three episodes featuring Heidi and Series 3000 has one. These can still be seen on PBS as various stations replay the many series of Quilting Arts as well as through downloads of each series available for purchase on the Quilting Daily website. Heidi occasionally teaches and lectures about her work and her techniques for local groups, quilt shops and quilt guilds, but her true passion is to be in the studio making art. The inspiration for the work never wanes and the process and product feeds her soul—as she hopes it does yours.
