entered private collections

 Cape of Rain entered private collection.

Velvet Journal: the Rescuer entered private collection

Prayer Cloth: Hope entered private collection.

These three pieces as well as Healing Cloth (previous post) sold into private collections during the solo exhibiiton at 100 percent silk shop and gallery that occurred in Toronto during the month of February 2026.

I will write a description about each one of these pieces on 100 quilts soon.  

Thank you to the collectors of my work for your support.  I hope that you will enjoy living with these pieces.  

Quilt Block contest, Judy Martin one of the judges

Alicia Wright

Alena Skarina

100% silk shop and gallery helda quilt block contest earlier in April.  Judy Martin was asked to be a judge along with a previous exhibitor at the gallery (Sarah Nsikak) and last year's winner ( Natalie Jean Slater) . The theme was MOUNTAIN. 

Most of the blocks were very well made.  What was remarkable was the amount of imagination and intent that went into so many of them.  The two in this post were our unaminous top choices.  

The quilt was unveiled on April 4 and there is a raffle, $10.00 per ticket, drawn on april 22.  All proceeds to go to charity, Community Fridges Toronto.  

It was impressive how many people entered, and how hard they each worked on their blocks.  Very artistic and unique results, it was a pleasure to be able to see them.  I had not expected the conceptual rigour or the skills needed to carry out such original ideas.  Congratulations to everyone who entered.  

Also, my hat is off again to Inez Genereux and Lee Dekel from 100 percent silk  shop and gallery, a very respectful and ambitioius undertaking that made a community come together.  Well done.  

Healing Cloth enters private collection

Healing Cloth  avocado stone on silk, silk threads, hand stitch,35 x 26 inches (89x 66 cm)  2026 

Judy began stitching this silk in 2021 as a way back into stitching something new after an intensive period of preparing for the In the Middle of the World exhibiiton she had with Penny Berens.  You can see the beginnings of this piece in this blog post. and the continued stitching in 2022 accompanied by a poem by Rumi in this post.  

Stitching this small cloth so intensely gave the artist solace.  

Healing Cloth was sold in February 2026, from the exhibition hosted by 100 percent silk .  

save the date

 

Judy Martin and her daughter April Martin have been invited to exhibit their artwork at the Craft Ontario gallery in Toronto this summer.  

Dates:  June 17 - July 25 2026

Gallery Address:  401 Richmond St W Suite #108, Toronto, ON M5V 3A8, Canada

Feminine Writing

prayer to the sky reverse side

On February 12, Judy Martin made a zoom presentation about her work in quilts to the Kanata Quilt Guild.  Each time Judy speaks about her work, she learns more about herself and about how it fits into the larger world of poetics and fine art.  During this talk, Judy introduced the ideas of French philosopher / intellectual / writer, Helene Cixous that describe feminine writing.  

The feminine writer, like a mother, looking with a look that recognizes, studies, respects, doesn’t take, doesn’t claw, but attentively, with gentle relentlessness, contemplates and caresses, bathes, and makes the other shine.  She brings back to light the life what has been buried, and signs its name.  H. Cixous 

basic goodness reverse side

Judy also quoted Louise Bourgeois in her talk on February 12.  In her last decades, Bourgeois made art pieces from her hoarded clothing and domestic cloth, and famously stated:  Art is a guarantee of sanity.  For Bourgeois, creating art is a life-saving, curative tool for porcessing trauma and emotional struggles and was not just a decorative object or product.  

Images of Judy's current work introduced and ended the talk.  During the presentation, Judy discussed and illustrated about how her mothering, her worrying, and where she lives are always within her work.  

Quilts are Journals: The catalogue

 

There is a sweet catalogue about the Quilts are Journals exhibition at 100 percent shop and gallery that has gone through a re-printing.  The catalogue contains the complete transcript of an interview that Judy Martin had with Anni Spadafora before the exhibition opened. 

To purchase ($10.00) :  contact the gallery:

1558 Dupont Street , Toronto, ontario

 hello@100percentsilkshop.com  416-419-3662

The 100% gallery also had the entire show professionally photographed by Miki Francis Sankara.  Those magical photos can be seen on the 100% shop and gallery's newsletter at this link.  

Many thanks to 100% silk for hosting a mini-retrospective of Judy Martin's work and providing a printed catalogue.  

The Renewal exhibition is at Bruce County Museum

Renewal, the SAQA exhibition of Canadian members is at Bruce County Museum   in Southampton, Ontario this winter.  January 10 until April 19, 2026.

Given our current global events, the SAQA exhibtion theme of Renewal presents artists with a timely opportunity to address this issue in their work.  The social, econiomic, and politica unravelling we are experiencing, and particular, following recent health threats, has unleashed a profuse outpouring of artworks that challenge us to reconsider the human condition in the broadest sense.  It is the jurors' hope that the choices we haave made satisfy the exhibitionis's criteria while the elasticity of the artworks featured in the exhibition situate local commentatries of making within wider negotaiontions of meaning to reflect alternative paths to renewal inu our current global situation.

Giving life back in a new form to older used quilts is Judy Martin's quintessential quest as evidenced in the detailed work in Poet in Love.  And we know who the poet is.   (above)

Rise Again, Susan Avishai's mythical Phoenix cleverly reuises men's shirt parts to rise from  the ashes.

In Life Rings True, Robynne Cole compares an individual's life stages to the life erings of a tree, illustrating this journey from birth to decline.  

  

In Mita Giacominimi's Bovinity, a cow and her calf suggest the most primal kind of renewal - bearing and nurtuing the thread of life.  

Craft historian Bruce Metcalf has suggested that crafts, including textiles, are inherently a contingent art form that dervives value and meaning from how they materialize function, skill, and design, and encapsulate life experience.  The pieces in this exhibition embrace Metcalf's concept, as each work illustrates the diverse channels through which everyday objects such as quilts can speak to our global concern and quest for renewal - in whatever form. 

The above text contains excerpts of juror David Kaye's in the beautiful catalogue for the Renwal exhibition which is available through the museum.  The exhibiton was juried by David Kaye, Leona Herzog, and Brandt Eisner.