WARDSBORO — Christine Hudson, who lives in Wardsboro with her husband Michael Recca and her two English Setters, is the Wardsboro Public Library's Artist of the Month for February.
Following her graduation from Cornell University, Hudson's love of fabrics led to her career in merchandising and sales in the garment district in New York City. Though trained in apparel design, she began designing custom-made pillows, bags made of re-purposed ties, and machine-embroidered monograms.
She then started paper-pattern piecing designs and made them into pillows that were sold at the Mountainside gallery in West Dover. Recently, she began putting paper-pattern pieced blocks into quilts.
Paper piecing in quilting refers to the use of paper to stabilize fabric while sewing quilt tops. Paper piecing is used to create intricate designs that couldn't otherwise be readily sewn, due to the fragility, small size, or geometric shapes of the fabric pieces being sewn.
A template is printed or a design drawn on a sheet of paper. Fabric pieces are then sewn onto the paper, and joined to each other in a precise order, normally working from the center out to the edges. Piecing allows the use of very small design elements, which can be carefully controlled, since they are sewn to the firm foundation of the paper.
Hudson has taught classes and has machine-embroidered tote bags and guest towels for the Wardsboro Library. Her work will be on display for the month of February at the library at 170 Main St. during library hours. For more information, call the library at 802-896-6988.