Scheffer celebrates "paintings made of fabric"

During her presentation, entitled 'The Evolution of a Quilter', Scheffer will exhibit and discuss her quilts, explaining the progress of her work

"They're like paintings made of fabric," she says. "Quilting is very big these days; recently I had a quilt exhibited in the Houston International Quilt Festival, which was an event that was attended by 50,000 people. It's very popular in Europe, in Japan; it just keeps getting bigger and bigger."

This is certainly in evidence in Montreal, she says, which boasts several quilting organizations and a number of classes for quilters of all levels.

Born and raised in Montreal, Scheffer works as a French-English translator, a job she says is a good complement to her quilting. "Translating is an art form too," she explains. "It's making art with words. A lot of translators have this kind of artistic side." Although Scheffer's quilts have sold for up to $5,000, she usually declines commissions, preferring to keep the quilts or give them away.

Scheffer's latest endeavour, together with her husband, David Hudson, is the recent opening of the Galerie Ouest at 37 rue Saint-Thomas in Saint-Anne-de-Bellevue. This facility is the first in the West Island to offer exhibition space for rent without charging artists a commission on the sale of displayed works. "This way, artists get all the proceeds from their own work," Scheffer says. "It can be a tough world out there for artists financially, whether they are established or just starting out."

Galerie Ouest's first exhibition will be the life work of artist Jennifer Amiel. Scheffer plans to display some of her own work there at a later date. In the meantime, she will be bringing more than 20 of her quilts to her talk at the Atwater Library.

• Helena Scheffer's presentation 'The Evolution of a Quilter' will be held at the Atwater Library, 1200 Atwater Ave., on Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 12:30 p.m. For more information on this presentation, contact Tanya Mayhew at 514-935-7344 or tmayhew@atwaterlibrary.ca.