Current work - Heather Loney, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

My daughter, Liz, & I visited Ireland in Sept / Oct 2013. After a rather rainy day (they seemed to have a lot of them there!) the sun poked out and the fields in the valley below us glistened in the sunlight. I overheard an Irish guide say, "Ireland is made of forty shades of green!” 

My quilt depicts the 32 'green' counties of Ireland, surrounded by photos of places we visited. The photos were printed on fabric and the Celtic-knot style dark green binding was sewn by hand. The remainder of the quilt is machine-stitched.

Although difficult to see in a photograph, there are tiny 'green' glass beads sewn on counties showing the location of each photo. The quilting in the water area is based on the neolithic stone carvings found a Bru na Boinne in County Meath.

By the time I had 

finished, I realized I had used 39 shades of green in either fabric, thread or bead choice ..... so I decided the name plate on the back needed a bit of green to bring the Ireland quilt up to it's "40 Shades of Green".