Postcard Fabric Art -Winnipeg

Last year I was challenged to make a large 3-D postcard of my Hometown. It was so much fun that I decided to make a series, one for each city/place I have ever called HOME.

That first one was an area that I grew up in – Love, Saskatchewan.

A small rural farming community with a great sense of humour

Winnipeg, Manitoba was next. I have lived here for 40 years.

I designed the card as soon as I finished Love. I started, ran into problems, and the project stalled. Then I spent considerable time contemplating some technical difficulties. The background layer had to feature a big moody sky, a large canopy of trees, the famous corner of Portage & Main, and The Forks – where the Red River and the Assiniboine River meet

My first attempt was entertaining, but not very successful. It involved the pounding of plant materials in an attempt to dye different designs into the fabric. That was last fall – after a very dry summer. Maybe the plants had nothing to give.  The next attempt used a scrap of Indigo dyed fabric for the sky and Inktense for the rest. I can’t seem to get the hang of using Inktense, but decided to use the piece, knowing that the majority would be covered. Here is a picture of the two I had to choose from.

On to Layer #2: I decided to include the St. Boniface Cathedral-Basilica to pay tribute to our French heritage. I made a pattern, transferred it to Heat & Bond, added seam allowance (SA), adhered it to the Flexi-Firm (wrapping the SA to the back) and then added details with pen, pencil and pencil crayons. Layer #3: The Provencher bridge goes over the Red River, linking downtown Winnipeg with the French community of St Boniface. There are many interesting Inuit carvings along the bridge. I made a ribbon using fabric and Heat & Bond (in photo above), drawing the Eagle, and the Fleur de Lis, placing the ribbon under the Esplanade Riel Foot Bridge and over the St Boniface Cathedral-Basilica.

Layer #4: Esplanade Riel Foot Bridge is the People’s Path over the Red River. It is only 5 meters wide, 250 meters long, but rises 57 meters in the air. I completed it the same way as the Cathedral, adding the cables (crochet cotton) while I was putting the card all together. For this one, I glued down 1 layer of spacers (bits and pieces of FlexiFirm) so that it would sit higher than the Cathedral.

Layer #5: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) is the only national museum outside of Ottawa. It’s purpose is to promote respect for others. For this piece of unique architecture, I used pieces of silk fusion left over from my ICE project. I put two levels of spacers under this piece so that it could be placed higher than the Esplanade Foot Bridge.

Layer #6: Winnipeg has a large canopy of trees. Layer #6 was intended to reflect that based on this picture of a tree lined pathway. I wanted to be able to place it on top of CHRM but under the Legislature in order to create some depth.

Winnipeg trees

To create this, I decided to make fabric out of thread. I have never had much success with this process so I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out. It is made simply placing a ton of loose threads in between two layers of water soluble sheets. You then do a lot of free motion stitching to keep the threads together. The sheets dissolve when washed and you are left with a fairly soft flexible web.

Layer #7: Winnipeg’s PFA would not be complete without including Winnipeg’s grandest and most mysterious neoclassical building – the Manitoba Legislative Building. The Golden Boy is at the top, with a sheaf of wheat in its left arm representing the fruits of labour while the torch in its right hand represents a call to youth to join his eternal pursuit of a more prosperous future (Wikipedia). I thought this would be the most difficult of all the elements to ‘build’ but in the end it was fairly simple. After tracing the outline onto FlexiFirm and cutting him out, I used a gold leaf marker to make him the appropriate colour.

The PFA had to be completely finished before I could glue the items to the front so it was time to consider the back. LOVE had a unique Postmark. Winnipeg also needed something that was unique. The Winnipeg Jets Logo, found on a piece of fabric, was perfect.

After that it was simply stitching around the edge, adding info, and gluing down the elements on the front.

It feels good to be done. Which HOMETOWN will be next?