Heidi Parkes

Media: Mixed fabrics, thread and yarn, hand appliquéd, hand embroidered, and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2023

Dimensions: 43” X 43”

Price: $3,000

In this series, I explore varying definitions of neutral color schemes from the realms of fashion and art.

In addition to this conceptual framework, this series is relaxing to sew, a palette cleanser from my more personal quilts. The 5 (so far!) quilts in this series are among my most 'modern,' with bold high contrast color, negative space, improvisation, and innovative construction techniques. This iteration in the series explores texture via quilting with yarn, pearl cotton, and sewing machine thread.

Exhibitions:

Piece by Piece, Center for the Visual Arts, Wausau, WI, (2024)

Winter Quilt and Fiber Show, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2024)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Mixed fabrics, thread, and a bit of construction equipment, hand appliquéd, hand pieced, hand embroidered, and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2023

Dimensions: Approximately 44 X 44”

Price: Inquire

Collaborative piece with Zak Foster celebrating a new-found sense of abundance in the life of two working artists. View our process content on Instagram here and listen to our conversation about this quilt on my podcast here.

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Mixed fabrics, including 5 garments and a placemat, hand appliquéd, hand embroidered, and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2023

Dimensions: 60” x 60”

Price: $8,000

A Diary Quilt like this is interesting in contrast to a memoir or autobiographical work of art, because a diary is a place to make plans, reflect, and has the potential to hold secrets. My pink plastic childhood diary used a padlock, and here I use abstraction in the same way. As I neared my 40th birthday in December, I decided to mark the moment by making this quilt.

There are 40 bits of applique and 60 embroideries in the bottom left corner. Selecting the word 'warmth' for 2023 led to incorporating pink sweaters. The title hints at aging, and also references grapes and raisins (on food scales in the quilt) as I became a Noom nerd. A long thin line contemplates moving boxes, which accidentally became a 5-sided box... reminding me that I tend to over-stress about moving. Regardless, I changed course and focused instead on 'streamlining' this spring.

Exhibitions:

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Raleigh, NC (2024)

*Milwaukee Magazine included this quilt in an article about my work!

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Mixed fabric scraps, an IKEA curtain, navy wholecloth layer, cotton batting, cotton backing, machine and hand pieced, hand quilted

Year Completed: 2023

Dimensions: 66” x 64”

Price: $6,000

Exhibitions:

Piece by Piece, Center for the Visual Arts, Wausau, WI, (2024)

Winter Quilt and Fiber Show, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2024)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Cotton and silk fabric, handkerchiefs, vintage textiles, trim from hemming a bridesmaid’s dress, lace, hand appliquéd, hand embroidered, and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2022

Dimensions: 62” x 62”

Price: $8,000

This is a love story quilt. This series is about casting spells to create healing and wellbeing, mostly in my body. In this quilt, my aim at the time of my 3-year dating anniversary with my partner, was for us to create a vision for our future together. Domestic textiles, furniture, dishes, cutlery, and textile artifacts allowed me to spark conversation, and navigate towards a partnership that was uniquely right for us.

Exhibitions:

Piece by Piece, Center for the Visual Arts, Wausau, WI, (2024)

Winter Quilt and Fiber Show, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2024)

Mend: the Work of Repair, James Watrous Gallery, Madison, WI (2023)

Practice in Progress, MARN Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2023)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Atlanta, GA (2023)

Awards:

First Place in Improvisation, Winter Quilt Show, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2024)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Mixed textiles, hand embroidered, hand appliquéd, hand pieced, and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2022

Dimensions: 59” x 56”

Price: $6,000

I've had floaters in my eyes for three years, and this quilt is an attempt to eradicate and/or get used to them. The base fabric is white muslin, and the shapes that glow behind it are randomly placed dark fabric scraps from my studio. They are one of many ways that this quilt replicates the feeling of seeing with floaters.

I began the quilt as a passenger on a roadtrip with my friend Zak Foster. I looked out the window (to avoid car sickness) and embroidered without looking in the top left corner of the fabric. I think a lot about verbs when making quilts, and rather than visually depicting my experience, I depicted it by sewing in a way that was parallel to and a metaphor for the situation.

Casting a spell is part of this series in attempting to improve my wellbeing with sympathetic magic.

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

Heidi Parkes’s Quilts, special exhibit at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Madison, WI (2022)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Avocado dyed cotton, a tank top from 2009-ish, a found patchwork and handkerchief, lace, mixed textiles, metal milagros, hand embroidered, hand appliquéd, hand weaving, hand knotted needle lace, hand quilted, and hand bound

Year Completed: 2022

Dimensions: 57” x 57”

Price: $8,000

You can hear me tell the story of this quilt in my Quilt National Artist’s Talk (7 minutes)!

I began this piece while traveling in Sant Fe, New Mexico. My grandmother Mimi lived there during my childhood, and I loved visiting her. Now, as I continue to live in the Midwest, and Mimi is in Memory Care, I find myself grieving her loss while she’s in a liminal space. Time in Santa Fe has returned memories to me of the formative moments when she introduced me to art and hand appliqued and embroidered story quilts.

Exhibitions:

Quilt National ‘23: The Best of Contemporary Quilts at Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County, Morehead, MN (2024)

Quilt National ‘23: The Best of Contemporary Quilts at Canton Museum of Art, Canton, OH (2023)

Quilt National ‘23: The Best of Contemporary Quilts at European Patchwork Meeting, Espace de Tisserands, Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France (2023)

Quilt National, Diary Barn Arts Center, Athens, OH (2023)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Mixed fabric scraps, including pieces of an IKEA curtain and the artist’s mother’s tablecloth, cotton thread, navy wholecloth layer, cotton batting, cotton backing, machine and hand pieced, hand quilted

Year Completed: 2022

Dimensions: 60” x 60”

Price: $6,000

Static, Sand, Sky is part of a series in which I’ve collected my white scraps and pieced them together with minimal intervention, so that the viewer might sift through the shapes like an archaeologist. My habits around observing discards formed while I was a student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2005) and is a practical method for reckoning with my intentions and impact. You can see examples of student work inspired by this quilt on Instagram at #hpscraps!

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

Land Reflections: ARTservancy Artists in Residence, Schlueter Art Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2023)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Mixed textiles, hand pieced, hand embroidered, and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2022

Dimensions: 36” x 36”

Price: $3,000

This story quilt was made with my 4th pattern. The instructions take the maker through a 31-day Daily Practice with embroidery, appllique, and patchwork. Prompts include a running stitch doodle in a hoop, yo-yo's, depicting an article of clothing, tracing part of your body, and including an item that usually leaves home with you. The pattern launched with Creativebug in 2022, and you can see the quilts on instagram with #DailyPracticeQAL, and you can sew your own version here.

One of my favorite challenges for makers is to see how many stitches they can load onto a single pull of their needle.

Exhibitions:

Winter Quilt and Fiber Show, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2024)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Mixed textiles, cotton dyed with coffee, hand appliquéd and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2022

Dimensions: 67” x 61”

Price: $6,000

The 2021 calendar is reassembled as an appliqué container, with the negative space holding hand quilted lists and an expanse of cloth dyed with grounds from my new cold brew coffee habit. This piece was an opportunity to reflect on positive changes in my health, work, and relationships, to hopefully re-invite them into future years. There is a code in my red thread colors and dark green fabric selections.

Details to note are my vaccination in March, a shift in my website in November, and a special class online in December. I also observed when making the quilt, a relative calm in my schedule in the summer months- something I might not have noticed with my memory alone. This quilt was made possible with my paper and online calendars, my Fitbit, and other health apps.

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes’s Quilts, special exhibit at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Madison, WI (2022)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Clothing, mixed textiles, hand embroidered, hand pieced, and hand tied with yarn

Year Completed: 2022

Dimensions: 61” x 62”

Price: $6,000

This is the second quilt I've made with my Vignettes Quilt pattern. It's inspired by the elements, principles, and post modern principles of art. This quilt makes use of some vintage diapers from Japan (child and adult), a shirt from an old Milwaukee office, and eye embroideries sewn on an airplane. The ties add the principles of visual movement and unity. This was necessary, because the improvisational nature of the pattern led me to a composition that was surprisingly problematic. Rather than chopping it up, adding colorful fabric, and making other attempts to 'fix' it with piecing, I said 'yes and,' and went for the ties!

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

5th Annual Fiber Arts Biennial: Hide + Seek, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2022)

Heidi Parkes’s Quilts, special exhibit at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Madison, WI (2022)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: A scrap from sewing a shirt on the airplane, the cuffs of Beau's hemmed pants, mixed textiles, hand pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2021

Dimensions: 60” x 60”

Price: Not for Sale

A gift for Beau, featuring my embroidery of his drawings for his band, Attack Pony.

Media: Cotton muslin naturally dyed with food scraps, hand appliquéd and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2021

Dimensions: 50” x 50”

Price: Not for Sale

Media: Mixed fabric scraps, including a piece of the artist’s mother’s tablecloth, navy wholecloth layer, cotton batting, cotton backing, cotton thread, machine and hand pieced, hand quilted

Year Completed: 2021

Dimensions: 61” x 60”

Price: $6,000

I accumulate a great many scraps of white fabric. Most of my quilts are backed with white cotton muslin, and after trimming and binding them, I’m left with 2” x 20’ strips of the stuff! This quilt and series is the result of tracking this waste and making the most of it. Scraps are minimally altered, thus revealing some circles, strips, triangles, and other odd bits. This quilt was made for my ARTservancy Artists Residency, and then became the basis of my Scrap Quilt Workshop online. You can see examples of student work inspired by this quilt on Instagram at #hpscraps!

Exhibitions:

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Atlanta, GA (2023)

Heidi Parkes’s Quilts, special exhibit at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Madison, WI (2022)

Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, Sisters, OR (2022)

Heidi Parkes, Gallery 224, Port Washington, WI (2021)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Linen fabric and cotton thread, hand embroidered and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2021

Dimensions: 17” x 17”

Price: $1,200

This embroidered wholecloth quilt is an aerial map of my favorite walk at Lake Park in Milwaukee, WI. I was an ARTservancy Artist in Residence there for a year, and this map highlights one of my favorite walks in the park. There is a small hill with a plaque from 1910 that attributes the hill as an earthwork and explains that at the turn of the century, there were other earthworks of animals and geometric forms on that land that had been recently destroyed. Sometimes on my walks I imagine what the land once looked like, and this embroidery is one such imagining. I juxtaposed images that I researched from the Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and Menominee people, with images that I imagined while walking. I've also sewn current landmarks including my home, a golf course, soccer field, waterfall, my sweetheart's home, the Milwaukee River, and Lake Michigan.

Exhibitions:

Land Reflections: ARTservancy Artists in Residence, Schlueter Art Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2023)

Heidi Parkes, Gallery 224, Port Washington, WI (2021)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Mixed fabric, including many pieces naturally died by Edie Ure, cotton thread, hand pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2021

Dimensions: 57” x 57”

Price: SOLD

Naturally dyed fabric, vintage textiles, lace, and embroideries adorn a white surface. This composition was inspired by my painting palette, as photographed a few years ago, when that was a favorite medium. The quilt is a daydream and a wish, meant to manifest me sewing in France one day.

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes,"Gallery 224, Port Washington, WI (2021)

Media: Mixed textiles, including silk organza, thread scraps, a vintage dress, and vintage indigo dyed cotton, hand quilted

Year Completed: 2021

Dimensions: 3 x 2’

Price: SOLD

A commission intended for a lake home in Michigan. This piece was inspired by But, What Was it Like? and also influenced by the commissioner’s previous time spent in Japan, along with their interest in writing and memory.

Media: Cotton fabric and thread, hand and machine pieced, hand embroidered, and hand-quilted

Year completed: 2021

Dimensions: 64 x 53”

Price: $6,000

This quilt is the first made for my ARTservancy residency at Lake Park in Milwaukee, spanning October 2020 through September 2021. The quilt touches on the unique occurrence of a Halloween blue moon and the passing of RGB. It also notes my joy at experiencing an artists residency in Milwaukee, which I had longed to do for many years. The embroidery and applique juxtapose my memory of the leaves at the park alongside accurate tracings of the leaves, hinting at the ways my mind and memory can reconstruct the past both accurately and with gaps. It is my hope that when viewed in person, the viewer has a dramatically different experience both close and far from the quilt.

Exhibitions:

With Ma, Film Screening at MARN Art + Culture Hub, Milwaukee, WI (2023)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Atlanta, GA (2023)

Heidi Parkes’s Quilts, special exhibit at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in Madison, WI (2022)

Heidi Parkes, Gallery 224, Port Washington, WI (2021)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Silk organza, bojagi fabric, oQamoQa fabrics, cotton batting, and cotton thread, hand pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2021

Dimensions: 39 x 37”

Price: SOLD

This second Double Happiness quilt was an opportunity to show my skill at hand piecing a traditional bojagi with transparent silk. All of the knots are visible, but they reside underneath the top layer of the quilt. I thoughtfully placed all of the oQamoQa fabrics like confetti, and with more order, to express my own happiness. It was special to include violet, as I've struggled to appreciate that color in the past.

Exhibitions:

Double Happiness with Oqamoqa, Bukchon Hanok, Seoul, South Korea (2021)

Media: Silk organza, bojagi fabric, oQamoQa fabrics, cotton batting and cotton thread, hand pieced and hand quilted

Year completed: 2021

Dimensions: 40 x 38”

Price: Not for Sale

The Double Happiness with oQamoQa project invited a few international artists to make bojagi with their joyful fabric scraps. We met on Zoom during the pandemic to organize this effort. For my first quilt, I chose to emphasize the 'double' in the quilt. I composed the fabrics with my then 4-year-old nephew, I began quilting while on an instagram 'live' with my friend Zak, and I used only 4 thread colors that were collaboratively chosen with my team from Stitching Together with The Makerie. This vivid quilt has lots of exposed knots and an area where it's a tie quilt, as if reaching out to touch others with antennae.

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

Heidi Parkes’s Quilts, special exhibit at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Madison, WI (2022)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Phoenix, AZ (2022)

Midwest Modern, Iowa Quilt Museum, Winterset, IA (2022)

Double Happiness with Oqamoqa, Bukchon Hanok, Seoul, South Korea (2021)

Media: Cotton fabric and thread, a vintage table linen, hand pieced, hand embroidered, and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2021

Dimensions: 42 x 41”

Price: $3,000

This series explores neutral color schemes. Hand pieced and hand quilted, this is the most colorful in the series thus far.

Exhibitions:

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Raleigh, NC, February 22-25, 2024

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

Modern Quilt Exhibition, Bailey Contemporary Arts Center, Pompano Beach, FL (2022)

Heidi Parkes, Gallery 224, Port Washington, WI (2021)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Linen fabric and cotton thread, hand embroidered and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2021

Dimensions: 16 x 16”

Price: SOLD

Made in connection with my ARTservancy artists residency, and Stitching Together Kindness with The Makerie, this embroidered map depicts Lake Park, and my favorite sights along my most frequent walk at the park. My stitches linger in the places where my eyes and body linger at the park. My favorite views of the lake, the Native American earthworks, the lighthouse, waterfall, bridge with lions, and other landmarks are noted with my embroidery.

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes, Gallery 224, Port Washington, WI (2021)

Media: Linen fabric and cotton thread, hand embroidered and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2021

Dimensions: 16 x 16”

Price: SOLD

Made in connection with my ARTservancy artists residency, and Stitching Together Kindness with The Makerie, this embroidered map accurately depicts Lake Park, and a walk that I took with my partner Beau.

Media: Mixed fabrics and thread, a scarf, vintage quilt blocks, feed sacks, machine and hand pieced, hand embroidered, and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2021

Dimensions: 62 x 58”

Price: $6,000

This is my third quilt pattern, the Vignettes Quilt Pattern. This is my first variation of the quilt pattern, and I filmed myself sewing and thinking through the quilt for a workshop for QuiltCon with the Modern Quilt Guild. The pattern emphasizes art vocabulary and a vignettes approach to piecing a quilt made with blocks of varying dimensions and sizes.

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

Heidi Parkes’s Quilts, special exhibit at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Madison, WI (2022)

Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, Sisters, OR (2022)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Phoenix, AZ (2022)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Tea-stained cotton fabric and cotton thread, hand pleated and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2020

Dimensions: 64 x 58”

Price: SOLD

This series explores neutral color schemes. This particularly neutral quilt was pieced with a single seam joining the same fabric. Then, I folded the fabric and pleated a variety of lines into it, including a circle in the top left corner. This quilt is activated by dense quilting in light and dark thread colors and a lot of exposed knots on the quilt's surface.

Exhibitions:

SEAMS: Contemporary Textile Artists, Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2020)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: A found incomplete quilt, gifted fabrics, yarn and thread, hand and machine appliquéd, hand quilted and hand tied

Year Completed: 2021

Dimensions: 58 x 74”

Price: $10,000

This is a collaborative quilt made with Joe Cunningham. It was begun by an unknown maker, and never finished. It made its way to Joe's stash, and as Joe and I dreamed up a collaborative project together in 2016, it felt right to repair something together. It is a 2-sided quilt, with a lot of creative applique from Joe and me on the pink side, which was originally the 'back.'

Exhibitions:

Remnants, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2021)

*To purchase this quilt, contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com

Media: Mixed fabrics, including a piece of the artist’s mother’s tablecloth, cotton thread, hand pieced, hand embroidered, and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2020

Dimensions: 61 x 61”

Price: Inquire

This diaristic quilt tracked the pandemic for 100 days, beginning on April 7th 2020. This daily (sometimes weekly...) practice of adding to the quilt top helped me to track the days, and to remember that time was passing during a historical moment. This quilt contains moments that were both public and private, and sometimes simply reflected the shapes, colors, fabrics, and techniques that felt good to work with that day. The white lines of quilting help to marry the complex shapes, colors, and bits of text.

Exhibitions:

Piece by Piece, Center for the Visual Arts, Wausau, WI, (2024)

Future Fibers, Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, Milwaukee, WI (2024)

Time Memory Mythos, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL (2023)

With Ma, Film Screening at MARN Art + Culture Hub, Milwaukee, WI (2023)

Heidi Parkes’s Quilts, special exhibit at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Madison, WI (2022)

SEAMS: Contemporary Textile Artists, Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2020)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Cotton and textiles found while traveling in India, including natural block prints on silk, fabric shopping bags, a pillowcase, a teabag, appliqué stuffed with scraps of cotton thread, hand pieced, hand embroidered, and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2020

Dimensions: 84 x 86”

Price: $9,000

In the fall of 2019, I traveled to India. It was a trip that I'd been longing to make for the last 6 years, and I traveled with a group led by my friend and yoga teacher Indu Arora- the red Yogsadhna bags from her business are easily seen in the quilt. I brought a large expanse of white fabric with me, along with some small gifted packets of fabric from my WMQFA friends Takako Willden and Ashley Brooks. Beginning in the top left corner, I strategically appliqued the fabric while on the airplane, under a mosquito net, and anywhere else I had a spare moment while traveling. I continued to find additional fabrics while I traveled, many of them remnants. A free calendar insert, scraps from a visit to the saree mending studio of Queen of Hearts India, shopping bags, and even a cotton teabag. Upon returning home, I had more space to lay out mementos, and to dig through my closets, finding cloth tidbits that had initially inspired my desire for the trip.

I quilted everything in March of 2020, and titled the piece mindfully. I learned the yogic concept of acknowledging the inhale, pause to transition, exhale, and pause from Indu. I'd embroidered the lungs in the center of the quilt because the air pollution in India stung my lungs for 5 weeks after I returned home. But mostly, I felt an incredible contraction of my personal space bubble when in India, and then felt a sudden and unexpected expansion of my personal space bubble while quilting in quarantine. I felt that my lungs were a microcosm for this time in my life. I'm grateful to have this quilt as a document of an eye opening and magical experience of travel.

Exhibitions:

Shift Change, Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Museum, La Conner, WA (2024)

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Atlanta, GA (2023)

Heidi Parkes’s Quilts, special exhibit at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Madison, WI (2022)

Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, Sisters, OR (2022)

Remnants, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2021)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Linen and cotton fabric, a scrap of mending gifted to the artist by friend Sarah Nishiura, hand pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2020

Dimensions: 39 x 39”

Price: $3,000

This series explores neutral color schemes. This first work was inspired by a 6x6" quilt from the 30x30x30 project in 2018, titled “Overlapping (For the First Time).” That was my favorite quilt from that series and it felt exciting to devote more space and time to the idea. The piecing was recorded in a time-lapse video and took exactly 3 hours, and would've been an example for a hand piecing workshop with the MQG sessions had the pandemic not cancelled the class. The complexity of the overlapping quilting lines compensates for any overly simplified bits of piecing, and this quilt felt like a new and exciting step creatively.

Exhibitions:

Mend: the Work of Repair, James Watrous Gallery, Madison, WI (2023)

SEAMS: Contemporary Textile Artists, Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2021)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Cotton fabric naturally dyed with the artist's menstrual blood, washed, hand and machine pieced, hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2020

Dimensions: 40 x 30”

Price: $4,000

This quilt is unique in the series. It's pieced in a very complex and intricate way. The piecing was done with both with a machine and by hand. There is a balancing act in the natural dye and in the piecing between human intervention/machines, and allowing nature to take its course and letting things happen. I wonder if this evolution in approach within the series is reflective of my healing process? As I was piecing this quilt, I thought it would be landscape style. Then, when I was nearly done piecing it, I realized that it should be portrait style instead--how interesting. Like a portrait of me. I've worked a lot to see this part of my health as a part of myself instead of 'othering' it, and referring to it as separate or bad. This quilt reveals so many subtle and subconscious changes in me that have led to better health.

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Cotton fabric naturally dyed with the artist's menstrual blood, washed, hand pieced and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2020

Dimensions: 2 x 2’

Price: $2,000

This piece and the previous piece in the series (no. 3) work beautifully as a diptych and were made in my garden, with a Jackson Pollock inspired hurling of menstrual blood onto dampened yardage. This exorcism of frustration, pain, anger, and fatigue is balanced by the almost celestial imagery that was cut from the the yardage with a viewfinder. The drips, splatters, and images in this work are truly a collaboration with nature and chance.

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Cotton fabric naturally dyed with the artist's menstrual blood, washed, hand pieced and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2020

Dimensions: 2 x 2’

Price: $2,000

This piece and the following piece in the series (no. 4) work beautifully as a diptych and were made in my garden, with a Jackson Pollock inspired hurling of menstrual blood onto dampened yardage. This exorcism of frustration, pain, anger, and fatigue is balanced by the almost celestial imagery that was cut from the the yardage with a viewfinder. The drips, splatters, and images in this work are truly a collaboration with nature and chance.

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Cotton fabric naturally dyed with the artist's menstrual blood, washed, and thread dyed with medicinal herbs, including green tea, matcha, butterfly pea flowers, activated charcoal, and dandelion root, hand quilted

Year Completed: 2020

Dimensions: 66 x 64”

Price: $4,000

This second quilt in the series is a wholecloth quilt, made mostly with a paintbrush to apply my menstrual blood to wet fabric. I accurately map the ideal flows of female hormones, and improvisationally depict the calendar cycles that I use to track my health year after year.

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Cotton fabric naturally dyed with the artist's menstrual blood, washe, thread dyed with medicinal herbs, including green tea, matcha, butterfly pea flowers, activated charcoal, and dandelion root, hand pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2020

Dimensions: 60 x 60”

Price: $6,000

In my Magical Thinking series, hormonal frustration mixed with new-age advice to use my menstrual blood as natural dye. This markmaking cataloged the endless tracking of months and changing of habits to confront the friction of advocating for myself and creating change. I'm happy to report that this series worked to improve my hormonal health dramatically. This first iteration especially was focused on an effort to see beauty in my body, and to stop 'othering' parts of myself that I found frustrating. The thread is all dyed with medicinal herbs, in an effort to emphasize good health and beauty in the series.

Exhibitions:

Piece by Piece, Center for the Visual Arts, Wausau, WI, (2024)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Phoenix, AZ (2022)

SEAMS: Contemporary Textile Artists, Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2021)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Mixed fabrics, including a piece of the artist’s mother’s tablecloth, hand pieced, hand embroidered, and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2020

Dimensions: 40 x 39”

Price: $3,000

I made this quilt with sequential videos from my first Quilt Along, which can still be seen on YouTube today. The Scavenger Hunt Quilt Pattern is my first quilt pattern, and there are various playful prompts throughout that inspire creativity and curiosity in the maker.

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Mixed fabrics, hand pieced, hand embroidered, and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2019

Dimensions: 40 X 40”

Price: $3000

This is my first-ever quilt pattern, the Scavenger Hunt Quilt Pattern, originally published in QuiltCon Magazine February 2020. I designed most of the pattern while traveling in India, and I quickly pieced it for the magazine before heading to Boulder, CO where I taught with The Makerie and quilted this quilt. The pattern has been made by many people as evidenced on instagram with #scavengerhuntquilt. I love the prompts that look at chronological fabrics, tracing your body, noting your birthday, and especially manifesting your desires. I made my manifestation section of me holding hands with someone, and within a month, I'd found my partner Beau.

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand bound and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2019

Dimensions: 40 X 40”

Price: $1,500

Exhibitions:

Water at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2019)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Hand-dyed cotton fabric, cotton fabric, and cotton thread, hand pieced, hand appliquéd and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2019

Dimensions: 65 X 55”

Price: SOLD

Exhibitions:

Water at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2019)

Media: Linen fabric, cotton thread, hand pieced and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2019

Dimensions: 36 X 24”

Price: $2000

Exhibitions:

Pfister Finalist Exhibition, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2019)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: A skirt that stopped fitting the artist, silk and cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2018

Dimensions: 40 X 39”

Price: $3000

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

Surfacing, The Draw, Appleton, WI (2019)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Nashville, TN (2019)

Awards:

Judge’s Choice (Mondo Guerra), QuiltCon, Nashville, TN (2019)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Hand-dyed cotton fabric and cotton thread, hand pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2018

Dimensions: 38 X 36”

Price: SOLD

Exhibitions:

Here Comes the Sun, Iowa Quilt Museum, Winterset, IA (2021)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Various textiles and cotton thread, hand pieced, hand appliquéd and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2018

Dimensions: 6X6”

Price: SOLD

I made these 30 quilts, one per day, as a daily making practice during the first 30 days of 2018. Each quilt is hand-pieced and hand-quilted using a variety of fabrics, including table napkins, tablecloths, and scraps from other quilts. The process of creating these quilts was an opportunity to meditate on repetition, vulnerability, and the present moment, as well as to experiment with new techniques, like trapunto and overlapping lines of quilting.

Exhibitions:

30 X 30 X 30, Var Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2018)

Quilt titles:
1. “Polar Bear Plunge” (SOLD)
2. “Full Moon” (SOLD)
3. “Winter Sun” (SOLD)
4. “Scraps (Evidence of Winter Cheeks)” (SOLD)
5. “The Risk it Took to Blossom” (SOLD)
6. “Studio Path” (SOLD)
7. “Repeatedly Realigning” (SOLD)
8. “Overlapping (The First Time)” (SOLD)
9. “Grandmother Patchwork” (SOLD)
10. “Breakfast” (SOLD)
11. “Scraps (Memories)” (SOLD)
12. “Does it Hurt? (Sometimes)” (SOLD)
13. “But, I Tried to Remember, Again” (SOLD)
14. “Beginning” (SOLD)
15. “Scraps (Winter Landscape)” (SOLD)
16. “Flower Fence, 2” (SOLD)
17. “Guts” (SOLD)
18. “Inside” (SOLD)
19. “Tails” (SOLD)
20. “Scraps (Saved)” (SOLD)
21. “Night Flight no. 8” (SOLD)
22. “Practicing in a New Place” (SOLD)
23. “Blue Moon” (SOLD)
24. “Grandmother Appliqué” (SOLD)
25. “Lining (The Inside Surface)” (SOLD)
26. “That Unsaid Thing” (SOLD)
27. “Lobsters (Lovers)” (SOLD)
28. “They’re Touching” (SOLD)
29. “How Much is a Lot?” (SOLD)
30. “Compartmentalization” (SOLD)

Media: Vintage dress, silk fabric, mixed textiles, cotton thread, hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2018

Dimensions: 36 X 36”

Price: $4,000

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

Textile Tableau, Miller Art Museum, Sturgeon Bay, WI (2020)

Surfacing, The Draw, Appleton, WI (2019)

Pfister Finalist Exhibition, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2019, 2018)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Bedsheets, a piece of the artist’s mother’s tablecloth, hand-knit wool, mixed textiles, cotton thread, hand pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2017

Dimensions: 59 X 57”

Price: $8,000

This quilt was inspired by a combination of traditional Baltimore Album quilts and Andy Warhol's painting Ethel Scull 36 Times. It celebrates my love of winter in 36 blocks. The quilt is entirely hand pieced with pearl cotton and crochet thread, and it employs the running and whip stitch.

Exhibitions:

The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Madison, WI (2022)

Surfacing, The Draw, Appleton, WI (2019)
QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Nashville, TN (2019)

By Hand, Blue Bar Quilts, Middleton, WI (2018)

3rd Annual Fiber Arts Biennial: Keeping Warm, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2017)

Awards:

Honorable Mention, The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Madison, WI (2022)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Silk fabric, mixed textiles, cotton thread, hand pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2017

Dimensions: 91 X 92”

Price: $9000

This is a 4-layer quilt: a backing, batting, many small pieces of fabric, and a top layer made of silk, cotton, and a repurposed window curtain. This quilt is made without glue, and the colorful bits of fabric are held in place exclusively with the quilting.

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Madison, WI (2022)

Warm Remembrances, Quilt Alliance’s Quilters Take a Moment, virtual (2021)

4th Fiber Arts Biennial: On Wisconsin, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2019)

Surfacing, The Draw, Appleton, WI (2019)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Pasadena, CA (2018)

By Hand, Blue Bar Quilts, Middleton, WI (2018)

Color, Piecework Collective, New York City, NY (2017)

Awards:

Honorable Mention, The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Madison, WI (2022)

Third Place for Handwork, QuiltCon, Pasadena, CA (2018)

**To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: An IKEA curtain that the artist’s mom hemmed, a vintage curtain that the artist’s mom thrifted for her, cotton thread, batting, and backing fabric, hand embroidered and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2017

Dimensions: 56 X 38”

Price: $3000

I made this quilt as I was processing the 2016 election. You can read and listen to more about the quilt on the Threads of Resistance website.

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Nashville, TN (2019)

Threads of Resistance, traveling exhibition in 12 locations, beginning at the New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA (2017)

Awards:

First Place in Handwork, QuiltCon, Nashville, TN (2020)

*Thomas Knauer included this quilt in his book Quilt Out Loud (2023)!

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand quilted

Year Completed: 2017

Dimensions: 46 X 44”

Price: $2000

Exhibitions:

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Pasadena, CA (2018)

By Hand, Blue Bar Quilts, Middleton, WI (2018)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Materials: Cotton fabric and cotton thread, hand quilted

Year Completed: 2017

Dimensions: 42 X 41”

Price: SOLD

Exhibitions:

By Hand, Blue Bar Quilts, Middleton, WI (2018)

GIFT, Jazz Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2017)

Heidi Parkes and Lee Heinrich, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2017)

Materials: Cotton fabric and cotton thread, hand quilted

Year Completed: 2017

Dimensions: 40 X 40”

Price: SOLD

Exhibitions:

Water, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2019)

By Hand, Blue Bar Quilts, Middleton, WI (2018)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Pasadena, CA (2018)

Heidi Parkes and Lee Heinrich, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2017)

Media: Hospital blanket, nylons, a bra strap, hospital restraints, keys, a paint brush, ear buds, handkerchiefs, beads, mixed fabrics, hand pieced, hand embroidered, machine quilted

Year Completed: 2016

Dimensions: 65 X 78”

Price: $5,000

Sewn for exhibition on the Changing Aging tour, this quilt explores the subject of aging within institutional and gentler networks of care. This is emphasized with handwork and machine quilting. It’s hard to know how to support the elderly, and to find the line where caretaking ends, and confinement begins. This restraint of aging begins early in life with control tops, and climaxes with tight quarters, physical restraints, and medications.

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

Toured from 2016-2018 with Changing Aging and Kyrie Carpenter

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Bedsheets, cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand and machine pieced, hand appliquéd and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2016

Dimensions: 12 X 12”

Price: $400

Hand quilted with re-purposed bed sheets, this series of quilts investigates the unconscious mind. I was inspired by an analogy from the book, Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix, in which the subconscious mind is an ever-present influence, similar to the presence of the stars, even when they are not visible. We often speak about the stars as though they “come out” at night, but in fact, they are always there. This is a truth that we know, but cannot observe with the naked eye. So it is with our conscious and unconscious thoughts. When forming new habits and ways of being in the world, we must repeatedly remind ourselves of the truths that we’ve learned in order to override previous assumptions. The hand quilting in this series shifts from neat lines, to billowing clouds, to the links between constellations- or the forming of new neural pathways. The exposed knots I use in this series are inspired by Rachel Carey George’s Work-Clothes Quilt, one of the quilts of Gee’s Bend, which I saw in person at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Exhibitions:

It Was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Bedsheets, cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand and machine pieced, hand appliquéd and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2016

Dimensions: 12 X 12”

Price: SOLD

Hand quilted with re-purposed bed sheets, this series of quilts investigates the unconscious mind. I was inspired by an analogy from the book, Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix, in which the subconscious mind is an ever-present influence, similar to the presence of the stars, even when they are not visible. We often speak about the stars as though they “come out” at night, but in fact, they are always there. This is a truth that we know, but cannot observe with the naked eye. So it is with our conscious and unconscious thoughts. When forming new habits and ways of being in the world, we must repeatedly remind ourselves of the truths that we’ve learned in order to override previous assumptions. The hand quilting in this series shifts from neat lines, to billowing clouds, to the links between constellations- or the forming of new neural pathways. The exposed knots I use in this series are inspired by Rachel Carey George’s Work-Clothes Quilt, one of the quilts of Gee’s Bend, which I saw in person at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Exhibitions:

It Was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Media: Bedsheets, cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand and machine pieced, hand appliquéd and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2016

Dimensions: 12 X 12”

Price: SOLD

Hand quilted with re-purposed bed sheets, this series of quilts investigates the unconscious mind. I was inspired by an analogy from the book, Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix, in which the subconscious mind is an ever-present influence, similar to the presence of the stars, even when they are not visible. We often speak about the stars as though they “come out” at night, but in fact, they are always there. This is a truth that we know, but cannot observe with the naked eye. So it is with our conscious and unconscious thoughts. When forming new habits and ways of being in the world, we must repeatedly remind ourselves of the truths that we’ve learned in order to override previous assumptions. The hand quilting in this series shifts from neat lines, to billowing clouds, to the links between constellations- or the forming of new neural pathways. The exposed knots I use in this series are inspired by Rachel Carey George’s Work-Clothes Quilt, one of the quilts of Gee’s Bend, which I saw in person at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Exhibitions:

It Was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Media: Bedsheets, cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand and machine pieced, hand appliquéd and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2016

Dimensions: 36 X 36”

Price: $3000

Hand quilted with re-purposed bed sheets, this series of quilts investigates the unconscious mind. I was inspired by an analogy from the book, Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix, in which the subconscious mind is an ever-present influence, similar to the presence of the stars, even when they are not visible. We often speak about the stars as though they “come out” at night, but in fact, they are always there. This is a truth that we know, but cannot observe with the naked eye. So it is with our conscious and unconscious thoughts. When forming new habits and ways of being in the world, we must repeatedly remind ourselves of the truths that we’ve learned in order to override previous assumptions. The hand quilting in this series shifts from neat lines, to billowing clouds, to the links between constellations- or the forming of new neural pathways. The exposed knots I use in this series are inspired by Rachel Carey George’s Work-Clothes Quilt, one of the quilts of Gee’s Bend, which I saw in person at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Exhibitions:

By Hand, Blue Bar Quilts, Middleton, WI

Pfister Finalist Exhibition, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2017, 2018)

It Was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Bedsheets, cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand and machine pieced, hand appliquéd and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2016

Dimensions: 20 X 20”

Price: $1500

Hand quilted with re-purposed bed sheets, this series of quilts investigates the unconscious mind. I was inspired by an analogy from the book, Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix, in which the subconscious mind is an ever-present influence, similar to the presence of the stars, even when they are not visible. We often speak about the stars as though they “come out” at night, but in fact, they are always there. This is a truth that we know, but cannot observe with the naked eye. So it is with our conscious and unconscious thoughts. When forming new habits and ways of being in the world, we must repeatedly remind ourselves of the truths that we’ve learned in order to override previous assumptions. The hand quilting in this series shifts from neat lines, to billowing clouds, to the links between constellations- or the forming of new neural pathways. The exposed knots I use in this series are inspired by Rachel Carey George’s Work-Clothes Quilt, one of the quilts of Gee’s Bend, which I saw in person at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Exhibitions:

Members Show, Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, WI (2016)

It Was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Bedsheets, cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand and machine pieced, hand appliquéd and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2016

Dimensions: 24 X 24”

Price: SOLD

Hand quilted with re-purposed bed sheets, this series of quilts investigates the unconscious mind. I was inspired by an analogy from the book, Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix, in which the subconscious mind is an ever-present influence, similar to the presence of the stars, even when they are not visible. We often speak about the stars as though they “come out” at night, but in fact, they are always there. This is a truth that we know, but cannot observe with the naked eye. So it is with our conscious and unconscious thoughts. When forming new habits and ways of being in the world, we must repeatedly remind ourselves of the truths that we’ve learned in order to override previous assumptions. The hand quilting in this series shifts from neat lines, to billowing clouds, to the links between constellations- or the forming of new neural pathways. The exposed knots I use in this series are inspired by Rachel Carey George’s Work-Clothes Quilt, one of the quilts of Gee’s Bend, which I saw in person at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Exhibitions:

Points of Departure, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI (2016)

It Was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Media: Bedsheets, cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand and machine pieced, hand appliquéd and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2016

Dimensions: 66 X 135”

Price: $9,000

Hand quilted with re-purposed bed sheets, this series of quilts investigates the unconscious mind. I was inspired by an analogy from the book, Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix, in which the subconscious mind is an ever-present influence, similar to the presence of the stars, even when they are not visible. We often speak about the stars as though they “come out” at night, but in fact, they are always there. This is a truth that we know, but cannot observe with the naked eye. So it is with our conscious and unconscious thoughts. When forming new habits and ways of being in the world, we must repeatedly remind ourselves of the truths that we’ve learned in order to override previous assumptions. The hand quilting in this series shifts from neat lines, to billowing clouds, to the links between constellations- or the forming of new neural pathways. The exposed knots I use in this series are inspired by Rachel Carey George’s Work-Clothes Quilt, one of the quilts of Gee’s Bend, which I saw in person at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (2023)

By Hand, Blue Bar Quilts, Middleton, WI (2018)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Savannah, GA (2017)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Bedsheets, cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand and machine pieced, hand appliquéd and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2016

Price: SOLD

Hand quilted with re-purposed bed sheets, this series of quilts investigates the unconscious mind. I was inspired by an analogy from the book, Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix, in which the subconscious mind is an ever-present influence, similar to the presence of the stars, even when they are not visible. We often speak about the stars as though they “come out” at night, but in fact, they are always there. This is a truth that we know, but cannot observe with the naked eye. So it is with our conscious and unconscious thoughts. When forming new habits and ways of being in the world, we must repeatedly remind ourselves of the truths that we’ve learned in order to override previous assumptions. The hand quilting in this series shifts from neat lines, to billowing clouds, to the links between constellations- or the forming of new neural pathways. This is the first quilt where I used exposed knots, a choice that was inspired by Rachel Carey George’s Work-Clothes Quilt, one of the quilts of Gee’s Bend, which I saw in person at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Exhibitions:

Pfister Finalist Exhibition, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Media: Cotton cloth and cotton thread, hand pieced and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2016

Price: SOLD

As a child, my family would drive North many times each summer to visit my grandfather’s cottage on Pretty Lake. This fiber art piece alludes to the process of cobbling together childhood memories. The vintage fabric in the center is a reference to my mother’s maiden name of Moosbrugger, and the other images of rabbits, strawberries, flowers, 1970s floral sheets, vintage flour sack prints, and lattice work all remind me of happy times on the road to Wisconsin.

Exhibitions:

Waysides, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI (2016)

Media: Hand-dyed cotton, cotton fabric, cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2016

Dimensions: 16 X 16”

Price: SOLD

Exhibitions:

It Was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Media: Hand-dyed cotton, cotton fabric, cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2015

Dimensions: 61 X 60”

Price: $3000

This quilt was inspired by Two-Sided Quilt Blocks by Polly Bennet, one of the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers. I was struck by how Bennet’s quilting stands out against the solid fabrics and blends into the prints. I dyed the black fabric using RIT dye and chose fabrics I had found during a trip to Seoul, South Korea. One of the fabrics on the quilt includes an image of a prince, and I was reminded of the story of The Little Prince. In the story, the fox wants to be tamed by the prince so that he can become familiar with him and look forward to seeing him. I had been inspired by the quilts of Gee’s Bend since art school in the early 2000s, and I felt a desire, like the fox’s, to be familiar with the improvisational style of quiltmaking of Polly Bennet and the other Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers.

Exhibitions:

Heidi Parkes and Lee Heinrich, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2017)

It Was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Origin 8: Abstract Artists Invitational, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Linen and cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand pieced and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2015

Dimensions: 13 X 11”

Price: SOLD

Exhibitions:

It was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Pfister Finalist Exhibition, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Opening Exhibition, Permanent Baggage, Milwaukee, WI (2015)

Materials: Cotton fabric and cotton thread, hand pieced and hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2015

Dimensions: 13 X 11”

Price: SOLD

Exhibitions:

It was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Pfister Opening Exhibition, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Opening Exhibition, Permanent Baggage, Milwaukee, WI (2015)

Media: Linen and rayon blend fabric, cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2015

Dimensions: 48 X 34”

Price: $1,800

This quilt uses improvisational piecing and techniques inspired by Seminole patchwork to create an aerial view. Visible horizontal hand-quilting represents latitude lines.  The series is titled for the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. 

Exhibitions:

SEAMS: Contemporary Textile Artists, Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2020)

Origin 8: Abstract Artists Invitational, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Linen and rayon blend fabric, cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2015

Dimensions: 57x75"

Price: SOLD

This quilt uses improvisational piecing and techniques inspired by Seminole patchwork to create an aerial view. Visible horizontal hand-quilting represents latitude lines.  The series is titled for the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Exhibitions:

Origin 8: Abstract Artists Invitational, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Threshold, Charles Allis Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI

Media: Linen and rayon blend fabric, cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2015

Dimensions: 57x58"

Price: SOLD

This quilt uses improvisational piecing and techniques inspired by Seminole patchwork to create an aerial view. Visible horizontal hand-quilting represents latitude lines.  The series is titled for the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Exhibitions: Threshold, Charles Allis Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI (2015)

Media: Cotton fabric, cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2015

Dimensions: 61 X 57”

Price: $3000

I made this quilt during a 10-day artist residency in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was inspired by their tradition of 'Beach Mondays,' and in March we went for a lovely picnic on the beach. I wanted to use an abundance of prints, and I used the sand colors in them to hold the composition together. I love the way that this quilt changes up close and at a distance, and that happened because I had a huge space to work in. The clusters of connected fabrics worked out because I used painters tape to attach the strips to the door of the bathroom- the only blank space available to create a design wall.

Exhibitions:

Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, Sisters, OR (2022)

Heidi Parkes and Lee Heinrich, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2017)

Warped Milwaukee 8th Annual Fiber Art Exhibit: Elements, ABK Weaving Studio, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Origin 8: Abstract Artists Invitational, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

It Was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Materials: Linen cloth and cotton thread, hand quilted, stretched

Year Completed: 2015

Dimensions: 13 X 11”

Price: SOLD

Exhibitions:

Pfister Finalist Exhibition, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

It Was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Media: Vintage linen tablecloth, linen fabric, cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2015

Dimensions: 58x60"

Price: $3,000

My dear friend Laura found this tablecloth, and gave it to me in hopes that it would inspire a quilt.  Within two weeks, this quilt was pieced.  The charming vintage print features  flowers, bees, and a chain link fence. The fence motif repeats in the three shades of gray fabric, the yellow line work, and the hand quilting done in a checkerboard-like grid pattern. The piecing design was inspired by Deborah Pettway Young’s “Roman Stripes” variation (the second side of the quilt linked!)

Exhibitions:

By Hand, Blue Bar Quilts, Middleton, WI (2016)

It was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Linen and rayon blend fabric, cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2015

Dimensions: 58x58"

Price: SOLD

Antoine de Saint-Exupery is one of my favorite creative people, and this quilt's title is a nod to his book, "Night Flight."  As a very young girl, my mother read "The Little Prince" to me, and before she took me on a real flight, she showed me Georgia O'Keeffe's painting, "Sky Above Cloud's IV" at The Art Institute of Chicago.  Every time I fly I am reminded of the magic and beauty in these two works of art.  Staring out the window of a plane gives me such joy, that the journey is as much reward as the destination.  This is the first work in a series.  It is modeled after the idea of flight, rather than a specific location, expressing the mystery of passing over multiple unknown locations in the night.  It is hand quilted horizontally to reveal the latitude lines necessary in navigation.

Exhibitions:

QuiltCon Traveling Exhibition, national exhibition. (2016)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Pasadena, CA (2016)

Awards:

Second Place for Improvisation, QuiltCon, Pasadena, CA (2016)

Media: Linen and linen-rayon blend fabric, a strip of yellow and pink floral from the artist’s grandmother Mimi, cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2015

Dimensions: 55x61"

Price: Not for Sale

This quilt pattern was inspired by ”Blocks and Strips” by Loretta Pettway, a quiltermaker in Gee's Bend Alabama. The fabric was purchased in the Manhattan garment district in New York, and in Chicago, except for the thin yellow strip with flowers.  That piece was collected by my grandmother many years ago. The dark expanses of the quilt create an opportunity to see the improvisational hand quilting, while the long gray strip features only even horizontal stitches. Symbolically, the work speaks to transition; old and new, sunrise, regular vs. complex.

Exhibitions:

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Pasadena, CA (2016)

Media: Cotton fabric scraps, including a piece of the artist’s mother’s tablecloth, cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2014

Dimensions: 61x58"

Price: SOLD

My favorite painting is Mark Rothko’s untitled orange work at The Art Institute of Chicago.  Enveloped by the expanse of color, my eyes love to linger on every drip and transparency. This white quilt explores the subtleties found in the piecing, stitching, and fabric of the quilted textile.  It is made, in part, with pieces of my mother's tablecloth left from making "Beginners."  This is the first quilt in my series of scrap quilts, including Cream, Sugar, Snow and Static, Sand, Sky.

Exhibitions:

New Threads, Concordia University, Mequon, WI (2016)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Pasadena, CA (2016)

Media: Cotton fabric, silk fabric, synthetic fabric, cotton thread, machine pieced

Year Completed: 2014

Dimensions: 40x40"

Price: SOLD

Inspired by the concept of a quilt interacting with light, this hanging panel investigates the visual movement created with varying segments of geometric shape and opacity. Bojagi are usually transparent, a traditional Korean version of the quilt.

Media: Mixed fabrics, including a piece of the artist’s mother’s tablecloth, cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2014

Dimensions: 64x61"

Price: SOLD

“Medallion with Center Bars” by Gee’s Bend quiltmaker Polly Bennet influenced this contemporary composition.  The feeling and color story come from the film, “Beginners,” by Mike Mills.  An essential component of that concept is the white fabric from my mother’s repurposed tablecloth from most of the holiday meals during my childhood, contrasted with the floral print with berries and hummingbirds that I found at Mood Fabrics in the garment district in New York, NY.

Exhibition:

Opening Exhibition, Permanent Baggage, Milwaukee, WI (2015)

Media: Cotton fabric, including an ice cream print by Thomas Knauer, fabric hand-dyed by the artist, cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2014

Dimensions: 56x58”

Price: SOLD

Initially inspired by “Blocks and strips” by Amelia Bennet, one of the quilt makers of Gee’s Bend, this quilt is also reminiscent of a Gerhard Richter painting, with its horizontal strip piecing. The colors center around the ice cream print fabric by Thomas Knauer, with many humorous and vintage prints like jumping foxes, and my grandmother’s floral fabrics. 

Exhibitions:

It was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

*Thomas Knauer later included two of my quilts in his books: Places Unfold in his book Why We Quilt (2019), and There’s Something Between Us in his book Quilt Out Loud (2023)!

Media: Linen fabric and cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2014

Dimensions: 58x61

Price: $3,000

The painterly qualities of this quilt are guided by artists like Mark Bradford and Joan Mitchell, who also investigate the feeling of a place.  This herringbone-patterned linen is segmented into areas of varied density, representative of the spatial arrangement found in an urban environment.

Exhibitions:

It was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Wisconsin Artists Invitational, Timothy Cobb Fine Arts, Milwaukee, WI (2015)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Linen fabric and cotton thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2014

Dimensions: 61 X 62”

Price: $3,000

At a distance, the piecing of this quilt looks very traditional, an even grid of blues.  Upon closer inspection, however, the viewer discovers that each section of the outer grid is constructed uniquely.  This creates variation within the same.  I was inspired to make this grid as a representation of the expansiveness of an ocean, in part by Agnes Martin.  This work references the endlessness of water, and the latitude and longitude lines we use to corral it.

Exhibitions:

Water, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2019)

It was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Wisconsin Artists Invitational, Timothy Cobb Fine Arts, Milwaukee, WI (2015)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Cotton fabric and thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year Completed: 2014

Dimensions: 64x61"

Price: $3,000

As a Chicago resident, I love traveling on Lakeshore Drive.  Connecting with nature, I find that the sky and water are ever changing, and simultaneously reliable.  With hand dyed fabrics, and ombre stitches, this color blocked quilt depicts Lake Michigan in its many variations as glimpsed from my car.

Exhibitions:

Water, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2019)

Heidi Parkes and Lee Heinrich, Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI (2017)

By Hand, Blue Bar Quilts, Middleton, WI (2016)

It was Felt, Prosper, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

Origin 8: Abstract Artists Invitational, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Materials: Cotton fabric and thread, machine pieced and hand quilted

Year completed: 2014

Dimensions: 36x36

Price: Not for Sale  

This quilt features the bright colors of strawberries and flowers, with red quilting.  Improvisationally pieced, the quilt starts out with a traditional log cabin pattern, and then like Jazz music, it creates abstractions and variations on that theme.

Made for my niece Isabel; her mom says it is perfect for 'tummy time.'

Media: Linen and cotton fabric, cotton thread, hand and machine pieced, hand quilted

Year completed: 2014

Dimensions: 59x59”

Price: $6,000

Thirty-six squares centered on the theme of ‘Wanderlust;’ this quilt explores the concept with aerial views of personal and public landmarks.  Mapping patterns of movement, highways, umbrellas at the beach, and cities with hand embroidery and applique add a heightened level of detail to this quilt.

The top right square uses Google Earth to look down at my former home in Naperville near the train tracks.  For the center square, I imagined looking up at the constellations in the sky.

Exhibitions:

Modern Quilting national traveling exhibition, opening at Dairy Barn Arts Center, Athens OH, and closing at Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA (2018)

MQG Exhibition, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA (2017)

Origin 8: Abstract Artists Invitational, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, WI (2016)

QuiltCon presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, Pasadena, CA (2016)

Awards:

First Place in Handwork, QuiltCon, Pasadena, CA (2016)

*Thomas Knauer included this quilt in his book Why We Quilt (2019)!

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Cotton fabric hand dyed with wine, cotton thread, hand quilted

Year Completed: 2014

Dimensions: 52x52"

Price: $1,800

This whole cloth quilt was hand-dyed with red wine and hibiscus tea.  Quilted with DMC floss in many shades of green to highlight the grapes used to dye the fabric.

Exhibitions:

The Fine Furnishings Show, through the Milwaukee Art Quilters, Wauwatosa, WI (2015)

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.

Media: Cotton fabric hand-dyed with coffee, tea, and RIT dye, cotton thread, hand quilted

Year Completed: 2013

Dimensions: 63 x 60”

Price: Not for Sale

This is my third fabric quilt. I made it over winter break while I was a teacher, to see whether I could enjoy being a full-time quilter. The piecing and quilting represent my Dad's love of woodworking. The hand embroidered label dedicates the quilt to my Dad.

Media: Mixed textiles, including a backing made from a found, hand pieced log cabin quilt top made with flour sack fabric, hand embroidered, machine pieced, hand quilted and hand mended

Year Completed: 2013

Dimensions: 83” x 68”

Price: Not for Sale

This is my first-ever hand quilted fabric quilt. Making this quilt was true love. I was inspired by Loretta Pettway’s “Housetop Variation” from 2003; she’s one of the @geesbendquiltmakers. On the back side, I used a found, hand pieced log cabin quilt top made with flour sack fabric that my grandmother bought at an estate sale for $37.50.

Media: Copper, wire, photographs, book pages, mixed media, polyester batting, and a repurposed curtain, hand sewn, and hand tied

Year Completed: 2003

Dimensions: 51” x 48”

Price: $3,000

I made this quilt in my college metal-working class when I was given the assignment to make something that was as important on the inside as it was on the outside. The copper sheets were embossed with lace, which was a technique that has previously excited me with ceramics and is part of what ultimately drew me to studying fiber arts later in school.

*To purchase this quilt, visit the online shop. If you don’t see this quilt in the shop currently, it is likely on exhibition; contact Heidi at heidiparkesart@gmail.com for more information.