Ilene Atkins
BIO
Ilene Atkins is a Canadian textile artist based in Kitchener, Ontario, making quilts and quilted collages. She uses fabrics that she has dyed with foraged natural plant dyes found in her neighbourhood. Born and raised on the Saskatchewan prairies, she is deeply influenced by the natural world and by her ancestors' homeland in Sweden. Driven by curiosity and learning, Ilene’s research and studio practice is focussed on the transformative alchemy of colour when dye plants meet fibre. This journey-without-end has informed her recent series of textile explorations.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
NEAR AND FAR
Near and Far revolved around foraged natural dyes that were collected locally by textile artist Ilene Atkins. Cotton, linen, and silk fabrics were then dyed with these plant dyes. Conversations were created in this piece between some of the concepts that are deeply meaningful to the artist: nature, Scandinavian history, sustainability, environmental issues, creativity, colour, pattern and quilting. Heavily influenced by the healers and witches from generations past, alongside the modern quilters of the 21st century, this quilt was created with geometrics and aesthetics belonging to the contemporary art quilt movement.
FEATURED Work
Title: Near and Far
Dimensions: 58 x 78 in
Year: 2025
Materials: Naturally dyed fabrics and yarns, machine pieced, machine and hand quilted
Title: Near and Far, detail
Dimensions: 58 x 78 in
Year: 2025
Materials: Naturally dyed fabrics and yarns, machine pieced, machine and hand quilted
Title: Near and Far, detail
Dimensions: 58 x 78 in
Year: 2025
Materials: Naturally dyed fabrics and yarns, machine pieced, machine and hand quilted
Title: Near and Far
Dimensions: 58 x 78 in
Year: 2025
Materials: Naturally dyed fabrics and yarns, machine pieced, machine and hand quilted
Title: Mini Quilts
Dimensions: 8 × 10 in each
Year: 2025
Materials: Naturally dyed fabrics and yarns, machine pieced, machine and hand quilted