It was made clearer than ever at this year’s Strictly Quilts exhibition that Stanley resident Donna Hughes’ quilts speak true to her quilt-making wisdom.

As this year’s featured artist, Donna's variety of quilts and textiles only added to the stunning and colourful gallery of locally crafted quilts.

The most striking of Donna’s exhibited work – 34 Antarctic-inspired pieces - greeted guests as they entered the facility.

“It’s been really well-received, which is really nice,” Donna said.

“I feel very privileged to have been given the open space to hang these, and a reason to make some quilts that I hadn’t expected to have the opportunity to make.”

Donna began developing this collection of works in October 2022 to prepare a proof of concept for an application to the Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship.

This initiative is run by the Australian Antarctic Program, a collaborative project between the federal government and over 150 research institutions, contributing significant scientific research into climate change and endeavouring to preserve the scientific study of Antarctica's biodiversity.

In January 2023, Donna began bringing her brilliant ideas to life.

“I needed to start with white fabric, I needed to design everything, colour everything, paint everything, and finish everything during that month,” she said.

“The first couple of days were pretty rough.

“By day 10, I had figured out what the story needed to be – that was the really tricky bit.

She said each section had its own story, united by the overarching Antarctica theme for which the collection was intended for.

Some worked toward a specific prompt, "represent(ing) how donations can be used to support the science and the learning that needs to go on down there".

“The rest of it was to show some of the things that are down there; like the Aurora Australis and the corals, penguins and people and places important to Australia in Antarctica" she said.

As for the quilt-making process itself, Donna prefers hand guided machine stitching and uses parts of the fabric to inform the style and design of the quilt.

“I will quite often pick something in the fabric to use as my machine quilting design,” Donna said.

“It was a great opportunity to play with techniques that are not usually associated with more traditional quilt making methods”.

Although the Strictly Quilts exhibition has since ended, you can find all 34 pieces of the collection and the context behind them here: https://www.quiltartbydonnahughes.com/antarctica-31-in-31.

You can also find more of Donna's works via her website: quiltartbydonnahughes.com.