Please enjoy the following from our featured artist for the Holiday Exhibit of the Nature Artists’ Guild of  The Morton Arboretum, Sharon Malec. 

As a fiber artist, I love of all kinds of
fabrics. Fiber is a wonderfully colorful and
tactile medium, resulting in art work with a
soft expression. I am particularly drawn to
nature’s colors which complement the
animal and nature subjects that dominate my
work. A variety of hand and machine
techniques are used to create my quilts and
felted pieces.
Sharon Malec
West Chicago, IL

“Nuthatch”, © Sharon Malec

Sharon Malec began quilting in 1992 , making traditional pieced
quilts, but gradually turned to making contemporary art quilts. Her
interest in animals and nature has helped to mold her unique style. She
has completed more than 500 quilts in a wide range of styles, but she
is most recognized for her realistic depictions of dogs and other
animals for which she has developed her own patterns and her unique
“free standing applique”. Her landscape quilts are made from her own
method of fabric collage. Her most recent work includes wool needle
felting and hand spun yarn.
She has been on the faculty at national quilt shows and has been
published in Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine. As a member of the
Professional Art Quilters Alliance, the Fiber Art Divas and the Nature
Artist’s Guild , Sharon has had work accepted in juried art shows and
quilt shows throughout the country. She has quilts in the permanent
collections of the Museum of the American Quilt’s Society in
Paducah, KY, the Lincoln Memorial library in Redlands CA, and the
Norris Gallery in St Charles IL,
Sharon has self published three books about her work, as well as 64
individual patterns and an instructional video.