Reflections – Nicki Ferland – “Red River Reflections: Balloon in Flight”

Growing up, my mother often shared her dream of taking a hot air balloon ride. 

The Christmas before the onset of the pandemic in Canada, I gifted her, my sister and myself tickets for a morning flight. We finally got to take that flight this past August, but it was well worth the wait – including the bumpy landing in a farmer’s field! 

 

The Reflections theme reminded me of a special memory that I captured on camera as we flew over the meandering Red River, which flows through the centre of Winnipeg from south to north. The photo shows the reflection of our balloon on the still river just after dawn (top right corner of collage). 

 

I took some artistic liberties to make the quilt a bit more fun and colourful, using a raw edge technique (no fusing or glue). The silty Red River is murky and reddish-brown in colour, and the water was very still that morning. Our balloon was black and yellow, and we were quite high over the water (resulting in a smaller reflection). I changed the colour and pattern of the balloon to make it more interesting, and made its reflection on the water significantly larger (implying that we dropped down low to pass over the river). I used a background fabric that seems to reflect a beautiful sunrise, and added some movement to the balloon’s reflection on the water using free motion quilting. The quilt was completed by facing.