Painting with Fabric is quilter Gail Marirea’s third show, and possibly her final one.

“At the moment, I am doing them every eight or nine years,” she said. “I’m 84. I have no idea what state I will be in in the next eight years.”

However, she said she is doing better now, physically and mentally, than she has been doing in the last several years.

“I learn something new with every quilt,” she said. “I am at my peak.”

Painting with Fabric displays 23 quilts she designed and stitched based on photos, postcards and paintings. Many of them show Bermuda landscapes by artists such as American, Winslow Homer, and Bermudians Ethel and Catherine Tucker.

In terms of copyright, she said Winslow Homer was no problem.

“He has been dead for more than 100 years and is spread all over the internet,” she said. “I was not as sure about the Tucker sisters. I started out making those quilts just because I liked them, not with the intention of selling them.”

Masterworks reached out to the Tucker sisters’ remaining family member to get her blessing. The family member met up with Ms Marirea to see the Tucker-inspired quilts.

Ms Marirea has never taken a quilting lesson, but did paint in her younger years. She believes this gave her an understanding of colour and perspective that is an advantage in quilting.

However, she said using a needle and thread to create a realistic looking scene is much harder than most painting.

“It is difficult, and you do need a certain amount of art knowledge to do it,” she said.

When people look at Ms Marirea’s art quilts they often assume she has painted on the fabric, or used some type of equipment to mechanically print the painting on to a quilted surface.

“They are all completely fabric,” she said “There is no paint on the quilt, anywhere. Everything is fabric that I have stitched on.”

To construct such painterly quilts without actual paint, she uses a large stash of fabric quarters in different colours and patterns.

“I do not throw away pieces of fabric unless they are really, really small,” she said. “I have 200 to 300 quarters with blues, and about 150 reds.”

She has even more greens.

Two of her quilts are in Masterworks’ permanent collection including one the museum commissioned her to make of Winslow Homer’s painting: Inland Water: Bermuda. Her quilts can be found in private art collections in England, France, Japan, Canada and Nicaragua, among other places.

“I just like making them,” she said. “I do not have a particular need to prove myself to anybody. I don't really like doing commissions much because somebody always wants me to do a picture of their house.”

She has struggled with vision issues for several years, but considers herself one of the lucky ones because the treatment has worked for her.

“It does not work for everyone,” she said.

Painting with Fabric will be on in the Rick Faries Gallery at Masterworks at the Botanical Gardens in Paget until June 10.