Monika Kinner is a thread artist who creates beautiful Prairie thread paintings inspired by the Canadian landscapes where she lives. She creates these pieces in a unique way utilizing a wide variety of techniques including quilting, thread painting, and photography. We sat down with her to chat about her stunning pieces, and the techniques she uses to create them! As well as what WonderFil® threads she uses in her work.

Monika was raised by a talented landscape artist who taught her how to keep an eye on the land around her and all the factors that are important to create a beautiful piece. She became very familiar with the sky, seasons, and finicky natural lighting. But sewing and working with textiles is something she didn’t learn about until much later in life. Monika discovered her love for working with textiles when she made her kids their first quilts. Before this, she had never found a medium she really enjoyed working in for her nature inspired pieces. Paint or clay were never her cup of tea. Monika knew she wanted to create artwork that showcased the beauty of the Canadian prairies where she grew up. As a way to share the beauty of her home with others. After creating her kids’ quilts Monika said, “my brain went pow”, as she realized how much she loved working with fabric and threads. Monika recalls seeing some quilted postcards in a quilting magazine and realizing that it was possible to create the pieces she wanted to with these materials. At this point Monika said she realized “I know what I am going to do with my life now”. She began to share the beauty of the Canadian prairies with all the people she could by creating thread paintings!

Quilted postcards are what inspired Monika to start her journey with fibre arts. Naturally, this is where she began when she started to create her own art! Monika joined her local quilt guild, but never quite felt like that was where she belonged as her work was much different than what many of them were doing. Undeterred, she continued to create. Are once large fabric stash began to become scarce as she started making more and more postcards. Eventually she had more thread than she did fabric. Which inspired her to move away from quilting, and more towards embroidery.

This is where she discovered free motion stitching, thread painting, and self-guided machine embroidery. These techniques allowed her to better capture the look and textures of the prairie plants she aimed to recreate. Monika found that with thread it was much easier to recreate the look of flowers, grasses, and foliage.

Monika’s Process

Monika’s pieces begin with a photo, which she always takes herself! She takes her camera and drives around looking for the perfect shots, “treasure hunting I call it”. Monika highlighted how important it is to “start with your own discoveries” when creating these pieces. Utilizing your own photos, rather than photos taken by someone else.

“What do you want to show off about what you see, so that the art is yours from the beginning”.

After capturing the photos Monika plays around with cropping, and resizing the images until she finds a composition she’s happy with. Often zooming in on certain parts of the image to get greater detail. “You can crop a photo in a million different ways, so play around with it”. Once happy with the photo she begins her project by laying out a simple background of fabric to stitch on. This acts as an under painting with no detail, that she then paints her image on top of. Instead of using stabilizer, Monika adds a thick layer of buckram. Which is a thick cotton or linen typically used in the brims of hats. Monika prefers buckram over using stabilizer as it is much heavier making for a stiffer surface to work on. She also tries to avoid hooping her work as it confines you to a certain size and makes it more difficult to move around the project as you stitch. Next, she begins adding in layers of thread using free motion embroidery techniques.

Monika always uses DecoBob™, our 80wt cottonized polyester thread, in her bobbin. She won’t sew without it! DecoBob™ helps to lessen the bulk in her pieces which involve layers and layers of stitching. Keeping everything flatter when the work is framed. In the top Monika often uses cottons or rayons, depending on the pieces she’s working on. For dry, grassy landscaped she will use cotton threads, in both solid and variegated colours. Threads like Spagetti™ (12wt cotton), Fruitti™ (12wt variegated cotton), and Konfetti™ (50wt cotton) work great in these pieces. However, if she is working with an image that has water, Monika enjoys using rayons because they have a natural looking sheen. Accent™ (12wt rayon) can be a great choice for these details, or even add some GlaMore™ (12wt rayon metallic) for extra sparkle when creating water. The most important factor when picking thread for Monika is the colour. She must use natural looking colours, accurate to the photos she’s taken. Often this means using subtly variegated threads that add subtle colour variation which makes things look more organic. The more subtle the colour change in the tread, the more natural the final effect. After choosing the perfect thread for the project, in both colour and finish, she starts stitching.

“My work is thread”

Tips For Thread Art

One unique technique Monika shared with us is how she sits at her machine. Setting up her machine so it’s facing towards her allows her to stitch somewhat like how you would on a long arm. This gives her more space to move around and a better view of the project as she works. Monika also has a machine with a high shank, which helps to increase visibility as well. While setting up her machine Monika also sets her top tension fairly loose. This ensures that her bottom thread never shows on the top of her piece.

Monika’s final, and most important piece of advice, is to just experiment. Focus on finding techniques and projects that you find exciting. Take breaks from scrolling through Instagram to see what other people are doing. This will inspire more creativity and help you to find what you really love to do; without thinking about impressing people, or recreating things you’ve already seen. Monika explained that this is why her most current pieces are always her favourite. She is always experimenting and pushing her projects further and further.

Follow Along With Her Journey

If you want to keep up with Monika, her work, and the classes she teaches sign up for her newsletter! Monika has many things on the horizon this year, including a new project she’s working on funded by the Canadian Arts Council. You can also follow her on Instagram and Facebook to see her progress on these pieces.