Yellowknife (Mar 03/06) - An American quilting magazine featured a piece of fabric art by a Yellowknife quilter this winter.

Quilting Arts Magazine printed a quilted self-portrait by Barb Round. She submitted the work in response to a quilting challenge issued by the Massachusetts-based magazine.

Quilter Barb Round, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of the NWT, stands beside the Northern Nurses Quilt, which she and 19 other women in the NWT and Nunavut helped create by designing squares depicting themes of nursing and the North. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo

The self-portrait, entitled "Scuba Diva," shows Round swimming underwater with tropical fish weaving through her salt and pepper hair.

Round got together with quilters Pat Thagard, Pat Winter, Lynn Cooper and Shawna Lampi-Lagaree to design entries for the challenge last year.

The women are part of an eight-member group of quilters who gather every week to inspire one another as they create together.

Round started quilting with a blanket she made to commemorate the birth of her first son. She joined the Yellowknife Quilter's Guild a decade ago and learned about machine quilting and the artistic potential of the medium.

Round finished a hanging quilt for the Arctic Winter Games last month based on the theme "Releasing the Spirit Within."

"The theme is about how sport gives kids in remote communities exposure to the rest of the world and new experiences and opportunities they otherwise wouldn't have," she explained.

Quilting spilled over into Round's work life, as well.

As executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of the NWT, Round participated in a 2003 quilt project to raise money for the Lighting the Lamp Campaign, an initiative to raise money for the Canadian Nursing History Collection.

Northern nurses created a 28-square hanging quilt that weaves a collective perception of nursing in the North. Round and 19 other women from the NWT and Nunavut designed the blocks.

A 32-page recipe book based around the quilt is available for sale through the association.