About me

My name Gail Leschine-Seitz and I am the owner of Hazel Tree Arts. I have always been drawn to fabric; its textures, designs, color, weight and flow from when I was visiting thrift stores in my teens growing up outside of Chicago, and studying magazines with their runway couture, to studying quilt and embroidery designs as an adult in art installations and textile museums. Eventually I took classes in fabric dyeing, surface pattern design and screen printing and the whole process came to life for me and became a passion. I never thought I could craft a life where I choose the fabric, imprint the design, and determine the function and get to share it with my community. The endless combinations have kept me spellbound and endlessly inspired.

In 1992 I moved to the San Juan Islands in the Northwest corner of Washington State. Here natural beauty surrounds every moment of the day. It is impossible to leave this beauty out of my artwork, the colors of the sunset, the gray of the rainy day, the combinations of greens, browns and golds walking down my unpaved road. I cannot cease to learn from it every day. Much of my artwork is inspired by the natural beauty of the Islands and the Pacific Northwest. I have tried to incorporate both the flora and fauna into my designs: the detailed beauty of fern and cedar, playful shapes of grape leave and oak, the classic beauty of lavender and willow. As well at the living creatures: orca whales and eagles, birds, and of course, the forever sun and the moon.