My Quilts

Creative Clutter

“Creative clutter is better than idle neatness!”

Most of the quilts I make are neither useful nor warm. They are wall quilts, and most are designed for the person who commissions them and the place where they will hang. They range from strange to sublime,

 and from secular to sacred.

 I don't typically cut pieces ahead of time, I just begin with an idea. Unlike most quilters, I don't draw my patterns before I begin—mostly because I don't know what they will be until I am in the middle of them. My process is what I refer to as 'organic'. It takes shape as I go along. My dear mother, the precision quilter, would look at whatever I was doing, turn her head one way and then the other, and ask, “What does it mean, Jane?” I would respond, “Who knows!”

If I make a quilt to go on a bed, which I don't often do, it is only out of duress and need of cash. I have made two queen-sized from athletic jerseys and two king-sized for my son's wedding gifts, and one for myself because I needed cover. Otherwise I stay away from huge quilts because they take too long and I lose interest about half-way through. I find I get into trouble when someone wants a particular pattern and particular size. Because my process is so organic, what comes out is often not what they envisioned. I do best and people are happier with the finished product, when they just give me some color guidance, show me the space where the quilt will hang, and then back off and let me do my thing. I like to fashion quilts around the interests of the people. This one, for instance was made for a lake house.

I also like to combine quilting with embroidery. I really enjoy drawing with colorful thread; making pictures with it. It is time consuming, but like my grandmother, I don't do well with idle hands, so when I sit down to watch television, I'm also stitching.

And, finally, I sometimes like to paint a design and then quilt it. These were made as a triptic for a friend from Australia. He was homesick and wanted something like the traditional art of the Aboriginal people.

A couple of years ago, my friend, Isie, brought me a tall stack of books of sample fabrics from her daughter, who is an interior decorator. Isie knows I like to “recycle and repurpose” things. I cut all those small blocks of sample fabrics off their cards, painstakingly pulled off the paper backing, and made a quilt. I also haunt thrift stores for used clothing made from interesting or vintage fabric and incorporate them into my quilts. Occasionally, I find a trove of vintage fabric, as I did when I cleaned out my mother's house after her death. Remnants of fabrics dating all the way back to when I was a child (hundreds of years ago) were stored in boxes in her basement. I gleefully brought those home and have doled them out sparingly into all sorts of creations.

All this is to say, that while every generation has a different motivation for making quilts, we have managed to continue a family tradition for longer than one hundred years. I may be the last, so I have to make it count.

                                                 Jane