Every year since its inception the Australasian Quilt Convention has presented local quilters with the best of local and international quilting talent. This year is no exception and, as AQC moves to its new home at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building, it welcomes Illinois (USA) based quilter, fabric designer, author and teacher, Jane Sassaman, to the fold.
Yes her classes are sold out but this does not mean you must miss out on the unique and inspiring skills and talents of textile maven, Jane. Through her informative website and entertaining blog you can still see her work, buy her patterns and keep tabs on her hectic schedule.
When ‘get creative’ spoke to her Jane was madly preparing for her first ‘Ideas’ booth at Houston’s famous International Quilt Market where she would be taking wholesale orders but not teaching. Despite the effort involved she still had time to express how excited she was by a trip to Australia.
“It’s a country I’ve always wanted to go to, it’s top of the list and I’ve been invited several times but this was the first time the calendars matched up,” she says. The quilt artist, whose work, ‘Willow’ was named one of the best 100 American Quilts of the Century, will present the evening lecture on the Friday at AQC and will lead a few classes including ‘Abstracting from nature’ and ‘Pattern play’.
Jane’s book, ‘The Quilted Garden’, presents a 20 year colour retrospective of her work, and also lays bare the process involved in creating her works - her influences, methodologies and tricks of the trade. When not teaching or trying to carve out time in her home studio to design her own quilts, Jane also designs exuberant quilt fabrics for the prestigious New York manufacturer, FreeSpirit. Fellow designers in that stable include Jay McCarroll, a fashion designer who gained fame in the USA after winning the debut season of the competitive reality show Project Runway in 2005.
Her fabric patterns carry names such as Prairie Gothic and Hothouse Garden and their colours and themes strongly reflect the effect Jane’s home environment has on her work. By reading her evocative blog one is transported to the rural landscape in which she dwells.
“The soybeans have suddenly turned the countryside golden and the green corn is beginning to brown. Plus it has been one of the wettest weekends ever recorded here. Autumn atmosphere has arrived. In the depths of the forest behind the house the dripping canopy of trees look dark and mysterious,” wrote Jane in September last year.
“Communications in the country can be frustrating,” she says, “especially when you’re trying to run a business over the internet but the setting we’re in and the colours I see from the studio are sublime. When I am in the studio and working I cannot think of a single better thing to do."
A quilter since 1980, Jane used to be a designer of decorative accessories - plates, candlestick holders, vases and the like. “By the time the company I was working for was becoming unstable my quilting career - which has always revolved around art quilts - was building. It kind of naturally took over.”
Still, says Jane, she doesn’t always think of quilting as a truly “reasonable” way to make a living. “But then again I’ve never been that practical with money,” she adds. Despite the kudos she’s had in her career it’s only in recent times that she’s had the benefit of a stand alone studio. Ha! For years and years the dining table only had one use - quilting. Subsequently my children had very poor table manners."
Now, says Jane, she knows you have to be serious about quilting to make a business out of it and, she adds, while it might not be accurate to say it requires a lot of sacrifice, she definitely feels that, to make a go of it, you have to feel you “can’t possibly do anything else!”
An entertaining, open woman with a ready laugh, Jane seems humble about her considerable success. “I still really love it,” she says. “I actually sit in class sometimes and feel jealous of the students. I want to be doing what they’re doing. I carry embroidery scissors with me so I can ‘help’ out in class. I’ll take any chance I can to fondle fabric.”
Being away from home so much takes her away from such “fondling” and Jane says she’s recently played with the idea of becoming a hand appliqué enthusiast just so she could keep stitching on the road. “I can design when travelling but not the rest,” she explains. “My antenna is always up, whether I’m looking at a rug or looking at a field. I just think, ‘How can you feed me?’”
When teaching, Jane says she tries to be very encouraging. “You don’t get points for making people unhappy or uncomfortable,” she explains. “I try to get a feel for where you, as a student, are and then take you to your next level.”
Our creative teacher is:
Jane Sassaman
Her specialty
Quilt artist, fabric designer & more
Where she teaches
USA & internationally
Find her at
www.janesassaman.com [janesassaman.com]
www.sassaman.blogspot.com [sassaman.blogspot.com]
For more information about AQC:
www.aqc.com.au [aqc.com.au]
Call or email:
aqc@expertiseevents.com.au
Tel: (02) 9452 7575.
Please Login or Sign up to share, vote, favourite or comment.
