Visiting Quilt National May 2025

I was honored and surprised to have my quilt ‘Let’s talk Color” selected to be one of the 84 quilts in the Quilt National 2025 exhibit. This is a show of Contemporary art quilts that is a bi-annual, prestigious show. It is held at the Dairy Barn in Athens, Ohio. I have just returned from the opening weekend, which was a celebration for the artists with many activities. I think 50-60 artists must have been there and it was such an honor to meet many of them and hear the stories behind their quilts. I will share a few of the quilts but I really have too many photos to share here. If you follow quiltnational on Instagram; you will see many more photos.

Me with Lets talk Color

Me and Shin-Hee Chin with her Best of Show quilt, Viriditas (Greenness)

Cindy Grisdela, Musings II, from Virginia. Jungeun Tark, Tea-bowl of Mama from South Korea. Beth Schnellenberger, Double Phoenix Rising form Indiana, Ann Houle, Bio-sphere on Fire from CA

The Quilt National exhibit is held at The Dairy Barn which is located in Athens, Ohio and is very close to Ohio University. Having never visited this area before I did enjoy the history of the area as we got to explore the University with its brick buildings and brick pavements. Another interesting area was The Ridges. These buildings were built as Athens Insane Asylum in 1874. They are now part of the University complex and house the Kennedy Art Museum. The Dairy Barn was part of this complex also and dates from 1914. There is a lot of fascinating history in this area.

As an exhibiting artist I was able to attend the opening reception, award ceremony, artists banquet, private viewing of the exhibit and artists talks. Many of us finally met up again at a local winery which was another fun event. It was great to meet artists that previously I had only met through their work on social media. I now have new friends from Germany, Switzerland, Australia, South Korea, China, as well as USA and California.

Artist gathering at Quilt National 2025

I travel a lot with my teaching and it was a treat for me to have two friends from my guild here in Auburn, CA travel with me. As art quilters, attending Quilt National was on their bucket list but to be able to attend with an exhibiting artist and friend was extra special. I enjoyed the company and the support. What fun chicken vests they made!

Exploring Athens was unexpected we found a great Farmers Market, Pleasant Hill Winery, the Kennedy Art Museum and Lancaster, OH was an interesting historic town. My favorite place was the Passion Works Studio and Gallery. It is haven of art, color and creativity. Passion Works Studio creates opportunities for all people to explore and socially connect through the process of making art.

With all that color and pattern I couldn’t help but take many photos and buy a few items to bring home.

Passion Works Studio.

Finally when it was time to come home I did something very foolish and while hand carrying my newly created Poppy jacket, I set it down somewhere and lost it! Who knows if it will be ever found again but I guess someone somewhere will have a nice colorful jacket that I hope they will treasure. It could possibly be in the Columbus airport!

It was an honor to have one of my quilts selected for this art quilt show and now I have attended this event once I am now thinking about applying again for the next show in 2 years time!

2024 End of Year Summary

Sitting here I have spent the last week in my bedroom after a Covid positive result! Not the way I imagined my year in quilting would end. I am well, a bit tired and lacking motivation but using this enforced quiet time to catch up on a few things.

My year has been super busy as usual. I did plenty of traveling and teaching, hosting lectures and classes on Zoom, making custom memory quilts and art quilts for clients and entering quilts into quilt exhibits. I like to show this summary as it allows me to record my numbers for the year that otherwise would go uncounted.

In 2024 I made 24 art quilts of various sizes. These could be new quilts, gifts, class samples, hand stitched pieces or quilted bags. I made 2 small quilts that I donated to the SAQA fundraising auctions. I also made 15 custom T-shirt quilts, and 6 custom pet portraits quilts. Every year I say I am taking on fewer custom quilts especially T-shirt quilts. The ones made were all ordered by either previous customers wanting family quilts for siblings or local customers. Again next year there will be fewer of these kind of quilts on my schedule.

As for my teaching schedule I hosted 9 lectures and 5 workshops via Zoom. This included Craft Napa and Mancuso’s Virtual Schoolhouse 9.

I had 20 different teaching gigs to guilds and quilts shows. Eleven of these I drove to and nine I flew to. Places in California included Santa Barbara, Capitola, Roseville, Sunnyvale, Tulare, Oakhurst, Clearlake, Brentwood, Sunnyvale and Temecula. I flew to Hampton, VA, Boerne TX, Augusta Maine, Houston TX, Raleigh NC, Omaha NB, Denver CA and Prescott AZ. This year it did feel like a lot of travel and when things go wrong at the airport it is not much fun!

Unusually I entered many quilts into exhibitions in various galleries or quilt shows around the country. I had 8 quilts accepted and 2 will be on show in 2025. My greatest and surprising achievement was having a quilt accepted into Quilt National which opens May 2025 in Athens Ohio at the Dairy Barn. My quilt is titled ‘Let’s Talk Color’ and is cheerful collection of colorful chickens.

In 2024 I did more hand stitching work than usual and have included in some of my new classes. My style is simple, down to earth, easy stitches including running stitch, cross stitch and seed stitch. I like to work on small pieces that I stitch on batting and then combine into a larger quilt. An example of this is Christmas Collage. Unfortunately I didn’t get it completed this year but I still plan on getting these patterns online for purchase. My intention is for people to work through them as a Block of the Month over the year, so by next Holiday season it will be finished.

If you are interested in fabric collage check out my website and shop at janehaworth.com Here I sell PDF patterns, kits and my books and have details of my teaching schedule. I have a FaceBook group called Fabric Collage School and this coming year plan to share more videos and online workshops.

Thanks for all the support from students, guilds and customers, Jane H

Summer Travels

I was lucky enough to have a short break in my teaching schedule between mid June and the end of July but since then I have taken three great trips. In July I taught at Maine Quilts in Augusta, ME, spent a few days in Capitola, CA teaching the Pajaro Valley Quilt Association and I have just returned from a trip to Denver and Arizona.

Dinner at Shadowbrook in Capitola. What a beautiful setting?

Maine Quilts is the state wide quilt show organized by the various chapters of the Pinetree Quilt Guild in Maine. It is an annual show with competition quilts, various special exhibits, lectures, raffles, vendors and many classes by a variety of teachers from around the US. I was scheduled for one lunchtime lecture and 2 1/2 days of classes. All these were sold out. My students were great, very friendly, as most quilters are, and they made great progress on their collage projects. The classes I taught included; House and Home, Colorful Cats and Dogs, Chickens and Hummingbirds.

I did enjoy meeting the other teachers, attending the banquet, listening to teacher lectures and hanging out with Sarah Ann Smith, the featured artist for the show. We had dinner one night at the home of the TV show Maine Cabin Masters, which I had previously never heard of, but have since enjoyed a few episodes on Hulu.

A week or so later I was prepping and getting ready for my trip to Capitola which is approximately a 3hr drive from my house. We headed down a few days early so my husband and son could hang out for the weekend, before I was due to teach. We had some great food, and enjoyed exploring the coast. We visited Santa Cruz wharf where there was abundance of birdlife and sea lions. Then to the Elkhorn Slough which was quiet, a great place to hike and again we saw a lot of birdlife.

I spoke at the Pajaro Valley Quilters Association meeting Monday night and taught my pet Portrait workshop on Tuesday. Everyone seems to love what they were doing especially as they were all working on quilts of their own pets. My thanks to Pat G for hosting me and taking me with a few other members to Shadowbrook for a delicious dinner.

Seacliff Beach and the offshore wreck has an interesting history.

I had 2 days at home to repack before leaving for my next trip that included a stop in Denver before heading to Prescott, AZ to the Cottonwood Quilters. Early in June I was invited by The Quilt Show to be featured in one of their shows. This is a great honor and had been on my quilting bucket list! With some thorough preparation by the shows producer Shelly, I began prepping for my 2 demos. One would be a how-to on making collaged Pet Portraits and then an overview of ideas for putting together a background for collage. I am happy to have survived the experience. Once it came down to the recording, my nervousness had passed and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Converted church was a wonderful location for taping The Quilt Show

After 24 hrs in Denver I was off again with all my luggage to Phoenix, my destination Prescott, AZ. I had a wonderful time again teaching Pet Portrait collage to another great bunch of quilters whom I hope will complete their collages that they started. Having no idea about the history of Prescott I got to explore the downtown and Whiskey Row and learn about its Wild West heritage. Dinner at the Palace Hotel and visiting Jersey Lilly Saloon was eye opening.

I am now home and happy to breathe a little before my next trips to meet more quilters in California and then North Carolina. As ever I have plenty of work to complete, quilts to make and prep to do. Happy Quilting.

Downtown Prescott has so much history.