Jane Haworth
Jane Haworth is an award winning professional quilter specializing in custom memory quilts made from T-Shirts, neckties and many other types of clothing collected over the years. In addition to quilts she makes custom functional art items from repurposed maerials. Jane also instructs and when she is not creating works of art for her customers she does works on her own quilting projects.
Biography
I have been quilting officially since 2003 but did my first experiments in patchwork[ hexagons cut out of newspaper], at about the age of 8. I started making art quilts after my first trip to Kauai and came back inspired with colorful images in my head and in photographs that I needed to recreate in fabric. I had previously made a log cabin quilt for my bed which probably was my first official quilt. To learn more I started recording Simply Quilts on the TV. and watching Alex and her guests exploring all kinds of quilting techniques and styles. But it was the modern techniques and art quilts that really caught my attention. I also bought the book 'Quilts, Quilts, Quilts!' and began working on a sampler quilt with 12'' squares. Cutting so precisely and sewing with the 1/4'' seam was all pretty new to me and quite restricting, as you can imagine and so I still have about 8 squares still waiting to be completed.
I have been involved with fabric for all my life. My grandmother taught me to sew at a young age and I would design and make some of my own clothes. At 18 I went to college in Carlisle, England and studied Textile Design majoring in weaving. My first real job was working for Laura Ashley in one of their factories that produced clothing, I was trained, becoming proficient and fast on the sewing machine. The best part of this job was the amazing sales on their fabrics. My stash had started!
From here I set up a small business making rag rugs using some of my stash. I even got a stall at the Covent Garden Craft Market to sell them. I next became involved in the Interior design business and used my sewing expertise to make soft furnishings, curtains, drapes, blinds and bedding. It was then that I moved to the U.S. and was shocked to find the fabric choices in furnishing fabric was so limited very unlike Europe! It seemed that the quilt stores had such a huge range, which we did not have in Europe. It took me a while but I did get in there and start to buy fabric. Then once I began my art quilts I was hooked!
I moved to Auburn, California from England in 1998, with my husband, and two daughters. We have lived here for fifteen years now and I also have an American born son.
I have entered my quilts in quite a few competitions. My first ever entry won me first place for novice quilter, at the Nevada County Fair and I won a sewing machine. In 2005 my 'Ocean Life at Bali Hai' quilt was accepted into the International Quilt Show at Paducah and more recently was displayed at the Pacific International Quilt Fair. Mt ‘Tribute to Charley Harper’ has been shown at Sister’s, Oregon 2009 and the IQA Fall Show 2009, in Houston.
January 2012 I opened my shop on Etsy.com called Happy Quilt Designs and have enjoyed making quilts, purses and wallhangings for my customers. Most of my business through Etsy are custom orders and each quilt is made using the customers own t shirts and other textile items that they send me.
Other than quilting I enjoy painting pictures, decorating, gardening and traveling. I enjoy writing about the travels that my family and I do and have had articles published in Sierra Heritage magazine.
My biggest love in quilting is color and fabric. Kaffe Fassett has been a big influence on me, I heard him speak at college in 1984 and spent years knitting his sweater patterns. Blending and selecting all those colors in yarn or fabric is the best. The technique I use on my quilts is mostly raw-edge college appliqué. This allows me to cut, layer then glue the fabrics before machine quilting them. Influences for my quilts come from many places. I use photos of landscapes, sea-life, birds and the work of illustrator Charley Harper.
I now spend time traveling to quilt guilds and quilt shops to lecture and teach classes. If you are interested look up my teaching page and also the calendar to check my availability.