Guest artist Kathy Johnson arrived early to our April 23, 2024 meeting bringing in her large quilt displays to share with us. Her works were breathtaking to see in person.
Kathy introduced herself describing how she’s refined her own modern style quilting over many years. She’s found inspiration for her color contemporary quilts from books by master quilter Eleanor Burns.
Kathy chooses all cotton fabrics that appear to have depth. Fabric patterns are imprinted using batik style or traditional methods. The cotton fabrics lend themselves to Kathy’s goal for her pieces to be functional. You can even put them in your washer and dryer!
Kathy extracts vibrant colors and movement from pictures she’s taken of scenery on her trips. In her home studio, she drafts out the design determining how many fabrics she’ll utilize and how many blocks to divide it into. The blocks can be any size. Then Kathy sorts through her fabrics and “auditions” them to find which will work best with the design. Kathy continues to arrange the physical pieces of fabric on a 120 sq. in. board until she likes what she sees.
She then stitches the blocks into place using free motion quilting with a long-arm sewing machine. Then it’s time to create the quilt sandwich, filling the middle with batting. And finally binding the edges.
Displaying at art fairs, Kathy loves getting feedback from people whether they’re customers or not. She’s juried into many art fairs because of her amazing use of color, which elevates her work to more than a craft.
