Jan McTavish
Welcome to artistquilts.com
Hello, my name is Jan McTavish.
I have been creating pictorial and art quilts ever since I began quilting in 1988. Some of you may know my daughter, Karen McTavish who is well known for her artistic quilting. You can check out her beautiful work on www.designerquilts. com. Together we have won many awards in national and international quilt shows. Our pictorial and art quilts have been purchased by private art collectors and institutions.
As an oil painter and graphic artist, I have received extensive art training which I enjoy combining with my quilting experience. When I began quilting, I was drawn to pictorial art quilts and landscape quilts in particular. This was a relatively new field at the time and there were many design and construction problems to be solved. I developed new techniques to aid in this process such as:
"Picture puzzle piecing" to piece together the irregular shapes in a picture as seen in my quilt "Woodland Treasure"
"Mosaic picture quilts" where tiny pictures are used to construct a larger picture as seen in several of my more recent quilts such as "Peace Makers".
Quilting a wholecloth landscape first and then paint dyeing it. This process perfectly aligns the quilting and paint dyeing and blends the quilting into the scene. This technique was used in "Morning Fog at Lake Louise".
Using the paint/dyeing process to create dimension and focus, add shadows and highlights, correct and deselect unwanted details in fabric, and control "edges" as in "fine art painting". This process was used to create realism in the quilt "Watching".
The Peace Labyrinth
The Peace Labyrinth: Project description
Go back in time with me and learn where and when the world's major spiritual faiths and philosophies began. Imagine yourself walking into a labyrinth, lined with quilts that tell you about 17 of the world's major spiritual traditions established as recently as 1940 and dating back to prehistoric times.
Along the way, you carry a rock that represents all the negative reactions that humans often have when they are confronted with diversity that they don't understand and may even fear - negativity that too often escalates into hate, war, and even genocide. As you walk by each panel, you are aware of how similar the central messages are in all the faiths and how they all have roots in the same moral beliefs that date back to ancient times. When you get to the center of the Labyrinth, there is a waterfall into which you are encouraged to leave your rock to be cleansed. Then you pass through a garden that represents all the positive outcomes that come from greater understanding and tolerance of diversity. You are encouraged to pick a flower and to continue on with greater peace and love in your own heart. On your way out of the labyrinth, you are walking behind the quilts where you no longer can identify the specific faith, but see written on the backs of each one, their version of "The Golden Rule". Each faith may use different words to express this mutually held belief, but the meanings are all the same. Just before you exit the labyrinth, you pass by the "Peace Maker" quilt that shows a selection of Nobel Peace Prize winners that have helped to make the world safer and more peaceful. Here in a mirror, you can see yourself as a peace maker as well.
The idea for this "Peace Labyrinth" project came to me in a dream. Thus far, I have researched and created the two dimensional version you see above which has been displayed at national quilt shows and at local organizations. I have been encouraged to begin a 3-D version that can be seen virtually on line and walked through in person at schools, churches, and community centers across the country.
Teaching
Trunk Shows, Lectures, and Special Exhibits
I am primarily doing trunk shows for quilting guilds and shows, some lecturing on pictorial related topics, and arranging special exhibits for Karen's and my work. Contact me for more information or to schedule an event.
Workshops
My workshops include hands-on instruction on the different methods the experts are using to construct pictorial art quilts. These include hand and machine piecing and appliqué, painted wholecloth, and color wash/mosaic tile techniques. Most importantly, I teach my students how to turn their quilts into "art quilts" with the use of selective design and art principles, paint/dyeing fabric, quilting, trapunto, thread play and embellishment. My students usually come into my class with no art education or experience, but they always leave as artists.
Workshops are generally scheduled for either weekends (Friday night through Sunday) or 5 or 6-day week classes for out-of-town students. The information provided will be the same, but the amount of class time for individual student projects under instructor guidance will vary by length of workshops. Private lessons in Duluth are also available..
If you would like more information or wish to schedule a class in your area, please contact Jan at jan@artistquilts.com or by calling 218-525-0103.
Listed with the Quilt Professionals Directory of Quilt Shops, Quilt Supplies, Quilts for Sale, Quilt teachers, and more --- www.quiltprofessionals.com.
Contact information
Janet McTavish
(218) 525-0103
About the quilts (shown to the right)
Watching" 68" X 83" 2002 - 2004 updated in 2010 Designed, pieced, appliquéd, paint dyed, and embellished by Janet McTavish and machine quilted by Karen McTavish
This quilt has won two national awards and was a finalist at the Houston International Quilt Show in 2004. We live among the deer, bears, wolves, etc. in Northern Minnesota, so the subject was a natural for me. I used a number of techniques, a lot of fussy cutting, and a great deal of paint to achieve the artistic yet realistic effect I wanted for a pictorial quilt.
"Angel of Peace" 72" X 90" 2007 Designed and pieced by Janet McTavish and machine quilted by Karen McTavish
This quilt is a mosaic of 11,400 3/4" square pictures of people, places and things from all over the world (see detail). It has been shown in a number of national and international quilt shows including the International Quilt Festival 2007 in Houston, TX . The idea came from a dream I had where an angel was holding up the planet Earth - a prayer that we might learn to live in peace with each other and our environment.
"Peace Makers" 83" x 95" 2008 Designed and pieced by Janet McTavish and machine quilted by Karen McTavish
This quilt has won numerous awards including first place in its category at the 2009 National Quilting Association show in Columbus, Ohio. This is a mosaic quilt consisting of 3/5" square pictures of people, places and things from all over the world that compose the portraits of 15 Nobel Laureate Peace Makers that have helped to make this a more peaceful world. The 16th section contains a mirror in which the viewers can see themselves as peace makers.
"Sisterhood" 48" x 72" 2009 Designed, Printed, Pieced and Quilted by Janet B. McTavish
A mosaic quilt with 1/2 inch square pictures of women and places and things from all over the world composing the larger image. Women all over the world are more alike than different. Their life experiences bind them together across all boundaries of country, ethnicity and religion. We know the joys of motherhood and the struggles of being female. This quilt is my prayer that we will unite as women with other women all over the world and be supportive of each other. In doing so, perhaps we can contribute to the building of a better world.
Free to Fly" 2004 Pieced and embellished by Janet McTavish and machine quilted by Karen McTavish
I began this art quilt with a design created to celebrate the millennium by Claudia Myers of Duluth, Minnesota. I reversed the value, incorporated Susan Stone's New York Beauty border that I love, and then used my own knowledge and love of color to achieve the final design. Karen quilted every seam line incorporating the "McTavishing" technique that was named after her in the border. This quilt was made in memory of a quilter classmate of mine from high school. She and I initiated a project in 2001 to send quilts to the children of fire fighters lost on 9/11. She died of cancer in 2003 and this quilt was purchased by other alumni to hang at the Northfield/Mount Hermon school that we attended in Massachusetts.
"Gathering Storm" 29" X 28" Designed, paint dyed, appliquéd and embellished by Janet McTavish; quilted by Karen and Janet McTavish
This is my interpretation of one of my student kits that emphasizes the different techniques of paint dyeing fabric. Students learn to wash in backgrounds, blend fabrics to hide seam lines, shape objects, add highlights and shadows, and create focus and movement through the selection and treatment of objects to emphasize or minimize details. They learn how to create and treat edges to lead the viewer's eye to what they as artists want viewers to see as most important.
Woodland Treasure" 23" X 33" 2004 updated in 2009 Designed, pieced, paint dyed and embellished by Janet McTavish and machine quilted by Karen McTavish
This quilt that I designed for a student kit employs the technique that I call "picture puzzle piecing". A full size design is printed on stiff paper and cut up into its components for templates. Fabric is basted over the templates and the picture is reassembled like a puzzle. The pieces are sewed by hand to each other. In this quilt, paint was then used to shape the rocks, and add shadows and highlights. It was also embellished with thread play for texture and crystals for focus.
