Contact Information:

Janet McTavish

1764 Wildwood Rd.

Duluth, MN 558804

(218) 525-0103

jan@artistquilts.com

 

 

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"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 is being 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.

Watching"  68" X 83"  2002 - 2004  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.

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.
"At Peace"  33" X 25"   2004  Designed, pieced, appliquéd, embroidered and embellished by Janet McTavish and machine quilted by Karen McTavish.
 

This quilt was inspired by the paintings of Gustav Klimt.  In his paintings, Klimt often began with a realistic, three dimensional face, but the clothing that his figures wore would become two dimensional and eventually disappear into the background in a myriad of patterned pieces that reminded me of quilt blocks.  In my rendition, the fabric is pieced and appliquéd to achieve this effect.  Like Klimt, I used  a lot of gold in my fabric and embroidery.  The figures are paint dyed and embellished with thread to give the texture of hair.  The quilting is largely embroidered with metallic threads in the style of Victorian crazy quilts.  This is my interpretation of one of my student kits that combines piecing with appliqué and provides the opportunity for thread embellishment.

 
"Woodland Treasure"  23" X 33"  2004  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 "puzzle picture 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.

 

 

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"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 another 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.

 

 
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This site was last updated 12/19/07