Joan Colvin is a studio quilt artist, the author of three books and a lecturer and teacher. Her latest book, "Nature's Studio",  C&T Publishing,  pictures fifty of her wall pieces, along with descriptions of helpful techniques for using fabric as if painting. She lives and works in the Northwest and tends to be influenced by those muted natural colors.

She says: "I am led by the feel and mood of provocative fabric. By using repeated appliqué forms, and natural quilting lines, I try to release, soften, and guide the shapes and striations within the fabric. In doing so, I keep my tenuous but welcome connection to quilt making roots. I'm not interested in recreating a photographic scene, though I could carefully choose fabric to do just that. What I want to do is more elemental, more childlike. I want to juxtapose realism, only insofar as it intrigues me, with symbolic fabrics to produce summarized forms, suggested texture.

I'm looking for that moment when I can breathe again…"THAT'S what I wanted to say, that's what I mean. Do you understand me?"

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Note: Joan passed away on September 9th, 2007 after a difficult battle with Lymphoma.  We hope that you have fond memories of Joan, and that she touched your lives in the special way she has touched ours.

Joan's Latest Book Nature's Studio; a quilter's guide to playing with fabrics and techniques. Concord, CA: C&T Publishing, 2005. ISBN: 1-57120-292-7. Price: $24.95 soft cover Available at your local bookseller, or Amazon.Com Barnes & Noble

Other titles by Joan Colvin: The Nature of Design and Quilts from Nature.