Jane is co-leading an Okan Arts tour to Japan in November 2024 +learn more
By Patricia Belyea
I caught up with Jane Sassaman on FaceTime to find out what she’s up to these days.
We’d seen one another at Asilomar in March but we were both pretty busy. Jane was teaching her Abstracting From Nature workshop. Her keen students transformed favorite flowers into bold motifs in fabric.
Jane shared her most recent quilt finish, Chard (33" x 50"). Full of impact with its bold motif and masterful color palette, Jane playfully admitted that she channeled Disney with the nodding mushrooms.
Currently, in her studio, Jane is machine quilting Rex Begonia — her latest botanical quilt. She added an extra layer of batting to the big project and is now fighting her way through the stitching process. Live and learn, Jane sighed.
We talked about her fabric designs. Jane starts with a theme. First she develops the main fabrics and branches out from there. This year’s collection, Gloriosa Garden, is already in shops.
For her 2026 collection, Flower Dance, Jane was inspired by her time in the UK last June. Visits to phenomenal English gardens and to museums focusing on the Arts & Crafts movement influenced her patterns.
Next week, Jane will journey back to California to give a talk to the San Francisco Quilters Guild and to teach at Asilomar. This time each student will create a Totem of Life quilt where thematic characters are stacked using Jane’s stylized technique.
Jane has lots more travel coming up this year — from the last gathering of QSDS to New Brunswick, Canada.
And in the Fall, Jane is co-leading an Okan Arts Tour to Japan. I wonder how that will influence her next fabric collection!
On the homefront, Jane’s daughter Willow joined her Irish beau Fionbharr in marriage right before Christmas. That’s really the biggest news of all!
