Jacqueline Johnson

I did not know about quilting as child, but while I was in college a friend from Detroit was laying out a quilt for a baby.  She in turn showed me what she was doing.  I also remember seeing a quilt at my grandmother’s house and it was an old North Star quilt.  Later in 1983, I learned to silk-screen from Otto Neals and Emmett Wigglesworth.  I was fascinated by the Ashanti designs and I made Adinkra cloth.  I later started a short-lived business: Free Spirit Connections Fabric.  One day, I had a piece of cloth left over and I decided to make a quilt.  I didn’t know what I was doing- but I made a baby quilt using the double heading crocodile of the Ashanti known as “Afuntumireko” meaning unity and diversity of all opposites.  Since that time I have made baby quilts.  In 1992, I received formal training at Quilters Passion, studying with Judy Doenias.  I now belong to several quilt groups in the tri-state area.

Being a cloth worker has made me an ambassador to people of all races and ages.  I meet so many people through quilting.  Beauty to me is the common denominator, beauty of the quilt or cloth, craft and skill.  Quilting and cloth work like tie-dying, batik, silk-screening and needlework have given me the confidence I need to lift up my art and writing.  I am a poet and writer as well.  I have learned that my quilting and writing both feed from the same source.