in the
SPOTLIGHT
Ana
Sumner
EDWARDSVILLE, ILLINOIS
“
My life has been fi lled
with moments when I’ve
felt guided down a path
toward my creative self.
As far back as I can remember, my
memories have been fi lled with color
and texture—from my mother using
paint and fabrics to make our home
beautiful, to school art classes where
every project was exciting and fun. At
the age of 12, I asked my mom to teach
me to use a sewing machine so I could
make clothes with my friend. In my
20s—when I saw my fi rst quilt ever—I
felt pure excitement when I realized
there were other creative ways to use
fabric. I wanted to learn how to quilt!
That simple desire to create a quilt
stayed with me for a long time, but I
was in my mid-40s before I could
fi nally deeply explore my creativity.
That’s when I began to take quilting
and art classes. In one of those classes,
provided by the local quilt store, Ilearned about crazy quilting. The
teacher shared about the diversity of
fi bers and showed us embellishing
techniques using samples of her work.
Instead of giving us a design to practice
what we were learning, though, she
said, ‘You can come up with your own
design.’ It was the fi rst time I was given
the opportunity to create something
from my imagination. This assignment
was daunting but also awakened my
soul to many creative possibilities.
From that day, I knew I wanted to
continue exploring with fi bers and
embellishments. That exploration
eventually led me to become a mixed-
media fi ber artist. I’ve taken as many
classes as I could because I realized
they were the doorway to my
imagination and creativity.
My imagination was unstoppable
after fi nding Judith Baker Montano’sTHE CRAZY QUILT HANDBOOK, which
taught me simple hand stitches;
knowledge I didn’t possess before the
crazy quilt class. I began to create
small crazy quilts with hand
embellishments of silk ribbon fl owers
and trees as gifts for family and friends.
As I grew more confi dant in my
creative abilities, I moved from the
crazy quilt layouts to landscape scenes
of fl ower gardens and trees that have
always captured my attention in
nature. Because I’m also interested in
traditional art, I joined the fi ne art
league in my town and became inspired
with realism. I wanted to represent the
subject matter that I was creating
truthfully as I saw it, and this began to
infl uence how I created my fi ber art.
Every quilt or art class I took helped
me incorporate another aspect of what
I had learned into my art, and every“A Day’s Stroll” • 5" x 6"Photocourtesy^ of^ the^ artist“A Day’s Str lA Days Stroll • 5oll”l” • 55""x6"x 66"