Visitors
to the 20th Chatham Studio Tour will enjoy Quartz Hill Quilts (http://www.quartzhillquilts.com),
the sewing studio of Susanna Stewart, in a home that she and her husband Sandy
built with their own hands over a period of over 35 years. “It is the home in
which I grew up - not in the traditional meaning of the word, but where I
learned to be an adult in a world full of challenges,” Stewart says. “Life here
began in a tree house, then a house slowly evolved, grew, aged, got repaired
and remodeled, ever changing, a reflection of my own process and growth.”
Stewart
creates quilts alive with color and dazzling floral fabrics. “Currently I find
myself drawn mostly to bed quilts or throws,” she notes. “I have hundreds of
quilting projects in my head. Sometimes I have three going at one time. I am
fortunate enough to have adequate space and light, so I can spread out.” Lately
she has been drawn to wall hangings and totes.
Stewart’s
life path to fabric art and the Chatham Artists Guild was long and circuitous.
Susanna’s mother died when she was eight year old. “I have very few memories of
my mom,” she stresses, “but her loss was an issue for me for many years.” When her father remarried a year
after her mother’s death, her relationship with her stepmother was difficult.
“There was a lot of turmoil,” Stewart recalls. “So much so, that for my last
two years of high school I went off to Concord Academy, a boarding school in
Massachusetts.” It was there that she had an intellectual awakening. “I
discovered Gandhi, Faulkner, and was
particularly enthralled by an art history course,” she says. During summers,
she worked on a ranch in Montana
“In
a lot of ways, the early death of my mother and the
challenging relationship with my stepmother resulted in many of my personal
strengths,” Stewart concludes. “The
greatest gift my stepmother provided was to teach me to sew.”
On
graduation from high school in 1961, her father urged her to go to nursing
school. “Back then, girls became either nurses or teachers,” she says. She
started at Boston University and completed studies at Rex Hospital
in Raleigh
For
20 years Stewart worked as a nurse, mostly at Duke and UNC. Then, she made a
major life change. “I found the schedule to be difficult on family life, and as
a self employed carpenter and stone mason I had much more say about my
schedule,” she asserts. Building our own home necessitated developing skills in
this area, and we branched out building homes for others.” During this time I
took a class in stained glass and made many windows, mostly with floral
designs. Years later I discovered I had high levels of lead in my blood, so
that was the end of stained glass work.
By
the time Stewart was in her late 30s, she became interested in acupuncture. “I
was still drawn to the healing arts,” she says. “I realized I did not want to
be hauling heavy boards around when I was 50”
The family moved to Santa Fe for three years, while she studied acupuncture.
For 20 years, what is now Stewart’s sewing home studio, was an acupuncture
clinic. “I have been “retired” from that practice for several years now, and
quilting has taken up what spare time I manage to carve out for myself,” she
quips. The arrival of grandchildren, including twin granddaughters eighteen
months ago has limited her time for quilting. Stewart’s daughter is Lara
O’Keefe, a well regarded Chatham
County
Since
childhood, Stewart had a passion for the bright prints and colors in fabric,
and she had quite a stash of fabric even before she made her first real quilt
about 11 years ago. “I was in the local fabric store, Thimble Pleasures,
when I fell in love with a quilt hanging on the wall in the shop. “I took a
class and off I went,” she exclaims. “I am very grateful to Julie Holbrook for
creating such a nourishing, stimulating fabric shop just 25 minutes from my
house.” I have taken many classes there, although my learning continues just by
being in the shop.
As Stewart’s grandkids grow, and she has more
time to quilt, she employs the many strategic and organizational skills that
she has learned over her varied and colorful life.
“Quilting
is much like carpentry and stained glass work, but a lot easier on the body”
she laughs.
Susanna
Stewart is one of the many regionally and nationally recognized artists and
fine crafts people who will open their studios the first two weekends in
December at the 20th Annual Chatham Studio Tour (http://www.chathamartistsguild.org/about/details.html).
Visitors from all around enjoy Chatham
