Local woman a master designer

Walking into artist Jean Hartshorne’s home is unlike walking into any other. While that may be said about anyone’s home, Hartshorne’s radiates with a blaze of brilliant color. It’s in a class by itself.

Color is everywhere. No wall has been left ordinary and white. Painting each wall herself, Hartshorne chose vivid colors—purple, magenta, turquoise, gold and red—with each color complementing an adjacent wall.

Completed quilts along with those that are in the works are hung on the walls and also displayed on chairs and beds. One’s eyes don’t know where to focus first because interspersed throughout her home are painted tin, colored glass, gourds and handmade dolls—making her home a unique and colorful showcase for her creativity.

Changed her life

Quilting since 1982 when she became an empty nester, Hartshorne joined a quilting class, which she said changed her life. Now quilting for pleasure as well as for profit, she said, “I can’t imagine a day without quilting. I love color and I like to try new things; if I don’t like the way a quilt is working out I just cut up more fabric.”

A born artist, Hartshorne taught Early American Decoration in Massachusetts for 30 years. She has painted and adorned tin ware and furniture, made dolls and now creatively embellishes some of her colorful quilts with small dolls and bead work.

Yet her artistic talents come through in her creative and colorful quilts unlike any of her other works. Perhaps she feels at peace quilting; perhaps it was just an inborn talent waiting to emerge at just the right time.

Variety of themes

Hardly one to do the same thing twice, Hartshorne creates quilts in a variety of themes and fabrics. Several are made solely with fabrics from Africa. A Guatemalan-inspired quilt has a handmade doll in the center. One quilt is made from aboriginal-inspired fabric.

It takes Hartshorne about five months to make a quilt, but as she said, “I quilt every day; I produce a lot.” Quilts that have been made to be displayed as wall hangings each have a slipcase on the back for a wooden dowel, making the quilt ready for hanging.

Has she made any that she just can’t part with? Hartshorne said one unusual quilt with a wolf’s head is a keeper. She’s also given eight to 10 quilts to each of her three daughters and two sons. Asked if her daughters quilt, she said, “No, they don’t have to. I supply them.”

A member of the charity-based, 144-member Valley Quilt Guild, Hartshorne made two of the 125 quilts donated to Tucson’s Ronald McDonald House at a Nov. 17 event. One quilt titled “Fast Track” was made of fabric pieces sewn together to look like a race track, and using Velcro, she attached five small race cars. “It would be ideal for a little boy to play with,” she said. The other donated quilt was titled “Navajo Traditions.” It features beadwork and depicts a young girl with a pueblo, a fence and sheep in the background.

Of the quilts Hartshorne has made for the Ronald McDonald House she says, “The colors of the quilts must cheer the children.” Her colorful donated quilts quietly provide cheer for a sick child’s soul while also providing art from the heart.

Hartshorne will have a one-woman quilt show at the West Center beginning Friday, Jan. 19, through Thursday, Feb. 8 where her colorful and spectacular quilts will be for sale and for show.

Ellen Sussman is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News.