Quilting, painting come together for artist

Patsy Heacox was an inherent artist who painted landscapes 40 years ago but then put her brushes on the back burner to raise a family and return to work.

Her talents were reawakened in 1997, when she took up quilting.

Enjoyable and satisfying as quilting was, her skills and talents took a rewarding turn in 2007 when she discovered blending portraits and quilting at a class at the Houston Quilt Show.

“I was so excited. I couldn’t sleep, I just wanted to talk about this all day long,” Heacox said.

“I amended things to my way of doing things and did a lot of research on Native Americans... I was raised in Minnesota, and even though I had no contact with the Ojibways I was always interested in them.”

Heacox’s interest in Native Americans is seen in several of her quilts. One is a Cheyenne named “Wolf Robe,” one is a Navajo Hoop Dancer, another is a Hopi and one is a Tohono O’Odham native.

Heacox jokes about a former boss calling her a perfectionist, but that’s what sets her quilts apart.

Though many quilters add embellishments such as beads and buttons to their work, more quilters are painting on quilts these days, she said.

The process of creating a portrait on a quilt involves several steps and is time-consuming, but it isn’t anything Heacox minds.

Once she has decided on a subject she’ll search for appropriate photos to see which features stand out best in each. Creating a drawing and then enlarging it, Heacox copies the drawing on to clear plastic with a marker.

“I’ll flip the drawing over onto bonding material... the process is a series of patterns. I use Japanese pigmented inks and will heat-set it and appliqu/ it. It looks like a photo transfer, but it’s not,” she said.

The end results look like museum-quality art. These are not quilts to bundle up in on a chilly night; they’re works of art to hang, display and admire.

Heacox’s next quilting challenge is capturing a black and white photo of a neighbor, who, as a 4- or 5-year old in Germany, is dressed in a long white apron and bakers cap telling passerby to come buy her daddy’s baked goodies.

This will be another winner to adorn the walls of the Heacox home.

After that she plans to go through travel photos when she and her husband visited Russia, the Baltics, England and Scotland and pick out some special scenes to recreate on a quilt.

Always interested in a challenge and learning something new, Heacox belongs to four quilting groups. One is charitable, one does art quilting and two have special programs and classes.

She also teaches her techniques locally. To contact Heacox, call 648-7136.

Contact Green Valley freelance reporter Ellen Sussman at ellen2414@cox.net.