About Janet: Hand-dyed fabrics by Janet Jo Smith, quilt artist from Morrison, Colorado

I have always enjoyed needlework. As a child, my mother gave me tea towels to embroider, with little kittens in large hats. I still have one of those tea towels, with its enormous stitches, puckered where I pulled the thread up too tightly. I got better.

In 1975, I found muslin quilt blocks preprinted with cross-stitch designs in the craft section of a five and dime in rural Kansas. I bought three sets of 12 blocks each, and happily began embroidering. Once they were complete, I realized that I had no idea how to make a quilt. I had made clothing for my children and me; I had made curtains; but no quilts. So I did what I always do, I looked for a book. Now in 1975, we didn't have all of the colorful, accurate, easy-to-follow volumes that are widely available now. I felt fortunate to find Margaret Ickes The Standard Book of Quilt Making and Collecting (Dover Publications Inc., 1949). If you have the opportunity, look through it. It will make you appreciate how quilting times have changed.

But with this book and the help of my Aunt Louise Chamberlain, I marked and layered the quilt in a homemade frame ofone-by-twos and C-clamps held up by the tall backs of the dining room chairs. Mom and Aunt Louise stayed with me for a weekend, getting me started with my first quilting. Many months later, it was finished. I bound the edges the way my grandmother did her quilts, by folding the extra lining fabric around to the top of the quilt and whipstitching it in place.

Almost thirty years later, I have evolved through art quilting, served on committees and governing boards of quilt guilds, and designed quilts for patterns. I even had my own one-woman show in Berkeley, California. Eventually, I became an editor for Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, pattern editor for Quilt It for Christmas, Quilt It for Kids, and Quilt It for Keepsakes, and managing editor for Quilt It A Nine-Patch Favorite.

This website, however, is about my own business-DyeSmithy. Since 1990,I have been dyeing cotton fabric for quilts. I found that I enjoyed that as much as I did making quilts, which is a lot. And, I found that I had made so much hand-dyed fabric that I needed to sell some of it so I could afford to dye some more. So, I got a booth at our Colorado Quilting Council's annual Quilt-a-Fair, and people bought my fabric! I've been at that event every year since but one. And my inventory grows each year. I've expanded to silk scarves, socks, shirts, and note cards decorated with textiles and stitching. I'm still loving it, and this year I began offering classes at my home for those who want to learn gradation dyeing, tie-dyeing, shibori, and dye painting. I enjoy the classes almost as much as the dyeing.

In 1981, I received my law degree from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. I practiced civil trial law for a number of years. I now present workshops about copyright law as it relates to visual artisits. I have great fun sharing this information in lectures and workshops. So that’s about it about Janet. I have learned that I am a quiltmaker. That isn't just what I do, it is who I am. My career, leisure time, friends, and energy are devoted to this thing I love. I'm a very lucky person.