Juanita Yeager is known in the quilt and art-quilt community for her dramatic use of color and large scale compositions. Her work is diverse, ranging from realistic, to abstract. She admits that most of her designs could be accomplished on canvas with paint, but she loves working with cloth, scissors, needles and thread.
Her journey as an artist began when she was a child and found encouragement from both her mother, a few teachers and a dear friend who later became her husband. In her youth she tried her hand at many crafts. Those deem appropriate for “little girls” like sewing and knitting and crocheting, and embroidery and some not, like woodworking and modle airplanes. Her love of all things considered American craft continued through the years she was a young wife and mother of four. As her family grew and her nursing career intruded, taking away the luxury of extended periods of time she could put to her art pursuits , she did however, with the help of her late husband Phil, find some time to try her hand at many crafts including basket making, ceramics, pottery, and she revisited some of the needle arts from her past like knitting, needlepoint, crewel and crochet.
In 1983, with one child out of the house, and two in college she seriously went searching for something that felt right for her. She returned to cloth and discovered quilt making. She was hooked.
Her journey as an artist began when she was a child and found encouragement from both her mother, a few teachers and a dear friend who later became her husband. In her youth she tried her hand at many crafts. Those deem appropriate for “little girls” like sewing and knitting and crocheting, and embroidery and some not, like woodworking and modle airplanes. Her love of all things considered American craft continued through the years she was a young wife and mother of four. As her family grew and her nursing career intruded, taking away the luxury of extended periods of time she could put to her art pursuits , she did however, with the help of her late husband Phil, find some time to try her hand at many crafts including basket making, ceramics, pottery, and she revisited some of the needle arts from her past like knitting, needlepoint, crewel and crochet.
In 1983, with one child out of the house, and two in college she seriously went searching for something that felt right for her. She returned to cloth and discovered quilt making. She was hooked.
After working as a professional nurse, she retired to make quilts full time. When her last child reached adulthood, went out on his own, leaving his bedroom for her to do with what she wanted, the room became her first in home studio. She progressed seamlessly from making award winning traditional quilts to creating award winning non-traditional ones using her own designs
In addition to being an artist, she has judged and juried the works of others into many show and exhibits. She dyes her own fabrics and teaches one day and multi-session classes from her home studio or at retreats where she shares her knowledge with others with varying skill levels.
She produces an average of 10 quilt works per year in addition to accepting one or two commissions per year. Her work can be found in many private homes, offices and in public places. One of her largest commissioned quilts measures five feet wide by twelve feet long. It was competed in 2005 for the newly added main lobby of Floyd Memorial Hospital in New Albany, Indiana.
Juanita includes in her accomplishments winning the Grand Prize award for the best pieced quilt in America. That national competition was sponsored by Better Homes and Garden Books. That same award winning quilt was purchased to be a part of the permanent quilt collection of the Museum of the American Quilter, a national quilt museum located in Paducah, Kentucky.
Yeager and her art quilts have been written about and featured in many local and nationally distributed magazines, books and television broadcast, including a documentary by Kentucky Educational Television as part of the Year of the Craft Series.
Although Juanita has created works that are considered non-representational abstracts; she is best known for her graphic, abstract and large scale flowers.
Juanita says she has to have goals and she loves the challenge of creating 30 or more new works over a two year period for solo exhibits of which she averages one every two years.
From Louisville, KY via Columbia, MO, Juanita now lives in Altamonte Springs, Florida where she maintains an in home studio and from where she travels to teach.
In addition to being an artist, she has judged and juried the works of others into many show and exhibits. She dyes her own fabrics and teaches one day and multi-session classes from her home studio or at retreats where she shares her knowledge with others with varying skill levels.
She produces an average of 10 quilt works per year in addition to accepting one or two commissions per year. Her work can be found in many private homes, offices and in public places. One of her largest commissioned quilts measures five feet wide by twelve feet long. It was competed in 2005 for the newly added main lobby of Floyd Memorial Hospital in New Albany, Indiana.
Juanita includes in her accomplishments winning the Grand Prize award for the best pieced quilt in America. That national competition was sponsored by Better Homes and Garden Books. That same award winning quilt was purchased to be a part of the permanent quilt collection of the Museum of the American Quilter, a national quilt museum located in Paducah, Kentucky.
Yeager and her art quilts have been written about and featured in many local and nationally distributed magazines, books and television broadcast, including a documentary by Kentucky Educational Television as part of the Year of the Craft Series.
Although Juanita has created works that are considered non-representational abstracts; she is best known for her graphic, abstract and large scale flowers.
Juanita says she has to have goals and she loves the challenge of creating 30 or more new works over a two year period for solo exhibits of which she averages one every two years.
From Louisville, KY via Columbia, MO, Juanita now lives in Altamonte Springs, Florida where she maintains an in home studio and from where she travels to teach.
In the Fall of 2011 Juanita agreed to curator five exhibits for Bethune Cookman University for their 2012-2013 Visual Arts Calendar.
Floyd Memorial Hospital, Main Lobby,
New Albany Indiana, Commissioned, 2005.
60" x 144"
Artist hand dyed and commerical cottons
About Me
