A handmade website for an art quilt artist
Deborah Boschert
This blog series celebrates my clients — their stories, their evolution, and the meaningful work they're bringing into the world. Each post also offers a glimpse into our creative process together.
Deborah Boschert has spent thirty years as an artist and quiltmaker, building a body of work layered in fabric, paint, and stitch that has been shown in museums, quilt exhibitions, and publications around the world.
Her work is joyful, tactile, and full of tiny details, and she wanted a website that felt like that too. Working together was a pure delight.
With a new edition of her book, Art Quilt Collage, arriving this fall, the timing couldn't have been better. I asked Deborah to reflect on the process of creating her new site. Here's what she shared.
What made you feel it was time for a new website? Was there anything about your previous site that no longer reflected who you are or where your work is now?
I created my original Squarespace website on my own. It’s one of the things I love about SS – it’s fairly intuitive for the basics. It still took a lot of time, study and patience, but I did it and was really pleased with it for several years. But I knew I wasn’t maximizing its potential particularly in design and I didn’t want to put in the added time and effort that would have required to really freshen it up.
I was especially frustrated with the format of my Squarespace blog which meant that I didn’t end up writing as much as I wanted to because I was never happy with the way it looked.
You took the bones of my original website and updated everything to be so much more visually pleasing and accessible.
Your quilts bring together collage, stitching, painted fabric, hand-drawn marks and layers. Where do ideas for a new piece usually begin for you?
Lately, I’ve made several art quilt collages inspired by my photographs. Rather than trying to replicate the photo, I use it as inspiration of color, pattern, shape and composition. I love looking closely at a photograph, identifying the color combinations in the image, then going to my fabric stash to find pieces that match the palette and the vibe of the photo.
I often pull shapes from my photos and recreate them as stamps or stencils. Chairs, tree branches, street lamps and architectural elements can all be interpreted in exciting ways and incorporated into an art quilt collage.
You came into the project with a Pinterest board filled with purple and green, and those colours became an important part of the website palette. What drew you to that combination, and how do those colours connect with you and your work?
I’m not sure I could go back and pinpoint when I first began NOTICING green and purple.
But there was always a little voice in my head that said, “Behold! The green and the purple!” I think a really important part of living a creative life is noticing what you notice. I just love those two colors and I love them together. It was fun to incorporate them into the visual voice of my website.
Your work is so tactile — fabric, paint, stitching, layers and texture. How did you feel about bringing some of that handmade quality into the website through details like your own doodles and the stitched elements?
In the early planning stages for my new site, you proposed some beautiful collections of fonts and colors but something was missing. We kept looking for a font that felt like it represented me and nothing seemed quite right.
On a whim, I took a black Sharpie and wrote my name in my sketchbook. I did a few versions. Then I doodled some of the embroidery stitches I use regularly, just for fun. I took pictures of these doodles and sent you the images. Then you used Canva to do some magic to make them work as logos and graphic icons that could be sprinkled throughout the website. I love how they look.
My handwritten name along with a sprout doodle became a really great logo. I now use it on my slides during my lectures and in my workshop materials.
As people look at my artwork and scroll through my website, they’ll make those visual connections between the hand embroidery in my artwork and the graphics on the website. I love that.
What was your favorite part of putting this new site together?
It was wonderful to have a partner in working through all the details.
My website is a gallery for my artwork, but it also includes all the details about my lecture and workshop offerings. It has my bio page with details about me and it also has a history of my exhibitions and publications. It was so great to have several conversations with you about all these components. You helped me prioritize and organize. You gave me insights that I wouldn’t have considered on my own. I so appreciate how you were eager to adjust, edit and reconsider throughout the process.
With the new edition of Art Quilt Collage arriving this fall, what has changed in your own creative practice since the original book came out?
I think I’ve smoothed out some of the challenging and time consuming parts of the creative process. That comes with time and experience. I’m more confident in my choices for materials and techniques. I’ve gained skill and expertise through practice. I’ve also spent time reflecting on the process and the finished works so I can be clear about what I want to do next. This additional experience and clarity allows for more exploration and experimentation. I can balance doing the things that come easily with the things that can be challenging. Even with years and years of experience, sometimes the creative process is a slog. But building familiarity and comfort with the slog leads to exciting possibilities and growth.
You're marking two milestones at once — 30 years as an artist and a new website alongside the updated book. What does that feel like, sitting at this particular moment?
I am so grateful. My professional and creative life is full and rich. I have connected with so many people in my 30 years making quilts and art. I’m thankful for all those relationships. Everyone had an impact in helping me reach this point.
I’m also really thankful that I’m at a place in my life and career where I can make choices that honor both growth and stability. I love doing and trying new things. I also love doing the things that are familiar, predictable and safe. I love the workshops I’ve been teaching for 10 years; they continue to connect with students in exciting ways. I also love the challenge of developing new workshops and the unexpected results that always come from teaching it for the first time. I love returning to familiar motifs in my art work – chairs, houses, bowls and ladders. It’s also exhilarating to find new shapes that I can use to tell personal stories. Dynamic, big loops have made their way into my art in the past couple of years and I’m eager to continue exploring those wild lines.
It feels like I’m both slowing down and speeding up. I’m sort of shaking my head even as a type that. It’s so cool and unexpected. I’m good with it.
More about Deborah
Deborah Boschert is an artist, author, and teacher who creates art quilt collages with layers of fabric, paint, and stitch. Her work often includes personal symbols such as ladders, chairs, and bowls. She is the author of Art Quilt Collage: A Creative Journey in Fabric, Paint, and Stitch, and she lives in Lewisville, Texas.
Website: Deborah Boschert
