JoAnne Cramatie       

JoAnne is a founding member of the 54-40 African-American Quilters Guild of Virginia.  Her interest in quilting goes back at least   twenty-five years.  During that period of time she could find no group that spoke to her spirit.  In March of 1993, she took a workshop by the “Quilt Lady,” Mrs. Loretta Craig at the Newsome House and Cultural Center in Newport News, VA. Here, at last she found the creative spirit that she had been searching for.

Since that time her interest has been the quilts of the “Underground Railroad.”  These quilts were used as signals to denote way stations for runaway slaves. These quilts were hung on the clothesline and fencepost in plain view, which was a welcoming sight to the runaway slaves. Her Underground Railroad series of six quilts was completed in 1998.

Her spiritual path has lead to a couple of quilts that show her charkas and their alignment. JoAnne has completed a meditation quilt that is used daily to connect to God and to heal her soul. A Manala was revealed to her in a dream that has evolved into a very spiritual quilt. Prayer, meditation, and her faith assist her in the creative process of quilt making.

She has participated in a number of quilt shows and has been involved in three one-woman shows. JoAnne is constantly learning new methods of quilting by attending quilt classes, quilting retreats, and symposiums.

Her lecturing has taken her to a number of local guilds and also a guild in Winston-Salem North Carolina. She has spoken in area museums, private functions, libraries and elementary schools.  JoAnne was a workshop instructor at the Summer Institute for Educators at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.  JoAnne is also listed in the African-American Art Directory. The 54-40 African-American Quilters of Virginia was featured in Roland Freeman’s book “Communion of the Spirits”.

JoAnne is the proud grandmother of three – first in March 1999, another in August 2001 and again in December 2002. Her first grandchild has attended quilt shows and lectures with her and they often “quilt together”.  Her contribution to the continuous art of quilting is conserved through the teaching of her grandchildren. 

Her prayer to you is that you continue on your creative journey and may one day our paths cross to quilt together. It would be a blessing to share space with you.

Available for: Lectures, workshops and quilt classes. Call or e-mail for rates.

                                             
                                               Examples of my Quilting Projects