Mattea Jurin lets her fabrics do the talking—sometimes quite literally. In this conversation, she shares how a lifetime of cross-continental living, an overflowing stash, and a fearless creative spirit shaped her art quilt journey.
How did you get started sewing and quilting? What did creativity look like in your home growing up?
I grew up in a deeply creative household. My father was a naval designer, artist, and talented handyman; my mother was a skilled seamstress. She tried to teach me to sew, but our natural mother-daughter dynamics got in the way.
I only began quilting after her death, taking a beginner’s patchwork course in 2019 to use her enormous fabric stash for a “patchwork bedspread.” Ironically, that mountain of fabric has only grown since then!
Was there a moment when you realized fabric was your language?
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I immediately broke all the rules because the tons of fabric my mom left me weren’t traditional quilting cotton. Since my goal was to use her materials, I started quilting with whatever I had on hand.
In 2022, I began making and submitting art-quilts – that’s the moment I realized fabric speaks not just through color and pattern, but also with texture, luster, history, and stories. Ever since, quilting has become my lifestyle and the primary language through which I speak to the world beyond my studio.
You grew up in the U.S. and live in Italy — how did moving change your art?
I wasn’t making art when I moved to Europe at 18, so the move itself didn’t change an existing practice.
However, growing up in the U.S. fundamentally shaped who I am. It taught me to face things head-on, to persevere, and to be authentically myself without worrying about others’ opinions.
Having lived in Italy for over 50 years, I’ve acquired a European perspective I see as a form of maturity, but the fearless American part of me still comes out at just the right moments.
How has living in different countries shaped your creative voice?
I like to believe I’ve gathered the best from each experience—a perspective that comes from my fundamentally optimistic, “glass-half-full” nature. Living in different countries is incredibly enriching; it expands your worldview and fosters a deep sense of empathy for others, which inevitably feeds into my creative work.
Can you describe your studio space — what makes it feel like yours?
My studio is a large, personal space in the century-old farmhouse my husband and I renovated near Venice. It has tall, slanted dark wood ceilings with beams, but unfortunately, only small windows, so natural light is scarce.
The room is filled with bookshelves and antique chests for fabric storage, and I work on two repurposed wooden kitchen tables—one for my machine and one for cutting and designing. My threads are arranged in two wooden mini-shelves my father made for my teenage miniature perfume collection.
One large wall features a giant replica of an 1811 map of my town, Treviso, while the opposite wall is my design wall. I use the design wall for hanging and contemplating pieces during the creative process, though I prefer to do the actual design and composition work on my tables.
Your work often uses upcycled fabrics — is there a story you follow when you reuse cloth?
Yes, 99% of my materials are upcycled, and I use fabrics of any composition. One of my favorite moments is “auditioning” fabrics to find the right ones for a project. Once I find them, they often take the lead, making me change course. I like to think the stories emerge from the fabrics themselves, for example:
·- In “The Ocean we crossed, the shores we called home,” which tells the story of my family putting down roots on both sides of the Atlantic, I used a wholecloth piece of silk my mother brought from Italy to the U.S. over 70 years ago, which we then brought back to Europe. The fabric itself wanted to become that quilt about my family’s legacy.
·- The multi-textural swatches in “Life’s Textures” led me to realize – half-way through – that the quilt was depicting the story of a lifetime: from the white of birth and innocence, through all life’s colorful stages and experiences, to the black of termination—including softness, hardships, straight lines of intention, and crooked paths of experience.
·- While creating the abstract piece “Newspaper Confession,” I partially cut a triangle from one of the shapes and folded it down. Suddenly, I saw a figure kneeling, and a memory from my childhood was unlocked.
How do you choose the scraps and fabrics you keep? What makes a piece worth saving?
The formal answer is: I’m drawn to out-of-the-ordinary colors and textures, but I’ll also keep pieces that strike me as interesting. I love the challenge of using fabrics I never thought possible, and I adore taking chances by going against the grain.
The honest answer is: I keep practically everything. In fact my stash is out of control – I think it has its own zip-code – and I’m starting to feel the fabric of my sanity fray!
When an idea arrives, do you sketch it first or jump right into the fabric?
I jot down ideas and inspirations as they come, even in the middle of the night! They are usually just words or very simple sketches—mere reminders.
When starting a project, I might do a rough sketch (and I mean really rough—I can’t draw) to decide how to begin or which technique to use. But I usually end up changing everything as the piece comes together.
As I said, the fabric and the evolving quilt take over, guided by my head, heart, and hands. In the end, I’m just the quilt’s willing assistant.
How much planning do you keep and how much do you leave to chance?
My quilts have never finished as planned, so I’ve learned to embrace the unknown.
I plan the overall theme, narrative, title, and the general direction I want to follow. But from there, I improvise, change, study, and think my way through. I often photograph the piece in progress because seeing it in picture form offers a fresh perspective. I’d say it’s roughly about a 50% chance.
When a piece isn’t working, how do you find your way through?
Oh, that’s my favorite moment! When a piece resists, that’s when the magic happens.
It becomes a pull-and-tug between me and the quilt. We both refuse to give up until that darn mass of materials finally talks to me – I’ll give it one last chance to be interesting before threatening to turn it into a pot holder!
What does “finished” feel like to you? How do you know a work is done?
A quilt is finished when it’s no longer just an assembly of fabrics, but a B.O.L.D. H.E.A.R.T.— a Boundary-breaking Object of Legacy & Design that is also an Heirloom Expressing Artistic Resilience & Truth. That’s the moment the quilt and I agree that its true nature has emerged. It’s a high bar for us both, but that’s when it’s truly done.
Your work tells stories — how do you choose what to tell and what to leave out?
Yes, each piece tells a story, sometimes more than one. I am the guide through which those stories emerge.
What continues to surprise me is the number of layers—meanings, symbols, and narratives—that can come out of a single work. I realized this fully during my recent solo exhibits, when explaining my works to visitors took so long because each piece had multiple facets.
What do I leave out? Nothing. When I tell a story, it’s all or nothing.
Looking back, how has your work changed since you first began?
I began by making utilitarian quilts, like most quilters.
Now, I create wall quilts that are juried into exhibits, which makes me proud and satisfied with my journey. I’ve begun to take myself seriously as an artist.
Making contemporary art quilts has made me become more daring and experimental. I truly enjoy the unique results I can achieve by following my whimsy!
Was there a turning point when you felt your voice come through strongly?
As the saying goes, “Nothing greases the wheels of ambition like success.”
When my works started being accepted into juried shows, SAQA Global and Virtual Exhibits, and ultimately Quilt National, I realized my voice was developing.
I don’t have one particular style, but my way of mixing patchwork techniques, materials, quilting, and storytelling seems to come across as a personal signature.
One especially validating moment was during the 2025 SAQA Benefit Auction when my donated piece was purchased on the first day, Diamond Day, by the President of SAQA and her partner. What joy!
Tell us about your solo show CONTINUUM at the Carrefour / European Patchwork show, September 2025. How did you select the pieces to include?
It was an absolutely exciting, exhilarating, and unique experience! I had long dreamed of how I’d ideally showcase my work one day, and when the opportunity arose, it was a matter of bringing that vision to life—a process that took almost a year. I wanted to demonstrate that an artist doesn’t need a single, consistent body of work but can communicate feelings and ideas through an existing and varied collection.
The Carrefour surprised me with an incredibly large, bright, and spacious area, more than I had hoped for, so I ended up including many unplanned pieces—50 works in total!
Between and around the quilts, I created an installation reminiscent of a crime scene wall, hanging over 100 notes, quotes, pictures, maps, samples, and connecting strings. This drew viewers into my world, as if they were in my studio, and helped them understand the inspirations and messages behind the works.
The connections showed how pieces were linked and how the same fabrics could change meaning in different quilts. This innovative approach to display was much appreciated by the public, which, in this 30th anniversary edition, numbered 17,000 visitors!
Preparing for a solo show, what’s different from entering group exhibitions?
Being juried into group exhibits brings much satisfaction, but I’ve also learned that sometimes your quilt, although wonderful on its own, just doesn’t fit in with the curator’s idea for the exhibit.
The only downside of a solo show is that all the preparation falls on your shoulders, which drains a tremendous amount of energy. The positive aspects, however, are numerous; you have complete creative freedom, you decide the pieces to show – the Carrefour artistic director gave me carte blanche, and I took full advantage.
Ultimately, the satisfaction is all yours to enjoy… during the show, people would ask, “Which ones are your works?” and I would grin from ear to ear and say, “All of them!”
Tell me about a time you took a big creative risk. What happened?
I live by the motto, “If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.”
For the past three years, every quilt I’ve made has been a creative risk— I truly love going against the grain. Perhaps the biggest leap was with my “Cellular” series. For “Cellular Explorations” (juried into SAQA Wide Horizons IX) and its successor “Cellular Entanglement” (juried into Quilt National ’25), I ventured into entirely new territory.
I pieced upcycled polyester fabric with clear vinyl to evoke transparent microscope slides, then used my signature free-motion doodling to quilt organic cell designs, which I later colored.
The entire process was an interpretation of biotechnological breakthroughs inspired by my son’s PhD research. It was a huge departure from tradition, but the risk paid off beautifully.
What advice would you give someone just starting to quilt?
My advice is simple: just jump in. Do whatever you want. Don’t listen to the voices—whether from others or in your own head—that say you can’t or shouldn’t.
Give yourself permission to take creative leaps and to learn through doing. As a favorite quote of mine reminds us, “The foundation of science and art is the humility to learn, not the arrogance of expertise.”
Where can people see your work?
The past few years have been a wonderful whirlwind!
Until I launch my official website, the best places to follow my work are on Instagram (@teajurin) and Facebook.
My pieces are also touring internationally with several prestigious exhibitions, including Quilt National ’25, various SAQA global exhibits like “Bearing Witness”, “Abstraction: Textural Elements” and “AI: Artistic Interpretations”, SAQA Virtual (on-line) exhibits and in European Quilt Association (EQA) shows.
I’m also particularly excited that my work juried in the 2025 Carrefour Contest will be at the Dairy Barn in Ohio from June to August, and then at the National Quilt Museum from September through December 2026. And don’t miss my Quilt National ’25 Artist Talk on the Dairy Barn channel of YouTube!
I share updates on these events and my process regularly on my social media channels.
Interview posted November 2025
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