Janice Reimer is an award-winning quilter who designs and creates complex modern quilts influenced by her math and science background. From the names of quilts to the intricate patterns, you’ll see how her life as a structural biologist and biochemist guides her creations.
How long have you been quilting and designing? How did you get started?
Quilts have always been part of my life, but this is the thing – despite being surrounded by quilters my whole life, I never had any interest in trying quilting. I was big into crochet and embroidery; there is something satisfying about the slow nature of these crafts and I enjoyed the handwork component of them.
After I finished my PhD in 2018, I was determined to set healthy work/life boundaries in my postdoc and started looking for a new hobby. I came across a whole cloth hand quilting kit and rationalized it was basically embroidery, just on a larger scale. Before I knew it, I was texting my mom all these sewing questions, and once I finished, she suggested that I check out English paper piecing (EPP), knowing it was the hand sewing component that had me hooked. One million stitches and a finished EPP quilt later, I was sewing machine shopping and haven’t looked back.
I designed my first couple of quilts myself; they weren’t anything complicated, just a bunch of HSTs (half-square triangles) sewn together. But then I started pattern testing to build my sewing skillset and forgot somewhere along the way that I had the ability to design my own quilts. I was chatting with a quilt friend, Astrid @applesandbeavers, about how cool it would be to add a dragon to a quilt pattern that I was working on. She encouraged me to try making one myself and Boris the Dragon came out of that conversation. It took a bit more time before I found my confidence to keep designing, but once I did, it became one of my favourite parts of the quilting process.
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When was the first time that you remember realizing that you are a creative person?
I’m not sure I’ve ever considered myself to be a creative person. I’m a person who happens to do creative things, but it’s never been a characteristic that I would use to describe myself. So maybe that moment is pending for me.
Math and science. How do they influence your work
I come from a very nerdy family, like my aunt taught me algebra on a napkin at a Christmas family gathering, and when I started quilting, my dad put forth the challenge to turn Ammann-Beenker tiling into a quilt.
Every couple months, I would come back to this challenge and hit a wall, but eventually I cracked it and made what is now the Aperiodic quilt. That design experience showed me that a quilt is essentially a beautiful equation that needs to be broken down into its separate components, and then put back together again following an order of operations.
Science has always been part of who I am and I’ve incorporated bits of my scientific life into each quilt, whether it be through the analytical way I approach how to turn a conceptual design into a physical quilted entity or using scientific lexicon for naming my patterns.
What do you do differently? What is your signature that makes your work stand out as yours?
I think I’m still figuring that out as I go. I consider myself a young designer and when I’ve only designed six or so quilts, it’s still too early to have developed a ‘signature.’ Every quilt is a new opportunity to explore and I feel that if I were to consciously try to develop a signature it would bind me to both mental and creative restraints on myself that I don’t want.
When it comes to creating, are you more of a planner or an improviser?
100% a planner. I work with solids because my brain can’t handle the chaos that is printed fabric.
That being said – I like using smaller projects as a way of stretching my brain and learning to let go. I’ll have an idea, a vague idea of how to execute it, and just start sewing. It activates a part of my brain that thrives on troubleshooting and exploring the unknown. Those projects are rewarding in a different way because I have no idea what they will look like in the end.
How do you manage your creative time? Do you schedule start and stop times? Or work only when inspired?
It depends on what I’m doing. A lot of sewing is mindless – if my brain is exhausted after a day of work, I can still sew a hundred HSTs. But if I’m trying to design a new quilt pattern, I need to be in the right headspace for that.
Are you a “finisher”? How many UFOs do you think you have?
I get anxious and uninspired if I have too many UFOs (UnFinished Objects) going. I currently have one quilt that needs quilting, one quilt that is actively being designed, and one quilt that is part of a SAL (Sew A-Long) I’m doing with my mom. My brain thrives in a clean space and so if there are lots of looming projects, it limits my motivation and mental capacity to create.
Do you have a dedicated space for creating? If so, what does it look like?
Yes! My apartment has a tiny room that doubles as a home office and sewing space. I was a dining room table quilter for years, and so this still feels luxurious to me to have a dedicated space.
How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?
Not often – maybe every four months? Is that often? I really don’t like working on more than one big project at a time, but sometimes I’ll throw in small palette cleanser projects – the kind that you can start and finish in a weekend.
Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your works? How does a new work come about?
Anechoic was inspired by the incredible work that Anna Kruhelska has done using paper folding. The shapes and textures that she is able to create using paper is truly mesmerizing. I was in a bit of a sewing funk at the time and just wanted to play. I’m usually drawn to earthy tones, but for this, I kept coming back to bold colours and finally gave up fighting my intuition and ran with it.
I don’t have a ‘typical’ process for how new designs comes about. Usually there is a seed or prompt of some sort (i.e. skinny lines, an interesting shape, etc) and it grows from there. There are a lot of failed doodle sessions and self doubt is always lurking – I usually wonder if my latest quilt design will be my last. Designing quilts uses a part of my brain that doesn’t get used every day, and so just like any unused muscle, it needs warming up before it can flex and perform.
Which part of the design process is your favourite? Which part is a challenge for you?
Favourite part is hands down when a design ‘clicks.’ I use Illustrator to doodle around and those doodles slowly morph into a final design. I often change elements around, tweak and scale – but there’s a moment where it all slides into place and I know it’s done. It’s energizing and exciting!
How is your work different than it was in the beginning? How is it the same?
It’s more complicated – there are a lot of moving parts that come together. I also have a better understanding of colour now, and that’s helped choose more cohesive colour palettes.
Do you feel that you chose your “passion,” or did it choose you?
It was a slow evolution.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
“Take a seam ripper to your imposter syndrome and rip it wide open.” – my husband after I won the Award of Excellence at Quiltcon 2024
What do you do to keep yourself motivated and interested in your work?
I work on giving myself space and permission to not be creative. I often go through periods where I don’t want to sew or I’m not feeling inspired to design, and that’s okay! I think that’s my brain’s way of telling me that something is out of balance in my life, and maybe there’s something more important to focus on than sewing. That’s also when smaller projects are of big value to me – sometimes you need that little hit of dopamine that you get from a finished project.
What is on your “someday” creative wish list?
I’m a structural biologist and biochemist, and so my work life revolves around understanding how proteins function at the atomic level.
Proteins are essentially gigantic chains of molecules that look very much like tangled balls of yarn, except unlike those nests of knots and frustration, the way that proteins are specifically knotted together gives them biological relevance and function. I’ve always wanted to turn one of my favourite proteins into a quilt, but haven’t figured out how to capture the beauty of a 3D molecule into the 2D constraints of a quilt yet.
Where can people see your work?
On instagram @prairieandocean or my website
Interview posted April 2024
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