Simone Steuxner’s creative life is shaped by wild landscapes, soft northern light, and a deep love for both quilting and photography. In this interview, she shares how growing up in the Austrian Alps, moving to remote northern Sweden, and learning everything “the hard way” helped her find her artistic voice. Her stories are honest, vivid, and full of the magic she finds in nature every day.
What did creativity look like in your home growing up?
I grew up in Tyrol, Austria, in a mountain village. There was creativity and talent in my family when I grew up, but nothing was supported or considered important. It was more laughed at with the mindset of the starving artist kind.
My maternal grandmother did knit and sew. My father did wood crafting, and my mother knitted and did silk painting for a short time. None took the time or had the patience to teach things.
The only thing that counted was work, and mistakes were not allowed. Creativity was more something that happened in my mind at that time, and I used it as an escape. I would write books in my head, and at the age of 23- 26, I published two novels.
When did quilts and a camera first enter your life?
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I had a brief encounter with sewing in school at age 14, when we had home economics and learned to mend and sew cloths.
I would say my camera came first. I bought an analog camera in 1995 and loved it. I worked at a Dentist, and later as a massage therapist in my own business. All my spare time and all my holidays, I took my camera and travelled the area and the world with it. I sure came around.
In 2010, I nearly died from an autoimmune disease, and none of my clothes fit anymore. That´s when I decided to buy a sewing machine. It was kind of my therapy to get back to life.
What started with sewing clothes soon became quilts and patchwork. A friend of mine got pregnant, and I decided to sew a baby quilt for her. I mean, how hard can it be? Right… ha ha.
It went well and she liked it very much. My camera had taken a backstage, and the world had already changed to digital at this point. So, I took a break from photography and focused more on sewing, because I couldn´t afford a new digital camera.
I am self-taught in everything that interests me.
In 2013 me, my partner and our sled dogs, emigrated to northern Sweden to a little village with only 8 people living there, including us. And that´s when my journey in quilting and photography really took off, and that´s also the point when I would say there I knew “that´s it!”.
How does living in northern Sweden shape the way you see color, texture and light?
The light in northern Sweden is different because how far north we are, though we are not above the polar circle where I would have loved to live. It´s the long summer nights with the soft warm light of a never setting sun that touches everything and makes everything more intense but also more soft in tone.
Or the magic of the first warm spring morning, and the fog is rising above the still cold lake, everything sparkles. And then I am a winter person who loves the cold and the snow.
And in winter, we only have about 4-5 hours of daylight, and everything is in kind of a pastel light most of the time. The nights are lit up by northern lights or the stars, and I love taking pictures and just being out in the open, snow, and cold.
Even the foggy, mystic Gray on Gray month of November can give inspiration. Living so remotely in the outback makes you take notice of the details, and it forces you to live in the now. Mistakes can be deadly; you’d better pay attention to your surroundings and the things in front of you.
It´s not only the photographer’s eye that sees the texture in the snow or ice, the different light during the year, or the intense colors of nature, or the northern lights.
Sometimes it’s also the sound of nature that influences me. Like the sound of the growing ice on the lake, for example, reminds me of whale songs, and gives me a range of different blues. Kind of Synesthesia.
As a quilter, I often look for great compositions in my garden or in the forest. I think what sticks out most to me is that not having so many distractions – like you have in a city, with noise or things you can do – it makes you see and appreciate the things around you more. It is in the absolute silence that I get the best inspiration of it all.
What natural patterns speak to you most?
I love symmetry and order.
My life has always been too chaotic in many ways. I seek and find peace and balance in natural patterns of symmetry and order. It mirrors clearly in my quilts and also in my pictures. Like water smoothed pebbles, moss that forms circles on stones, the symmetry in dragonfly wings or in flowers, windswept snow, or the pattern of the ice when the lake freezes over, to just give a few examples.
How does the rhythm of the seasons affect your creative flow?
Well, during spring and summer, I am kind of creative in my garden. We have a farm, and I grow my own vegetables and herbs. Or I am out in the forest for picking berries. There is less time for sewing because the focus lies on the garden and all the work that is waiting for me after a long winter. I do take my camera with me, though.
My garden is a precious spot for insects and animal life, and it gives me great opportunities for macro photography without having to go very far.
As for sewing, autumn and winter are my times. Sometimes I write down ideas I have during spring and summer and revisit them in autumn. If it is a rainy summer, then I count myself lucky, because that gives me some time in the sewing room.
What inspires you more: the tiny details or the big, sweeping views?
That´s a tricky question.
It´s kind of both, because the big sweeping views often give inspiration for the backgrounds and the colors.
The tiny details are the ones that make my quilts come to life. Like in quilting, or with the beads and embellishments. I need the big sweeping views to breathe in and get the inspiration as a whole, and then I need the small details to ground the idea. Hope that makes sense.
How do your photographs influence your quilt designs?
Well, I would say it´s mostly photographs of flowers and the color combos in my garden that influence my quilt designs.
As you will find in almost every quilt of mine, some dragonflies, butterflies, flowers, and feathers. And very often, there is influence from my photographs in the free-motion quilting, small designs found in nature.
Do textures you find in nature show up in your stitch work?
Yes, they do! It´s often the background fillers in free-motion quilting. Lately, you can also find these textures inspired by nature in the hand embroidery or embellishments I do on my quilts.
I absolutely love it, and it is really hard to stop sometimes.
What have quilts taught you that helps you as a photographer?
Well, as I mentioned I am self-taught with nearly everything and quilting has taught me that it´s okay to make mistakes and to learn from them.
Quilting has taught me patience and that things need their time. Perseverance for sure. That frustration is part of the game, and that sometimes tomorrow is a better day. Details matter!
One very important thing quilts taught me is to create for me, myself, and not for others’ liking. With that, I can reach goals even higher than I could have imagined.
All that helps and is needed also in photography. Because a lot of times you come home with nothing but mosquito bites, or in winter, half frozen.
It takes perseverance and patience to stay out there, stay still, wait, and it is never granted that something will show up.
But there will come the point, just when you want to quit and go home, that nature presents itself with the most magical experience it has to offer. An animal that shows up, the fog lifting just enough to let the sun get through, and a swan pair flying in right on spot. The strongest Auroras exploding right above me… quilting and photography have a lot in common for me.
Describe your creative space.
My creative space for quilting is a 4x4m room in the main house that holds all my treasures, tools, fabric and machines. It´s where I create my quilt tops and later finish them.
My partner has built me a little cabin with 25 square meters of space so I can have floor space to block and square the quilts up. But also for hanging some of them and a larger design wall, so I wouldn’t have to use the kitchen floor for hours.
It was also thought to hold classes there, but that didn’t work out as planned, because people think it is too far away. They travel all over the world, but not to the little village in the woods. It´s kind of funny.
I also use it as a photo studio to photograph my show quilts. I absolutely love both of my spaces.
What are the “must-have” tools you reach for every single day – both for quilting and for photography?
Oh that´s another tricky question, love it!
Besides the normal everyday tools, I have a very, very favourite tool. If the house were to burn and I could only rescue one tool, it would be that. And the tool is the compass ruler from Robin Ruth design. A ruler you can create different compasses with easy strip piecing. That´s just like magic, and my quilt life evolved so much thanks to this ruler. I may not use it every day, but I use it very often.
As for photography, clearly the camera, but more so my favourite lens for wildlife photography. The lens rarely leaves the camera body and is always ready to go. I shoot with the OM1 mkii and the m.zuiko 150-400mm pro from OMsystem. Backup camera is a Canon R3 and the EF300mm f4.
Do you keep a sketchbook or idea journal for both mediums?
No, I don’t. Simply because I can’t draw.
All my ideas are entirely in my mind. I am the visual type for learning and memory, and my brain has a hard time forgetting things. Which I take as an advantage.
I very rarely – sometimes write down a note for an idea, but that´s more like “a red/purple quilt” and that´s it. Enough to give me a picture-memory. My quilts start mostly out by a “vision” or a picture in my head of the finished quilt.
To create those quilts, I use different tools for drawing/ making the patterns. No computer, though. It´s more like the quilt talks to me about what it wants. Some are slower and more silent in communication, and some just can´t shut up with ideas. I always have a blast and love it very much!
What part of the creative process feels the most natural to you? What part challenges you the most?
I am a very organized quilter and when I start a new quilt project I start it with a plan. I prepare the different steps so the mountain doesn´t look so big.
I love picking the colors and fabrics, and I absolutely love to go overboard with the finishing touches on the quilt. Like binding and embellishment.
The challenging part is always somewhere in the middle when I start doubting everything and myself. My brain starts spinning with a thousand ideas how I could do things differently. I call this part the part where I say, “I am going to burn it all up,” and my partner calls this part, “now she is soon finished “part.
We then have a good laugh and go sit down for a cup of coffee. Coffee makes everything better and “go round” again.
What have you learned about yourself through your art?
Actually, a lot. To not beat myself up too much when I make mistakes. So called mistakes often turn into really cool ideas and design ideas.
Some form of self-love and self-esteem. How creative I really am and how good I am at solving problems and finding solutions. That I can reach goals I didn´t dare to dream of, and that I am good enough as I am.
That it is okay and enough, if only I believe in myself and my dreams.
What does being a maker mean to you?
It means a lot to me. Being able to create and live my creativity has changed my world.
Trying out new things and learning new things lets you grow so much, also as a person. For some years, I also taught quilting lessons, which was fun.
I like to inspire people to try new things. To inspire the people also to grow in their mindset from “I can´t do it” to “wow, I did it, I can do this!”.
As with photography, it is my absolute passion to wake people up to the beauty of nature. Because what you know and love, you protect.
Conservation photography is the passion of my heart and a goal in life. Changing the world one picture at a time.
Where can people see your work?
For the quilts: I show them at Quilt shows in the USA or in UK. But you can also see them on my Facebook page Nissedesign. There, I show pictures and post some progress pictures and sneak peeks.
For my pictures, I have been featured in magazines and calendars. You can also follow me on Instagram or Facebook, search for: Simone Steuxner Photography
Interview posted November 2025
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