Artist Profile Series: Heather Pregger

Heather Pregger
Fort Worth, Texas

1. What is sitting on the edges of your work table

Usually my cat, Boomer.  He's always interested in what I am doing.

2. If someone looked beneath the surface, what could be revealed that we might not know about you?
I like to play the tin whistle.  I don't play for anyone but myself, but I love play.

3. What occupies the space between your sewing machine and your cutting table?
A small bookshelf loaded with sewing supplies and sewing machine manuals.  On the top there is a free-standing bobbin winder.

4. What is the most exquisite moment in your artistic life?
I exhibited with eight other American quilt artists at The Oulu Museum of Art in Oulu, Finland.  The open was simply amazing.

5. Do you have daily rituals in your studio?
Not a very exciting one!  I start and finish my day by tidying. Sorting the piles of fabric and sweeping the floor.  I think best in a clean space.

6. Reflecting on the quilts that you have made, which one stands out to you?
My personal favorite is "The Marsh Near First Encounter Beach:  Tuning Fork #29."  I am entranced by the Salt Marshes of Cape Cod.  I love their colors, lines and texture.  I was thrilled to be able to recreate a marsh in fabric.

7. What do you have an affinity for in your work?
I love to piece things together.  I love to figure out how to make my vision reality.

8. What kinds of patterns do you use in your work to create interest and texture?
I love to combine small pieced units with large pieced units.  I think it gives the work texture and rhythm.

9. What personal iconography is identifiable to you exclusively in your work?
I have made fifty-four quilts using a unit shaped somewhat like a musical tuning fork.  I love the way I can shrink them, stretch them and interlock them. 

10. What was your inspiration for the Best of Dinner at Eight?

In 2017 we spent a week on Andros Island, a large but sparsely populated island in the Bahamas.  Our house was on a small sandy peninsula and very isolated.  The bay on either side of us was the most amazing combination of blues, greens, creams and red violets.  I tried to recreate that water in "Water Music: Tuning Fork #54."