BILL STEARMAN
Bill Stearman didn’t come to quiltmaking by choice. In 2013, while looking for an alternative to mind numbing pain medication after a serious leg injury, someone suggested that he try making a quilt. It sounded strange but he gave it a try – and discovered that when he sewed he didn’t feel pain. Over three hundred quilts later, he’s still at it.
Stearman describes himself as self-taught, although in reality sought out every master quilter whose work he admired. Then, he travelled across North America and Australia to learn. The friendships developed through this process continue to inspire and motivate. He has lectured with his well-known “BackPack Show” across Canada, and now online around the world. Recently Bill retired as an in-class instructor at the Halliburton School of Art and Design. His quilts have been juried into 50+ shows across North America, including those in Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Chicago, Colorado, Virginia, Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa.
In 2021, Bill’s life and work underwent a dramatic shift – when he was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. Over seven months he went from diagnosis to an intense battery of tests and cancer treatments, to a miraculous surgery where he received a new liver from his daughter, to a prognosis increased by twenty years. This experience dramatically changed Bill’s outlook on life. He works with a renewed intensity driven by a desire to change the world. To make it a better place. And to speak his truth – even if his voice shakes.
Stearman’s work frequently deals with topics not normally associated with quilts. Sexual abuse, depression, illness, racism, sexuality and gender all have been subjects in Bill’s bold, striking, and often emotional creations.
Bill Stearman lives and makes quilts in Picton, Ontario.
Quilting designed by Bill Stearman and executed by Deanna Gaudaur. www.quintestudios.com
All quilt photography by Mike Gaudaur. www.quintestudios.com
