BIOGRAPHY: April Sproule

While growing up in a small town in northern California, I was able to spend a great deal of time with my grandmothers. From the time I was very young, they schooled me in the areas of sewing, quilting, embroidery, knitting, and crochet. Pride in fine workmanship was always stressed.

Whenever weather permitted, my time was spent traversing the local countryside on horseback with my friends. In an area renowned for it’s natural beauty, and an abundance of abandoned logging roads and mountain trails, I became an avid explorer. The exhilaration of discovery would later manifest itself in my surface design work, as I am always willing to experiment and pioneer new techniques.

My technical skills were honed at the San Francisco School of Fashion Design in the early seventies. I worked for many years in the fashion industry and manufacturing, primarily in the areas of design and new product development.

I returned to California in 1986, after living in Canada for several years, where I reside with my husband and young son.

For twenty years my artistic medium was wearable art, but my interest in quilting was renewed in 1990. I have been fortunate enough to study with some very talented people since then, a few of whom are listed below.

Kitty Pippen
Jean Ray Laury
Judy Mathieson
Rosemary Eichorn
Velda Newman
Valerie Walker (Shibori)
Ana Lisa Hedstrom (Shibori)
Lolli Jacobsen (Surface Design)
Natasha Foucault (Silk Painting)
Suzanne Punch (Silk Painting)