Ann Miller Titus
Ann Miller Titus has been stitching since she was a little girl, when her grandmother gave her a printed cross stitch sampler to embroider. In the mid 1980’s, she began making wall quilts. While each consisted of three layers hand stitched together, they differed significantly from traditional quilt designs. Nearly twenty years later, Titus began to experiment with a wide variety of surface design techniques to alter textiles, still honoring her quilt making roots by continuing to stitch layers of fabric together.
Ann uses a variety of surface design and fiber techniques, including fabric discharge, disperse dyes, image transfer, and felt making. Most recently, she has returned to the making of art quilts creating highly textured surfaces with extensive machine quilting.
Fabric has proven to be a familiar and comfortable medium. So many people have stories and fond memories about women who lovingly made quilts. Ann uses this familiarity to invite the viewer into her abstract world: a place where color, shape, line and texture suggest the ongoing tension between the cyclic and the linear, between chaos and organization. She balances this tension with a bit of humor, whimsy, and nostalgia.
Ann’s work has been exhibited throughout the region and won numerous awards, including the 2008 and the 2022 City of Quincy Purchase Award at the Midsummer Arts Faire in Quincy, Illinois and the 2012 City of Quincy Arts Award, Second Place in the Fine Craft Category of the Historic Shaw Art Fair in St. Louis and First Place at the Mary S. Oakley and Lee Lindsay Area Artists Showcase at the Quincy Art Center. Ann has taught classes in fiber arts and quilt making at area arts organizations, local colleges, and businesses. Born and raised in Hamilton, Illinois, she now resides in Quincy with her husband, Jim, her daughter, Avery.