Jackson Cook, owner of successful Armidale quilting business House of Jackson, has taken out the prize of Best Professional Contemporary Quilt at this year’s Quilt NSW exhibition.
Mr Cook entered a quilt of his own design entitled Evolution Gone Wild, which he describes as “a snapshot of his drawing design”. He walked away from the event with 3rd place in the Professional Applique Quilt category, as well a best overall Professional Contemporary Quilt.
The Quilt NSW annual exhibition event ran from the 15th to the 17th of September at the Grand Pavilion, Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney and once again proved to be an exceptionally popular event, drawing entrants and visitors from across NSW.
In commenting on his wins Mr Cook says, “I honestly cannot stop smiling…it was a wonderful surprise and an honour to win.”
Mr Cook has entered the exhibition for many years now and has taken out prizes at previous events but says that Evolution Gone Wild was a very unique and special piece for him.
“I wanted to create something that reflect growth & evolution, so that’s when “evolution gone wild” began. The style of evolution gone wild may seem a quite different to my previous work & what people may have assumed I did, but the art style has been something I’ve been drawing for the past 10 years but have never made into a quilt before.”
The entire process of designing and creating the quilt took Mr Cook around 6 months.
“I had envisioned a plant growing wild with flowers evolving to take on their own unique personalities & styles like people creating growing & evolving into their own unique style,” says Mr Cook.
Exhibition weekend also proved to be a family affair with Jackson’s mum entering her Turtles quilt, which is scheduled to appear in the 2024 Quilt NSW calendar. His “Nanny June” also had two quilts entered in the exhibition, entitled Wise Old Owl and Scrap Delights.
In a previous interview with the New England Times, Mr Cook has spoken about the influence his family has had on his chosen career, and passion for quilting. Mr Cook said it was “an incredibly proud son moment” to be exhibiting together as three generations of quilters at the event.
Mr Cook’s store, House of Jackson, sells a range of quilts and quilting supplies and Mr Cook himself also regularly runs a range of workshops for all levels of quilting ability. For more information about House of Jackson visit their website.
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