About the Author

Drawing on her life-long love of nature, this award-winning quilt artist says she studies nature as though she is looking through the lens of a camera, setting up possible landscape scenes in her mind for future reference. Her inspirations come from many sources including photographs, greeting cards, and photography books. Joyce incorporates many original, unique, and sometimes unorthodox surface design techniques to impart realism in her landscape quilts.

The author of Nature's Patterns: Inspirations and Techniques for Quilt Makers, Joyce became enamored with the landscape genre in 1995 after making a series of landscape watercolor quilts. Because she wanted her landscape quilts to impart realism, Joyce quickly realized she would have to "invent" a method to create landscape quilts in a non-traditional format. Through trial and error, her original methodology eventually evolved into a fun and easy process. Feeling blessed to have such a creative profession, Joyce focuses her art, writing, teaching, and lecturing on landscape quilts and volunteers throughout the quilting community. She was a founding board member and now an active volunteer of the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters, sponsors of the bi-annual regional Pacific Northwest QuiltFest exhibit in Seattle, Washington. Joyce is also an active member of the Contemporary Quilt Art Association of Seattle, Washington; the Evergreen Piecemakers Quilt Guild of Kent, Washington; the International Quilt Association; and the American Quilter's Society.

Joyce's quilts have been displayed internationally in contests and invitational exhibits, appearing in books, magazines, and on television. Many articles authored by Joyce have appeared in mainstream quilting magazines, and she has also been featured on HGTV's Simply Quilts. The Auburn Arts Commission sponsored her first solo exhibit, held in Auburn, Washington, in 2001.

A California native, Joyce has resided in Kent, Washington, since 1985, where she enjoys spending time with her husband, Donald. In additional to their two sons and a daughter-in-law, Joyce has five grown stepchildren (who affectionately call her "step-monster") and five grandchildren. In her spare time, Joyce enjoys hanging out with her "Thursday Group" quilting buddies, and traveling with her husband.

Joyce's lively sense of humor and positive attitude result in lectures and workshops that inspire, inform, and entertain quilters as she travles throughout the world. If you are interested in a booking, Joyce's web site, www.joycerbecker.com, includes up-to-date information.