Jeffrey Gutcheon
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Designer, originator of American Classic Line of fabric, author of Diamond Patchwork. Inducted in
1990 at the Continental Quilting Congress, Falls Church, Virginia.
Research Associate: Barbara Brackman
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Jeffrey Gutcheon has achieved distinction in three diverse areas of interest: architecture, music and
visual arts. His first quilts were “concerned with expressing light and depth in the surface of a quilt.”
He went further in viewing the four-sided grid with a diamond shape and wrote the book, Diamond
Patchwork. He taught this technique at the first Quilt National in 1979 as well as his visions of
patchwork at many other venues.
Through Gutcheon Patchwork, Inc. he introduced the American Classic Line of cotton fabrics especially
for quiltmakers. He is proud of the fact that he was among the first to make contemporary copies of
antique prints. Jeffrey learned a good deal about the fabric business and shared that information in his
column “Not For Shopkeepers Only” for Quilter’s Newsletters Magazine from 1981 to 1993. in 1990 he
published A Quilter’s Guide to Printed Fabric, which he subtitled, “Probably more than you ever wanted
to know about making cotton prints for quilters in the 1990s.”
After receiving a Bachelor of Architecture degree from MIT, he taught and also designed homes and
commercial buildings– but music has dominated his life. As a pianist he formed his own band and later
collaborated on the musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” After lengthy court proceedings, he won the right to
receive royalties from this musical work. This experience led him to inform quilters about copyrighting
quilt patterns. With his wife Paula, he continues running Gutcheon Patchworks in Washington State,
but his musical talents now take center stage.
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