Castilleja Cotton has been in business since 1993. We have created many one of a kind designs for our quilt patterns and fabric art. We produce quilt patterns and fabric art (small wall quilts), larger wall quilts and other quilted items. We sell our quilt patterns to quilt shops and our small quilts to selected gift stores.
Since 1976, Folkwear has offered unique sewing patterns based on ethnic costume and vintage fashion. Each multi-size pattern includes full-size pattern pieces ready to trace or cut out; easy-sew and special construction techniques clearly explained and illustrated; historical lore that sets the garment in its own time and place; and instructions for traditional embellishment.
-Kate Matthews
Mission: We believe that ethnic and historical garments have a lot to offer in the way of inspiration, imagination, and design details, as well as aesthetic and functional beauty. When you combine historic or ethnic styles with modern materials and innovative fabrication, the resulting garments become unique expressions of the maker's vision. Folkwear is proud to contribute one element to each maker's creative process.
Location: Asheville, North Carolina, USA Online shops: Folkwear patterns can be found at www.folkwear.com. The Dealer Locations page of our web site links to the web sites of Folkwear dealers around the world. Languages spoken: English
Tags: costume, ethnic dress, historical clothing, central asian, japanese, victorian, edwardian, cultural clothing, peasant dress, fisherman's pants, clothing for men
I have exhibited my wall art and my wearable art extensively in the US and abroad. I was invited to exhibit my work at the 2009 Florence Biennale and my quilts have also been exhibited in Taiwan and in Hungary as a result of an artist's residency I was chosen for in 2005. Three of my landscape quilts were purchased by New Mexico Arts for Art in Public Places and my work is in private collections in the US and Europe. My quilts have been published in magazines, books, and exhibition catalogs and I won a Niche Award in 2008 and was chosen as Artist of the Month by the Artist's Magazine in 2003. Two of my quilts are in the online collection of the Library of Congress.
-Patricia Gould
Artist's statement: With a BA in Fine Arts/Art History, and sewing since the age of eight, it’s no surprise that I chose fiber art as my passion in life. A true fabric addict, many different types of fabrics find their way into my quilts and wearable art and I never met a color I didn’t like. Travel was a very important part of my upbringing and my family visited almost all the National Parks in the US and Canada before I was out of school which gave me a deep appreciation for our precious Mother Earth and her creatures. Since 1993, I have been making landscape art quilts, drawing inspiration from trips to China, East Africa, Russia, Antarctica, and extensive travel throughout North America and Europe.
I’m drawn to a few subjects in nature that I find perpetually intriguing by themselves and my voice is whispering a tribute to the incredible beauty in both the subtle and violent forces of nature, only touched by the hand of humans on rare occasions. I’m obsessively drawn to trees, rocks, all forms of water, and animals; I portray these subjects as if they were asking to me to reveal their messages to the world. My fiber pieces are dramatic portraits of Earth and I hope to draw the viewers into these scenes to share the exhilaration I feel and to cherish the wonders of the place we call home.
We are ‘our’ journey…
I take great joy in the process of telling visual stories through my quilt art and the transformation of fabric through surface manipulation and embellishment.
I had spent 20 years bringing ATM/POS networking and products to life, and I find it amazing now that I get to share my creative spirit and joy as a quilt artist, author, teacher, lecturer full-time. It has truly been exciting path I have followed since leaving my corporate job in 2003. A path that has let me share my method of quilt top construction, (Fast-Piece Appliqué™) through my first book Dream Landscapes: Artful Quilts with Fast-Piece Appliqué and now brings me even more fun opportunities as my second book, Exploring Embellishments: More Artful Quilts with Fast-Piece Appliqué, is due out in June 2010.
In my earlier Dream Landscapes I introduced the Fast-Piece Appliqué construction method that makes curves and circles easy to sew—opening a world of design possibilities. It set me free from squares and blocks and leaves me lots of time for my favorite activity of stitching and embellishment.
I travel and provide a line-up of related workshops and lectures, and I love to teach Fast-Piece Appliqué™, and designing the world with shapes along with many, many ‘how to’s on using embellishments of all types and using wonderful materials to create surface design and one-of-a-kind embellishments.
I really enjoy that in my workshops I get to help each student find their individual voice by providing possibilities. I do this by teaching fun ways to add color, texture and dimension to fabric and quilts.
My quilt art journey has taken me on twists and turns I had little expected, like appearing on Simply Quilts, or as in June 2009, I appeared on The Quilt Show, with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. Just the other day I was filmed for an episode of Quilts Out Loud! Seeing my work and words in print on websites and blogs and on the pages of personally revered magazines like Quilting Arts, American Quilter’s Society, Quilter’s Home, and Quilter’s Newsletter magazines is really wild. But, best of all I take great pleasure in sharing my quilt art in regional, national and international exhibits, galleries and museums.
In 2009 I had two solo exhibits and a traveling exhibit, Back-Road Journeys: Quilts by Rose Hughes. My personal exhibition journey continues with a full schedule in 2010 and I have quilt art scheduled in exhibits with Studio Art Quilt Association, Quilts on the Wall: Fiber Artists and other group and solo events.
Artist's statement: My mission is to use my personal art, inspiration and teaching abilities to encourage others to enjoy the color and art of life's simple things and find time and opportunity to pursue these fearlessly.
Greetings! My name is Carolyn Manning and I play with string. Oh, and fabric, buttons, beads, lace and sometimes broken color crayons.
While I experiment with many mediums I have found myself drawn in the most by needlework, fiber arts and textiles.
I have been a cross-stitch and needlework designer for the last decade. I stitch all of my own designs as well and am always looking for ways to work in old buttons, beads and various other trinkets I have collected throughout the years. When I package up patterns and include embellishments, rarely will you find two patterns with the same goodies inside. I find charm in all things old and repurposed.
I like simple and uncomplicated. Flawed is pretty to me. A cracked button or a tarnished charm can be perfect worked into a piece. I am currently working on a series of designs that will combine my love of needlework with vintage fabrics. (Something else that I collect along with the buttons and broken crayons!)
My 'Illustrator' side shines through most often in my designing with my goofy-faced, whimsical characters. I think I am known best for my snowmen but I am also influenced by my love of gardens, fantasy and fairy tales. This next year I intend to explore designs that are different from my usual 'cartoony' pieces so that I can satisfy all of my creative urges.
I want to create designs that encourage others to pick up a needle and exclaim, "I can do that!"
Artist's Statement: As long as you have breath, you have at hand all you need to create.
A chance encounter in a small Aegean town while traveling in Turkey refocused my direction in life, when I met my vintage textile expert husband Abit. I was a clothing and interior designer in my native California, with stints in design centers around the world. Experiencing new cultures, seeing how others live and create is the best possible design inspiration. Seeking amazing textiles and the cultures which produce them is a joy my curious nature will never give up.
In 1999, Abit and I, each avid Turkish, Kurdish and Central Asian textile collectors before we met, started Bazaar Bayar in Selcuk, the town next to the ancient ruins of Ephesus. We surrounded ourselves with woven treasures from these cultures in a small shop in the exact location where we met. I have degrees in design, but Abit grew up watching the women in his native region of Mardin in Turkey’s southeast weave kilims and other functional yet beautiful items for their homes. Learning to weave was once a prerequisite before woman could marry. My mother-in-law’s generation was the last to weave for themselves.
We spent a decade in our Bazaar Bayar shop, collecting and selling vintage kilims and carpets, embroidered suzanis, and vintage Ottoman and Central Asian jewelry. We also sold the hand-knits I created, inspired by the local women who knit and crochet in profusion. From intricately patterned colorful socks to the exquisite flower and fruit ornaments called “oya” that adorn headscarves, I am entranced by the crafts average Turkish women still make.
So in the summer of 2010, we moved to Istanbul’s Old City, to launch a workshop to support local unsung artisans: women who still weave, knit, and crochet in the traditions of timeless Turkish handcraft. Istanbul is a magical, challenging city with a diverse population of women. Some of these are educated women, reviving crafts as a hobby or a career. There are other women with fewer opportunities who’d like to earn money within a safe community of women. Our workshop will also give traveling women a chance to meet Turkish women through classes we’ll offer and craft tours we’ll host. Hands engaged to learn new skills and teach traditional ones, spinning yarns, clacking needles and drinking tea together, we’ll share the common language of craft with stories from our lives and about our cultures.
Catherine Salter Bayar creates knitwear, seeks textile treasures, and writes from her new home in an ancient city. Visit her blogs: Tales from Turkey and expat+HAREM, the global niche, where she is a serial guest blogger.
Location:Istanbul, Turkey Online Shop:Etsy Blog: Tales from Turkey Languages spoken:English, Spanish, Turkish...next: Kurdish
