Anna Maria Horner
Anna Maria Horner grew up in a house full of her dad’s paintings and with a closet full of her mom’s handi-work. Beds were warmed by the hand-loomed wool blankets sent by her grandmother from Greece. The busy bodies of her and her siblings were warmed by the beautiful hand-knits of their grandmother in Indiana. As a kid in the 70’s, she passed up store-bought Barbie dresses and instead created them from her mother’s fabric scraps.
In 1995, after graduating with an Honors Fine Arts Degree in Drawing from the University of Tennessee, Anna Maria opened Handmaiden, a clothing and housewares retail project. The shop served as home base for Anna Maria’s clothing line which she designed and produced, together with her mom. Eventually, the label was offered to the wholesale market, where it sold at several stores across the Southeast.
Designing clothing for five years served a lifelong interest but Anna Maria kept her hands in many mediums on a daily basis. She stayed active artistically by exhibiting in galleries regularly. Her paintings, both small and large scale, are a part of hundreds of private and commercial collections.
There have been varied stops on her path to here, but a common element in all of her work, whether fashion, quilting or fine art, is a passion for the language of color. Somewhere around 2001, her fascination with taking an idea through all the necessary steps from her sketchbook to a store shelf sparked the momentum to create a brand. Anna Maria’s fresh perspectives within traditional markets and her vision of being surrounded by the work of her own hands has led her to partnering with more than two dozen manufacturers to design homewares, gift items, and textiles. Her focus has intensified in the craft, sewing and quilting community where her creativity was first planted as a girl, and she has authored three sewing books, and self publishes a continuing collection of sewing, quilting and needlework patterns.
Sharing her point of view through teaching design, stitching and patchwork has become an increasingly important part of Anna Maria’s work. Her current workshop and lecture calendar can be found here.
Anna Maria and her family make their home on a rambling two acres in Nashville, Tennessee. She works from a lofty, attic studio filled with fabric, thread, drawings, schemes and the remnants of intermittent playtime with the children. She is the mother of seven (6 to 27) and has been incredibly thankful to be able to seek out her creative goals in the presence of her family for almost three decades.
To many the Anna Maria brand means color and inspiration in the form of craft, sewing, needlework, books, and friendly how-to. Since 2005, her growing library of fabrics has delighted and adorned discerning makers around the globe. As of 2014, Anna Maria is also the founder and proprietor of Nashville’s Craft South. Craft South offers supply, instruction, sewing machines and workshops.
In May 2018, Anna Maria presented the Conservatory fabric project in partnership with FreeSpirit Fabrics and contributes as one of the five artists. She is the Creative Director for the collective.
https://www.annamariahorner.com/
Dr. Carolyn L. Mazloomi
Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi is a historian, curator, author, lecturer, artist, mentor, founder, and facilitator — and has left her mark on many lives. Trained as an aerospace engineer, Carolyn Mazloomi turned her sights and tireless efforts in the 1980s to bring the many unrecognized contributions of African-American quilt artists to the attention of the American people as well as the international art communities.
From founding the African-American Quilt Guild of Los Angeles in 1981 to in 1985 founding the Women of Color Quilters Network (WCQN), Mazloomi has been at the forefront of educating the public about the diversity of interpretation, styles and techniques among African American quilters as well as educating a younger generation of African Americans about their own history through the quilts the WCQN members create.
A major force as an artist in her own right, Carolyn Mazloomi’s quilts have been exhibited extensively in venues such as the Mint Museum, American Folk Art Museum in New York City, National Civil Rights Museum, Museum of Art and Design, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC Her pictorial narrative quilts make plain her personal themes: family life, women’s rights, political freedom, and musical legacy. Her own quilts have appeared in over 70 exhibits, while she has curated 17 extensive exhibits of quilts made by members of the Women of Color Quilters Network, many of them traveling exhibits. Among the many exhibitions she has curated is “Still We Rise: Race, Culture and Visual Conversations,” which visually surveys 400 years of African American history. It is the largest traveling exhibit of African-American quilts ever mounted.
https://carolynlmazloomi.com/
Dindga McCannon
I have always been a fiber artist, but have also been a writer/illustrator, painter, wearable art maker, costume designer, muralist, printmaker, and a mother. My work is the fusion of traditional needlework (skills given to me by my mother and grandmother), with the fine arts: drawing, painting, printing, and printmaking, along with a lot of mixed media. I tend to work in series; one of my ongoing series is the celebration of women’s lives, portraits and “herstories.”
I work intuitively. Each work is made using multilayered processes: exploring “what if” and experimenting with what might happen if I mix and match whatever medium I’m utilizing at the moment. I draw, paint, dye, and print onto fabric, paper, or both, which are then quilted, beaded, hand- or machine-embroidered, and embellished with things from “my collections.” I also do collages with the same kind of embellishments.
I consider myself a fiber/mixed-media/quilt artist.
https://www.articulateshow.org/articulate/dindga-mccannon
Emily Bode
Emily Adams Bode launched her eponymous brand in July of 2016 and became the first female menswear designer to show at New York Fashion Week. The collection is now shown twice a year at Paris Fashion Week Men’s with runway shows in June and January. Bode manufactures over half of the collection in New York, with 40% of the annual product sold made from antique textiles. Emily and the brand is committed to further advancing consumers’ knowledge of the history of material culture and the preservation of craft.
Emily Adams Bode was awarded runner-up for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2018. In 2019, she was recognized as the Emerging Designer of the year by the CFDA, was a finalist for the LVMH Prize, and was included in the Forbes “30 Under 30” list in Art & Style. At the end of 2019, Emily was recognized as GQ’s Breakthrough Designer of the Year and opened her first Flagship store in Lower Manhattan.
John M. Walsh III
John M. Walsh III (Jack) began collecting art quilts in 1992. His first goal was to document the range of works in this new fine art medium. Many artists receive little more than minimum wage for their creations. Jack began supporting the artists with commissions. He promotes appreciation of the artists with exhibits in museums throughout the US and with lectures and articles in magazines, books and other publications such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. On four occasions Jack was included in Art and Antiques Magazine’s annual listing of “100 Top Collectors.’ Jack’s life’s work has been making water safe to use. He has done pioneering work in seawater desalination, pollution control and UV water purification, and managed the water chemistry of a nuclear power plant.
http://www.artofthequilt.com/walsh.html
Merikay Waldvogel
Merikay Waldvogel is an internationally known quilt historian author, and lecturer. She is widely considered an expert on mid-20th century quilts. Her expertise and tireless research into quilting and the quilters who made them led to her induction into the Quilters Hall of Fame in 2009.
https://quiltershalloffame.net/merikay-waldvogel/
Julie Silber
Julie Silber is one of the world’s most respected quilt experts. She has been selling antique quilts to museums, businesses, and individuals since 1968. Julie was the curator of the world renowned Esprit Quilt Collection in San Francisco and is the co-author of the critically acclaimed books, Hearts and Hands and Amish: The Art of the Quilt. She has curated two of the most respected quilt exhibitions of modern times — those at The Oakland Museum and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Julie Silber Quilts provides an exceptional range of quilt related services to museums, collectors, dealers, individuals, and quilt guilds. We specialize in buying, selling and appraising antique quilts made between 1780 and 1950. We also offer antique quilt “exhibition packages” for museums and quilt events. Our exhibitions have enjoyed both critical and popular acclaim, nationally and internationally.
We offer formal, written appraisals for insurance, donation, or retail purposes, as well as simple verbal appraisals. Julie is a well known, acknowledged expert in the field of appraising antique and vintage quilts.
https://juliesilberquilts.com/
Janneken Smucker
Janneken Smucker, Professor of History at West Chester University, specializes in digital and public history and material culture. She also serves as the digital editor of the Oral History Review. In the classroom, she integrates technology and the humanities, working with students to create digital projects, including the award-winning Goin’ North: Stories from the First Great Migration to Philadelphia and Philadelphia Immigration.Janneken consults on digital projects for non-profits and museums and leads workshops on digital tools and strategies. Author of Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon (Johns Hopkins, 2013), Janneken lectures and writes about quilts for popular and academic audiences. She was the 2015 co-recipient of WCU’s E. Riley Holman Memorial Faculty Award for innovative teaching. She currently serves as WCU’s Faculty Associate for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.
https://www.janneken.org/
Josh Dunn
Josh Dunn is the International Sales Manager for Moda Fabrics and Supplies and the son of Moda founder and president (and Quilt Alliance Vice President), Mark Dunn. Josh earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California and shares his father passion for documenting the art and history of each and every quilt.
Gwen Westerman
A poet and fiber artist, Gwen Westerman lives in southern Minnesota, as did her Dakota ancestors. Her roots are deep in the landscape of the tallgrass prairie, and reveal themselves in her art and writing through the languages and traditions of her family. She is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, and Professor in English and Humanities at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Her quilts have won awards at the juried shows of the Northern Plains Indian Art Market, the Heard Museum Guild Indian Art Fair & Market, and the Eiteljorg, and have been exhibited in Minneapolis, Sioux Falls, Anchorage, Houston, Tulsa, Fargo, and Lincoln. She is the author Follow the Blackbirds, a poetry collection in Dakota and English, and co-author of Mni Sota Makoce: Land of the Dakota, a history of Dakota land tenure in Minnesota.
https://www.gwenwesterman.com/
Allie Aller
A quilter of long experience in many genres, Allie has written three books for C & T Publishing. Her quilts have won several major awards, she appeared on the Quilt Show, has taught for Bluprint, served on the board of the Quilt Alliance, and traveled as a quilt teacher for ten years, making such precious friends along the way!
A continuing theme in all her work is a rich dialogue between her quilts and her avid passion for flower gardening. She lives with her husband in the country outside Portland, Oregon, where they raised two magnificent sons.
http://alliesinstitches.blogspot.com/
Denyse Schmidt![]()
Denyse Schmidt is an iconic designer, quiltmaker, teacher and entrepreneur who reinterprets tradition to make modern heirloom quilts that are fresh and offbeat.
From Denyse’s website:
“I grew up in central Massachusetts in an area of old textile mill towns. Both my parents made things: my mom sewed a lot of her own clothes as well as clothes for four kids, and my dad made furniture. They were both very skilled—nothing ever looked homemade—and while they took pride in their work, they never considered themselves craftspeople or artists. They had careers (my dad was an engineer, my mom an educator with two masters degrees), but having grown up during the depression, they, like others of their generation, did not spend money if they could help it! When you needed something, you made it yourself.
I started making things when I was little, and never stopped. I studied graphic design at the Rhode Island School of Design, and had more than a few different careers over the years. I finally patched together my many eclectic experiences when I created my business ten years ago.”
http://dsquilts.com/.
Paula Nadelstern
Kaleidoscope: the very word promises surprise and magic, change and chance. Exploding with visual excitement, a kaleidoscopic design organizes an abundance of light and color, form and motion into a complex and coherent image. My goal is to harmoniously integrate the idea of a kaleidoscope with the techniques and materials of quiltmaking. I try to free myself from a conventional sense of fabric orderliness, seeking a random quality in order to imitate the succession of chance interlinkings and endless possibilities synonymous with kaleidoscopes.
I make quilts on the same block in the Bronx where I grew up. Being a New Yorker wrapped up in the fabric of city life creates an inherent paradox contrasting the traditional image of quiltmaking as part of a simple, make-do, rural way of life with my own complex urban-shaped space.
Historians have suggested that the block-style method of quiltmaking evolved in response to the cramped quarters of early American life. My family’s living arrangement in an urban environment created similar considerations which, unwittingly, I resolved in much the same way. For over twenty years, my work space in our two bedroom apartment was the forty-inch round kitchen table. A long distance view, alternate space, or not making quilts were not options. I believe this reality merged with my personality and passion for fabric in shaping the direction of my kaleidoscopic piecework, causing me to rely on intricate detail and inherent symmetry, and to invent a shape that makes the most of limited space. My block style method is based on a pie-slice section.
Until I met quilts, I thought I was creative but not talented. To find something you love to do is a gift. To achieve recognition for it is a miracle. When I get overwhelmed by a longing for functional space, complete with an office and enough storage space so I don’t have to constantly reinvent the room, I try to remember this.
Over time, lives change shape. In 2003, the second bedroom of our apartment was transformed into a 10′ x 15′ studio, complete with a door I can close.
My quilts have achieved international recognition for the innovative and complex designs inspired by the bilateral symmetry of kaleidoscopic images. Honored by inclusion in the Twentieth Century’s 100 Best American Quilts, my designs have inspired products including the vast carpet in the Hilton Americas hotel in Houston, TX and were showcased in the American Folk Art Museum’s first one person exhibition highlighting the work of a contemporary quilt artist (2009). In addition to numerous awards, I was a recipient of fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and The Bronx Council on the Arts. I’m the author of Kaleidoscopes & Quilts, Snowflakes & Quilts, Puzzle Quilts: Simple Blocks, Complex Fabric, Paula Nadelstern’s Kaleidoscope Quilts: An Artist’s Journey Continues and Kaleidoscope Quilts: The Workbook and FABRICADABRA: Simple Quilts, Complex Fabric. I design textile prints exclusively for Benartex, Inc. and live in New York City with my husband, Eric. My daughter, Ariel, lives a block away. I am very grateful.
Diane Rode Schneck
Diane Rode Schneck comes from a long line of quilters and needleworkers — she owns family quilts made by her great grandmother, and her mother’s aunt in the 1930s. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and moved to New York City in 1984. She was first introduced to the Garment District by a friend shortly after moving here, and has been shopping ever since. She was cofounder and editor of a fabric shopping newsletter New York Unraveled! way back in the 1990s.
Diane is largely self-taught and has been quilting since 1974. She started embroidering at about age six, and learned to quilt in high school, picking up hand quilting from the quilters at Grace Lutheran Church in Cleveland Hts. Ohio. Her favorite types include: scrap quilts, string and crumb quilts, hand appliqué, crazy quilts, and humorous quilts.
A member of Empire Quilters and The New York Metro Mod Quilters, Diane has also taught extensively in NYC’s various quilt stores, at the American Folk Art Museum, and at quilt guilds and conferences all over the US, including the Quilt Festival in Houston and Quilting By The Lake. She currently works full time as a teaching artist and quilting instructor for Making Art Work, a program of the Carter Burden/Leonard Covello Senior Program in East Harlem.
Diane lives in upper Manhattan, with an apartment full of quilts and an extensive fabric collection.
Giuseppe Ribaudo
Giuseppe Ribaudo (AKA Giucy Giuce) learned to sew from his grandmother at a young age. In 2008 he began quilting and has never looked back. Giuseppe resides in New York City and is a fabric designer, pattern designer, and quilt teacher. He is an avid modern traditionalist quilter with a great passion for simple design in bright colors.
Instargram.com/giucy_giuce
