Me-
I'm a surface designer, home bedding designer, artist, and special occasion dress designer.
I was raised on a farm in central Texas, only half a mile from my grandmother's house. My mom and my grandmother (my father's mother) worked with their hands to create the beauty that adorned the walls, beds, and tabletops of their homes. One tap on my grandmother's door after a long walk as a child down an unpaved, gravel country road, would beckon Lucille to answer, pulling back the screen door, always so happy to see me. As I walked into and through her small century old home, light peeking through the old windows would shine like a kaleidoscope on the current patchwork quilt on the frame in her bedroom being worked by hand, all of the shapes and colors piecing together, being woven into something beautiful and practical. I'm lucky enough to own one of her hand stitched quilts. Even though it is far from the most beautiful quilt she ever made and it is created from 1970 clothing scraps (hello polyester pants!), I treasure this quilt because in her incredibly detailed hand piecing and binding I see her, feel her close. Being blanketed in her life's work on a chilly day causes me to reflect upon why she loved hand quilting especially since her arthritic hands and enlarged achy knuckles didn't stitch as nimble as they once had. Quilting was her consistent expression of love despite life's hardships and heartaches such as the loss of her husband when I was 8 and my father when I was 17. Needle in...needle out..life would go on in love no matter what.
She loved to share her love of quilting with her family and her cold natured limbs adored sharing the necessity of the warmth of a quilt. My heart, my soul, is woven into these handmade items and my artwork. Running my hands over the fabrics, the placement, the techniques, I feel my roots deeply making up who I am and the work I create. Needle in...needle out...
Please contact me by email at joyestallard@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments.
Joy Ellen Stallard