Featured Artist: March 18 - May 13, 2009
   Patricia Batiste-Brown's work is currently on view a the Northwest African American Museum in Seattle, WA. - www.naamnw.org

Patricia Batiste-Brown

My style began with traditional patterns utilizing non-traditional fabrics and very bright colors. I hate calicos, tiny flowers, and “dead” colors. I am not very creative; however, I enjoy working with colorful fabrics and doing lots of appliqué. I can’t draw a straight line, have developed a system of finding pictures in magazines or books and cutting them up, mixing them and creating my own designs that I then appliqué. My characters must move. Often times, things found in nature such as fallen leaves and bright flowers move me.

Remember the old saw horses quilters used to hold the layers while they sewed them together? Memories from my childhood revolve around those wooden structures. During the few times my mother held quilting bees in our home, I would sit small and wondrous under the quilts stretched tight on saw horses, looking at the light filtering through the cloth and tiny needle holes. The quilting bees were fun, social affairs. Quilters would bring food and stay all day. Someone always bought a freshly-baked pound cake, rich with butter and flavor! There was one man who quilted with them. Quilting was not a closely held tradition in my family so it was some time before I began to appreciate the impact of quilting on the arts and culture. My quilting started fifteen years ago when I decided to feed my fabric addiction by getting a part time job in a fabric store. A colleague, Heidi Lund, talked me into taking a quilting class with her that was taught by Maureen Noble. Maureen was such a good teacher that I went for it “whole hog.” In fact, other kinds of sewing ground to a half. From that point on, I purchased tons of quilting books and took classes. I consider myself part artist. Some of my quilts carry messages. These are usually special ones that I make for others, such as my Rosa Parks quilt that is housed in the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, and a quilt made for a friend containing all types of buttons, pieces of lace, pictures, and other mementos important to her 85-year-old mother. Most of my quilts exhibit brilliant colors when I create the design or use a traditional pattern. Quilting makes me happy, gives me a sense of culture, calm, accomplishment and satisfaction especially when I give someone a quilt and it is not expected. I am a machine quilter and do hand quilting only when it is necessary. Even when I add embroidery to my designs, it is done by machine. My favorite fabrics are batik and African. My happiest times are when I find beautiful, colorful fabrics and can work non-stop.