Join Us. CQA

Holly Cole is a full-time textile studio artist in Triangle, Virginia, working as an art quilter, fibersculptor, and surface designer. Her art quilts have toured nationally with the Studio Art QuiltAssociation’s Primal Forces: Fire, Connecting our Natural Worlds 2019-2022 and Fur, Fangs,Feathers, and Fins 2022-2025, Schiller Book’s Inspired by Endangered Species 2019-2021, andthe We Are The Story quilt tour by Carolyn Mazloomi in 2020-2021. They’ve been in regionalexhibitions in Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, California, Indiana,Illinois, Pennsylvania,Arizona, West Virginia, and Ohio including Quilt National 2025, QuiltVisions 2022 and 2024, Quilts=Art=Quilts in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2022, Fantastic Fibers in2019, Form, Not Function in 2021, The Artist as Quiltmaker in 2018, and Art Quilts XXVI:Stitching Stories 2022.

One of her quilts was added to the Smithsonian Renwick museum as part of the We Are theStory collection and most recently she has had solo shows of her art quilts, fiber sculptures, andquilt installations at the Dairy Barn in Athens Ohio, the Art League in Alexandria Virginia, The
Parkersburg Art Center in Parkersburg West Virginia, and the Virginia Quilt Museum in Dayton,Virginia. In print her work was featured in Quiltfolk’s DOGS: A Quiltfolk Collection, Fiber ArtNow’s Excellence in Fibers 2022, Surface Design Journal’s International Exhibition in Print2021, Donna De Soto’s Inspired by Endangered Species, and Carolyn Mazloomi’s We Are TheStory: A Visual Response to Racism, plus a number of exhibition catalogs.

She retired in 2016 from a long career as a costume designer and artisan for Broadway, regional, and educational theaters. As a professor, she headed the costume design and technology programs at Purdue, Cornell, and Ohio Universities where she taught many of the skills needed for her art quilting including: drawing, painting, composition, dyeing, fabric printing, sewing, patterning, and designing for theme, story, and character.

Holly holds a BA from Northwestern and an MFA from Carnegie-Mellon Universities in Theater Design. Additional fiber training includes studies at Arrowmont, the J.C. Campbell Folk School, the Crowe Barn, the Quilt Surface Design Symposium, Pro Chemical and Dye, and Kerr Grabowski’s studio.

We welcome prospective members who live at least part time in Washington State to try a meeting. Meetings run from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month.

Meetings are via Zoom or on the Seattle Pacific University campus. (See directions, maps, and room information, below.) For in person meetings, bring yourself a sack lunch if you wish.

If you live in Washington and would like to join a virtual meeting as a guest, contact membership for the link.

To become a member click here and go to "Join the CQA".

For in-person meetings:
Directions to Bertona Hall on the Seattle Pacific University campus:

GPS entry: 107 West Bertona, Seattle 98119

From I-5, take the NE 50th Street exit and drive west. Turn left (south) on Fremont Avenue N—about two miles. Get into the right lane as you cross the Fremont bridge and take the first turn-off to the right and then immediately right again onto Nickerson Street. Follow Nickerson for about half a mile, and turn left (south) at the stoplight for 3rd Avenue West. You are now on the SPU campus.Turn left onto 3rd.

Enter the parking lot on your left by turning into the driveway beside the Subway. Our building is on the east side of the parking lot, a one-story red brick building. Parking in the lot is free for us on weekends; ignore the restricted parking and "No Parking" signs.

Click here to see a map of the entire SPU campus.

Month	Speaker
April 11, 2026	Holly Cole, Fiber Artist, Follow Your Bliss, Zoom only
May 9, 2026	Linda Reisterer, How Long Did It Take You To Make That Quilt? My Whole Life!
June 13, 2026	Play Date! 10:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. @ Nicole McHale's home in Sammamish
July 11, 2026	Priscilla Bianchi, The Exciting Life of a Guatemalan Quilt Artist

Monthly Meetings