Guatemalan quilt artist featured

Guatemalan quilt artist, designer and teacher Priscilla Bianchi brought a new dimension in quilt making to Sisters Quilter's Affair: Awareness of the rich, ethnic beauty of native Guatemalan textiles.

Of Swiss/Italian descent, Bianchi was born and raised in Guatemala and has lived there all her life.

"My great grandfather came from Lugano (Switzerland) in 1860 to Guatemala and he established himself there," she said.

Although Spanish is her native language, Bianchi attributes her fine command of English to the fact that her father was born in California.

Dabbling since she was a little girl in the painting of oils and watercolors, the designing of jewelry, the crafting of ceramics, it wasn't until purchasing a book about quilt making eight years ago that Bianchi found her true passion.

"I was madly in love with it," she said.

Remembering that her mother taught her to sew when she was four using an old Singer treadle sewing machine, Bianchi said: "I've been an artist all my life, but I had never devoted full time to do it. It was just on the weekends or on my free time."

But after Bianchi bought that book and found quilting, everything changed. Within six months she quit her job as a human resource consultant in industrial psychology where she taught managers about leadership and communication. She left her job not really knowing what she was going to do. She just felt she wanted to quilt.

"I decided this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life," she said.

Bianchi set goals and deadlines for herself, and by the end of the first year after quitting her job she had made 30 quilts, never doubting she would sell them. She soon was given the opportunity to exhibit her quilts at the Museum of Textiles in Guatemala City.

Her exhibition served as an educational tool for the people of Guatemala, as before she exhibited her work, no one in Guatemala knew what a quilt was. Selling half of the quilts she exhibited, her career as a professional quilt maker was launched.

"And that is how I sell my work mostly, through exhibitions," she said.

To date, Bianchi has had about 25 solo exhibitions around the world.

"I set myself the goal of having a show every six months, and showing new work every time," she said. "I only create one-of-a-kind quilts. I've been published extensively in magazines in France, in South Africa, in the states, many, many times."

Bianchi has written a new book in English, "¡Caliente Quilts!," published by Krause, that will be released in September. She also hosts two textile tours a year in Guatemala. Her next tours are scheduled for November 11-20 and February 17-26, 2008. For specific information about Bianchi's tours visit her Web site at http://www.priscillabianchi.com.

Speaking of her quilt making career, Bianchi said: "I really followed my heart. You know how they say that if you do something really well everything else will follow? That's exactly how it's been. ... It has been a wonderful journey," she said.

And sharing her journey is what Bianchi loves to do most through her teaching and lecturing. Those who signed up for her Quilter's Affair classes learned to incorporate the beauty of Guatemalan textiles, patterns and symbolism into American quilting designs. Those who attended her lecture were able to hear her story and see beautiful slides of Guatemala.