La Voz del Color The Voice of Color
Each color is a voice, each quilt a story –this is how our region is heard. LatinAmerica and Caribbean Region
SAQAVirtual Exhibit 2025
Latin America’s textile heritage is deeply rooted in ancient traditions of weaving, dyeing, and history telling through cloth. From the Andean Highlands to Mesoamerica, textiles have long served as a visual language to express identity, spirituality, and connection to the land and community. Indigenous artisans mastered complex techniques - backstrap weaving, embroidery, appliquéthat continue to inspire contemporary textile artists. Patchwork and quilting, though often associated with North American and European traditions, find resonance in Latin American practices of repurposing and layering materials. Scarcity and creativity have always gone hand in hand, turning remnants of fabric into new forms of beauty and meaning.
Today, artists across the region reinterpret these techniques, blending inherited skills with modern narratives. This dialogue between past and present reflect a shared cultural impulse to stitch together fragments - of cloth, of memory, of experience - into something whole, resilient, and deeply human.
Priscilla Bianchi, Guatemala
Connection between a Mayan Huipil’s Composition and a Vintage Moroccan Rug, 2023
As a native Guatemalan, I began using Mayan hand-woven textiles early in my career. Exploring other traditional fabrics, I’m fascinated by the parallels in techniques, designs, and motifs between distant cultures.
This piece, designed and machine pieced by me, and long-arm quilted by Laura Lee Fritz, depicts a Mayan huipil. Mayan Guatemalan hand-woven textiles, commercial cottons, hand-dyed fabrics, and Indonesian batiks.
Priscilla Bianchi, Guatemala
Spelling A-R-T with White and Many X’s, 2020
Inspired by Mayan Guatemalan textiles and my fascination with letters, I began incorporating typography into my work. In my ongoing series Spelling A-R-T, letters become visual elements; shapes intertwining and transforming into new abstract forms. Designed and machine pieced by me, and long-arm quilted by Laura Lee Fritz. Mayan Guatemalan hand-woven textiles, embroidered Guatemalan figures, hand-dyed fabrics, Indonesian batiks,African fabric, and commercial cottons.
Patricia Pérez-Canto Caffrey, Chile/US
Restless Rhythm, 2024
Restless Rhythm explores movement through shifting block sizes and color interplay. Irregular geometry creates a spontaneous, flowing rhythm. Using machine piecing, I convey motion that feels precise yet dynamic; ordered yet restless.
Machine piecing and machine quilting.
Commercial and dyed cotton fabric.
32H x 34W
Patricia Pérez-Canto Caffrey, Chile/US
Rhythm Interrupted, 2023
Rhythm Interrupted captures motion through flashes of color breaking a black field. Irregular blocks disrupt rhythm, creating surprise within order. Using machine piecing, I explore movement that feels alive, imperfect, and charged with energy.
Machine piecing and machine quilting.
Commercial cottons.
36H x 36W
María Eugenia Corbella, Argentina/Spain
Ivan, 2022
As a biologist and quilter, I merge my passions to raise awareness of nature and environmental issues.This quilt honors Ivan, a chimpanzee freed after 40 years in captivity, now living peacefully in a Madrid sanctuary.
Hand-dyeing, painting, collage, free motion embroidery and quilting, fused raw edge applique.
Hand-dyed cotton, commercial fabrics and silk rayon threads.
41H x 43W
María Eugenia Corbella, Argentina/Spain
Flash of Inspiration, 2025
As a mindfulness and art therapy instructor, I express the creative force flowing within me through intuitive batik. Using four cycles of wax, paraffin, and dye, I combined meditation and free movement to reveal my creative essence.
Mindfulness, intuitive batik, hand-dyed fabric, free-motion quilting.
Cotton fabric, beeswax, paraffin, cantings of different gauges, dyes, silk rayon threads.
39H x 33W
Pilar Donoso, Chile
Mestastasis, 2022
I express myself through fabric and thread, guided by color and emotion. Metástasis was born from grief; my way to stitch the invisible and transform sorrow into beauty, honoring my sister Valentina beyond words. Hand and machine applique, machine quilting. Cotton fabrics, cotton batting, yarn.
Pilar Donoso, Chile
Calla Lillies from Valdivia, 2022
Color is my language and connection to the world. Las Calas de Valdivia emerged from a fish market’s vibrant calla lilies, captured in photography but reinterpreted through quilting, exploring color, form, emotion, and memory.
Machine applique, machine quilting. Cotton fabrics, cotton batting.
48H x 41W
Amy Freyn, USA/Ecuador
De-Forest, 2025
This quilt reflectsAmazonian deforestation in Ecuador. Lush greens evoke rainforest vitality, while burnt orange and brown depict cleared land, lost habitats, and displaced species. De-Forest invites reflection on ecological fragility and environmental consequences. Improv piecing, free motion quilting. Cotton fabric, polyester thread.
x 13W
11H
Amy Freyn, USA/Ecuador
Light
It 2, 2025
Light It 2 depicts a Molotov cocktail outlined against layered color and chaotic marks. Using textiles, traditionally comforting, it becomes unsettling, inviting reflection on fire’s dual role in protest, danger, and transformative possibility. Improv piecing, thread painting, fabric painting, free motion quilting. Cotton fabric, cotton thread, fabric paint.
23H x 17W
Michelle Gafford, Chile/USA
Exploration 1 Sewing Community, 2023
This piece begins a series made from elements gathered at the 2023Toronto SAQAConference, where attendees stitched during talks, breakout sessions, and quiet hotel moments capturing inspiration shared through fabric, thread, and connection.
Hand stitching, machine piecing, hand quilting. Upholstery samples, silk ties, manilla paper, map paper, buttons, cotton thread.
Gabriela Grillo Castillo, Costa Rica/Spain
Wind of Change, 2024
The blue and yellow energy evokes life’s changing winds, sometimes against us, sometimes in our favor. It invites reflection, calm, and faith that even in darkness, the sun still shines, guiding us through an ocean of hope. Improvisational piecing, machine and hand quilting. Cotton fabric.
Gabriela Grillo Castillo, Costa Rica/Spain
Created Equal, 2023
Apersonal life experience with my son and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” inspired this quilt. It reminds us that we are all created equal, love is the key to respect. Improvisational piecing, collage, paper piecing, hand embroidery, machine and hand quilting. Cotton fabric.
x 33W
47H
Cecilia Koppmann, Argentina
Hexagrama, 2024
40H x 68W
What began as an exercise in using leftover linen and silk scraps evolved into a visual score. Six undulating rows of color fragments create rhythm and dialogue, where white becomes silence, listening amid expression, contrast, and restraint. Machine pieced and quilted. Linen, silk.
Cecilia Koppmann,Argentina What Cannot be Hidden, 2025
Red is for blood. We cover, repair, and patch an irrational world torn by conflict, believing pain will fade.Yet each joined scrap reveals wounded memories, truth seeping through the seams of cruelty we weave together. Raw edge applique, machine free motion quilting.
Upholstery fabric, linen, silk, burlap, cotton.
61H x 83W
Teresita Leal, Argentina Caminito, 2023
This work pays tribute to La Boca, one of BuenosAires’ most picturesque neighborhoods. Its colorful wood and metal houses recall the conventillo boquense and the vibrant waves of immigrants who once filledArgentina’s vast spaces.
Quilt as you go raw edge applique. Hand-dyed cotton fabrics.
24H x 24W
Teresita Leal, Argentina
Village-Integrating Series, 2024
In exploring my Integrating series, I was drawn to the fusion of LatinAmerican art and European modernism. In Village, I reimagined a rural LatinAmerican scene in a Cubist style, blending identities and traditions.
Quilt-as-you-go raw-edge appliqué. Hand-dyed and commercial cotton fabrics.
42H x 22W
Carolina Leiva, Chile/France
Tell me About Light, 2022
This work speaks of a stimulating and dynamic balance, created during a time of change, introspection, and connection with my surroundings. Hand-stitching each fragment through challenging days, I focused on vibrant yellows, magentas, and fading blacks, stars and constellations guiding me toward light, faith, and creation.
Hand pieced, embroidered and quilted, eco- dyeing cotton fabrics, silk, recycled ties, assorted threads.
28H x 23W
Carolina Oneto, Chile/Mexico
One in Every Four, 2021
In LatinAmerica, 104 million people live in informal settlements, one in four urban inhabitants facing poverty and marginalization. With this quilt, I seek to make these “villas,” “favelas,” and “ranchos” visible, exposing deep social inequality.
Improv piecing, matchstick quilting. Fabrics, threads, batting. 51H x 61W
Carolina Oneto, Chile/Mexico
Riommaggiore, 2025
Riomaggiore reflects our family’s journey from Italy to Chile. My Nonno, at 14, ventured alone and found love with my strong Nonna.Their legacy inspires compassion, honoring migration and embracing diverse human journeys.
Machine pieced, improv piecing, walking foot quilting, hand quilting.
Fabrics, threads, batting.
62H x 59W
Alison Schwabe, Australia/Uruguay
Caribbean Crush, 2022
This work speaks of stimulating and dynamic memories of Panama, Colombia, Cuba, and a Caribbean cruise merging into a vivid mosaic of color, nature, and music; yet beneath the beauty lie traces of colonial violence, political tension, and social inequality. Raw edge hand applique, hand quilting. Commercial cottons including hand dyed, polyester threads, polyester batting.
Alison Schwabe, Australia/Uruguay
Green Dimension, 2022
Green, my favorite color, appears here in many variations.
Grid layouts, my preferred design plan, bring calm and order, offering balance amid the challenging social and political pressures of today’s world.
Machine piecing, hand stitched raw edge applique, hand quilting.
Commercial cottons including hand dyed, polyester threads, polyester batting.
41H x 39W
Loreto Silva, Chile
Chucao-Territorial Bird, 2024
Chucao is a territorial bird from southern Chile, known for its song and folklore as a sign of good or bad luck. My work with native birds highlights the need to preserve Chile’s unique species.
Ecoprint dyeing, hand embroidery, and application technique. Cotton fabrics, cotton scraps, cotton sewing machine threads.
33H x 28W
Loreto Silva, Chile
Hummingbird and the Abitolones, 2024
The Chilean hummingbird and abutilon illustrate the mutual bond between native fauna and flora.The bird feeds on the flower’s nectar, aiding survival for both.This work seeks to raise awareness and encourage preservation.
Ecoprint dyeing, hand embroidery and application technique, free motion quilting.
Cotton fabrics, cotton scraps, cotton sewing threads.. 33H x 28W
Marissa Vignali, Uruguay/USA
Melanin, 2025
This work reflects the diversity of human skin color, from Africa’s high UV exposure to regions where reduced sunlight led to melanin loss. Interwoven tones evoke migration, displacement, and our shared journey across the green earth. It invites viewers to find their own connection.
Machine piecing and quilting.
Hand dyed fabrics and commercial batiks, embroidery thread.
40.5H x 26W
Marissa Vignali, Uruguay/USA
Gwen Marston meet Joaquín Torres García, 2023
I’ve lived half my life in two cultures while becoming a scientist, Uruguay, where I embraced fibers despite their “feminine” label, and the U.S., where I found quilting.This piece honors modernist JoaquínTorres García and improvisational quilter Gwen Marston.
Machine piecing and quilting. Commercial fabrics, cotton thread.
26H x 19W
Susana Vizcarra, Uruguay/USA
Beneath the Surface, 2025
Forests are Earth’s lifeblood. Even partial deforestation disrupts ecosystems, yet nature endures. In this quilt, tree stumps mark loss, while butterflies, birds, and roots symbolize resilience, life persisting through the quiet, interconnected strength of the forest.
Fabric collage, applique, embroidery. Dyed, bleached and acrylic painted fabrics, repurposed fabrics, cotton thread, felt, and burlap fibers.
Susana Vizcarra, Uruguay/USA
My Inner Self, 2024
My Inner Self reflects the hidden layers of identity and emotion. Fabric and thread reveal inner landscapes where resilience, vitality, and reflection intertwine, inviting viewers to contemplate the shifting balance between vulnerability, strength, and quiet beauty.
Applique, embroidery, coaching embroidery, and fabric collage. Repurposed fabrics and cotton thread.
12H x 10W
Isabel Wilder, Ecuador/USA
My Dahlia, 2024
Nature deeply inspires me. When my first dahlia bloomed, its unfolding petals bursting with color moved me to recreate it in fabric.Through raw-edge appliqué and improvisational quilting, I stitched my love for color and my garden.
Raw edge applique, improvisational machine quilting.
Cotton fabrics and batting.
Gayle Williams, USA
Rock Face and Friend, 2025
In 2016, I began printing my own fabric designs with a gelatin plate.Those first imperfect pulls became a lesson in process and acceptance. Using all twelve, enhanced with embroidery, I embraced imperfection and creative growth. Hand piecing, hand quilting, fabric printing on gelatin plate. Cotton commercial fabric, textile paints, commercial gelatin printing plate.
18H x 17W
Gayle Williams, USA
Origins, 2020
Armadillos are my primary motif, reflecting my background and travels. Inspired by a painted rock I photographed in Bolivia in 2000, this piece evokes nostalgic, dreamlike memories of years exploring LatinAmerica and the Caribbean, echoed in the subtle quilting. Hand piecing, hand quilting, fused applique with raw edge sewing.
Commercial cotton fabrics, rick rack, embroidery thread.
33H x 38W