Surface design artist Sarah
Matzar, who studied quilt making
with Nancy Crow of Baltimore,
Ohio, has designed an exclusive
Nim Po't series of village specific
quilts. Maintaining ethnographic
integrity, she recycles fragments
of huipiles and cortes
from a single village, sometimes
supplementing her designs with
other background accent fabrics
to add depth and movement to
the compositions.
Her
art quilt studio project
was started in Santa Catarina
Palopó. It has grown to
include two men from San
Andreas Semetabaj who
machine assemble the squares,
two embroiderers from
Santiago Atitlán, four
women from Santa Catalina
Palopó and five women
from the agricultural
communities of Tierra
Linda and Monte Mercedes
who do the hand quilting.
Great pride has been taken
in incorporating the highest
quality materials into
the designs. All quilts
and pillow covers are
hand quilted with cotton
thread, using 100% cotton
batting and backed with
foot-loomed cotton fabric
from Totonicapán. A wide
variety of quilts and
pillow covers are done
in traditional and innovative
patterns in sizes ranging
from crib to king size.
Many of the cotton poplin
accent fabrics are hand
painted, dyed, and stamped
by Sarah's four children
who have become integral
members of the operation.
They are now surface design
artists in their own right;
creating their own hand
painted, stamped and appliquéd
quilts and pillow covers.
