Carrie Lee

About the Artist

I can remember sitting on Grammy Carrie's bed with a box of buttons, a scrap of cloth, a threaded needle and sewing away as long as that thread lasted and asking for more when I came to the end. I remember Grammy Lee giving me needlework kits to stitch, beautiful embroideries and more. I started on the fiber arts road literally as a toddler sewing buttons onto scraps of cloth and it blossomed from there. My parents bought my first sewing machine for me when I was in the 8th grade and I never looked back. My creative side took some twists and turns along the way after I married my husband since he was in the Navy and moving made it difficult to keep a studio. I made custom needlepoint pieces for a shop in Jacksonville, FL for many years, designed and stitched counted cross stitch pieces for a shop in Norfolk, VA, took part in some craft fairs along the way, and have well over 5,000 volunteer hours with the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society from knitting baby layettes. Of course I also sewed, knitted, crocheted, painted, you name it for both of our kids as they grew up too. When our daughter started colorguard with Drum Corps International and Winterguard International I began designing and sewing colorguard flags and have worked with quite a few guards and have designed and sewn uniforms as well. Once landing in Maryland for my husband's second career, I started delving into my creative side even further and took over almost half the house for studio space over the years. My best days are spent “playing” with fibers of various forms. And I call it playing because it is not work to me, I have too much fun creating. While fiber is my first love I have been known to stray into origami, resin, and a few other disciplines as something catches my eye. Somehow I always return to fiber though, it keeps pulling me back. I never know where my interests will take me, but I always enjoy it.

Artist's Statement

I have always been interested in the fiber arts realm, although I delve down what I term “rabbit holes” into other areas that may catch my interest at times. My true love has always been in the fiber arts area. Both of my grandmothers instilled their love of sewing and art in me and I can remember sitting on Grammy Carrie’s bed as a toddler with a scrap of cloth, threaded needle, her box of buttons and happily sewing buttons on that cloth as she did her work in the kitchen. Little did I know she was keeping me out of her hair at the time - I was having fun and enthralled by the colors and patterns on the buttons. Grammy Lee would get me embroidery kits and help me learn the stitches when I was a bit older. Everything grew from there - sewing, embroidery, knitting, spinning, weaving, felting, you name it. A majority of it is self taught, I took individual lessons in spinning and weaving to get the basics down and have run from there with it all. While I’m taken by the stark contrasts of black and white photography and that plays into my art, I love color. I’m still stymied by how to bring the iridescence of a crow’s wings into my fiber, or the exact color of a found mushroom in the woods on my walks. My husband has gotten used to my constant stops to take photos of some of the strangest items I find that spark an idea - whether it be the color, the curve of an item, the composition of old and new together, there’s no telling what will strike my eye. While many items are actual “pictures” of items I have been known to do abstract items as well. I think I’ve stayed within the fiber arts realm because I’m a very tactile person and love the feel of the fiber and working with it from the raw form all the way to finished. I love to paint, or color, with roving. I love to mix my own colors by blending rovings or dying my own, it’s quite often a “let’s see what happens if…” moment! I’m still playing and learning as I go because I fully believe we continually learn no matter how advanced you are in your field.