Misty Cole

About the Artist

Misty M Cole is an art quilter who designs, teaches, and sells her work through her business, Pick Your Brain Designs. Her award-winning quilts have been exhibited at the International Quilt Festivals in Houston and Chicago; the National Quilt Museum; the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum; the Textile Center; and many other venues. Her first solo show hung at the College Park Aviation Museum, a Smithsonian affiliated museum, in 2017. She is a member of Southern Comforters Quilt Guild of Bowie, MD; the Baltimore Applique Society; the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild; and Studio Art Quilt Associates.

Artist's Statement

I have been a quilter for 15 years. I have a background in fine art, and came to quilting as a painter. I have always had a “whatever works” attitude about making things. I approach each quilt almost as an engineering problem. How can I use what I have to make what I don’t have? How can I get this vision in my head out into the world? Necessity is often the mother of my inventions. I am very comfortable mixing traditional hand techniques with machine techniques, hand applique with fusible, hand dyes with commercial fabrics and batiks. I do a lot of hand applique and hand quilting because I love the portability of hand sewing. I will often choose to use handwork over machine work because I can get it done faster by taking it with me.