About

Bio:

Cara Gulati has spent her life around fabric. She has sold fabric and clothes, designed them both and ended up with her own company as a designer and manufacturer of children's wear.

Fiber art and quilting in particular grabbed her heart and led her to things of a flatter nature. Cara makes very large art quilts and is currently working on a series called 3-D Explosion. She has written a book and teaches workshops on this design and sewing technique. One quilt in the series, "3-D Party Explosion" won Viewer's Choice at the Houston International Quilt Festival in 2003.

Her teaching career has taken her to Abu Dhabi in the UAE as well as Australia. She has exhibited her work internationally. Commissions are welcome!

You can find Cara on Simply Quilts and Kaye's Quilting Friends on TV.

Doodle Press is Cara's publishing company. She designs fun and artistic quilts that are unique. Her patterns and book can be found in quilt stores around the world and on her web site at www.doodlepress.com.

After getting tired of throwing large quilts around to actually quilt them on a mid-arm machine, Cara purchased an A-1 Quilting Machine. She began learning the ways of a long arm machine where the machine is on roller coaster wheels and the quilt is mounted on to rollers on a table. She learned to be the "Pen" while quilting instead of the "Paper". She liked it so much, that she accepted the sales rep position for the state of California.

When she isn't lecturing, teaching internationally, designing fabric, publishing or creating art quilts, Cara can be found walking her dog in the forest in Marin County, California.

In Print:

Shows and Awards:


FAQS:

 

  1. How big is your studio? They are huge and simply fabulous. I have moved into a four bedroom house, and since it's just me here, I have made the formal living/dining area my studio. It has some natural light, but not enough, so I had shop lights installed in the ceiling and it's very bright. My My second studio is in the garage and has my A-1 long arm quilting machine in it, as well as a wet studio painting area.

  2. How many sewing machines do you own? Hmmm, a lot. Two Berninas that I love dearly for fancy quilting with decorative threads and double needles, for piecing and appliqué’. A Mega Quilter (it's a Janome dressed up as a Viking) was used for most of my free motion quilting since most of my quilts tend to be monster sized. I bought an A1 Long Arm quilting machine in January of 2010 and love it! I have a Pfaff Cover Lock that holds 10- spools of thread, makes me look good even when I am not using it. I have also acquired the Baby Lock Embellisher which is awesome fun to play with. And then I have also started a love affair with old, cool looking machines and have 7 of those. I’ll leave it to you to add it up, I just don’t want to know. ;0)

  3. What kind of batting do you use?  I am starting to go for puffy polyester batts for the long arm machine. They have a softer and more 3-D look which I am starting to really like. For quilting on the Viking my very favorite is Hobbs 80/20 FUSIBLE. I love it. No pins. Ever. You can start quilting anywhere on your top because it’s all temporarily fused together. If you are worried about puckers, just look carefully. If you are going to get one, you’ll know before you begin to quilt because you will have ironed it in there already. Almost better that X-ray vision!

  4. What’s the name of that bobbin thread you like? The Bottom Line by Superior Threads. You can find a picture of the thread here. Try to get it from your local quilt store first though.

  5. How do you machine quilts such large quilts? I used to use the fusible batting and the Mega Quilter machine with it’s wider opening, I get lots of control over my monster size quilts. Sometimes a girl just has to show ‘em who’s boss! And now I am playing with the long arm and it's so nice not to have to throw big quilts around.

  6. Do you have kids? This furry dog is as close as I get.

      Roxie


  7. I am afraid to enter quilt shows, my work isn’t ready! Wanna bet? Take a close look at quilts in any quilt show. The winners are not always as technically perfect as we are led to believe they should be. Start with entering local shows. Not all of them are judged. You’ll be so proud to see your quilt up there. When you have more confidence, try for the larger shows. I entered PIQF when I thought there wasn’t a chance of getting in. The worst thing that could happen is that you get rejected and you lose your entrance fee. Big whoop, that was a nice lunch you would eat and then forget about. Just think of the entry fee as the diet lunch! And here is anther thing: I machine stitch all my bindings. I will probably never win a big award with that method because it does not meet the technical excellence required for big prizes. But I did win a Viewer’s Choice Award at the Houston Quilt Festival, and that is the award I wanted most.