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.

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.

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

In Print:

Fabric Trends Magazine, spring 2008: On page 75 is a pattern for Arrows Away using my current fabric line Jumping Beans.
Quilter's World Magazine: April, 2008: On page 42 is a pattern for a quilt called Groovy Garden made with my fabric line called Jumping Beans.
The Quilter magazine: July, 2007. There is an article about me as a featured artist. How cool is that?!
Quilter's World magazine: April 2007. A project I designed with the Dancing Doodles fabric line is on page 73.
Quilt Magazine: April/May, 2007. Inside the last page of the magazine is a feature called, "The Last Stitch", and my Vivid Visions pattern is the flavor of the month.
Marin IJ Newspaper, April 7, 2007. I was profiled on the cover of the Lifestyles section.
Magic Patch magazine, #62 in French and #31 in English: I am the Featured Artist with a profile! This is so cool! Published June 2006.
Quilt Magazine: June/July 2006 issue. Rollin" with the Scroll project featuring my new fabric line with Sullivans International.
Fabric Trends: Spring 2006 issue. Crazy Cartwheels project featuring my new fabric line from Sullivans International.
Donna Kooler’s Encyclopedia of Quilting: 2005. My quilt Spinner is a project in the book and it also made the cover!
3-D Explosion: Simply FABULOUS Art Quilt Designs by Cara Gulati. Published 2004.
Winning Quilts, A book featuring past winning quilts from the International Quilt Association contest held in Houston annually. Published 2004.My quilt 3-D Party Explosion is featured which won Viewer's Choice in 2003.
Contemporary Quilting by Cindy Walter and Stevii Greaves also features my 3-D Party Explosion quilt. It was published in 2005.
Professional Quilter. Article called Duplicate Schmuplicate.
Dyeing and Painting Fabric by Cindy Walter and Jennifer Priestley, 2002. My quilt, Exploding Ribbons is featured in the gallery.
America From the Heart by Karey Bresenhan, 2001. My quilt The Monster of 9-11 is featured on page 26. The quilt was purchased by Karey and is part of the IQA collection.
Passionate Patchwork by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy, 2001. The Ginger Jar quilt on page 21was pieced per direction of Kaffe and Liza, and then quilted. I also quilted the antique quilt pictured on pages 6-7.
Out of the Cupboard and Onto the Bed by Beth Ferrier, 2001. My wild version of her design called Poseyville is featured on page 20.
At Home in my Heart by Beth Ferrier, 2002. At Home at Night was pieced per Beth's instructions, then quilted and bound. It is featured on the inside front back covers.

Shows and Awards:

Magic Expo in Lyon, France 2006: 10 quilts on exhibit.
New Pieces Gallery 2004: My first solo art quilt show!
International Quilting Association 2003: Viewer's Choice Award for 3-D Party Explosion.
New Pieces Gallery 2003: A showing of my previous student's work hung for two months.
International Quilting Association 2002: Finalist in the large art category with my design Scrolls.
International Quilting Association 2001: Finalist in the large art category with my design Ribbons Exploding.
Marin Needle Art s Guild 2002: My Revealing Reflection won 3rd Place. Sammy and Rosie Gulati also won 3rd Place.
Marin Needle Art s Guild 2001: Poseyville at Night won 1st Place and Best of Class.

FAQS:

How big is your studio? Is it always that messy? It’s about 18 X 18. If it wasn’t messy, I wouldn’t be making enough art. If I wasn’t making art, I would have time to clean it. Yes, I do relent from time to time. Usually when I am on the hunt for something and the only way to find it is to pick up and put stuff away. Or, horrors, company is coming and they have ordered an inspection of my house. Sometimes I have to schedule these inspection parties to get myself to pick it up. I will want to put a photo with this at a later date. The room is WAY too scary right now.
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) for most of my free motion quilting since most of my quilts tend to be monster sized. I also have a Juki and Merro industrial machines. 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)
What kind of batting do you use? 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!
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.
How do you machine quilts such large quilts? With 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!
Do you have kids? These two furry dogs are as close as I get. Unless you count husbands. Most of us do. So, yes, three children with 10 legs.

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.