What is Hello Stitch?
Hello Stitch is a community-based textile studio that offers workshops, communal work space, a gallery space, and community events. We also provide domestic and industrial sewing machine sales and quilt finishing services. We believe that learning how to sew is about building skills. At Hello Stitch, we will help you build these skills and give you the space, tools and support you'll need to love what you create!
Who is Hello Stitch?
Stacey, Terri and Kristen met through the East Bay quilting community and experienced first-hand how the simple act of coming together to sew and share their creativity with friends enriched their lives. And so, in 2016, the idea for Hello Stitch Studio was born at Kristen's kitchen table. With the concept of creating a modern interpretation of the quilting bee, the studio fosters community through social meet-ups, classes and open studio work. Our goal is to provide a venue for people with a common interest in sewing to come together to share, learn, and grow together.
We love sewing and believe that there is something special about working with textiles. We look forward to sharing that feeling with you!
Terri Carpenter
Terri's passion for sewing began with quilting (over 20 years ago!) and has evolved to include many different varieties of textile art. She currently enjoys expanding her handmade wardrobe, embroidery, quilt design and longarm quilting. When not at the studio, she enjoys being in the great outdoors getting inspired for her work. She loves to create things that fill people's lives with cheer and beauty, and enjoys helping others on their handmade journey as well.
Kristen Takakuwa
Kristen learned to sew at the young age of 8 and sewing has been a lifelong habit ever since. She has been teaching sewing to adults and kids for the last 10 years, and loves nothing more than sharing her skills and enthusiasm for sewing with others. Originally a garment sewist, she expanded her repertoire to include quilting as well. When she’s not in the sewing studio, you can find her driving carpools, playing with food and talking to cats.
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Stacey Sharman
Stacey is a textile junkie who started sewing on an antique treadle sewing machine at the age of 8 and was addicted to counted-cross stitch in high school. She loves vintage textiles and has done antique carpet restoration for almost 20 years. She loves the history behind handmade objects and helping people make their own handcrafted history. She also has a habit of falling in love with vintage and industrial sewing machines.
Studio Assistants & Teachers
Antonia Armada
Antonia is a Bay Area artist with an extensive background in textile art & garment sewing. She has been sewing professionally for 12 years including work in lingerie production sewing as well as costume production and design.
Chelsea Hard
Chelsea made her first quilt perched on the edge of the couch with her sewing machine on the coffee table. Now practicing better ergonomics, she is an avid quilt maker and enjoys all aspects of sewing by both hand and machine. When not purchasing craft supplies she’ll only use once or actively avoiding organizing her studio, she is the President of the South Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild and an award winning jam maker. Chelsea currently resides in the East Bay with her two sewing machines.
Valerie Gibbins
Valerie is a native of Oakland and a lifelong sewist. She recently moved back to the Bay Area after attending graduate school in Philadelphia and working as a Textile Designer in North Carolina. Her obsession with fabric and passion for creating with her hands has provided her with knowledge in multiple areas of design: apparel, textiles, and accessories. In addition to her design knowledge, Valerie brings her teaching experience to Hello Stitch, where she hopes to encourage confidence in everyone's creative abilities.
Beth Galvin
Beth started sewing at age 7 and can sew everything from casual knit tops to tailored jackets to over the top party dresses. She has a popular sewing blog, Sunnygal Studio where she shares her tips and tricks and she also blogs for Craftsy. Beth loves to help people get the pattern they love to fit the way they want. She is brilliant at adding stylish little details that make your projects look professional and special, but what's even better is that she has figured out how to make it easier!
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Claire Sherman
Inspired by a neighbor’s Victorian crazy quilt, Claire started making her first quilt at age 13. There were no quilters in her family, so she taught herself, making it up as she went along. Twenty years after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, with a BFA in ceramics, she rediscovered her love of quilting and improvisational quilting is still her favorite method of design. Claire has taught workshops in quilting and other crafts for adults and children throughout California.
Carolyn Weil
Happiest with a needle and thread in her hands, Carolyn is a prolific quilter with may stitches and techniques under her belt. A teacher at heart, she loves to shares her extensive knowledge with novice and experienced students alike.
Nancy Williams
Nancy has been sewing for longer than she cares to say - clothing for the kids and grands; a few wedding dresses; some tailoring. She began piecing quilts about 30 years ago and mostly quilting them on her domestic machine. After renting time on long arm quilting machines and liking it (a lot), she decided to purchase her own. Since then, she has been honing her art and skills on personal quilts, donation quilts and quilts of those she is honored to be trusted with. She is a longarm quilter for Social Justice Sewing Academy and owner of A Quilting Fool Longarm Studio.
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Fern Royce
Fern grew up surrounded by textiles and what we now call “makers.” She learned to sew when she was very young, but did not begin quilting until the mid 1990’s. She took quilting classes at her local quilting store, learning the basics including the “all cotton” rule. That rule seemed odd when she considered the quilts she grew up with, including the corduroy quilt her grandmother made for her from the scraps of the all the clothes she had made for her grandchildren. In Fern’s experience, quilts meant using what was on hand, using or reusing any type of fabric, including clothing. When you look at her quilts you will see that she often includes repurposed and unconventional textiles in her own quilts, following her own rule: if she likes it, she uses it - from wool to silk, linen, or the unknown.
Pati Fried
Pati Fried studied graphic design in college, but always found herself lingering in the textile department. After graduating and working in corporate marketing for several years, she finally discovered quilting and was hooked. Mixing pattern, color and texture is a perfect fit for her, both as a quilter and a designer. She is a fabric and pattern designer, a popular quilt blogger, and her work has been featured in quilting magazines.
Tara Tucker
Tara is a practicing artist who has been teaching and facilitating the artists at The Creative Growth Art Center in their Rug Department since 2002. She supervises 20 artists that make one of a kind rugs hooked rugs. The rugs have been shown at the Oakland Airport, Pulse Miami Art Fair, The Moss Design Center in New York, the West Coast Craft Fair in San Francisco, CA. and were featured in Oprah's O Magazine and Paper Magazine. Her own traditionally hooked rug, Foreign Relations, hangs in the collection of the American Embassy in Madagascar.
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Vanina Doce-Mood
Vanina has been sewing and creating since she was a teenager, but didn’t start quilting until she was pregnant with her daughter, 9 years ago. She fell in love with it and hasn’t stopped making quilts since then! She loves bright colors and mismatching patterns, and the endless possibilities textiles offer. She lives in a red house in Oakland with her husband and daughter, a dog, a cat, a fish and 4 chickens. When she's not sewing, you can find her on the dance floor of different Bay Area locations teaching dance to kids and adults.
Watson
Watson loves coming to work at Hello Stitch. Mostly, you can find him sleeping soundly in his bed, that is until you put a plate of cookies on the coffee table. It is his mission in life get all the pets and eat all the treats.
Myriah van de Kraats
Born and raised in Sonoma County, Myriah van de Kraats has always loved being creative. She grew up with every Klutz craft book she could get her hands on. She was always making things for friends and family, from pot holders to melty beads. In school Myriah learned to cross-stitch, embroider, knit and crochet which lead her down a new path of crafting. Once she mastered the art of handwork she wanted to teach the world to sew! In college she got sucked into the world of theatre costuming and got her BA in Theatre with an emphasis on costume construction, at SFSU. Currently she works at Santa Rosa Junior College in the theater department during the school year and at Hello Stitch in the summer, teaching the world to sew a one student at a time!
Catherine Nolan
Catherine has always enjoyed creative pursuits and dabbled in several over the years—painting, embroidery, and knitting are among a few—but she found her passion in sewing. Though she started relatively recently, sewing quickly took over her life and now she’s constantly dreaming up pattern & fabric combinations. Catherine firmly believes that learning to sew changed her life for the better and she would love nothing more than to pass that on to others through teaching. You can find her on Instagram as @threadsnips or IRL working at Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics.
Sienna DaFonseca
Sienna DaFonseca is a Bay Area artist who became obsessed with sewing and is always thinking about what to sew next. She is a compulsive maker who can't go long without a project in her hands.
Mariska Miller
Growing up with a crafty grandma who showed her how to knit sweaters for her Monchichi, Mariska Miller always had an appreciation for all things handmade. She went on to study fashion-design and then put her knowledge to good use working on movies in the costume department. Nowadays she loves working on unique textile creations in her studio.