Katherine Stein

Katherine (Kathie) has played with fiber of one kind or another since the age of five when she took her first knitting class (even though she never had the knack for knitting) in Girl Scouts she was working out outfits for the “Dolly Derby”.

In the eighties she and some friends got together once a week to have a “craft day” and worked on multiple crafty projects. Dried flowers, mirror tiles and just about anything that could be reclaimed they did. She started to sew more, making small doll houses (and dolls) out of fabric and carpet padding and small stuffed animals. She tried her hand at quilts, however that was pre-rotary cutter (ruler and cutting mat) days and it was just too much work to keep the squares even.

In 2004, Katherine decided to give quilting a try again after visiting the Asheville Folk Art Museum and was bowled over by the awe inspiring display of quilts.  She purchased her first quilt block book and an amazing journey began.

After seeing the most gorgeous quilts created from hand dyed fabric, she decided she had to learn how to dye. She and a friend experimented in her garage with different techniques and fibers. Together they discovered how to blend colors (color wheel), as well as techniques like Shibori, Batik and Ice dye.

When they discovered blank silk scarves everything came together. All the techniques worked beautifully on silk and Designing Dragonflies was born.

Designing Dragonflies (Katherine is owner/artist) has sold hand dyed silk scarves and wraps to galleries, gift shops and museums around the United States as well as to “Our State Magazine”

Katherine continues to take different classes to learn different techniques such as painting on fabric, thread sketching, felting and different Mixed Media techniques. She tries to find ways to blend fiber and mixed media.

She has won ribbons at the NC State Fair and the Johnston County Art Festival. He work has been published in Cloth, Paper, Scissors and Quilting Arts. She also enters different art shows with the Carolina Mixed Media Artist Guild.