Designer Profiles

Pat Bravo

“I see the world for its beauty and majesty. The intricate, the ornate, the royal… All of this catches my eye. You can say I have soulful eyes.”
My passion for sewing materialized at the age of 9, when I sat down at my mother’s sewing machine for the first time. At the age of 13, I joined a sewing school in my native Buenos Aires, learning everything about fabrics, dressmaking, and patterns. For many years I lived in this wonderful world, until it was time to go to college. I decided to study law and sew on the side, but soon realized that this was not my dream. I dropped out and took three years of painting classes and around this time, I met the love of my life, Walter Bravo. Twenty-seven years later, we’re still married and have a beautiful son together. He is my friend, my confidant, my everything… and my partner in our company, Art Gallery Fabrics.

In 1989, we moved to the United States and I became pregnant with my son, Alex. My life changed radically after the move. Everything was completely new for me: the people, the culture, the food, the city. It was such an intense period of adaption, that for a good amount of time, I had no energy to do the things that I loved and cherished. That all changed when Walter got me my first sewing machine! With that, I immediately came back to life!

I fell in love with quilting, sewing triangles and squares together, eventually teaching myself everything that could be achieved using traditional quilting techniques. Throughout the years, my taste started evolving and I began to cross the bridge towards art quilts. First, I started with landscapes and with time my style became more abstract. I had a hard time finding color variations in batiks and that’s when I decided to paint my own fabrics. I began to see that quilters loved them, and not too long after that, Walter and I founded Art Gallery Fabrics.

I am convinced that everybody is born to do something in life. This is what I was born to do and I am sure that this is what I will do for the rest of my life.