About

My name is Erin Barchet, and I am a textile artist based in the Midwest.

I was born in Columbia, Missouri. In May of 2020, I received my BFA in Fiber from the Kansas City Art Institute.

I create quilts and fabric works that bring together found fabrics and forgotten quilt tops in order to honor making techniques centered around care. Employing time-consuming techniques such as quilting, weaving, crochet, knitting, and embroidery, I believe that the act of making is an act of care. It is creating an object for someone, with the specific intention of keeping them comfortable and warm. These modes of making are familiar, mundane, utilitarian, and hold sentiment. I find these handmade objects to be genuine and emblematic of the act of care which is often taken for granted. 

In addition to being an artist and maker, I am also a collector. I collect handmade objects like needlework and unfinished quilt tops. I like to collect and repurpose materials. Working intuitively, using traditional quilt blocks as starting points I respond to my materials and alter them by mending, over dying, and piecing them together. Extending beyond care for handmade objects, I incorporate reuse as a way to keep my practice sustainable.