annabel wrigley

Richmond-based textile designer Annabel Wrigley likes her color-happy, textured quilts to have a painterly quality.

Artist: Born in Australia, Wrigley grew up in Sydney. In 2001, she moved to Virginia and earned a nursing degree. After her first child was born, Wrigley began sewing — initially just for fun, making children’s clothes and quilts. It soon became a small children’s label.

As time went on, she began writing sewing books for children (six books in print) and designing her own quilt fabric collection for Windham fabrics.

Wrigley and Heather Ross, a friend and illustrator, also collaborate on a solid color fabric collection. Ruby and Bee Solids now includes 70 colors.

When the pandemic hit, she started to work full time creating modern quilts and quilted wall hangings.

Company/studio: Little Pincushion Studio, based in Richmond, started the business around 13 years ago, primarily as a sewing school for children. Wrigley’s current studio is in Green Door Studio, a collective of seven artists in Richmond.

Art & materials: Colorful, improvisational quilted artworks, designed to hang on the wall.

What’s popular: Small 12-inch-by-12-inch framed quilted works ($150 to $250).

Other favorites: Larger unframed works ($1,300 to $1,900).

Favorite tool: Her Janome M7 continental sewing machine.

Process:

Using improvisational techniques, fabric is pieced together using a sewing machine.
Then to add texture, the piece is heavily quilted.

“I love my work to have an almost painterly quality where on first glance, the viewer is not entirely sure what the piece is made from,” said Wrigley.

Inspiration (s):

Color, though there is never a plan when she starts a piece.
Riotous use of color and the modernist design of the costumes in the Ballets Russes, the ballet company of Europe from 1909 to 1929.

Recent honors: