Stitches. More powerful than you can ever think.

Stitches. They can do more than mend and sew and darn and quilt.

Stitches. Orchestrated with fabrics to create works of joy.

Stitches. They can touch lives and change fortunes.

Chitra’s motive behind all her work is to help the needy. Be it underprivileged children, or rehabilitation of injured animals…her support extends to one and all. Become part of her “Stitchin’ to Pitch in” campaign every time you buy her classes.

About Me

Born into a family of artists, Chitra was exposed to art at a very young age. She was largely inspired by her mother who taught her the basics of fabric painting and sewing. At the age of five, Chitra started using the sewing machine to make dresses for her dolls. The passion to sew has continued ever since; from stitching dresses and upholstery to quilts and artwork. Add to this her intricate talent in drawing and painting and you have a potent combination. Her talent and abilities in all these forms of art have culminated in creating the masterpieces that are today being seen in her quilts.

Chitra has been creating quilts since 2007. It was mainly utilitarian appliqué and patchwork quilts. She got into making art quilts in 2014 and since then it has been one of her favourite forms of art.

Chitra is multifaceted and works with different media that include pencil & charcoal sketching, knife painting, painting with oil, acrylic, pastels and watercolours, carving on stone, soap, fruits and vegetables, carpentry and upcycled art. She has conducted a number of art exhibitions and also takes up commissioned work. Her works are found with elite clientele. She conducts workshops and classes in various forms of art including quilts.
Chitra truly does justice to her name, which means “picture” or “art” in many Indian Languages.

About

Chitra Mandanna is a multiple international award-winning quilter specializing in art quilts. Born into a family of artists, Chitra was exposed to art at a very young age. She was largely inspired by her mother who taught her the basics of fabric painting and sewing. At the age of five, Chitra started using the sewing machine to make dresses for her dolls. The passion to sew has continued ever since; from stitching dresses and upholstery to quilts and artwork. Add to this her intricate talent in drawing and painting and it becomes a potent combination. Her talent and abilities in all these forms of art have culminated in creating the masterpieces that are today being seen in her quilts.

Chitra is multifaceted and works with different media such as pencil & charcoal sketching, knife painting, oil painting, acrylic painting, pastels and watercolours, carving on stone, soap, fruit and vegetables, carpentry and upcycled art. She has conducted a number of art exhibitions and takes up commissioned work. Her works are found with elite clientele. She conducts workshops and classes in various forms of art including quilts. Her quilts have been featured in many magazines globally.

Chitra truly does justice to her name, which means “picture” or “art” in many Indian Languages.

Featured Classes

Portraits

In this set of pre-recorded videos you will learn to make realistic portraits using two different methods of quilting – textured and contour. The detailed videos provide you all information that you need to create portraits with easily available materials.

There are ten videos recorded in real time which explain the following in detail…
Selecting photographs, understanding colour values, seperating values, creating patterns, selecting fabrics, tracing, cutting and fusing fabrics, textured quilting (stippling method) and conture quilting. Many tips and art lessons are also included to understand portraits from an artist’s perspective. You can follow these step-by-step lessons to create your own portraits.

You will also learn to work without the use of a graphics software which most quilters rely on but can be a handicap. Here you will be able to take full control of your art rather than restrict yourself with the limits of software.
You will be able to login and access the videos anytime. You get about 10 hours of video lessons and a lifetime access to all these classes.

Knowledge in basic FMQ (stippling and lines) is a requirement to work on these portraits.

What my students say

"This was a very interesting and challenging class for me. I learned many new techniques. Chitra you are a great and encouraging teacher, always there to help at every step. Great class for a stunning outcome. Thank you very much. I was looking forward to this workshop for weeks, and it exceeded my expectations. Even though it was a virtual workshop during the pandemic I felt Chitra was always there to sort out each and every issue related to our portrait quilt. I learned a lot from the workshop."

Kanwal

The first time I saw a portrait quilt was at the India International Quilt Festival, 2019. One of them was of a little child talking to a cow. That was the most beautiful quilt I had ever seen. It was Chitra’s and the little child was her younger daughter. I too wanted to learn this technique from her. She generously taught us how to make portrait quilts. I made two portrait quilts after that during the 2020 lockdown. One was of my mother and her youngest great grandchild and another of my niece and her son. Chitra is one of the best teachers one could ever have! She's inspiring, patient, and willing to share her knowledge.

Archana Bhargava

Stitchin’ to Pitch in

“Stitchin’ to Pitch in” is a campaign that I started to help the needy. Part of the proceeds from all my earnings; classes sold, awards, sale of my art and commissioned works go towards charity.

‘Anjalè’, one of my works, won the ‘Visitor’s Choice’ award at The Festival of Quilts, 2020, Birmingham, UK. Part of the prize money went to the flower vendor Anjalè on whom this work was based on. The money helped her give better quality education to her grandchild.