Stitching Culture is more than just a studio; it is a homecoming. Nestled in Room 104 of the Historic Mercy Hospital, the very place of my birth, it began as a simple vision for an online shop to sell my handmade creations. Yet once I settled into the space, its deeper purpose revealed itself: it became a sanctuary for creativity, reflection, memory, and deep listening. Over the months, Stitching Culture has transformed from a retail concept into a spiritual, creative, and ancestral home. Now, it is evolving into a book.
This book shares the story of my creative journey, shaped by lessons from my childhood in Daniel Hill and East Wilson. It follows the early threads of my artistic life: sitting beneath quilt frames, soaking in the songs and stories of the women who raised me, learning plant wisdom and the medicine of indigo, and inheriting traditions that have endured for generations.
Lake Ontario, Toronto | Historic Waterway of The Haudenosaunee & Anishinabeg People
First Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto, 2018
A turning point came in 2018, when I attended the inaugural Indigenous Fashion Week in Toronto. Guided by Sage Paul Cardinal, Elder Pauline Sweat, and Riley Kucheran, I was introduced to a world I had never imagined. Their influence allowed me to finally hear my creative voice. Because of that experience, Stitching Culture has become the narrative of my healing and transformation.
At the heart of this story is the birthing blanket, an Indigenous Geechee Gullah tradition passed down through generations of women. I am now creating the third birthing quilt of my life, which feels fitting as I enter the third stage of my life’s journey.
My first birthing blanket was sewn for me before I was born by my Godmother, Mattie Randolph (“Mat”), using garments from five generations of women: her mother, herself, my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother. That sacred textile was later lost to Hurricane Floyd while I lived in Greenville, North Carolina. My second birthing quilt was created with my mother, stitched from treasured fabrics belonging to her, her mother, her grandmother, and Mat. I still hold it close today.
Historical Map Showing Fort Neyuher:uke
Fort Neyuher:uke Monument Today
Bald Cypress on Contentnea
Contentnea Today
Now, alone and the last of my bloodline, I am guided by memory as I create the birthing quilt of my life. This quilt is pieced from the textiles of my experience, cloth dyed with lessons, stitched with resilience, and layered with the stories that have shaped me. In keeping with Gullah Geechee tradition, I hope to one day be wrapped in my birthing quilts when I leave this world. These quilts were rarely saved or handed down, as they were intended as burial shrouds, ceremonial, intimate, and final.
I am documenting each step of this new quilt’s creation and writing the story of how I returned, back to Mercy Hospital, back to my beginnings, stitching memory into cloth. I believe this work is part of my purpose: to carry forward the ancestral practice of “stitching culture,” to honor the women who taught me plant wisdom and indigo medicine, and to offer my healing story as a testament to their teachings.
Stitching Culture is the book. It is the journey. It is the cloth itself.
Who Am I? Faith Seeker. Creator of Natural Color From Plants, Flowers, Roots & Nuts Alchemist. Graphic & Web Designer. XHTML/JavaScript Coder. Mixed Media Artist. Ceramic Sculptor. Fiber Arts Enthusiast (printing images on cloth, decorative machine stitching, hand embroidery, hyperbolic crochet, beadwork, art quilting, fabrics, and fashion). Research Art Concept > Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography by Roland Barthes | Volunteer STEM + Textiles Teaching Artist, Y-GIG After School for Middle Schoolers | Born at Mercy Hospital
Opened in 1913 as the Wilson Hospital and Tubercular Home, the hospital began when Dr. Frank S. Hargrave, a black physician practicing in a local home, gave 504 Green Street East to Samuel H. Vick and J.D. Reid. Together, they raised enough money to establish the hospital at the Green Street location. It was one of three African-American hospitals in North Carolina at the time. Black and white doctors staffed the hospital, but all the nurses were Black, and the hospital served the Black community of East Wilson until it closed in 1964. The historical property is now home to the Wilson Community Improvement Association, which rents studio space to local small businesses.
Historical Marker
Wilson Community
Improvement Association
Inside Looking Out
Stitching Culture
Studio 104
The blessings of making art in the building where I was born. According to oral stories told to me as a child, the "Indian Head cloth" mentioned above was an indigo-dyed cloth supplied by my family living on Daniel Hill. The knowledge of indigo dyeing came from Georgetown, SC, through Mattie Randolph, and my momma's father's people on Johns and Kiawah Islands, SC. My momma's mother, Minnie Haskins, made the "toilet soap" (lye soap with rosemary for cleaning) and bathing soap (her all-natural goat's milk soap), both of which could be rebatched.
Fiber Art by Carola is my soulful, creative journey where fashion, memory, and ancestral traditions meet. My work for sale honors the slow process of textile-making practiced on Daniel Hill and in East Wilson, rooted in the black-sandy soil of Contentnea Creek Homeland. SHOP my small business online, and follow my behind-the-scenes process on YouTube and my BLOG.
