Heather Stoltz

Sewing Stories
March – June 2026

March 14 Shabbat Shmooze with Heather Stoltz

non-BEKI members rsvp for shmooze to: art@beki.org
to visit the exhibition contact office@beki.org

Heather G. Stoltz specializes in storytelling through fabric arts and collage,  creating quilted wall hangings and fabric sculptures inspired by social justice issues, parenthood, and Jewish texts. Her unique style of expressionfrequently features human forms in both two and three dimensions in brightly-colored, whimsical environments. 

Land of the Free? Heather Stoltz, 2019; 19” x 36” x 6” The United States of America has a proud history of welcoming those in need and providing them with a safe home where they are free to be fully themselves. Unfortunately, in recent years, our fear of the other is overtaking our impulse to help. This piece asks whether we truly are the “land of the free.”

A former engineer, Heather found a serendipitous connection to quilting as an artistic medium after pivoting careers to pursue a masters in Jewish Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary. A class assignment that led her to begin experimenting with fiber arts. 

“My mother and I had recently learned how to quilt, and I was already bored following patterns,” Heather said. “So I decided to try to create two quilted wall hangings that reflected our studies that semester: one about the stories of Creation and another about Eve reaching for the knowledge that the fruit in the garden promised.”

In those quilts, Heather found a new calling. She switched her focus to Jewish Women’s Studies and created another quilted wall hanging for her Master’s Thesis. She has since used her art to respond to contemporary social and cultural issues as well.  

Named as one of The Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36” for 2012, Heather received a 2011 Manhattan Community Art Funds grant for Temporary Shelter for her installation piece about unhoused New Yorkers. Her work has been exhibited nationally and featured in Quilts and Human Rights, Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis, Jewish Threads, and several other publications. She was a Drisha Arts Fellow 2008 – 2010 and was an Artist-in–Residence at the 2008 National Havurah Committee Summer Institute.

Heather’s Torah mantles and Bima covers can be seen in the Jewish Art Salon online exhibition Art in Jewish Sacred Spaces.

Heather lives in Harrison, NY with her husband Rabbi Geoffrey Mitelman and their two children.

More information is available on her website:  https://www.sewingstories.com
prices available on request: heather@sewingstories.com/ 203-500-5942