Anna Maria Horner

the company To many the Anna Maria brand means color & inspiration in the form of craft, sewing, needlework, books, and friendly how-to. Since 2006 her ever growing library of fabrics has delighted and adorned creative souls around the globe. She has been the face (or rather the hands as she likes to think) of Janome Sewing Machines since 2011. And... for those who have never so much as picked up a needle, Anna Maria's designs spark creative fires for home and style. the story Anna Maria Horner grew up in a house full of her dad's paintings and with a closet full of her mom's handi-work. Beds were warmed by the hand-loomed wool blankets sent by her grandmother from Greece. The busy little bodies of her and her siblings were warmed by the beautiful handknits of their grandmother in Indiana. As a kid in the 70's, she passed up the $1.79 Barbie dresses in Service Merchandise, opting instead to create designs from her mother's fabric scraps. A simple start to a diverse path. In 1995, after graduating with an Honors Fine Arts Degree in Drawing from the University of Tennessee, Anna Maria opened Handmaiden, a clothing and housewares boutique. This retail space served as the home base for Anna Maria's clothing line which she designed and produced, together with her mom. Eventually, the label was offered to the wholesale market, where it sold at several stores across the country. During her years as a retailer/designer, Anna Maria had her hands in almost every medium on a daily basis. Designing clothing served an interest that she had since childhood. Her love of fabrics and patterns also spilled onto the canvas. In the midst of clothing design and production, she stayed active artistically by exhibiting in galleries regularly. Her paintings, both small and large scale, are part of hundreds of private and commercial collections. There have been varied stops on her path to here, but a common element in all of her work, whether fashion, quilting or fine art, is a passion for the language of color. As she continued to ...Read More