About
About
Veruschka Zarate, the artist and designer behind Pride & Joy Quilting, is an award-winning quilt artist, pattern designer, international educator, and judge known for her bold and highly detailed work in Foundation Paper Piecing. Through vibrant color, precision piecing, and a distinctive approach to design, Veruschka has developed a body of work that explores just how far the traditional language of quilting can be pushed.
As an internationally recognized educator, Veruschka has served as faculty, presenter, and judge at some of the quilting world’s most respected events and institutions, including The Modern Quilt Guild’s QuiltCon, Road to California, Empty Spools Seminars, BERNINA Academy Australia, New Zealand Quilt Symposium, and international quilting and textile events throughout Europe.
Her quilts have been exhibited in museums and juried exhibitions and have earned some of the quilting industry’s highest honors. Among them are Best in Show at QuiltCon 2025, First Place in Piecing at QuiltCon, QuiltCon People’s Choice, and the National Association of Certified Quilt Judges Award of Merit for Outstanding Achievement in Quiltmaking.
Veruschka’s work and creative journey have also been featured in numerous publications, magazines, and podcasts, including Art Quilting Studio, American Patchwork & Quilting, Curated Quilts, Quilting Love, Fons & Porter, and McCall’s Quilt & Tell.
Today, Veruschka teaches and presents to quilting communities around the world, both in person and virtually. Through her workshops, lectures, patterns, and original artwork, she shares not only the technical possibilities of Foundation Paper Piecing, but her belief that quilting can be a powerful canvas for art, storytelling, color, and joy.
A California girl through and through, Veruschka’s story has always been shaped by a deep curiosity about people, culture, creativity, and connection. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Intercultural Communication with a minor in Music, followed by a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Psychotherapy. She later pursued doctoral studies in Spiritual Care and Counseling before making the intentional decision to step away from her PhD program to begin and raise her family.
A proud firstborn daughter of a beautifully layered heritage, Veruschka’s roots span Puerto Rican, Cuban, Mexican, Irish, and French ancestry, along with Indigenous Taíno and Yaqui heritage. This rich intersection of cultures, histories, traditions, and stories has profoundly shaped the way she sees the world and continues to influence the artist, storyteller, teacher, and maker she has become.
Veruschka’s quilting journey began in 2016, when she first learned the foundations of traditional piecing and quilting. But it was her discovery of Foundation Paper Piecing that opened an entirely new creative world. Drawn to the precision of the technique and the almost limitless possibilities it offered, she soon began pushing beyond existing patterns to design work of her own.
At the heart of Veruschka’s work is a simple but deeply personal purpose: to create art that brings something good into the world. Her designs are rooted in joy, saturated with vibrant color, and centered on subjects that celebrate strength, beauty, empowerment, encouragement, and our shared humanity. What began with fabric and thread has grown into a distinctive artistic practice that continues to evolve as she challenges herself to explore new techniques, larger scales, and increasingly ambitious work.
Yet for all the quilts, awards, teaching, travel, and creative milestones, Veruschka considers her greatest achievement to be the life she has built with her family. She and her husband of more than 20 years are raising their two boys together, and motherhood remains the role she treasures above all others.
To follow Veruschka’s newest quilts, works in progress, travels, classes, and creative adventures, find Pride & Joy Quilting on Instagram and Facebook.
