Sandra Noble's Biography

A fiber artist, Sandra "Sandy" Noble began creating wall art hangings using rug hooking, embroidery stitching, and various threads, yarns, fabrics, and found objects. After a long absence from her artistic endeavors, a quilting class at the Cleveland Museum of Art restored her creative textile juices in the art of quilting.

Since 2005, Sandra has been expressing herself using her discovered quilting techniques and her masterful use of color, texture, and stitching to present a new creative approach to her abstract and narrative wall art. She hasn't stopped yet.

Sandra has won numerous accolades and awards. But then in February 2025, her Little Rock Nine piece, which traveled to museums throughout the United States for two years in the art exhibit and associated book“And Still We Rise:...,” found its home in the Smithsonian, a great honor. Back in March of 2014, she was notified hanging art commemorating Nelson Mandela was accepted into the International Quilt Show in Johannesburg, South Africa, extending her reach outside of the USA.

Early Beginnings and Family

Sandy was born in 1941 into a middle-class family, as Sandra Shaifer, on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, where she grew up. Her father was a US postal employee who later became the local post master, and her mother maintained the home, the family's foundation. She is the eldest of five brothers and a sister. She lived in Detroit until she met Ronald Noble, an engineer, who lived in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. He stole her heart and began their lasting marriage. Moving from Detroit to Cleveland, Sandy built her family of four with Ronnie, her career, and an admirable reputation as an art educator, community organizer, and artist.

Sandy's elementary school teacher quickly realized her artistic and creative gifts and recommended that she attend an art program at the Detroit Art Museum. This experience began her pathway to a career in the visual arts.

Her Education & Career

Sandra Noble is a career art educator and fiber artist. She received a B.A. from Michigan State University in Art History and a M.A. in Art Education from Cleveland State University. She has continued her learning at Kent State University and Ohio State University.

Sandra started her career in Detroit Public Schools and spent thirty-four years in the Cleveland Municipal Schools as an art teacher and visual arts supervisor. After retiring, she returned to Cleveland Schools to facilitate the development of their arts standards. She also taught part-time at Cuyahoga Community College and became an adjunct instructor at Case Western Reserve University. Her love of and expertise in teaching children about art haven't stopped as she recently facilitated a children's doll-making workshop.

Sandy's Contributions to the Quilt Arts World

Co-Founder of the African American Quilt and Doll Guild

In 2006, Gloria Kellon and Sandra founded the African-American Quilt and Doll Guild (AAQDG), which has become a highly respected and recognized organization. The AAQDG has attracted, promoted, and supported the artistic growth of talented and admired artists, like Myrya Johnson and Helen Murrell.

Her "Little Rock Nine" Quilt Art Piece Finds a Home at the Smithsonian Museum

Her Little Rock Nine storytelling quilt art piece has found a home at the Renwick Gallery in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. For now, it is part of the exhibit We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists, February 21, 2025–June 22, 2025. However, since this is its home, people worldwide can learn more about quilt art when they visit the museum.

Other Professional Accomplishments

A few of Sandra's other roles and accomplishments:

Co-director of the Cleveland Foundation/UBS Bank summer arts program,
Member of the Arts Education advisory board for the Ohio Department of Education.
Leader of a team of music, theatre, dance, and visual arts teachers united to write a series of interdisciplinary lessons for publication by the Learning Center.
Contributor writer to an art history program with transparencies of art masterpieces for fifth and sixth grades to accompany the Adventures in Art textbook series from Davis Publications.
Creator of study guides for the Tri-C Showtime at High Noon series. /
Ohio Art Education Association Winner of the 2000 Outstanding Art Teacher for the Northeast Region, and then in 2013, the top award of “Ohio Art Educator for 2013”.

She has also been exploring fused glass as another art form. Sandra has created jewelry to clocks made by combining of Dichoric and colored glass.

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Sandra Noble's Art Quilts