Mola-Makers

Off the coast of Panama in the San Blas Islands the women make the most creative and beautiful cloth art called molas. Layers of different colored cloth are stitched, slashed to reveal colors and stitched some more in the most intricate patterns.
"Cuna women pursue simple and productive lives governed by tradition and enriched by ritual. Their art is strictly a woman's art which is intertwined with the total fabric of their being. They work compulsively with one or more unfinished designs always at hand, their sea island environment being conducive to an idyllic life-style which leaves plenty of time for creative stitchery. Their complicated appliqué technique is not practised by neighboring Indian tribes or any other culture on earth."
from MOLAS FOLK ART OF THE CUNA NDIANS by Ann Parker and Avon Neal 1977