Santera Kathleen Sais Lerner

Kathleen Marie Tarleton was born to Thomas Tarleton and Mary Lou Sais Tarleton. She grew up in Taos, New Mexico and married Frank Lerner in 1980. She has a son named Michael Allan and a strawberry blonde daughter named Sarah Beth. Having always been involved in arts and crafts, Kathleen started colcha when her mother said that she wanted a colcha but there were none at the stores to purchase. There are two predominate types of colcha embroidery in New Mexico (as of 2007). The first type is primarily sewn on top of hand woven wool (sabanilla) and is usually lightly embroidered with a floral pattern where most of the sabanilla is not covered. The second type is often called Carson colcha (for the town that made it popular). Carson colcha has the piece completely covered with embroidery. Kathleen makes the Carson colcha. Kathleen has made over 250 colcha embroideries not including Christmas ornaments.

Click on the year to see Kathleen's awards for that year

1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2007

1995 AWARDS

Kathleen first showed her work at the Spanish Colonial Art Society's Spanish Market on the Santa Fe Plaza in July 1995. Kathleen won a blue ribbon and the judges so loved her Our Lady of Guadalupe that she also won the market poster award. Her colcha appeared on the 45th annual Spanish Market poster in 1996. This is only the second time that Colcha has been adorned on the Spanish Market poster.
Santo Nino De Atocha won a second place ribbon in the New Mexcio State Fair. First Place went to a churro wool, hand spun and woven, natural dyed table runner by Irene Lopez. Both Pieces were extraordinary.

1996 AWARDS

Kathleen received a blue ribbon at the 1996 Spanish Market for a piece named The Holy Family. She received a 1st and 2nd place ribbon at the 1996 New Mexico State Fair for her works named

San Isidro Labrador and a smaller piece named Our Lady Of Guadalupe which had 14 rose buds around her halo which symbolized the 14 stations of the cross.

1997 AWARDS

Kathleen received a blue ribbon and the Arch Bishops award for the largest piece that she made to date. This work had just about every color our family has dyed. Arch Bishop Michael Sheehan shook our hands and blessed our family.

The Arch Angels: Rafael, Miguel and Gabriel was six feet wide and almost 28 inches high.

1998 AWARDS

Kathleen made an altar screen (reredos) with nine saints and just about every hand dyed wool that she has made on a hand carved wooden frame. This prayerful work stood 7 feet high and over 4 feet wide. It won best of show at the 1998 New Mexico State Fair and it won a first place at the 1998 Spanish Market in Santa Fe. A blue ribbon was also awarded to Kathleen for a smaller colcha of a guardian angel. Kathleen worked with Don Leon Sandoval in a collaborative effort where Don carved a statue (bulto) of Santa Veronica and Kathleen ebroidered the face of Christ on the cloth she was holding as well as a decorative rug that she was standing on. They won the collaborative effort award at the 1998 Spanish Market.

Altar Screen

Veronica's Viel

1999 AWARDS

Kathleen received an Honorable Mention for her altar cloth which is about 3 meters long and made with natural pigments. Four months of work was put into this colcha. It is a beautiful piece and now resides in the San Isidro de Labrador chapel in La Mesilla, New Mexico (near Española).

Now it is your turn to be the judge. . .

Click here to see the altar cloth

Kathleen and Rita Padilla-Haufman received a purchase award for their collaborative effort. Rita hand spun churro wool and wove a piece of sabanilla for the colcha's backing. Kathleen dyed the yarn and put colcha embroidery on the top of it. It turned out very nice.