Much ink has been spilled about the difference between art and craft. In the 1970s, feminist artists reclaimed what had been thought of as women’s work – and thus devalued – elevating it to the level of fine art. In 2025, it seems craft is everywhere in the art world – but often a detached, cynical attitude accompanies it. Kitsch is being reclaimed as a sort of F-U to clean girls, even as deep-fried AI slop proliferates. There’s a lot to discuss there, but Emma Hollingsworth isn’t interested. “I’ve just always really liked crafting,” she told the Chronicle. “I just feel it in my heart that it’s so fun and so sweet. I’m not afraid to be grouped or categorized in that way. I like to make practical objects that people keep in their homes, and I’m proud of it.”
Hollingsworth’s work (found under the name Squash Princess) is a labor of love in so many ways. Her quilted photo albums come with chainstitched titles like “Our Little Family,” “Sweet Olive,” “Megan’s Recipes,” and “R+J”. The visual aesthetic is all gingham, hearts, bows, and farmhouse-style lace and flower designs, and the chainstitching is courtesy of her new husband, Tom, who helps produce Emma’s designs at their home studio. You can tell her inspiration isn’t cerebral or post-ironic, but something organic and deeply felt: Put simply, it’s love.
“Two years ago, I basically made a bunch of stuff for our wedding and posted it online,” says Hollingsworth. “Through people looking at photos of our wedding, the Etsy shop that we had just kind of popped off, and it turned into a thing that we could do full time.” Some examples of wedding decor: a quilted banner in bright red and pink that reads, “Forever and ever, amen”; a wedding photo album with locket charms; a framed collage of dried bouquet flowers, a piece of her veil, and love poems her officiant wrote.
Hollingsworth learned to sew growing up at the Waldorf School in Austin, where she taught as an adult before quitting to do her craft full time. Tom “is really into clothes and fashion, so he knew how to sew before we even met. I would say he’s even more of a seamstress than I am,” she says. In the new year, they plan to thrift old suits for an embroidered Nudie Suit-inspired experiment.
“Putting hours of your time and effort into something, I guess it really translates,” says Hollingsworth of her newfound success. “I think I’m just a really sentimental person. Every time I sit down to make something, I’m just like, well, I’m gonna have this forever. I might as well put my all into it.”
Order a custom photo album or banner with your favorite song lyrics to commemorate a love in your life @squashprincess on Instagram or at etsy.com/shop/squashmakes. You can message Hollingsworth to customize: “People will send me tons of photos, or little mood boards they’ve put together, a little history of their relationship, photos of their pets, or, this was our first date spot, this was the drink we had,” she says. “People really gush.”
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This article appears in December 12 • 2025.